top prospects: giants
here's what the giants got:

1. Matt Cain, rhp
2. Marcus Sanders, ss/2b
3. Eddy Martinez-Esteve, of
4. Travis Ishikawa, 1b
5. Merkin Valdez, rhp
6. Jonathan Sanchez, lhp
7. Nate Schierholtz, of
8. Fred Lewis, of
9. Kevin Frandsen, ss/2b
10. Craig Whitaker, rhp

it's a sorry state of affairs in giantstown. by which i mean the giants' minor league system.

Career Pitching Statistics for Matt Cain:
Year Team         Lg. Age Org Lvl    IP   H  HR  BB  SO  WAL  CON  HRP   ERA
2002 Azl Giants   Ariz 17 Sf  Rk   19.1  13   1  11  20 .134 .718 .020  3.72
2003 Hagerstown   SAL  18 Sf  A    74.0  57   5  24  90 .079 .677 .026  2.55
2004 San Jose     Cali 19 Sf  A    72.2  58   5  17  89 .058 .678 .027  1.86
2004 Norwich      East 19 Sf  AA   86.0  73   7  40  72 .108 .782 .027  3.35
2005 Fresno       PCL  20 Sf  AAA 145.2 118  22  73 176 .116 .683 .058  4.39
2005 SF Giants    NL   20 Sf  MLB  46.1  24   4  19  30 .104 .816 .030  2.33

cain is the bright spot. but don't get your panties in a bunch. the giants have made two common, terrible mistakes:

1. they brought a kid up too early. matt cain does not have enough control to succeed yet in the majors. this mistake is not as terrible as the next one.

2. he threw too many innings. a kid with a lot of strikeouts and a lot of walks is a classic type for an arm injury. and he threw 192 innings. that's way too much for a twenty-year old, especially considering it's his first time in the majors, he wants to impress, he may be overthrowing . . . even if he's holding back, it's 30 more innings than he threw the year before, and 120 more innings than he threw two years before. look at the giants pitching prospects over the years and you see they do not have a good development record.

but yeah cain has a lot of talent. 176 strikeouts in 145 innings is high high quality. if he stays healthy, he'll be good. there'll be an adjustment period while he gets control.

Career Batting Statistics for Marcus Sanders:
Year Team         Lg. Age Org Lvl AAB   W   K  HR  23  WAL  CON  POW  AVG
2004 Azl Giants   Ariz 19 Sf  Rk  212  46  45   3  16 .178 .788 .114 .292
2005 Augusta      SAL  20 Sf  A   423  78  90   5  23 .156 .787 .084 .300

marcus sanders is young, fast, a middle infielder, and he walks. those are good things. the problem is he doesn't make contact, and he doesn't have power. ok those are two problems. but together they are one big problem. i mean, you can't write him off yet because he's young. and his patience shows an ability to learn. but he's got a long way to go. when you don't have contact or power, you're fighting an uphill battle.

matt cain throws a curveball too. even worse for the injury chances. that would be too bad if he went down because he's the only prospect with any kind of shot. i mean sanders maybe 20% or something. this is a sad sad club.

Career Batting Statistics for Eddy Martinez-Estevez:
Year Team         Lg. Age Org Lvl AAB   W   K  HR  23  WAL  CON  POW  AVG
2004 Florida Stat NCAA  0 0   NCA 275  40  41  19  27 .127 .851 .197 .385
2004 Azl Giants   Ariz  0 Sf  Rk   15   1   2   0   2 .063 .867 .154 .357
2004 San Jose     Cali  0 Sf  A    70   4   9   0   9 .054 .871 .148 .420
2004 SalemKaizer  Nwes  0 Sf  A    35   7   7   0   4 .167 .800 .143 .286
2004 Hagerstown   SAL   0 Sf  A    47   9   8   1   2 .161 .830 .077 .217
2005 San Jose     Cali  0 Sf  A   482  97  82  17  47 .168 .830 .160 .313

ok. estevez is a better prospect than sanders. i know sanders is a middle infielder but he can't hit. eddy shows the potential to hit major league pitching, which is a requirement for major-league position players.

he hasn't been challenged yet, and he played high-a last year. his wal and pow were super, and his con was ok.

you gotta feel good about this kid. presumably he'll play double-a this year.

