You ever heard of Steve Decker?

You ever heard of Steve Decker? He’s a former catcher and the manager of the Giants’ AAA Grizzlies. He’s moved up 3 straight seasons, and I have to believe there’s a good chance the Giants might have ideas of making him the big club manager at some point. Look at his winning track record. I’m all for giving Bochy the firing equivalent of “GRAB SOME PINE MEAT!” Or, grab a spot in the unemployment office. I can’t wait to see Bochy and Sabean go. I’m so sick of the “go with the veteran” mentality. It’s just bizarre. Do you think the Rays got to where they’re at right now – the best team in baseball –by going with the veteran? Heck no. How many times have we heard Bochy’s disgust at Eugenio Velez for not getting a runner over, swinging too often too early, making mistakes on defense? How many times have you heard Rowand’s name in the media from Bochy chastising his inability to take a walk, grounding out to leadoff games, striking out a million times on the same pitch and – perhaps his personal favorite – overthrowing the cutoff man when he has NO chance at throwing someone out?




Sabean and Bochy are the perfect storm for incompetence in a lot of ways. They both seem to think it’s 2001 and 37 year old players are on juice and still performing as if they were 28 and in their primes. Well, news flash, it’s not 2001. Bengie Molina is a dynamic, wonderful, slow, lazy catching, sensitive, OUT MACHINE. Rowand has one of the worst approaches at the plate that I’ve seen in my life. It’s basically to swing at anything near the plate in the hopes he doesn’t get two strikes and face the DOWN AND AWAY SLIDER. Why? Because if the pitcher executes that pitch, he’s out every … single … time.


1. Yr Team Level W L W% Finish
2. 05 Salem-Keizer Low-A 45 31 .592 2nd place- 1 GB
3. 06 Salem-Keizer Low-A 55 21 .724 1st Place- League Champion
4. 07 Salem-Keizer Low-A 57 19 .750 1st Place- League Champion
5. 08 San Jose High-A 85 55 .607 1st Place- Lost in 2nd round
6. 09 Connecticut AA 83 59 .585 1st Place- Lost in finals
7. 10 Fresno AAA 31 16 .660 1st Place – 9.5 Game Lead. Best record in PCL


On another note, have you ever heard of Brock Bond? I hadn’t until last year but I’ve been tracking him ever since. The Giants drafted him out of Mizzou in 2007 in the 24th round. Here’s the catch though, they meant to draft another player with the last name Bond. That’s right. They drafted him by accident. They get their man next pick, and THAT Bond is out of baseball.
Bond is a second baseman that isn’t incredibly athletic. From what I’ve heard, he isn’t the most outstanding infielder of all time. He doesn’t steal a lot of bases. He also has almost no power whatsoever. He has 2 HR in about 1200 minor league AB’s.
Not much of a prospect, right? Maybe so. But he won the batting title in 2009 in the Eastern League AA – a horrible hitters park. What’s more, notice his OBP over the years:


2007 - .429
2008 - .398
2009 - .429
2010 - .403


Why? He hits singles and takes walks constantly. I’d kill to have a guy like that on this team, a guy that would scratch and claw his way on the bags, avoiding an out at all costs. He has 164 walks and 176 strikeouts over those 4 seasons. He’s in a bad slump right now, hitting .194 over the past 10 games. But as I look to the right of his stats, I see that his OBP over the past 10 games is .419. Curious. Wouldn’t he be a story if given a chance? Well, Decker’s been giving him chances since the Low-A Sally league, and he may be Bond’s and the Giants’ best shot.

The long awaited return of Freddy Sanchez …

The long awaited return of Freddy Sanchez …
The one problem is that Bochy has no idea how to make out a batting order. Seems to me it’s a no brainer to move Torres to leadoff, Rowand down to 6-7-8 and install Freddy in the two hole. Oh well.

Bochy (Last Night)
1. Rowand
2. Torres
3. Sanchez
4. Sandoval
5. Molina
6. Uribe
7. Schierholtz
8. Ishikawa – Huff has night off

This is how I’d set it most nights …

1. Torres
2. Freddy
3. Sandoval
4. Uribe
5. Huff
6. Rowand
7. Schierholtz
8. Molina

Bob:

Guess they didn't do anything right last night. To your point, I still believe the 3 hole is reserved for the best hitter on the team...maybe it really doesn't matter, but I doubt that. How do you bring a guy in on day one in the middle of the season and hit him 3? Plus, he's not a 3 hitter on this team even if he's had 150 ABs already. I'm kind of getting pissed about the whole thing again.


Dirty:
Finally had someone speak the truth last night on Comcast Bay Area…. F.P. Santangelo basically stopped his colleagues in their tracks and said ….

~ “we keep calling these guys…Cy Latos, Cy Kennedy, etc…” “we need to stop giving credit to every pitcher that shuts them down and start faulting the Giants’ offense…” “kennedy was good, but not THAT good… he shouldn’t be shutting them down for 3 hits in 8 innings.”

