Comments on: Running down the rosters: San Francisco Giants

By: spaverson

spaverson — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 19:27:22 +0000

Actually, I stand corrected. According some advanced metrics, Huff rates out as about average and maybe slightly above defensively. Baseball-reference has him below replacement level for last season, though, and this is his age 35 season, so things could get sketchy.

By: spaverson

spaverson — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 19:20:46 +0000

Huff certainly is not an above average fielder, and the jury is out on Pagan and Cabrera, albeit the latter will benefit from playing in a corner, if his historical splits hold up. Of course, there is still hope for Pagan, who was a pretty good corner OF and had a nice start in CF in 2010, but struggled there last season. To be fair, Pagan played through injuries for much of last season.

By: spaverson

spaverson — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 18:36:29 +0000

Pablo Sandoval is a switch hitter (he’s listed above as batting right only).

And why would anyone expect Clay Hensley to do well as a replacement for Ramirez? Except for two seasons (one of which he had a confirmed PED violation), he’s really been pretty awful, including last season. Ramirez in contrast has been pretty consistent throughout his career.

By: simon94022

simon94022 — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 00:06:57 +0000

If they got rid of some of the dead wood (huff or any outfielder) and instead gave those wasted PAs to Belt, they might at least have a mediocre lineup.

But they won’t.

By: loungefly74

loungefly74 — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 14:24:11 +0000

i love the optimistic statements on here as i am a Giants fan…but i just wish they would have added a couple big bats…i just see us losing a lot of games with the score of 2-1, 1-0, 3-2, etc…
If that line up could produce 4 runs per game…every game, this could be a 100 win team.

By: whosgotitbetter

whosgotitbetter — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 13:13:49 +0000

Torture is back! Lol the Giants have upgraded defensively and with speed on the bases. They didnt make to many moves in the offseason and really they didnt have to because 2 of the teams best hitters were injured for more then half the year last year. Hopefully everyone can stay healthy and the rotation is steller so it should make for a good season

By: jlhc5530

jlhc5530 — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 12:09:27 +0000

You’ve got me thinking about defense, too. Using your lineup, that’s above average defense at every single position. Swap Huff for Belt and it gets even better. Impressive…

By: jlhc5530

jlhc5530 — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 11:41:17 +0000

I think Pagan’s impact is being overlooked here. With injuries, his power and babip dipped last year. He still remained one baseball’s best contact hitters and baserunners (2nd in the majors by EqBRR). Add in above-average CF defense and I think he could create substantially more run opportunities leading off.

Couple that with a simple upward regression of the G’s historically bad BA w/ RISP (.219, worst in a generation I hear), and I’d be willing to bet on 100+ more runs out of their offense this year easy.

Moreover, it’s incredibly likely when you factor in the likely positive offense additions of cabrera, belt, sanchez, and posey as well. Yeah, they should have a better SS and 1b, but even there it’s more likely than not that the numbers will improve relative to last year.

By: buffalomafia

buffalomafia — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 08:34:23 +0000

You cheapskates need a bat or two!

By: Gamera the Brave

Gamera the Brave — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 05:30:25 +0000

The real pisser is that apparently Beltran would have been happy to stay, but by all means let’s continue to upgrade so incrementally that we will get back to the playoffs in about 10 years…
Problem is, here is a likely lineup BA -
CF Angel Pagan – S – .260
2B Freddy Sanchez – R .290
3B Pablo Sandoval – R .290
C Buster Posey – R .285
LF Melky Cabrera – S .275
1B Aubrey Huff – L .255
RF Nate Schierholtz – L .260
SS Brandon Crawford – L .240
And frankly that’s with some luck. Sigh…