According to Jonah Keri

[msgkings322]

Who's got the best infield in baseball?

Spoiler alert: it's us

Grown at Home: How the Giants Built the Best Infield in Baseball

According to his numbers based approach, Belt is the 7th best 1B in baseball, not a disappointment we should trade (necessarily).

But the whole Posey thing....it's not easy.

 

[msgkings322]

Bonus link (related): Baseballs Kids Are All Right | FiveThirtyEight

the 538 piece on how youth is dominating the league now.

I can think of only about 5 guys over age 31 (position players) I'd want on my team league wide these days

 

[dredinis21]

Who's got the best infield in baseball?

Spoiler alert: it's us

Grown at Home: How the Giants Built the Best Infield in Baseball

According to his numbers based approach, Belt is the 7th best 1B in baseball, not a disappointment we should trade (necessarily).

But the whole Posey thing....it's not easy.

Great read, thanks for the find!

 

[Stokes1931]

In contrast to the Giants' approach, see the Padres in the following article from Grantland evaluating the Padres' off-season moves.

Teardown Artist

While I would like to see another OF and another pitcher brought in, I deeply appreciate (sometimes through gritted teeth) the Giants' approach to home grown talent.

 

[calsnowskier]

I liked what the Padres were doing at the time from a marketing standpoint (Padre fans are not that abundant down here), but I also knew the OF defense would be an issue and Myers and Middlebrooks were big-risk players. I was not expecting Myers and Middlebrooks to be as bad as they actually ended up being, though. And I was not expecting the pitching to disappear to the extent that they did.

 

[1phlapdown]

I liked what the Padres were doing at the time from a marketing standpoint (Padre fans are not that abundant down here), but I also knew the OF defense would be an issue and Myers and Middlebrooks were big-risk players. I was not expecting Myers and Middlebrooks to be as bad as they actually ended up being, though. And I was not expecting the pitching to disappear to the extent that they did.

A writer today in the Times essentially asks the question now what do they do, trade Shields Kimbrel and Upton???? Damned if they do and damned if they don't.

 

[calsnowskier]

A writer today in the Times essentially asks the question now what do they do, trade Shields Kimbrel and Upton???? Damned if they do and damned if they don't.

They have been openly shopping Shields, and I think they HAVE to trade Upton. Kimbrel has had a horrible year and has a high salary so I am not sure what they can do with him. Might be best to hold on to him until his stock is higher.

 

[calsnowskier]

This article was featured on MLBTR today, and it got me thinking (again) about the last Giants-produced all-stars at different positions.

In the past I have only focused on the OF, and it was determined that the last 3 Giants-Produced All-stars were Jack Clark, Garry Matthews and Chilli Davis.

But what about other positions?

1B - Will Clark (Jack Clark)
2B -Joe Panik (Robbie Thompson)
SS - Brandon Crawford (Royce Clayton)
3B - Pablo Sandoval (Matt Williams)
C -Buster Posey (Matt Nokes)
P -Madison Bumgarner (Tim Lincecum)

While the Giants produced Belt, he has not been an all star. None of the other 1B produced by the Giants since Thrill have amounted to anything (Phillips, Niekro, Bowker).

I was surprised to find out that Bill Mueler never made an ASG. He is a batting champ, for god's sake. But he never made it. Matt Williams was a bit of a beast, though.

Catcher was also a bit more of a wasteland than I expected. Matt Nokes was a flash-in-the-pan rookie for the Tigers in '86, but he broke into the Bigs in '85 with the Giants before getting traded for Bob Melvin in the off season.

This whole turn around of the farm system is just another mind-blowing aspect of this whole era for the Giants. This org is first-class at every level right now.

 

[Pattersonca65]

And the critics used to say the Giants didn't have any good position players in the minors

 

[SFGRTB]

And the critics used to say the Giants didn't have any good position players in the minors

They still say so, for the most part.

 

[Mays-Fan]

They still say so, for the most part.

Yeah, and our starters are too old, our bullpen is shot, our players are injury prone, the stadium sucks, , the weather is lousy, and the garlic fries are too salty.