Career Batting Statistics for Travis Ishikawa:
Year Team         Lg. Age Org Lvl AAB   W   K  HR  23  WAL  CON  POW  AVG
2002 Azl Giants   Ariz 19 Sf  Rk   68   9  20   1   6 .117 .706 .146 .279
2002 SalemKaizer  Nwes 19 Sf  A    89   6  22   1   3 .063 .753 .060 .307
2003 Hagerstown   SAL  20 Sf  A   195  36  69   3   5 .156 .646 .063 .206
2003 SalemKaizer  Nwes 20 Sf  A   249  49  77   3  21 .164 .691 .140 .254
2004 San Jose     Cali 21 Sf  A    57  11  16   1   7 .162 .719 .195 .232
2004 Hagerstown   SAL  21 Sf  A   356  56 110  15  21 .136 .691 .146 .256
2005 San Jose     Cali 22 Sf  A   437  77 129  22  35 .150 .705 .185 .282

travis ishikawa cannot hit. he's got patience and power, but he can't make contact. he's old for his level. he's a first baseman. he's not gonna make it.

Career Pitching Statistics for Merkin Valdez:
Year Team         Lg. Age Org Lvl    IP   H  HR  BB  SO  WAL  CON  HRP   ERA
2003 Hagerstown   SAL  21 Sf  A   156.0 119  11  49 166 .077 .717 .026  2.25
2004 San Jose     Cali 22 Sf  A    35.2  30   4   5  44 .035 .679 .043  2.52
2004 Norwich      East 22 Sf  AA   41.2  35   3  15  31 .086 .806 .023  4.32
2004 Fresno       PCL  22 Sf  AAA   5.0   6   0   4   5 .160 .762 .000  7.20
2004 SF Giants    NL   22 Sf  MLB   1.2   4   1   3   2 .250 .778 .143 27.00
2005 Norwich      East 23 Sf  AA  107.0  99   7  45  96 .097 .771 .022  3.53

merkin valdez had a great run in high-a in 2004, but it looks like it was an anomaly. he's old for his level. it looks like he's behind the curve. the development curve.

Career Pitching Statistics for Jonathan Sanchez:
Year Team         Lg. Age Org Lvl    IP   H  HR  BB  SO  WAL  CON  HRP   ERA
2004 Azl Giants   Ariz 21 Sf  Rk   26.0  22   0   9  27 .083 .730 .000  2.77
2004 SalemKaizer  Nwes 21 Sf  A    22.1  16   3  19  34 .186 .590 .061  4.84
2005 Augusta      SAL  22 Sf  A   125.2 122   8  39 166 .072 .667 .024  4.08

ok. that's a hell of a lot of strikeouts in the sally league. i don't know where this guy came from, but he's a lefty. that's not good sentence structure, but i wanna see what this guy does. he was a little old for his level, but it looks like he doesn't have much experience. these sentences all have the same pattern, but i don't know what to do about that.

Career Batting Statistics for Nate Schierholtz:
Year Team         Lg. Age Org Lvl AAB   W   K  HR  23  WAL  CON  POW  AVG
2003 Azl Giants   Ariz 19 Sf  Rk   45   4   8   0   2 .082 .822 .054 .400
2003 SalemKaizer  Nwes 19 Sf  A   127  17  15   3   8 .118 .882 .098 .306
2004 San Jose     Cali 20 Sf  A   260  18  41   3  27 .065 .842 .137 .295
2004 Hagerstown   SAL  20 Sf  A   236  22  52  15  22 .085 .780 .201 .296
2005 San Jose     Cali 21 Sf  A   507  38 132  15  45 .070 .740 .160 .319

nate schierholtz hits the ball hard. patience and contact are lacking.

