Now that I’ve spent a couple of weeks at spring camp, and wIth players arriving at their affiliate assignments, this is a great time for another Free for All Mailbag. Give me any questions you have about roster assignments, what I saw at minor league camp, or expectations for the new year and I’ll answer them in a Free For All Mailbag coming on Friday morning to get you prepared for Opening Day.
After restructuring the minor leagues a few years ago and now cutting down the number of players an org can carry on their domestic milb rosters, can you speak to why mlb continues to shrink the farm system?
Any sense on why the organization seems to prefer Wilson at SS and Fitzgerald at 2B, when it seems clear to me that Wilson doesn’t have the ideal speed or arm for SS, whereas Fitzgerald does? I find this baffling - unless it’s some sort of asset-management situation where the Giants want to be able to say to potential trade partners “Hey look, Wilson hits well AND he’s a shortstop!” Which I guess is why they are keeping Luciano at SS even it’s doubtful that he’s a SS in the majors? (Not that they are trying to trade him,but keeping their trade options open.)
How do you think the Giants will handle this year's rule 5 candidates? Schmitt and Dabovich would appear to be locks but do you think they'll push harder on the likes of Bailey, Swiney, Murphy, Mcdonald(?)
After reading Kyle Haines' interview with Melissa Lockard on The Athletic it appears the Giants are internally a lot higher than the national consensus about their farm system quality. In your eyes, having just seen a lot of them in camp this spring, does that ring true for you?
With all the corner infielders the Giants have, I see a huge roadblock for Schmitt to get any time at the major league level. Short of Brandon’s knee giving out (knocking on wood), do you agree he probably will spend the year in Sacramento regardless of how well he does?
I noticed that Brett Auerbach spent a good amount of time in major league camp for a couple of spring trainings now, including this year, where he played a variety of positions over several games. Did the big league club just need an extra catcher in March, or does his positional versatility give him a reasonable path to the majors?
The Farhan giants get a lot of shit for "obsessing over aaaa players" and I worry that this has somewhat infected their dev system. Their first round picks haven't turned out so far, yet they continue success with the matt Duffy archetypes like Bryce Johnson or Villar. What is the biggest impediment (I guess outside of luck) that is preventing the giants system from developing top end talent, let alone stars? Is it an issue of institutional focusing being on the low floor players or expecting too much (encouraging the slow dev) of the high profile players being held in lower levels? Or is everything null because the process of development is inherently hard and generally unsuccessful and that's something that needs to be accepted.
A (yearly) question & a rant...the rant is why does MLB have the Giants playing consecutive series with a day off in between games? Freaking beyond stupid.
My question is checking in on Carson Ragsdale & Rohan Handa. Any updates? I think Ragsdale has begun to throw, but no clue about Handa
Have you heard anything on Uber Mejías recently? He still isn't in the transactions log, and I assume he would've been in Arizona (not their Dominican facilities) due to his age
Broader question about the Giant's approach to drafting developing:
They seem to still really value underslot deals in the first round, going after guys who have more questions about strikeouts or pitchers with a short track record. ITaking a look at the fangraphs top 100 prospect list, by and large the vast majority of them are 1st rounders or J2 signees w/ large bonuses. Are the Giant's shooting themselves in the foot with this approach and avoiding the top talents? Or is this a development issue that the Giant's just aren't very good at figuring out strikeout issues w/ position players?
Also looking at the rosters announced so far the Giants seem to be favoring stocking up on reliever types in the minors rather then developing starting pitchers, even more so than other orgs. Is this concerted trend or just pitcher attrition?
As a local baseball fan who also follows the local college teams, I've found it interesting that the Giants have (or have given shots to) a fair number of Stanford alums recently (Austin Slater, Stephen Piscotty, Tristan Beck, Erik Miller, Alex Blandino). Has this been intentional, or just coincidence? If intentional, any chance the Giants take a flyer on Mark Appel, who was pitching well last year but just released by the Phillies?
Roger, I envy your opportunity to watch games across affiliates and leagues each year. You've seen games at other orgs stadiums (at least in Arizona and the Eastern League) and my question is: How do Giants affiliates stadiums and facilities stack up against other orgs? Sub-question: do players of the Giants' minor league affiliates perceive the Giants as a top tier org?
Having just seen Volpe debut do you think the Giants have an aversion to drafting HS talents at top of board? Would they have gone for say Holliiday or Jones if given opportunity last year? Current draft prospect list has a clutch of HS around Giants first pick.
Quick prediction on the first player(s) in the system to get bumped up a level, once they've 'ticked the boxes' in their initial assignment?
