2016/2017 Off-Season Thread

[SFGRTB]

Bringing Morse and Ruggiano in to push McParker makes a lot of sense, IMHO. If McParker completely shits the bed, than give the opening day job to the best of Gorky/Morse/Ruggiano, knowing that Morse/Ruggiano can/will be DFA'd at the first sign of McParker wanting the job.

I think the irg would prefer to make sure both get regular time, so that's t means, I think, that Parker gets squatters rights in SF with Mac slated for Sacto. But I think everyone believes that long-term, Mac should be the better player.

As for the infield, I just don't see Rollins getting a legit shot at the roster. If Calixte has options, than it will be a fair fight between him and KT for the util spot. If he doesn't, I expect him to have the edge. FTR, I found a site that claimed that Calixte has 2 options going into 17. I have no idea how reliable that number is, though.

Calixte has 2 or 3 options by my count.

Added to 40-man roster in Nov. 2014.
ML service time in 2015.
DFA'd in Nov. 2015.
Signed minor league deal in Dec. 2015.
Calixte elects free agency in Nov. 2016.
Signed minor league deal in Nov. 2016.
Added to 40-man roster in Nov. 2016.

I agree with you on Ruggiano/Morse. More so with Ruggiano as he can play CF passably, and has great platoon splits. And if they suck, we can turn to Mac. If they go with Mac out of the gate and he sucks, we have to turn to more un-proven guys (or stick with his struggles and hope he fights through them, which is part of development and I'd be okay with that, but the Giants might not). That's been my main point through all of this.

I would also agree with you in regards to Rollins, but I saw a tidbit in one of these articles that Bochy has always wanted to coach Rollins. So that kinda freaked me out.

 

[tzill]

Calixte has 2 or 3 options by my count.

Added to 40-man roster in Nov. 2014.
ML service time in 2015.
DFA'd in Nov. 2015.
Signed minor league deal in Dec. 2015.
Calixte elects free agency in Nov. 2016.
Signed minor league deal in Nov. 2016.
Added to 40-man roster in Nov. 2016.

I agree with you on Ruggiano/Morse. More so with Ruggiano as he can play CF passably, and has great platoon splits. And if they suck, we can turn to Mac. If they go with Mac out of the gate and he sucks, we have to turn to more un-proven guys (or stick with his struggles and hope he fights through them, which is part of development and I'd be okay with that, but the Giants might not). That's been my main point through all of this.

I would also agree with you in regards to Rollins, but I saw a tidbit in one of these articles that Bochy has always wanted to coach Rollins. So that kinda freaked me out.

Calixte has two options left.

Interestingly, per Kuiper, Hundley can play several positions including 2b, 3b, and OF

 

[SFGRTB]

Calixte has two options left.

Interestingly, per Kuiper, Hundley can play several positions including 2b, 3b, and OF

Wut.....

I mean, I heard that it's possible the Giants carry Hundley and Brown because Brown is the one who could be the super utility defender at 3B, 2B and C, and Hundley can be more available as a right-handed power bat..... But Hundley played 1 inning of OF 8 years ago, and it was probably an extra-innings extravaganza.

 

[LHG]

Wut.....

I mean, I heard that it's possible the Giants carry Hundley and Brown because Brown is the one who could be the super utility defender at 3B, 2B and C, and Hundley can be more available as a right-handed power bat..... But Hundley played 1 inning of OF 8 years ago, and it was probably an extra-innings extravaganza.

Well, if you look at his playing time in the minors, you'll find he played a lot of catcher and . . . just catcher.

 

[SFGRTB]

Well, if you look at his playing time in the minors, you'll find he played a lot of catcher and . . . just catcher.

Kuip is high on cheese or something

 

[calsnowskier]

May be repetitious, but I was thinking about the off-season as a whole today, and I thought I post this. Again, nothing new...


Big additions
Melancon
Hundley

Potential 25-man adds
Calixte
Rollins
Morse
Ruggiano

Key losses
Casilla
Romo (?)
Pagan (?)

Rookies kicking in the door
Blach
Parker
Williamson
Arroyo (mid season)
Beede (mid season)

 

[calsnowskier]

Add Hwang as a potential 25-add. Forgot about him.

 

[SFGRTB]

Spring training is going to look very interesting. The Giants have brought in a lot of infielders for just a few spots. Now we've got Jae Gyun Hwang, Orlando Calixte, Ramiro Pena, Jimmy Rollins, Ehire Adrianza, Kelby Tomlinson, Juniel Querecuto, Ali Castillo, Juan Ciriaco, Mike Morse, Chris Marrero and Kyle Blanks. They get to compete for two spots on the Giants' roster. Then there's Christian Arroyo and, presumably, Ryder Jones, locked in AAA roster spots, meaning 3 to 4 spots available in Sacramento. Ricky Oropesa is fighting to stay within the organization as well.

Spring training is going to be a bloodbath of cuts (or there's going to be some full disabled lists).

Interestingly, the Giants have sold Ramiro Pena's contract to a Japanese club. He'll play there in 2017.

 

[calsnowskier]

Interestingly, the Giants have sold Ramiro Pena's contract to a Japanese club. He'll play there in 2017.

Makes sense. He had a decent '16, but he had no chance of breaking camp, or really even sniffing the majors with the Giants in '17.

 

[SFGRTB]

Makes sense. He had a decent '16, but he had no chance of breaking camp, or really even sniffing the majors with the Giants in '17.

