For what it's worth

[Rog]

I liked Gary Steward's take on the Giants, probably because it was close to my own in several respects.

Starting pitching -- Steward sees Madison Bumgarner as being a stud, with Cain, Lincecum and Hudson vying for #2 and Vogelsong the clear #5.  He's comfortable with the rotation, although he worries a little about Cain (He doesn't know quite why.) and the 38-year-old Hudson.  Is confident Lincecum will be successful in his attempted Koufax to Maddux change.  Overall evaluation:  Sees the rotation as a strength.

Catching -- Likes the added muscle on Buster Posey.

Infield -- Sees Brandon Belt as taking up where he left off last season.  Is worried about the health of Marco Scutaro but sees the pop of Brandon Hicks as leading in the race for #6 infielder.

Outfield -- Expresses injury concerns about Angel Pagan and Mike Morse.

Bullpen -- Worries about depth, just when I was feeling better about it.

Age -- Worries that the Giants are close to making the change from "veteran presence" to simply being old.  Belt, Pablo Sandoval and the two Brandons are exceptions, but most of the key players are now in their 30's.  I hadn't really thought about this.

Injuries -- Mentions the obvious candidates in Scutaro, Pagan, Morse and Hudson.  Worries it could be a big concern as it was last year.

Prediction -- Sees the Giants as a possible (likely?) wild card behind the Dodgers, who he mentions are pre-season World Series favorites.  Worries about competition in the division from the Diamondbacks and Padres.  Fears the Rockies could be lying in the weeds.  More than anything else, Steward worries about the Giants' health.  He does point out that the Giants had the best intra-division record of any team in the NL West but fell apart against lesser teams such as the Cubs.

We're less than two weeks away now.  Hopefully this season won't turn into an April's Fools campaign as last year did.

[Rog]

Steward did a column in which he was favorable toward the Lincecum change from Koufax to Maddux. Intriguing to me in that Tim's dad and I have had discussions about both Koufax and to a lesser extent Maddux.

After Tim's rookie season, I pointed out that arguably Greg's biggest strength was throwing first-pitch strikes. If Tim can model that, he should be able to rebound in his new transformation. So far this spring, four walks in 14.2 innings, which is a clear improvement. And only four strikeouts indicate Tim is truly throwing to contact. Give Don some credit on this one.

[islandboagie]

Rog- Age -- Worries that the Giants are close to making the change from "veteran presence" to simply being old. Belt, Pablo Sandoval and the two Brandons are exceptions, but most of the key players are now in their 30's. I hadn't really thought about this.

Boagie- I hadn't thought of this either, mainly because it's simply not true. The rest of the core players are in their early 30s. The only players on the roster who I consider "old" are Scutaro, and Hudson, both of which have performed well recently, despite their age.

[Rog]

Rog- Age -- Worries that the Giants are close to making the change from "veteran presence" to simply being old. Belt, Pablo Sandoval and the two Brandons are exceptions, but most of the key players are now in their 30's. I hadn't really thought about this.

Boagie- I hadn't thought of this either, mainly because it's simply not true. The rest of the core players are in their early 30s. The only players on the roster who I consider "old" are Scutaro, and Hudson, both of which have performed well recently, despite their age.

Rog -- I agree with you, but it did make me think about how the core is aging. We won't be able to say the core is young for much longer.

Injuries remain a concern for me though. Not with Hudson, for reasons I'm not quite sure of, but with Scutaro and two guys who aren't considered quite as often -- Pagan and Morse. Pagan has averaged fewer than 100 games per season in his 8-year career, and Morse has averaged fewer than 75 games in his nine seasons. Some of that has been due to going up and down between the majors and minors, but it still isn't very comforting.

The MOST games Pagan has played in a season is 151 and Morse 146. Morse's next highest is 102, and Pagan has exceeded 100 games only three times. It looks as if Juan Perez is going to win the 5th outfielder spot, but it would be nice if the Giants could keep Tyler Colvin around at Fresno.

Hunter Pence is one of the game's biggest work horses, of course, but the Giants are looking to give even him more rest. It wouldn't seem surprising if outfielders behind the three starters started over 100 games themselves.

Figuring Gregor Blanco as a frequent defensive replacement for Morse, as well as a backup starter, and Gregor could get over 400 at bats. Gregor has averaged over 400 at bats in each of his first two seasons with the Giants. Incredibly, Gregor had more than enough plate appearances last season to qualify for the batting title. In fact, he finished 41st in the National League.

Part of that was because there were only 64 qualifiers, but Gregor finished 18th among NL outfielders. He beat out Justin Upton and Nate Schierholtz. Speaking of Nate, he had a pretty good season for the Cubs (.251/.301/.470/.770), but that was mostly because he had just 53 of his 462 at bats against southpaws. Nate hit just .170 against southpaws.

Neither Nate or another former Giant, Cody Ross, is a particularly good every day player, but in a platoon, they wouldn't be bad.

Speaking of platoons, the A's are doing a lot of it now in order to keep their payroll down. Overall, managers who have platooned a lot have faired better than those who haven't. And it certainly helps keep the team's salary down.

Mike Morse and Blanco might seem like a good platoon, but Morse has hit right-handers very well for a right-handed hitter. Blanco and Angel Pagan hit righties clearly better, while Hunter Pence has not surprisingly hit better against southpaws.


Read more: sfgiantsmessageboard.proboards.com/thread/2205/worth#ixzz2wYY2IPUL