minor lines, 7/24/11

He’s not on the 40 man so there’d have to be some real compelling reason to cut somebody else out of the organization a couple weeks before the end of the season (isn’t that what happened to Downs? Did he get cut loose when they brought Bumgarner in September of ‘09?). And given that they’re about to have 6 starting pitchers for 5 slots and a full bullpen with nowhere to hide the extra, I’m not sure what that compelling reason would be.

I’d say his most likely path to playing with the Giants is: Sanchez gets traded and somebody else gets hurt. When that might happen? Who’s to say?

This doesnt get said enough.

That is strange. It’s possible that he was left off due to the fact that he would only be pitching on 2 days rest. The only other reason I can think of is that Mejia wasn’t available because he was his way to Scottsdale! Certainly, statswise, there is only 1 or 2 other pitchers in the entire league that can be said to be having as good a year as Mejia.

I don’t think it’s correct to say that Sabes was right, just that he wasn’t as wrong as it looked like 2 years ago. It’s not like Mike Stanton did more for the major league Giants than Martis did for the Nats. The Nats definitely got more quality pitching on the major league level out of Martis than the Giants got from Stanton.

Stanton did pitch well, but it was still a poor decision for a team which would finish 10 games under .500 and 11.5 games behind in the standings to consider itself a buyer at the deadline rather than a seller. And in fact Sabean himself has fully admitted to that. When he said (on many occasions) that they stuck too long with the strategy of trying to surround Bonds with veterans, he’s certainly talking about decisions made in 2006. I’d like to think he was talking about 2005, too but who’s to say. 2006 definitely. In both of those years they should have been sellers.

It’s not about what they gave up in Martis or Jeremy Accardo, it’s what they could conceivably have gotten in 2005 or 2006 for Schmidt, Durham, Vizquel, Alou, maybe Steve Kline etc. That was the missed opportunity that we are, potentially, keenly feeling right now because one or more of those players could conceivably have returned a piece that would really be valuable to us today. And it’s that missed opportunity that I at least was “freaking out” about when that trade was made and which Sabean has, to his credit, owned up to later on (which does lend credence to the thought that it was Magowan’s philosophical direction which hurt most).

(Then of course there’s the whole poetic failure to draft Mike Stanton with the Mike Stanton comp pick that Grant’s always going on about. That was like the universe giving us one last chance at that missed opportunity and us just slapping the last chance away. Apparently, the universe really really really wanted us to have it though, because of course TGWTWS!)

Yeah, he was due a stinker, though of course he learned a valuable lesson about why walks are bad — sometimes you’re going to give up HRs and it’s better not to have given up a bunch of free base runners before them.

Funny thing about Peguero’s line in the second game as I had the gameday function running while watching the Giants game and was half paying attention to it: in the first inning Peguero hit what was scored as a double and an RBI. But by the top of the next inning, the box score changed his line to 0 for 1 and scored his PA as a two base error for Bryce Harper. Peguero ended the game with a 1 for 3 and a RS line. But by this morning the double had been restored. Don’t know which was correct, but the official scorer was obviously laboring on the call.

And that he has no trade value.

Have we had many of those? What SF’s mostly known for is coming up with power pitching prospects like Jesus casting the net upon the waters.

FWIW, it seems pretty likely at this point that Surkamp does have premium stuff — it’s just that his premium stuff isn’t the FB it’s the breaking pitch. If it’s plus plus (which his dominance of AA hitters suggests it is) it’s still premium. And given the events of the weekend, it’s a good time to recall that during the 70s and early 80s it was not at all uncommon for players, writers, and commentators to wonder aloud if Bert Blyleven’s curveball was the greatest breaking pitch in baseball history. Whether or not that was true, it was a breaking ball that allowed him to be the 3rd greatest strikeout pitcher of all time.

Yeah, I linked to that last week and there was some discussion about it. Given that they only have about 5 weeks left it won’t take too much for it to end his season. As long as he didn’t tear the tendon it shouldn’t be a long term problem.

This is something that has always confused me, but if I’m not mistaken all muscle “strains” are actually tears, but they don’t use the term “tear” until it gets to be a big one. Not quite sure how that all shakes out. Either way, I think rest is the proscription as long as the damage is in the muscle itself, and not out on the tendon or ligament.

Are you happy to see me or is that a Surkamp in your pants

Unfortunately, if this is to be believed you’d have to think he’s our biggest trade chip this week. He and Peguero. That would be a sad day for me if we lost both of those two in a day, though I’d understand I suppose.