Some links as the first week of baseball comes to a close…
- Stephen Strasburg, who struck out eight over five innings of work in his pro debut today, will be limited to about 100 innings this year, according to MLB.com's Peter Gammons (via Twitter). Gammons says Scott Boras negotiated that condition into the righty's deal with the Nationals last summer. However, Nationals farm director Doug Harris told MASN.com's Ben Goessling that a 100 inning cap for Strasburg "doesn't hold water" (Twitter link). Harris says 150-160 innings would be reasonable for Strasburg (Twitter link).
- MLB.com's Jason Beck explains that Carlos Guillen nearly became an Indian six years ago.
- Tom D'Angelo of the Palm Beach Post wonders how long the Marlins will let Cameron Maybin struggle before calling on top prospect Mike Stanton.
- Buster Posey had a huge opening week in Triple A, so Andrew Baggarly of the San Jose Mercury News wonders (via Twitter) how long the Giants can keep him in the minors. The timing of Posey's call up matters a great deal to the Giants, as I explained here.
I know he is coming from a good college program and is a once in a era prospect, but is it really smart to have him go 160 innings off the bat? Seems like if they do that and then add 10-20 innings a year, he could quickly follow the Kerry Wood/Mark Prior mold of arm problems at a young age…
He went from 97 in 2008, to 109 last year, plus 19 in the AFL; so he had 128 IP in 2009. So going to 160 would be a 32 inning jump, that’s pretty normal for SP prospects.
I guess I didnt realize how much Gywnn let him go in SD. For some reason, I thought he threw less innings in college…
They dont need to rush Stanton, he K’d around 30% of the time in the minors.
I know he’s been hitting well in AA, but with only a 3 game sample size this year and a .766 OPS last year, would Mike Stanton be truly ready for the majors?
I highly doubt the Marlins would replace one struggling top prospect with another who could potentially do the same thing.
I don’t see Posey being an early call-up at all.
During the Marlins game a couple of nights back there was once again talk of his troubles catching fastballs. The discussion was on whether he had trouble seeing and then moving with the fastball or if he simply has a bad habit of lunging to receive the fastball. But there didn’t seem to a be question about whether there was more work to be done framing and receiving fastballs.
No matter how much he makes everyone salivate for his hitting skills, the backstop is the most difficult position to learn. Posey started playing the position in 2006 and may very well need more seasoning. If he gets time at other positions early at AAA then the FO may be looking at bringing him up and getting him time in the infield, as well. I still can’t see him spelling or platooning regularly early… Why have him play other positions early when he can fully learn the catcher position and you already have the players in place to cover his late season call-up?
The Giants will call up Posey very soon, because they don’t have a pure right handed bat on the bench. Whiteside left 6 men on base on Fridays game against the Braves. Posey will be to learn from Molina while he is up here, while subbing in for Huff on day games of if he needs a rest. Posey’s bat is ready now and the Giants will welcome his talent with open arms come May.
I don’t know about very soon. While I agree that they could use his bat off the bench, the Giants are off to a hot start and could probably afford to do without him for a while. Besides, Freddy Sanchez is due back in a couple of weeks, and that’ll free up Juan Uribe to be the big right-handed bat off the bench.
Also, Schierholtz has a .370/.393/.680 line last year against lefties, something I wish Bochy would see and utilize actually. He may even hit lefties better because of his swing-type. It’s harder for lefties to pound him down-and-in, which has been Nate’s achilles-heel. Lately Bochy’s been starting Torres in right-field against lefties instead of Bowker, which is befuddling enough already, but I’m ranting, so back to Posey.
I’m expecting a later call-up because of the aforementioned delaying of free-agency and super two issues, but if the Giants start to struggle offensively, I expect Buster to be called up sooner rather than later. The numbers he’s putting up in AAA are making it really difficult to justify keeping him down, especially on a team who’s biggest weakness is clearly on offense.
Maybin isnt struggling enough to get replaced just yet… if anybody is struggling on the team its the bullpen
I think the problem most have with Maybin stems from last season, and then its just fueled by a (so far) poor showing this season. I don’t see a change in him yet, he almost looks worse. He tears it up in the Minors… maybe that’s where he needs to shine.
If the Marlins still had Miguel Cabrera or at least got something out of the players they traded him for, I feel like they would be contenders year in and year out.
I suspect Maybin’s struggles in the outfield are only going to get worse. He’s a below average fielder but usually makes up for his poor jumps/reads with his speed. Sun Life Stadium has a huge outfield, summer storms and winds are not going to help him with reading fly balls… he misplayed THREE balls on Opening Day in NY (yes, bad weather, I know). I am not looking forward to him as the Marlins center fielder.
I’m still keeping my fingers crossed for Brett Carroll to be given a fair shot. Defense wins championships and Carroll has been nothing but solid out in the field. I think we’ll see Scott Cousins before we see Stanton.
(EDIT: I also forgot, Maybin had shoulder surgery in the offseason… his arm was inaccurate enough before the surgery, I doubt he’s recovered fully)