A Sleeper Awakens

My brother-in-law and I made plans back in April to get to a San Jose Giants game just as soon as we could to see Bumgarner, Alderson, and Posey before they got shipped off to the Giants’ double-A affilicate, the Connecticut Defenders. Well, everyone who follows such stuff knows we missed the boat on Bumgarner and Alderson. But another player who was also promoted to the Defenders, one whom I hadn’t even thought of as being in my own personal top-10 of Giants prospects (although I thought he had some “sleeper” quality) is Brandon Crawford, who tore up the California League, and is doing the same to the Eastern League.

A fourth-round pick last June, Crawford has all the tools in the world, but things never quite came together for him at UCLA, and what was expected by many to be a breakout junior year never materialized. His selection and $375,000 bonus is a pure upside wager. (The scouts always say, “if you don’t know what you want, always draft the tools.” Those tools have started the year with a combined .994 OPS (he went four-for-four last night), and while it’s too early to come to any conclusions, keep an eye on this one.

 

What the Giants Could Learn from the Rockies

Colorado’s capture of the National League pennant last season made it the best season in the organization’s existence. One of the accompanying narratives was that they were learning how to win in Coors Field. Another was the declining park factor in Colorado had allowed for a more stable pitching staff. While there is some truth to these, for me the Rockies are more than the product of an evolving ballpark-related dynamic. Rather, they are a perfect case study in proper player development.

 

Oh, Those Wondrous Youngsters

Spring training is upon us, and typically at this time of the year, my thirst for baseball is of such long-standing that my normal cold-bloodedness deserts me. I eagerly follow the doings of the pitchers and catchers (although I don’t quite assume Bengie Molina really believes the team can get by scoring so little as last season). I await the arrival of the young position players, the Frandsens, Ortmeiers, Schierholtzes and Ishikawas. I hope Bruce Bochy will pronounce Frandsen the greatest second-baseman he’s ever seen, not excluding Joe Morgan. Dan Ortmeier fields like J. T. Snow, Tim Lincecum is another Lefty Grove, and Carney Lansford says his man, Rajai Davis, is the next Pete Reiser. We can dream.

 

Barry Bonds’s Legs

So the Giants have ended the Todd Linden experiment — 55 at-bats, 23 k’s. We’ll see if Linden makes it through waivers. (I’m betting, just as with Niekro, he will.  No one wants our “prospects.”) Under the Giants’ master plan, Linden, and now Lewis and Ortmeier, were intended to be Barry Bonds’s legs, pinch running or substituting defensively for him late in the game, sometimes spelling each of the starting outfielders.  But the fundamental problem here is that, just as with Neikro, these players are not prospects so much as organizational soldiers, subsisting in triple-A Fresno, available to be brought up in just such an emergency as Roberts’s surgery. Lewis and Ortmeier are both 26, Linden will be 27 next month. Genuine prospects are not quite so long in the tooth before making the majors.

A second-round pick in 2002, Lewis is an outstanding athlete whose baseball tools are still trying to catch up with his body. He has good patience and speed, but his batting average and power are a little on the low side. He’s fast enough to play center, but doesn’t judge the ball well, which limits him to the corners where his offensive deficiencies become less excusable. That certainly sounds like the profile of a fourth outfielder, doesn’t it?  Yet some scouts consider him the upper-level Giant prospect most likely to become a major-league regular.

Hard-nosed and oft-injured, Dan Ortmeier excited the Giants when he hit .274/.360/.463 with 20 home runs and 35 stolen bases at Norwich in 2005. He started 2006 in Fresno, but played himself back down to Norwich. His timing couldn’t have been worse. At 26, he’s near the end of the line.

The first problem the Giants have is that their lineup is old, prone to injury. The second problem is that the guys expected to pick up the slack are themselves old for their level, and just not that good. Sabean used a conscious strategy of trading away prospects and giving up draft choices while surrounding Bonds with “veteran presence.”  He — and Giant fans — are reaping what he sowed.