He also mentioned that Wellermeyer has to go and I think used the word “disgusting” to describe his pace, lack of confidence and possible apathy. People are going to start beating the drum on Bumgarner. Since his first two horrible AAA starts, he’s been dealing in his last 6. He’s starting to strike batters out again, walking fewer and giving up fewer hits.
Posey continues to draw walks, hit, and throw runners out about 50% of the time

I have no desire whatsoever to watch Wellermeyer pitch. I just fast-forwarded through the DBacks’ AB’s and watched the counts go 2-0, 3-0 over and over and the runs pile up. That guy is terrible. I have no desire to watch Travis Ishikawa play baseball either. Gold glove type first baseman’s who can’t hit a lick are about as useful as a Jessica Alba to a blind man, or maybe an offensive tackle being able to catch a football.

Bob:
I call the whole thing awe inspiringly iffy. IF 30 different completely precarious links hold together, they're awesome. IF a few break down, they're awful. For instance, if Rowand is on a hot streak rather than a cold one, if Renteria, DeRosa, Sanchez are healthy AND hitting (doubt to see that ever happen simultaneously), if we get decent production from youngsters. If IF iF. Should stand for "It's F*ck*d".

How long can they hold the kid back?

Posey – 3/5 with 3 doubles last. OPS has climbed over 1.000 and he’s hitting .355. His career numbers in AAA are better than his career numbers in the minors, meaning he’s getting better and performing even better than he did in Class A ...


How long can they hold the kid back?

Fredd Sanchez might be back by Wednesday … 3-6, 3 doubles and 2 weeks so far in Class A. He’s headed to Fresno.

Jayson Werth...Doubles

Dirty: I did check on that doubles thing by Jayson Werth. The record is 67 from 1936. The closest anyone has come recently (year 2000, Todd Helton) was 59. Werth is on pace to hit 72 doubles …

Surely he’ll cool down on the doubles, but wow. Quite the statement for a free agent to be …

Rockfish:
Should the giants take a run at him, or is it pre-destined that the yankees, red sox, cubs or angels get him?


Dirty:
He’ll be a type A free agent, I don’t know that the Giants are necessarily in the market for those anymore.

He’s a good player. Good athlete, can steal a bag. Works the count extremely well. Plenty of power. Good outfielder with a very good arm. I like him a lot. I think there’s a good chance he’d work out a lot better than Rowand did for the Giants.

Carl Crawford and Carlos Pena will also be free agents. Those are the 3 big offensive fish this offseason.

He's been pretty decent... Part II

I guess there are a couple of factors to consider why they may be holding back on bringing him up. First off, Huff is playing well. He’s catching the ball and hitting a little bit. There hasn’t been a real reason to shit him against lefties yet either. Secondly, Whiteside is playing well. He’s of course become Sanchez’s personal catcher – but what’s more is that he’s been hitting. That’s honestly probably a fluke and once he really starts struggling at the plate, maybe that’s the time to bring up Posey. And if it’s at a point in the season where it pushes his free agency back by a year, all the better. I don’t see how he can sit and say he’s not ready offensively or defensively yet when most scouts thought he was ready at seasons beginning.

He’s been pretty decent …

Baggarly had some quotes from Sabean about Posey recently. In a nutshell he said that Posey still isn’t ready to contribute every day offensively and catch at the major league level. He said once he is, he will be brought up immediately without consideration to service time (super two, free agency, etc.)
I’m not sure if that’s sincere, but it is what it is. Anyway – he hit another HR today, drew another walk, and threw out 2 of 2 attempted base stealers. So if AAA is as bad as Sabean says it is, I suppose it’s a good thing it’s no match for him.

In his last 8 games, he’s hitting …

I noticed when he hits HR’s, they come in bunches. It was that way all last year too. He gets hot and gets really dangerous.

I guess he’s heating up. He’s thrown out 50% of the runners running on him so far this year and 47% in the minors cumulative. In about a full season of minor league AB’s (Total Career), his OPS is .961. He has 87 BB to 90 strikeouts. 24 HR, 43 doubles, 3 triples, 106 RBI, .330 avg, .423 obp, .538 slg.
He’s been pretty decent …

BigFish starts it off

Big Fish:
So I'm sitting here thinking about this past weekend. We lost the series yet I don't feel compelled to cry. We came back and didn't give up. This team may be legitimate, or maybe not. I hope it is. I think we still need some help. What will they do? Will they stand or bet the future to win now. I believe this could be the future now. I don't think if we are still this good in July, we wait. I think they have to go out and get some help before the trade deadline. Do they make a trade, or take someone off the junk heap for the late summer push? What's the take from my boys? Dirty, You said you hadn't written anything on your blog lately. You weren't kidding. I hope you all had a great weekend and I'll see you soon. Go Giants! I love you.

Bob:
I agree BigFish! They have shown that they have the fight in them that lastyear's team never had. Every game has been a dog fight, and the startingpitching has kept them close every day. Even the losses have been by closemargins, and often the winning runs have been scored after the pen tookover. Another hitter with a little more of the "scary" factor would givethem the advantage at least within this division. Dirty made a point yesterday, where do they put him if they get him? I'm excited. Love you guys.