Giants first baseman Brandon Belt has been optioned to the Triple-A Fresno, tweets CSNBayArea.com's Mychael Urban. The move opens a spot on the 25-man roster for Cody Ross.
The demotion is justified based on Belt's performance; he hit .192/.300/.269 in 60 plate appearances and the Giants can't afford to give him on-the-job training. He's still considered one of the best 20 or so prospects in the game.
There is another benefit to optioning Belt, as MLBTR's Ben Nicholson-Smith explained yesterday. If he stays in the minors for 20 days or more, which seems likely barring an injury at the big league level, Belt's free agency will be delayed until after the 2017 season at the earliest. Had he remained in the Majors all year, Belt would have been eligible for free agency after '16.
Love this kid’s potential, but he should have started in Fresno all along.
dude’s plate discipline is for real. i’m glad we got to see him in games that count. in september we’ll be giving him some crucial at bats and i think we’ll be glad they’re not his first.
As a fan of “the other side” I was pretty amazed with his at-bats in the @LA series; good discipline, never looked over-matched, “looked like a hitter”. He’ll be back soon enough.
Good move. He had decent AB’s but not yet ready. His glove is superior!
But with Ross coming back and Torres soon…He’s better off getting some AAA AB’s
Belt’s style of play was too loose for Giant’s management? They are probably sending him down to tighten up both his offense and defense.
he is easily the future for the Giants, and they can take their time with him..Im glad Cody is back off the DL now – this adds a lot more depth to the Giants lineup..Huff, Posey, Burrell and Ross and Sandoval seems to be doing better this year..more for power already…its a solid ballclub and I can see them trading Rowand or DeRosa for some pitching depth or young arms..although Rowands contract wont be easy to part with…Actually he’s playing pretty good so far..It is far better to have too much depth
Bummer, but he’ll definitley be back up for good sooner than later.
It’s funny Brandon Belt has a .300 OBP, Alex Gonzalez on the other hand has a .290 OBP… Just shows that batting average is highly overrated! (Even though Alex Gonzalez is only hitting .246 vs .192 from Belt)…
The only time I find AVG all that relevant is with men on base. A BB generally isn’t going to force in a run.
Sadly, winning the OBP title will never be as notable as being labeled the ‘batting champ.’ Omar Infante almost got that label last year for hitting 6,000 bloopers for christ sake….
BAD MOVE.BELT JUSTED TURNED INTO THE NEXT JOHN BOWKER.
I disagree with the bowker comparison. Belt has a timing issue and will be resolved.