The Giants' offseason moves may not have generated much hype, but the defending champs are sure getting their share of attention now that the season's about to begin. Here's the latest…
- Buster Posey tops Jon Paul Morosi's list of candidates to become baseball's next superstar at FOX Sports.
- Giants manager Bruce Bochy did not make an announcement on whether top prospect Brandon Belt will make the team, according to John Shea of the San Francisco Chronicle (on Twitter).
- Jon Heyman of SI.com offers some predictions for the coming season and two young Giants, Posey (NL MVP) and Belt (NL Rookie of the Year) figure prominently into Heyman's prognostications. Heyman also says the Giants "will prove that they are no fluke, winning the NL West."
- Tim Lincecum is one of the few true aces in baseball, according to baseball people who spoke to Tyler Kepner of the New York Times. What differentiates aces from other good pitchers? Giants GM Brian Sabean says the best pitchers inspire confidence when they pitch. “There’s a difference in your clubhouse,” Sabean said. “People are thinking, ‘This is win day.’ ”
Posey as MVP and Belt as ROY. Has there ever been both a MVP and ROY on the same team (seperate winners so not counting Fred Lynn who won both in ’75)?
Hoping Freeman wins ROY though.
Yeah, it’s not as uncommon as you might think. Hamilton and Feliz last year, Kerry Wood and Sammy Sosa in 1998, Jose Canseco and Walt Weiss in 1988, Vince Coleman and Willie McGee in 1985. There are more but I don’t feel like looking them all up or typing them all out.
Thanks. I was too lazy to look it up. Interesting that it is that common. I am curious to see if Bochy will decide to keep Belt up or not.
Unless he is going to be starting I wouldn’t do it, but that’s just me. I would keep him in the minors until he was going to be able to get at-bats every day, anything else would be counterproductive in my opinion.
Totally agree. I have made that comment all Spring. Unless he is getting regular at bats send him down. And by regular at bats I mean starting at least 4 games a week.
How does Morosi think Posey is better than Heyward as a future star? Heyward posted a 5.1 WAR as a 20 year old despite having some injury problems. He will be the best player in baseball by 2016
Catcher is a thin position, maybe he took that into account. Fantasy baseball wise, I’ve already seen Posey get drafted before Mauer in some drafts.
Career minor league stats…
Posey – 333/427/542… 25 homers…
Heyward – 302/354/488… 29 homers…
Posey had 250 less plate appearances…
That’s why.
those are seriously skewed by A-ball numbers, which are not predictive of anything. heyward never played at AAA and posey never played at AA. the nod goes to posey for the higher level of competition and larger sample, but heyward actually tore it up harder
AA
posey – 0 PA
j – hey – 200 PA – .352/.446/.611 – .467 wOBA
AAA
posey – 360 PA .337/.421/.535 – .410 wOBA
j – hey – 13 PA
First off, here’s Heywards REAL minor-league numbers….
Heyward: .318, .391, .508…..29 HR
Heyward played 85% of the season as a 20-year-old. Posey was more seasoned, having played ball in college for years.
I like Posey, I think he’s going to be one of the better catchers in baseball for a while. But I would be shocked to see him produce those numbers next year. He doesn’t walk a whole lot, so his OBP is very much dependent on his AVG. Heyward is already getting on base at a borderline elite clip and his AVG is sure to go up.
Posey first half: 38 games, .350, .389, .569, .959
Heyward first half: 71 games .251, .366, .455, .821
Posey 2nd half: 70 games, .283, .340, .472, .812
Heyward 2nd half(while injured): 71 games, .302, .419, .457, .875
Heyward was a 5-WAR player despite having a .523 OPS in July while dealing with a thumb injury that all but zapped his power while also forcing him to change his approach. Go back and look at some video in the 2nd half, he’s barely gripping the bat with that thumb. And don’t dare bring up their RBI totals compared to their games played, Posey hit cleanup most of the time while Heyward was in the #2 spot.
Both are going to be elite players at their position most likely, but as far as super stardom goes……I think Heyward’s a safer bet to reach it. Plus, I think Carlos Santana will be significantly better than Posey, although I like both. I’ve got Heyward down for a .290, .405, .520 line with 28 HR. I feel confident he can reach that if healthy.
It’s not fair to do, but wanted to throw this out there. If you take away the month and half he was completely useless, his line reads something like this…..310, .425, .535. That’s INSANE for a 20-year-old, and I can’t stress what his thumb did to him enough. It’s not an excuse, it’s just obvious that he was hampered by his thumb, particularly his power.
Don’t let one year fool you, Posey is going to take plenty of walks.
I dont think you can count on anybody being SIGNIFICANTLY better than Posey, thats a little absurd. Posey was worth 3.9 WAR in just under 110 games last year. Posey is in a much less offensively demanding postion and will be an above average to elite fielder at it. He will not have to produce as well as Heyward to be worth more. Seems kinda pointless arguing about the two, both will be great, kinda seems like comparing RBI totals to me, totally pointless
They’re going to be compared regardless because of the ROY race last year. But this isn’t about ‘worth’, it’s about super stardom potential. I think Heyward has more going for him in that regard.
It may be absurd to you, I just feel Santana has the better bat.