Career Batting Statistics for Fred Lewis:
Year Team         Lg. Age Org Lvl AAB   W   K  HR  23  WAL  CON  POW  AVG
2002 SalemKaizer  Nwes 21 Sf  A   239  29  58   1  12 .108 .757 .072 .322
2003 Hagerstown   SAL  22 Sf  A   422  74 112   1  25 .149 .735 .084 .250
2004 San Jose     Cali 23 Sf  A   442  96 109   8  31 .178 .753 .117 .301
2004 Fresno       PCL  23 Sf  AAA  23   5   5   1   1 .179 .783 .111 .304
2005 Norwich      East 24 Sf  AA  516  72 124   7  35 .122 .760 .107 .273

ok, i copped out of the nate schierholtz assessment. the thing is he's hard to project. you get the feeling that if he stopped swinging at everything he could do some things. but is he ever gonna stop swinging at everything? corey patterson didn't.

fred lewis played double-a at the age of 24 and didn't hit. he sucks.

Career Batting Statistics for Kevin Frandsen:
Year Team         Lg. Age Org Lvl AAB   W   K  HR  23  WAL  CON  POW  AVG
2002 San Jose Sta NCAA 20 0   NCA 161  25  14   7  11 .134 .913 .122 .317
2003 San Jose Sta NCAA 21 0   NCA 222  32  13   4  15 .126 .941 .091 .332
2004 San Jose Sta NCAA 22 0   NCA 198  35  18   2  16 .150 .909 .100 .321
2004 SalemKaizer  Nwes 22 Sf  A    99  12   9   3   5 .108 .909 .089 .296
2005 San Jose     Cali 23 Sf  A   292  41  22   2  25 .123 .925 .100 .351
2005 Norwich      East 23 Sf  AA  130  10  14   2   8 .071 .892 .086 .287
2005 Fresno       PCL  23 Sf  AAA  94   4   5   2  11 .041 .947 .146 .351

anyone with this much contact has a shot. the hard part about hitting major league pitching is making contact. everyone has their challenges, but you can get stronger. you can learn patience. not everyone does these things, but it's not like hand-eye coordination, which a gift. great strength is a gift too, but it's not necessary the way coordination is.

having said that, power looks like a long shot for kevin. he just doesn't have the home runs. a good fielder can make it without power. it depends on how good a fielder he is.

Career Pitching Statistics for Craig Whitaker:
Year Team         Lg. Age Org Lvl    IP   H  HR  BB  SO  WAL  CON  HRP   ERA
2003 Azl Giants   Ariz 18 Sf  Rk    5.1   2   0   4   8 .182 .556 .000  1.69
2004 SalemKaizer  Nwes 19 Sf  A    70.2  58   4  43  77 .137 .715 .021  3.44
2005 Augusta      SAL  20 Sf  A    58.0  54   3  39  72 .146 .684 .019  4.66

lots of walks, lots of strikeouts. maybe he'll get it together.

not likely.

so that's the giants. i was gonna write about some of the guys that came up last year, but what's the point? they're crap. ok i'll talk about lance niekro.

Career Batting Statistics for Lance Niekro:
Year Team         Lg. Age Org Lvl AAB   W   K  HR  23  WAL  CON  POW  AVG
2000 SalemKaizer  Nwes 21 Sf  A   198  15  25   5  18 .070 .874 .133 .362
2001 San Jose     Cali 22 Sf  A   167   4  14   3  11 .023 .916 .092 .288
2002 Shreveport   Tex  23 Sf  AA  300   9  32   4  21 .029 .893 .093 .310
2003 Fresno       PCL  24 Sf  AAA 384  20  39   4  17 .050 .898 .061 .302
2003 SF Giants    NL   24 Sf  MLB   5   0   1   0   1 .000 .800 .250 .200
2004 San Jose     Cali 25 Sf  A    62   2   5   1   8 .031 .919 .158 .311
2004 Fresno       PCL  25 Sf  AAA 242  15  32  12  25 .058 .868 .176 .299
2005 Fresno       PCL  26 Sf  AAA   4   0   1   0   0 .000 .750 .000 .250
2005 SF Giants    NL   26 Sf  MLB 283  19  53  12  19 .063 .813 .135 .252

niekro has talent, he just needs to quit playing like an idiot. ever watch him play? he swings at everything. what a surprise, he only walked 6.3 percent of the time.

