Giants drop Moscoso from roster, add Strickland, Flores, Brown, Duvall

Well, that didn't take long. Moments after breaking the biggest baseball story of the day with this speculative post about the 40-man roster, the Giants made their moves before the Rule 5 draft. The rundown:

Added to 40-man roster
Kendry Flores
Gary Brown
Adam Duvall
Hunter Strickland

Removed from 40-man roster
Guillermo Moscoso

The Giants tried to reach Moscoso to tell him before the news broke, but he was still in the stretch, looking in for a sign, shaking it off, thinking about his options, ready to throw a pitch that will never come.

There aren't huge surprises, here. I'm a little taken aback that Brett Bochy is on the Rule 5 table now, but the fastball doesn't match with the K/BB numbers. It's a business, Bruce. Want a beer, grab a beer. Jarrett Parker is another minor surprise, but he just struck out against Moscoso while waiting for him to get throw the damned ball. That isn't to say he's a lost cause, but that he would be a terrible bet to stick on a major-league roster all year. The Giants are probably making a pretty safe gamble.

Roger helped me with the last post, and I neglected to mention that he predicted Hunter Strickland getting added, even though Strickland is recovering from Tommy John. He said the Giants loved Strickland's arm before the injury this year, even though they released him to save a few clams before re-signing him. It's been a weird year for Hunter Strickland.

The biggest prospect of the bunch is Flores, which is saying something about how awful Brown's year was. But Flores did this in his age-21 season in Low-A:

Love the control numbers. And he was in the low-90s this year, too.

Duvall has big right-handed power and some contact issues, but he's a decent bet to put up shiny numbers in Fresno.

Brown didn't impress the Mets enough in 2011, and that just might be his legacy. There's a chance for him to have some Calvin Murray-like years as a solid bench option, though, especially since he never stopped hitting lefties.

When the Giants make the Javier Lopez signing official, someone else will have to come off the roster. The same goes when the Giants sign a starter and an outfielder. Thinking Tony Abreu and Sandy Rosario aren't safe, and maybe there's a Gillaspie-like trade coming soon.