Yeah I was surprised he came back in the first place. Granted it was before the Giants went on a middle-infield binge.

I think he'll do quite well for himself in Japan, and could be a decent comeback player in 2018.

 

[LHG]

Interestingly, the Giants have sold Ramiro Pena's contract to a Japanese club. He'll play there in 2017.

That's too bad. I really rather have him in AAA then some of the guys that they brought in (or back, such as Juan Ciriaco).

 

[LHG]

Yeah I was surprised he came back in the first place. Granted it was before the Giants went on a middle-infield binge.

I think he'll do quite well for himself in Japan, and could be a decent comeback player in 2018.

Read the article on MLB Rumors and they mention that he probably didn't re-sign at all with the Giants but there were articles released on Dec. 8th that he did re-sign, Baseball America has that as a transaction in the Dec. 2nd-9th transactions and the website Around the Foghorn even ran a possible bench players for 2017 article on him.

I am guessing that this is a similar issue to what happened with Travis Ishikawa and the Mariners in 2016. It was being reported that he had a minor league deal with them until it was reported that he didn't, when he signed with the White Sox. It doesn't happen often, but apparently minor league deals aren't always finalized.

 

[SFGRTB]

Read the article on MLB Rumors and they mention that he probably didn't re-sign at all with the Giants but there were articles released on Dec. 8th that he did re-sign, Baseball America has that as a transaction in the Dec. 2nd-9th transactions and the website Around the Foghorn even ran a possible bench players for 2017 article on him.

I am guessing that this is a similar issue to what happened with Travis Ishikawa and the Mariners in 2016. It was being reported that he had a minor league deal with them until it was reported that he didn't, when he signed with the White Sox. It doesn't happen often, but apparently minor league deals aren't always finalized.

The language I read was that his contract was sold.

 

[LHG]

The language I read was that his contract was sold.

Ramiro Pena To Play For Japan's Hiroshima Carp - makes it sound like he never signed.

 

[LHG]

Not sure where else to put it so I'm putting this here. ESPN did a write up on contract years and I read this blurb at the beginning of the article:
"If you look at what happened last season, you'll buy into the contract-year phenomenon: Zack Greinke, Jordan Zimmermann, Justin Upton, David Price, Chris Davis, Alex Gordon, Jason Heyward, Wei-Yin Chen, Johnny Cueto and Jeff Samardzija all signed for more than $70 million, and only Cueto and Samardzija had better seasons than the previous year. With the exception of Price, the rest had hugely disappointing seasons."
Just want to say, huge props to the Giants' FO on scoring well with those two this past offseason. I still have questions about Samardzija but so far, so good on them.

 

[1phlapdown]

Not sure where else to put it so I'm putting this here. ESPN did a write up on contract years and I read this blurb at the beginning of the article:
"If you look at what happened last season, you'll buy into the contract-year phenomenon: Zack Greinke, Jordan Zimmermann, Justin Upton, David Price, Chris Davis, Alex Gordon, Jason Heyward, Wei-Yin Chen, Johnny Cueto and Jeff Samardzija all signed for more than $70 million, and only Cueto and Samardzija had better seasons than the previous year. With the exception of Price, the rest had hugely disappointing seasons."
Just want to say, huge props to the Giants' FO on scoring well with those two this past offseason. I still have questions about Samardzija but so far, so good on them.

I think the staff needs to keep an eye on his mechanics, and act quickly when things turn south.

 

[SFGRTB]

Not sure where else to put it so I'm putting this here. ESPN did a write up on contract years and I read this blurb at the beginning of the article:
"If you look at what happened last season, you'll buy into the contract-year phenomenon: Zack Greinke, Jordan Zimmermann, Justin Upton, David Price, Chris Davis, Alex Gordon, Jason Heyward, Wei-Yin Chen, Johnny Cueto and Jeff Samardzija all signed for more than $70 million, and only Cueto and Samardzija had better seasons than the previous year. With the exception of Price, the rest had hugely disappointing seasons."
Just want to say, huge props to the Giants' FO on scoring well with those two this past offseason. I still have questions about Samardzija but so far, so good on them.

I really wanted them to sign Chen and Heyward too. Woof

 

[LHG]

I really wanted them to sign Chen and Heyward too. Woof

I wanted Chen over Samardzija but wasn't in to Hayward. Well, the org did sign a Hayward for you.

 

[SFGRTB]

Here's the list of non-roster invitees. 28 total.

Nothing too surprising here. Wynton Bernard sounds like an exciting player who could make some noise. The bullpen could have some interesting battles. Dominguez, Morris, Reynolds, Ramirez all have ML experience (some had success) and great stuff but have struggled with injuries, command, or both. I think someone out of that group could make a case for themselves to be in the Pen.

Josmil Pinto brings a ton of power for a catcher, but lacks the defense. I think the Giants would have been fine with him or Federowicz instead of Hundley but whatever.

 

[SFGRTB]

In a move the doesn't move the needle much, the Giants brought back Gordon Beckham on a minor league deal. He'll make a little over $1M if he makes the big league club.

He's pretty much back because of this nugget from Alex Pavlovic:

--- Gordon Beckham is technically a “Giants free agent” and several people in the clubhouse approacedh management to relay what a positive impact Beckham had in his week there. He is the kind of energetic, ball-busting presence that helps over a 162-game season, and everyone in the organization loved having him around, but they’re looking for power bats right now when it comes to the bench.

Notes: Ex-Giants not getting much traction, not expected to return