Okay, maybe thats true, but Santana wont be significantly better. You may think his bat is better, but Posey is better is defensively, and is no slouch with the bat, personally im just glad he got out of the west. I think Posey will be better, but I do enjoy Santana’s work with the guitar.
Heyward definitely has a chance to be one of the best ever in right, I won’t argue that. Posey is already recognized as a top catcher in the league and has only been at the position since 2008, leaves lots of room for improvement
‘I do enjoy Santana’s work with the guitar.’
yeah, but if it wasn’t for that hip replacement Eddie Van Halen would have been a golden glove hall-of-famer
It’s easy, just simply ignore Pujols, CarGo, Tulo, Votto, Halladay, and Howard.
It’s astonishing that Posey tops this list ahead of guys like Tulo, Hanley, Longoria, Mauer, and Cano. I see very little justification for it…..
One of these things is not like the others…
Hanley….the rest are last names
Ryan Howard!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
ding-ding-ding!
Agreed about Howard. Gonna get real ugly in Philly around 2015, when Howard is making $25 mil, and is hitting like Rob Deer.
you mean hitting like Rob Deer and moving like a John Deere
I guess they don’t see it this way but to me it’s already pretty ugly paying Howard $25 mil.
Posey will not win MVP and Belt has yet to prove himself…
All rookies have yet to prove themselves. That is why they have a special award, for the rookie who does the best job at… proving himself.
So that’s how that works!
Im guessing your an A’s fan. Who would guess you would loathe the Giants like every other A’s fan
Can you blame the A’s fans for hatting the giants?! Giants ownership is horrible for bay area baseball. These predictions are obviously through one persons eyes. There are still no official stats for this season to even make any favorite winners in any category for any players. I didn’t say that just because theyre giant players, I would say the same if they were in any other team..
“Giants ownership is horrible for bay area baseball.”
Spoken like a true ignorant person.
How about you stop being soo ignorant and blind before you talk out your behind. Open up a newspaper and actually read what’s going with “your” giants and why it’s taking soo long for the A’s to build a stadium in S.J. It’s called greed…
San Jose isn’t your territory. If you’re so proud of being from the “East Bay” then find a place. It’s pretty big. Your ownership is one of the richest in the league, but he is actually the greedy one and never gives money to support his team. He just rakes in the league revenue sharing. Go to Fremont, Sacramento, or somewhere else in the East Bay. He went behind the leagues back to try to get approval for a stadium in San Jose for a reason; it’s not gonna happen.
Stop Hatting!!
We already have hats!!
Now that’s Bold…
Unless Belt has a full-time role with the club out of the gate, he needs to be sent to AAA. There’s no sense in starting his clock early for the occasional pinch-hit appearance.
I dont know the situation entirely but I believe that Belt is on the MLB team because of an injury and is expected to start at 1st
ur right. u dont know the situation.
The Giants still could carry Belt, Bochy said, citing the big bat they’ll be without for a week or two while Cody Ross is on the disabled list.
The only way Belt can get real playing time is if they finally cut ties with Rowand and trade/waiver Ishikawa.
Asked if Ross’ injury improves Belt’s chances, Bochy said, “Maybe a little bit. It would give us another bat, and a left-handed one.”
Ofcourse you know the situation better than Bruce Bochy
Totally agree. I have been saying all along (like many others) that unless he is getting regular at bats then send him down.
i thought he was gonna say lincecum wins cy young , posey mvp , belt roy , and all other position players win silver slugger and are all on allstar team ,followed by the hank aaron award and what is the one for the good samaritan or something and reliever of the year but that would just be crazy but mvp and roy thats easy
Nah, you’re thinking of the Phillies with all that.
It’s called the Roberto Clemente award and Zito could win it for his K’s for troops program.
probably should win it , that is an outstanding use of fame and fortune . just epic
I’m a diehard Giants fan and I’m not even sure that I believe these predictions. I believe that both Belt and Posey will be in the running for those titles, but both of them winning is very unlikely. Never say never though. My guess for Posey will bat .310 with 24 HRs and a 94 RBIs. Very good numbers, but not MVP numbers. Belt is more like .286 with 18 HRs and 79 RBIs, which puts him in the running for ROY. Anyone else agree with my predictions?
Posey is already awesome. Heyward is also already awesome (alliteration!).
Belt has the potential to be awesome. Freeman also has the potential to be awesome.
That’s about the only thing that is 100% certain at this point. Great young players playing great baseball. Sure, as a Braves fan, I’d love to see Heyward put up MVP numbers and Freeman capture ROY 2011, but really all that can be said with certainty is that Posey/Heyward are fantastic players and Belt/Freeman have a lot of potential.
Kershaw should be on that list as well. He is a full year younger than Posey.
Did no one else notice that the blurb about Belt making the team, attributed to Jon Shea, is completely incorrect?
Shea’s ACTUAL comment – “Bochy made no announcement on Belt making team”
That’s some impressive misreading to take that to mean that Belt is making the team…
Posey is a “Natural”.
He just flat out understands the game. How many guys can take over catching after growing up SS/P and not only win R.O.Y. but handle one of the greatest staffs in M.L.B. on the way to winning a World Series. Not to mention a 21 game hitting streak.
He just gets it.