niekro was nobody till he all of a sudden developed power in 2004. that's the thing with contact, though. if you have it, you can always develop power and make it. but he's gotta take some pitches. come on lance, don't waste your career.

don't be corey patterson.

alfonso soriano. many would say he's good. but he's not. the nationals are idiots.

Career Batting Statistics for Jason Ellison:
Year Team         Lg. Age Org Lvl AAB   W   K  HR  23  WAL  CON  POW  AVG
2000 SalemKaizer  Nwes 22 Sf  A   301  36  45   0  17 .107 .850 .066 .300
2001 Hagerstown   SAL  23 Sf  A   499  81  68   8  41 .140 .864 .114 .291
2002 San Jose     Cali 24 Sf  A   324  27  37   5  13 .077 .886 .063 .270
2002 Fresno       PCL  24 Sf  AAA 196  25  28   3   9 .113 .857 .071 .311
2003 Fresno       PCL  25 Sf  AAA 464  45  52   6  26 .088 .888 .078 .295
2003 SF Giants    NL   25 Sf  MLB  10   0   1   0   0 .000 .900 .000 .100
2004 Fresno       PCL  26 Sf  AAA 506  43  66   9  39 .078 .870 .109 .315
2004 SF Giants    NL   26 Sf  MLB   4   0   1   1   0 .000 .750 .333 .500
2005 Fresno       PCL  27 Sf  AAA  38   3   9   0   2 .073 .763 .069 .237
2005 SF Giants    NL   27 Sf  MLB 353  27  44   4  20 .071 .875 .078 .264

ellison has contact and speed but no power. and he doesn't walk. you gotta get on base. do teams teach this? do baseball teams teach their players to get on base? what do they teach them?

Career Batting Statistics for Todd Linden:
Year Team         Lg. Age Org Lvl AAB   W   K  HR  23  WAL  CON  POW  AVG
2000 U. of Washin NCAA 20 0   NCA 199  30  43   6  18 .131 .784 .154 .390
2002 Shreveport   Tex  22 Sf  AA  395  73 101  12  28 .156 .744 .136 .314
2002 Fresno       PCL  22 Sf  AAA 100  21  35   3   3 .174 .650 .092 .250
2003 Fresno       PCL  23 Sf  AAA 471  57 105  11  27 .108 .777 .104 .278
2003 SF Giants    NL   23 Sf  MLB  38   1   8   1   1 .026 .789 .067 .211
2004 Fresno       PCL  24 Sf  AAA 494  70 149  23  30 .124 .698 .154 .260
2004 SF Giants    NL   24 Sf  MLB  32   6   7   0   1 .158 .781 .040 .156
2005 Fresno       PCL  25 Sf  AAA 342  72  97  30  29 .174 .716 .241 .321
2005 SF Giants    NL   25 Sf  MLB 171  15  54   4   8 .081 .684 .103 .216

linden hits bombs but he strikes out. too much. major league pitchers eat him up. like they're gonna do with ryan howard. and brad eldred.

