Send in Your Questions for the Next Free For All Mailbag
This is it, folks: the last of our weekly Free For All Mailbags of the 2024 season. Oh, they won’t go away entirely! I’ll still feature the occasional ask and answer throughout the offseason, but more on a once-a-month sort of schedule. So if you have any final things you’d like to ask me about the year before the bag goes into the deep freeze for a while, now’s the time!
To what extent do you think the Giants' ability to develop depth/complementary players is a strength or weakness, particularly when thinking about roster size? In starters, the Giants have a bunch of guys (Birdsong, Roupp, Black, the Carsons, even Beck, Hjelle, or Winn) who could be a cromulent #5 starter in the bigs. They have half a dozen guys who can be 4th outfielders or utility infielders now (and more in the minors), plus a huge array of relief arms.
On the one hand, it's helpful to have these guys you can trust to be above replacement-level (and getting any major leaguer at all is a development win). On the other, getting them all on the 40-man (you've talked about an overbalanced 40-man towards pitchers in the past) can be a challenge, especially when you want more high-impact players. Same thing for trades: everybody could use these players, but they aren't that helpful when trying to acquire a potential All-Star.
I’m a little surprised at how openly the Giants are announcing they’re going to send Eldridge to the Fall League. I know he missed a couple weeks with that sore hamstring, but he’s gonna hit 500 PA in his debut season and played at every full season affiliate in the system. Doesn’t adding more work and travel onto your top prospect, who’s still a teenager and already has a super-sized frame to take care of, seem a bit……I don’t know, cavalier? I know the Fall League is fun and prestigious and scouts love it. I’ve always looked a little sideways at it because of how often I’ve heard prospect observers describe certain players as so worn down and gassed in Arizona that there’s really nothing useful or predictive to take from their performance. Bryce wasn’t out for half the season, he had a soft tissue injury that just truncated his April. Is there really that much more the Giants can gain from him taking yet more at bats in an unfamiliar environment after he’s already put in a full season of work?
(I’ll admit on a more personal anecdotal level that I’ve also always blamed the second hand fracture Joey Bart sustained while in the AFL for his development stalling out with the Giants. So I’m a little extra sensitive about the Giants wanting to make such a big show about Eldridge going out there lol.)