The Giants have had talks with Grant Balfour, Henry Schulman of the San Francisco Chronicle tweets. Schulman rates the Giants' chances of actually signing Balfour as "meh," however. As Schulman reported earlier today, the Giants are looking for a reliever but likely not a closer, so they would appear unlikely to pay steeply for Balfour's services. Since Balfour's deal with the Orioles fell through, he has been connected to the Yankees and Rays. Here's more out of San Francisco.
- The Giants lost lefty Eric Surkamp (who was claimed by the White Sox) in part because Brett Pill remains on their 40-man roster, Schulman explains. The Giants are selling Pill's rights to the KIA Tigers in Korea, but until that deal is done, Pill has to stay on the 40-man, or the Giants can't collect their $500K transfer fee. That made Surkamp the odd man out when the Giants needed a roster spot for Mike Morse. In any case, Schulman notes that the Giants might have designated Surkamp anyway once they signed their extra reliever.
- From the outside, the Giants' move to designate Surkamp for assignment didn't make sense, Grant Brisbee of SB Nation writes. Brisbee suggests that the Giants "probably let the next Carlos Villanueva go," reffering to the Giants' 2004 decision to send Villanueva to the Brewers in a minor trade for Wayne Franklin and Leo Estrella.
Yeah, I don’t understand this move either; designating Surkamp, nor getting rid of Pill. I would have much preferred to use Pill in an off the bench roll and maybe have him fill in for Scutaro in later innings (if he could). As far as Surkamp, I’m just baffled. Now White Sox will give him a shot as a starter. I would have designated Nick Noonan or Michael Kichkam before Surkamp . And I would have had Surkamp as an insurance in case Vogey or/and Hudson don’t fare well. It would have saved a lot of money to have Surkamp as a starter. You don’t get rid of a potential premium starter just because he was injured and had surgery on his arm a few years ago. They should have at least tried to trade him instead of just letting get away for nothing. But I don’t make the decisions, so what do I know.
Most prospects are busts. Teams give up on prospects.
Surkamp was their best starter in AAA last year. He put up the best numbers of any Fresno Grizzlies starter in this millenium!
..and he’s 26 and has been brutal in his admittedly limited MLB time. Not many K’s in AAA either, so doubt he’s missed.
After his first 4 starts in 2011 (after already exceeding his career high in innings pitched) he was 2-0 with a 2.95 ERA and the Giants had won all four games. He was clearly ailing physically by that fourth start (09/17/11) and should have been shut down but Bochy forced him to make two more useless starts which resulted in an injury in the final game of the season that remained unhealed into 2012.
Surkamp also averaged 10 K/ 9 IP over his minor league career.
Pill should only play 1B. He would be awful at 2B. Surkamp made 1 start last year he’s a minor lose to the 40 man.
The 2013 season was essentially Surkamp’s injury rehab assignment and he had half the ERA of a normal Fresno starting pitcher. This will prove to be a worse transaction error than Wheeler for Beltran.
Lol! The Giants are a very smart team at developing pitching and they let him go for nothing. He has very little value.
Are they really? Name a starting pitcher they’ve developed who wasn’t a TOP 10 draft pick since Matt Cain.
It’s all about what you mean by develop.
Look at Jonathan Sanchez, he was drafted in the 27th(820th pick) round 2004.
In his first 2 years with the Giants he pitched in 60 games with 92 innings pitched and an ERA of 5.41. Then 2008 he went to a starter role and made 29 starts with 158 Ip and an ERA of 5.01. The next year he made it up to 163 Ip with an ERA of 4.24. And in 2010 he pitched 193 Ip with an ERA of 3.07. While he didn’t do great in the playoffs, he did have one great NLDS game. Then in 2011 he was off at the start of the season and then injured. Then traded to the Royals for Melky Cabrera.
So IDK if Sanchez counts as developing a pitcher but it shows what Sabean can do.
LOL — A career 3.4 WAR over EIGHT seasons. In 2010 he was 3.7 WAR! Generating 1-year wonders is not a mark of successful development.
Jonathan Sanchez had an excellent 2010.
I thought the same thing about Mijares. While his numbers were good why didn’t the Giants try and trade him and get something in return?
Couldn’t we at least have traded him for a guy like Clayton Tanner, Dan Otero, Francisco Peguero, or a reserve catcher like Johnny Monell? Maybe a depth position player instead, like Thomas Neal or Conor Gillaspie? What about a pitcher from Korea like Henry Sosa? Oh wait… lol.
Sabean seems to just cut bait with players that fall out of favor within the org, huh? The timing of roster moves has been terrible. Adding a career minor leaguer like Cordier set everything else in motion. Noonan? Villalona, really? Adrianza and Arias are out of options, Petit too. So was Pill. These moves all seem very no bueno. Now we’re losing what little rotation depth we had to start the season: first Clay, now Surkamp. Guess we’re REALLY betting on Escobar now, huh?
You forgot Travis Blackley
You should be a GM. A great mind wasted. lol.
2 titles in 3 years, so I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt on a 26 y.o. Pitcher who has proved nothing.
4 years*
Uhh, 17 years actually
How’s Surkamp’s stache scout?
It appears the Giants are missing out on some pretty reasonable contracts to hard throwing “project” guys – John Axford and Chris Perez – one year and less than 5MM, the pen needs a hard thrower to change up the look. I guess they’re that high on Heath Hembree, which could be a good thing, but usually they value experience there.