Career Pitching Statistics for Jeremy Accardo:
Year Team         Lg. Age Org Lvl    IP   H  HR  BB  SO  WAL  CON  HRP   ERA
2002 Illinois Sta NCAA 20 0   NCA  21.0  25   0   8  27 .083 .693 .000  2.57
2003 Illinois Sta NCAA 21 0   NCA  36.1  34   3  19  27 .117 .811 .026  5.94
2004 San Jose     Cali 22 Sf  A    55.0  57   3  15  43 .063 .806 .017  4.25
2004 Norwich      East 22 Sf  AA    8.1   9   1   2   5 .056 .853 .034  5.40
2005 San Jose     Cali 23 Sf  A     2.0   1   0   1   3 .125 .571 .000  0.00
2005 Norwich      East 23 Sf  AA    9.2   8   0   1  15 .026 .595 .000  0.93
2005 Fresno       PCL  23 Sf  AAA  32.1  25   0  10  30 .076 .754 .000  1.95
2005 SF Giants    NL   23 Sf  MLB  29.2  26   2   9  16 .073 .861 .020  3.94

jeff francoeur was the rookie of the year last year. accardo what can we say he doesn't look that good. there's not much sample size. he moved up fast. he could be good. he limits home runs. he must have talent if they brought him up that fast. ok maybe he's good.

Career Pitching Statistics for Scott Munter:
Year Team         Lg. Age Org Lvl    IP   H  HR  BB  SO  WAL  CON  HRP   ERA
2001 SalemKaizer  Nwes 21 Sf  A    35.0  42   3  12  28 .075 .810 .025  5.91
2001 Hagerstown   SAL  21 Sf  A     5.1   5   0   1   2 .045 .905 .000  3.38
2002 SalemKaizer  Nwes 22 Sf  A    29.2  33   0  20  20 .141 .836 .000  6.98
2002 San Jose     Cali 22 Sf  A     4.1  12   0   4   2 .138 .920 .000 10.38
2003 Hagerstown   SAL  23 Sf  A    68.2  62   3  28  47 .095 .825 .014  3.01
2004 Norwich      East 24 Sf  AA   65.0  63   4  22  30 .079 .884 .018  2.35
2004 Fresno       PCL  24 Sf  AAA  15.2  20   1   4   5 .056 .925 .016  3.45
2005 Fresno       PCL  25 Sf  AAA  12.1  17   0   4   5 .069 .907 .000  5.11
2005 SF Giants    NL   25 Sf  MLB  38.2  40   1  12  11 .071 .929 .007  2.56

also limits home runs. he doesn't limit contact, which gives him a thin margin for success. but if he can keep the home runs down and throw strikes, he'll be usable.

he will munt for years to come.

Career Pitching Statistics for Jack Taschner:
Year Team         Lg. Age Org Lvl    IP   H  HR  BB  SO  WAL  CON  HRP   ERA
1999 University o NCAA 21 0   NCA  53.0  21   0  41  79 .186 .561 .000  1.53
1999 SalemKaizer  Nwes 21 Sf  A    28.2  26   1  10  36 .082 .679 .013  2.51
2000 San Jose     Cali 22 Sf  A    26.1  23   0  17  22 .143 .784 .000  4.10
2001 San Jose     Cali 23 Sf  A    65.2  62   7  29  72 .101 .722 .037  4.11
2003 Norwich      East 25 Sf  AA   75.2  78   7  45  46 .129 .849 .027  5.71
2004 Norwich      East 26 Sf  AA   58.0  47   5  16  55 .068 .751 .030  2.48
2004 Fresno       PCL  26 Sf  AAA  53.1  71  14  32  44 .122 .810 .075  9.28
2005 Fresno       PCL  27 Sf  AAA  49.1  30   3  24  62 .119 .652 .026  1.64
2005 SF Giants    NL   27 Sf  MLB  22.2  15   0  13  19 .135 .771 .000  1.59

taschner had good contact rates in fresno last year, but walks have been a problem. it doesn't look like he'll have much success.

the thing about the giants is they've got no possibilities for stars. matt cain, but he's not a great prospect. i mean, he's probably top twenty. but that means there are nineteen teams with better prospects. and there's nothing else. the system is bereft. maybe martinez-estevez will make it. maybe someone else will get it together. but we're talking about whether people will make it. we're not talking about whether there are players who will contribute to a winning team. we're not even close to that discussion.
- posted by julien @ 5:56 AM