On Cain and Schierholtz

I find it troubling that Nate has been unable to adjust to how pitchers are getting him out. I mean, after a season plus of people telling him, “Hey dude, you may want to start laying off sliders on the inside part of the plate.”, he continues to look hopeless against that pitch.

I can excuse the vets for not changing their approach. I will continue to trash them for it (I am looking at you, Bengie and Rownads), but I can understand their inability to change. They have been big leaguers for awhile, are set in their ways, and will stubbornly stick to hacking at anything close because that is how they have always done it.

With Nate, there is no excuse. You are hanging on to your baseball career by your fingernails and need to develop pitch recognition or start bagging groceries at the local A&P. His not showing one iota of improvement in that regard with the probability of losing a baseball career as the penalty tells me that he is never going to get it.

I hope I am wrong. I don’t think I am.

I think this is, far and away, the best Sabean move in over a year. People might complain about the amount for the third year but consider he will be 27 and in the prime of his baseball life not having to buy some of his age 32—35 years at age 29 prices is … super wonderful!! If the wheat thrasher runs over his arm the Giants are not on the hook for the next several years. If he stays healthy but decides to move on the Giants ( or whatever team is on then) would at least get compensated picks.
As for Nate: Sabean don’t go hashing my Giants high by inking Dye or some such pile of aged suck.

Wait, Cain annoys Rockies fans? I seem to have missed that. I knew about Mets fans, but there’s a well-documented backstory there.

Concentrating on every pitch better than my opponent = WINS!!

Platoon LF/RF with DeRosa, Bowker and Nate. Of course DeRosa will play everyday whether in left or right and the other guy would be Bowker or Nate in the remaining OF position. Nate hasn’t exactly lost his RF gig but he hasn’t exactly win it either at the moment.

We need Nate’s D in right every day. No reason to get freaked out about his BA, especially since he is getting his XBHs. He already has a triple today. None of this really matters but but his sake he needs to get his average up to like .240 before he gets benched.

= Bowker making the team.
= Torres making the team.
= Velez not making the team.
= Me happier.

which I know we’ve discussed already. He’s now got 4/5 of the rotation locked up through 2012 0 giving the bats in the minors a little time to catch up. But it also takes away some of the question marks about salary in those years. Too many arb or FA eligible players all at once will make it really hard to know what we can and can’t afford from outside the organization on the FA market. Sadly, we won’t be able to afford much, but at least we’ll have a better picture of it when the time comes. Of course, after 2011 Tim’s salary is a huge question mark and whenever Pablo comes up for arb there will be a bug pay day due as well.

So even if we’re paying Cain a little too much (which isn’t necessarily the case) we at least KNOW how much we’re paying him.

Plus, the whole Dodger children thing.

But I think Nate Schierholtz is a better baseball player than John Bowker.

Consider: Bowker and Nate basically flip-flopped where they were playing in 08 and 09; In 08, it was Bowker who played a lot in the majors with Nate in AAA. In 09, it was the opposite.

So, let’s compare their numbers the last time they spent a full year in AAA.

Bowker (09): .342/.451/.596
Nate (08): .320/.363/.594

Sure, Bowker is better. But Nate was no slouch by any means.

And how about their major league numbers from their last relatively full seasons?

Bowker (08): .255/.300/.408
Nate (09): .267/.302/.400

Again, pretty similar. Nate probably has a slight edge.

So what do we have here? If we step back and look at the situation objectively, there really isn’t much evidence over the past 2 years that John Bowker is a significantly better hitter than Nate Schierholtz. And Nate is a fantastic defender, while Bowker is probably destined for left field if he can’t manage 1st.

I would rather have Nate on the team than Bowker (though I’d like to have both). I think Nate should be the starting RF.

Can I post my Jermaine Dye projections yet?

Sabean is proving again that he is the worst possible GM for young players. Talking about rebuilding through the farm with that guy at the helm is nothing more than BS.

 I have to give Righetti a lot of credit because I think he does a fantastic job shielding the young pitchers from the madman running the ship.

Ok first point:

Here is why I like the Cain deal. Its a mix of him being an amazing pitcher and me just personally liking the guy. His stuff is terrific, he is a 200+IP guy every year. He truly is the horse on the staff. But the thing that really sells me on him and wants to give him all the money in the world is his attitude. He never complains. After being stuck with what the Giants have given him throughout his career, he has not done anything negative or disparaging to the Giants. He could throw 7 shut down innings, no runs given up, give up one or two in the 8th get a loss and still would talk about where he needed to improve.

Just thinking about a guy with his stuff and through his years here, his career high on wins the Giants offense has given him has been 14, makes me very sad for him. But he doesn’t care. And he is truly amazing for it.

On top of this he seems to genuinely love being a Giant want want to stay there. There is a lot of talk of the “hometown discout” fallacy, but I can actually see him taking the market average for his talent or maybe even turning down a higher deal somewhere else to stay with the Giants.

2nd point based on Nate topic. I posted this in the game thread. Here is what I wants:
DeRosa – 2B
Bowker – LF
Nate – RF

Uribe bench utility like he was signed to be?

I think people overreact a bit about AT&T’s RF. Yes, it’s probably a bit more difficult to play than most. But it’s not like you HAVE to have a +20 right fielder out there in order for a player to be able to “play RF at AT&T”.

Your “scrambling to figure out” link isn’t working.

Be prepared to be sad.

- Excellent D in late innings and double switches
- Pushes Eugenio off the roster
- It’s a small sample size, and I can’t find the specific numbers, but he was excellent as a pinch hitter last year.

I think Bowker’s upside is just impossible to ignore; if he does end up faltering, Schierholtz is a pretty safe backup plan. Seth Smith of the Rockies seems like a a somewhat comparable player in the role I am envisioning for Nate, except trading some power/OBP for superior defense.

Howie?

Somebody that doesn’t scream out YOU CAN’T BENCH ME with his stats, that is (Panda). Schierholtz, Bowker, even Velez. Somebody besides mediocre journeymen. Is that too much to ask?

If a month into the regular season if the Giants were 19-9 (soon to be 20-9) how many of us would have to be rushed to the hospital?

And to make it more fun, what would be your symptoms?