Friday, April 16, 2004

 

You're Fired!

Sorry, I watched "The Apprentice" last night, which I have to admit has some relation to the Giants roster at the moment. On the 6th, I noted that a lot of the new Giants players would have to prove themselves early on if they wanted to keep their roster spots. Otherwise, The Sabean would wave his hand and scream "you're fired!" The Giants have now played nine games, which is not nearly enough time to get a real handle on any player's value. Right now, Sabean's like a day trader on a Red Bull IV drip. He's trying to catch the wave, any wave, and he'll buy and sell at will until he finds a winner.

Let's take a quick look at the latest batch of "buys":

David Aardsma: 1-0, 2.70 ERA, 3.00 WHIP. 3.1 IP, 6 H, 1 ER, 4 BB vs. 1 K. He's either gotten really lucky or he's been really good pitching out of jams. No way he lasts in the bigs if he keeps putting 3 guys on per inning. For now, he's a budding fan favorite, and he'll be around a couple more weeks at least.

Leo Estrella: 27.00 ERA, 6.75 WHIP. 1.1 IP, 8 H, 4 ER, 1 BB, 0 K. Utter disaster, taken off the 40-man roster. That made room for Jeffrey Hammonds to return from the DL. For four days, the Giants carried 11 pitchers, which would be enough for He's better than this, but he had a horrible week and proved my point.

Wayne Franklin: four innings of scoreless relief, 1 BB vs. 3 K. He's bought himself a longer look in the bullpen. Is Alou smart to keep him in the bullpen, instead of calling him as a fifth starter? Time will tell.

The question of what to do with Franklin has really shaped the first week of Giants transactions. Would they start him? Would they toss him in the pen? It seems like they couldn't really decide. At first, he was a logical candidate to be a fifth starter while Schmidt was on the DL. Since the Giants didn't need a fifth starter the first time through the rotation, Alou used Franklin out of the pen, and just kept on doing it. Thanks to that, Franklin wasn't available to start on Wednesday. Oops. Better call up Cooper, which means someone has to be sent down. Hmmm...who could that be...?

Tony Torcato: 2-for-4, 1 RBI, 1 BB. Used mainly in pinch-hitting roles, he was deemed Ensign Expendable when Cooper was called up. Normally, they'd just reverse the transaction after Cooper's start, but in this case they can't. Cooper is out of options, and after throwing a good game, the Giants will want to keep him around. So Torcato is stuck. The Curse of the 12-Man Pitching Staff strikes again, thus saving a roster spot for...

Kevin Walker: 16.20 ERA, 3.00 WHIP. 1.2 IP, 3 H, 3 ER, 1 HR, 2 BB, 1 K. Not very good at all, but the team decided it wanted a 12th pitcher instead of Torcato. Walker has an option left, but he's a lefty reliever, so he gets the second chance that Estrella didn't get. Of course, he could be sent down today to make room for Jason Schmidt, who comes off the DL today. (Alternately, they could disable Ray Durham and go with a 13-man pitching staff...)

Are the new guys in Fresno ready to come up? The early results say "no."

Mike Crudale (AAA Fresno): 5.0 IP, 8 H, 8 R, 6 ER, 1 BB, 3 K, 1 HR, 10.80 ERA.
Deivi Cruz (AAA Fresno): .263/.300/.263 in 19 AB.
Dave Veres (AAA Fresno): 1.0 IP, 4 H, 4 R, 3 ER, 0 BB, 0 K.

Jefferson 9:26 AM

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