Can you get Grant McCray out? "That Would Be a 'No' From Us" say the Quakes
SF Giants Minor Lines, July 27, 2022
Wake up and ball, y’all! Let’s put the spotlight on defense, that all too oft missing ingredient of game this year. Jimmy Glowenke’s got some fancy footwork to show ya!
Now that’s moving good!
HITTER of the Night: Grant McCray (SJ), 3 for 4, 2b (18), 3 R, BB, K, SB (27)
PITCHER of the Night: Luis Bermudez (DSLGB), 5.0 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 10 K
That’s two straight days above the fold for Mr. McCray! Right now he’s looking like the class of the 2019 draft class by a pretty decent margin. He’s come a long way from that first A ball swing less than a year ago.
Before we get into the day’s games, how about a quick “Buyer/Seller” debate. I know the Giants’ utterly uninspiring play of late has folks on the internet and KNBR screaming for them to sell everything that’s not nailed down — and they might! But, for our purposes, it’s worth considering how that will further complicate the looming 40-man mess that I’ve mentioned earlier.
The Giants have shown very limited willingness to keep long term projects on the 40-man, which they prefer keeping open for their endless waiver wire shuffling for marginal back end upgrades. That means that they aren’t going to keep all of these various interesting arms that are percolating up through the system (Joey Marciano, Cole Waites, Nick Avila, Jose Cruz, Chris Wright, Clay Helvey, Blake Rivera, Ryan Walker, Keaton Winn, Jake Wong etc) and they aren’t going to protect all of top prospects that are still trying to figure things out in A ball (Luis Matos, Hunter Bishop, Jairo Pomares, Luis Toribio). Marco Luciano is an obvious protect, and I suspect Waites is too. But after that, it starts getting tricky in a hurry, and it’s worth considering that there’s something of a zero-sum game at play for any prospects they might receive in trade if they become a seller. Bringing in another guy who needs protecting could well be the difference between protecting Matos or not. Or protecting Diego Rincones or not (he’s going to be a really interesting decision this winter — I definitely think another team grabs him if he’s not added to the roster).
Now, I don’t want to overstate things. Most of these guys can be risked successfully — it’s not like the Giants’ system is so talent rich that every other club is dying to get their hands on Giants’ low minors players. Toribio has plenty of time to develop without worry of poaching risk. The same likely goes of Bishop and Wong and many others. But some of them are intriguing R5 candidates — Waites, Marciano, Avila, Rincones definitely are. Rivera and Walker I can sorta see someone taking a shot? Cruz is far off, but the arm can probably move fast — in a Camilo Doval sort of way. Someone could grab him. Matos has really struggled this year, but does a club still grab him, stash him as a 5th OF and try to keep him as a long-term development project? Yeah, that could happen!
That’s the kind of higher math that is implicit in these sorts of “long-term strategy” decisions. It’s all well and good to bring more talent into the organization — a strategy I highly endorse! But keep in mind that bringing more in might mean that more is going out, too.
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to There R Giants to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.