After restructuring the minor leagues a few years ago and now cutting down the number of players an org can carry on their domestic milb rosters, can you speak to why mlb continues to shrink the farm system?
Is it just money? Cause that just seems crazy.
Any sense on why the organization seems to prefer Wilson at SS and Fitzgerald at 2B, when it seems clear to me that Wilson doesn’t have the ideal speed or arm for SS, whereas Fitzgerald does? I find this baffling - unless it’s some sort of asset-management situation where the Giants want to be able to say to potential trade partners “Hey look, Wilson hits well AND he’s a shortstop!” Which I guess is why they are keeping Luciano at SS even it’s doubtful that he’s a SS in the majors? (Not that they are trying to trade him,but keeping their trade options open.)
How do you think the Giants will handle this year's rule 5 candidates? Schmitt and Dabovich would appear to be locks but do you think they'll push harder on the likes of Bailey, Swiney, Murphy, Mcdonald(?)
How do you think the lower minors will be impacted by the relative lack of position players drafted the past couple of seasons?
After reading Kyle Haines' interview with Melissa Lockard on The Athletic it appears the Giants are internally a lot higher than the national consensus about their farm system quality. In your eyes, having just seen a lot of them in camp this spring, does that ring true for you?
With all the corner infielders the Giants have, I see a huge roadblock for Schmitt to get any time at the major league level. Short of Brandon’s knee giving out (knocking on wood), do you agree he probably will spend the year in Sacramento regardless of how well he does?
I noticed that Brett Auerbach spent a good amount of time in major league camp for a couple of spring trainings now, including this year, where he played a variety of positions over several games. Did the big league club just need an extra catcher in March, or does his positional versatility give him a reasonable path to the majors?
Any intel on Dylan Cumming? Nice SFGprospects tweet this week featuring K clips with a nice frisbee slider.
The Farhan giants get a lot of shit for "obsessing over aaaa players" and I worry that this has somewhat infected their dev system. Their first round picks haven't turned out so far, yet they continue success with the matt Duffy archetypes like Bryce Johnson or Villar. What is the biggest impediment (I guess outside of luck) that is preventing the giants system from developing top end talent, let alone stars? Is it an issue of institutional focusing being on the low floor players or expecting too much (encouraging the slow dev) of the high profile players being held in lower levels? Or is everything null because the process of development is inherently hard and generally unsuccessful and that's something that needs to be accepted.
Is it fair to judge the players first coming to San Jose by if their wRC+ is over 100, then they are improving?
Any updates on Rohan Handa?
If he can stay healthy should we be getting pretty excited about Melvin Adon.
Is there any intel on what happened to Mikulski? It’s like the college guy was swapped out for someone completely different. . .
A (yearly) question & a rant...the rant is why does MLB have the Giants playing consecutive series with a day off in between games? Freaking beyond stupid.
My question is checking in on Carson Ragsdale & Rohan Handa. Any updates? I think Ragsdale has begun to throw, but no clue about Handa
Have you heard anything on Uber Mejías recently? He still isn't in the transactions log, and I assume he would've been in Arizona (not their Dominican facilities) due to his age
Broader question about the Giant's approach to drafting developing:
They seem to still really value underslot deals in the first round, going after guys who have more questions about strikeouts or pitchers with a short track record. ITaking a look at the fangraphs top 100 prospect list, by and large the vast majority of them are 1st rounders or J2 signees w/ large bonuses. Are the Giant's shooting themselves in the foot with this approach and avoiding the top talents? Or is this a development issue that the Giant's just aren't very good at figuring out strikeout issues w/ position players?
Also looking at the rosters announced so far the Giants seem to be favoring stocking up on reliever types in the minors rather then developing starting pitchers, even more so than other orgs. Is this concerted trend or just pitcher attrition?
As a local baseball fan who also follows the local college teams, I've found it interesting that the Giants have (or have given shots to) a fair number of Stanford alums recently (Austin Slater, Stephen Piscotty, Tristan Beck, Erik Miller, Alex Blandino). Has this been intentional, or just coincidence? If intentional, any chance the Giants take a flyer on Mark Appel, who was pitching well last year but just released by the Phillies?
Roger, I envy your opportunity to watch games across affiliates and leagues each year. You've seen games at other orgs stadiums (at least in Arizona and the Eastern League) and my question is: How do Giants affiliates stadiums and facilities stack up against other orgs? Sub-question: do players of the Giants' minor league affiliates perceive the Giants as a top tier org?
Having just seen Volpe debut do you think the Giants have an aversion to drafting HS talents at top of board? Would they have gone for say Holliiday or Jones if given opportunity last year? Current draft prospect list has a clutch of HS around Giants first pick.