I wonder if Mad Bum threw almost all fastballs in the All-Star game merely to save his arm. I saw him early in the season on milb.tv, and he was using both the breaking ball and the change up a fair amount.

I thought the pitches looked OK (although the screen was small and grainy), but not surprisingly his command appeared to need improvement.

I figured as such, and wasn’t sure how much I could really quote from the article. Wanted to try to get that blurb about Mad Bum’s breaking ball in though.

Not sure there are really that many young hitters out there with ML experience already who are on the market. That won’t happen until the Winter most likely. IE possibly Prince Fielder, or Ryan Howard or JJ Hardy etc.

I’m a bit torn here.

The biggest mistake I think the Giants could make would be to trade away potential merely to become a little more competitive a bit sooner.

If they have enough patience, I think it is possible they could build a rotation for the ages. On the other hand, I would like to see them leverage their good pitching into other assets.

The way I would do that would be to build a strong pipeline that would enable the Giants to trade PROVEN pitchers - as the A’s have been doing - for more prospects to add to the pipeline, particularly in positions of weakness in the system (such as shortstop). Frankly the Giants aren’t overloaded at ANY position organizationally, with the likely exception of pitcher.

I would have traded Noah Lowry over a year ago, but that window has passed for the foreseeable future. If Matt Cain has the fine second half I expect from him, I would look over the winter at offers for him, with the idea of opening up another spot for the young studs on the way up.

Regarding Mad Bum, I had reservations about his motion when I saw his draft video. But his statistics were overpowering. If my best scouts and pitching coaches were worried about long-term arm health, I would consider dealing him. Otherwise, I would trade a proven pitcher such as Cain in order to open a spot for Mad Bum to eventually take.

The A’s have led the way, but this season has seen a few nice trades of pitchers for very good prospects—including pitching prospects. I think that is a pattern the Giants should jump on, if they haven’t already missed their window of opportunity.

But one thing has been rather constant throughout baseball history. There is almost always a demand for good pitching. The Giants need to capitalize on that. And particularly given that their window of opportunity likely opens in about four years, they should take advantage of the nice market that has developed in acquiring good but unproven talent for proven pitching.

I don’t like Timmy Two’s mechanics either. :)

You say “you have Frandsen, Denker, Velez for second, Burriss for short, Gillaspie and Roehlinger for third, and young outfielders like Nate, Bowker, (If not first base) Lewis, Fairley, EME, etc.” When were you going to get to the GOOD prospects for those positions? :)

I do like Gillaspie and Fairley, and I think Nate is good enough to start and that Bowker might be. Burriss and Frandsen are possiblities. But aside from Fairley and possibly Gillaspie, I don’t see any stars there—and likely no more than two or three starters, most of merely adequate stature.

As for trading young pitching, a source reasonably close to the Giants but not an insider told me he felt they would trade their young players to get well quickly. I suggested they hold onto their young pitchers because they might be able to build an all-time type of rotation.

So I would be fine with holding onto the young pitchers. But I would be open to trading proven pitchers whose value might be up, much as the Indians and A’s have done. Those teams have picked up some nice prospects.