Jeff Fletcher | March 28, 2009

Just read Henry Schulman’s blog about the flipping of Ronny Paulino for 21-year-old Hector Correa. Henry talked to Bobby Evans, the Giants VP of player personnel, who explained Paulino is a good prospect who has had some arm problems:

“He appears to be through all that far as we can tell. He looks ready to go out and compete. He’s got a good arm and we’ve gotten a chance to see him even going back to just after he got drafted, and most recently in the instructional league.”

“He’s just a guy, being drafted where he was, just by reputation, who has a good arm if he can stay healthy.”

Evans said the Giants did seriously look at Paulino as a “nice option” for a backup catcher, but preferred Correa because “anytime you can replenish your system or add to your system a guy with upside, you’re certainly doing a good thing.”

Call me crazy, but this still doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to me. Talented Class-A pitchers with arm troubles are all over the place. Paulino was a legitimate backup catcher, way better than Steve Holm.

By the way, to those of you who suggested Pablo Sandoval could be the backup catcher, I would find that awfully unlikely for several reasons.

1. Sandoval has not picked up a catcher’s mitt all spring (to my knowledge).
2. Sandoval is too valuable to put him at risk of injury by catching.
3. The pitching is too important to put in the hands of an inexperienced catcher.

On another note Giants fans, check out this little duel between Bruce Bochy and Ken Macha.

Category: Giants | 2 Comments »
Tags:

Jeff Fletcher | March 27, 2009

If Ronny Paulino ever talks about his days with the Giants, he’ll be exaggerating. Paulino was a Giant for roughly four hours. The Giants just traded him to the Marlins for right-hander Hector Correa.

Don’t ask me to explain this one, because I can’t. (And at 11:17 p.m., I’m satisfied to wait till tomorrow for answers.)

Paulino seemed like a perfect backup catcher, a big upgrade over Steve Holm. Now the Giants unloaded Paulino for a 21-year-old Class-A pitcher. Correa was the No. 3 prospect in the short-season Class-A New York-Penn League in 2007, so there is some talent there. Did the Giants really need another low-level minor league prospect?

Correa is the kind of guy I expected the Giants to get straight-up for Jack Taschner. After they got a steal from the Phillies in Paulino, I’m not sure why the Giants would turn around and trade down, essentially.

Maybe now they’re going to trade Correa for Miguel Cabrera.

Category: Giants | 4 Comments »
Tags:

Jeff Fletcher | March 27, 2009

The Giants sent lefty Jack Taschner to the Phillies in exchange for catcher Ronny Paulino.

Looks like a no-brainer to me. The Giants were fed up with Taschner’s inability to throw strikes. Since Taschner is left-handed and throws 92 mph with some movement, there was another team willing to take a shot at him. Frankly, it’s a testament to Taschner’s open-market value that the Giants got a player as good as Paulino. Remember, the Giants were basically just trying to unload Taschner.

Paulino, 27, is a .278 hitter in 304 big league games over four seasons. He was the Pirates No. 1 catcher in 2006 and ’07. He’s a legit big league catcher who could hold down a spot for a few weeks or a month if Molina were to get hurt. That’s more than you can say for Steve Holm.

Category: Giants | 1 Comment »
Tags:

Jeff Fletcher | March 27, 2009

Now that it looks like Trevor Cahill and Brett Anderson could be in the A’s rotation to open the season, I decided I’d check to see how rare it is for a team to have two pitchers start in their major league debuts in the first five games of a season. (I actually got this idea from A’s broadcaster Vince Cotroneo. Thanks Vince.)

Since 1954 (which is as far back as records go for the database I used), it has happened only seven times, and two were the A’s.

1961 Senators (Ed Hobaugh, Joe McClain )
1963 Red Sox (Jerry Stephenson, Dave Morehead)
1967 Mets (Tom Seaver, Bill Denehy)
1978 A’s, (Alan Wirth, John Henry Johnson)
1991 A’s (Joe Slusarski, Kirk Dressendorfer)
1998 Expos (Trey Moore, Javier Vazquez)
1998 Marlins (Rafael Medina, Brian Meadows)

Now, this is an admittedly imperfect list. First of all, a team may have had rookie starters who weren’t making their debuts (if they appeared in relief or the previous September). If a team had early off days, it’s possible that it might not have used all five of its starters until later on. If you expand it to include two pitchers making their debuts in the first 15 games, the list includes 16 teams. (One of them is the 2007 Yankees, who had Kei Igawa and Chase Wright.)

The only one of those 16 teams to make the postseason was those ’07 Yankees. Of the rest, only one other team finished higher than fourth.

Category: A's | 3 Comments »
Tags:

Jeff Fletcher | March 27, 2009

First time all spring they have put out anything even remotely resembling a real lineup.

Here it is…

CF Ryan Sweeney
SS Orlando Cabrera
1B Jason Giambi
LF Matt Holliday
3B Eric Chavez
DH Jack Cust
C Kurt Suzuki
RF Travis Buck
2B Mark Ellis

That ain’t a bad looking lineup at all. Too bad the A’s don’t have any pitching.

Category: A's | 5 Comments »
Tags:

Jeff Fletcher | March 27, 2009

By now you may already know that Justin Duchscherer is having elbow surgery that will likely cause him to be out at least six weeks. Any reasonable A’s fan long ago stopped waiting for Justin Duchscherer.

The interesting stuff today came from Dallas Braden, who is now almost certain to be the opening day starter. Braden pitched today in a minor-league game. Five days from now is next Wednesday and five days from that is opening day, April 6. The A’s haven’t announced Braden as the opening day starter, but today I said to him: “You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to count to five and then count to five again…”

“I’m not a math major,” Braden said. “I don’t try to count to five any more times than I have to. When the season starts I’ll get the ball every fifth day, in Oakland or Sacramento or in independent ball. I don’t count my chickens before they are hatched. If I go to Anaheim and see my nameplate on a locker, I’ll know I made the team. If they give me the ball on opening day, I’ll know I’m the opening day starter.”

Braden is a funny guy. From a purely selfish media perspective, we all root for him to stick around.

Category: A's | 1 Comment »
Tags:

Jeff Fletcher | March 25, 2009

Orlando Cabrera is playing today, even though he was initially not scheduled to play again until Friday. Apparently Cabrera’s back is better. He is joined in the middle infield by Mark Ellis, who is playing defense in a big league game for the first time all spring. So it only took till March 25 for the A’s middle infielders to play together.

In other news this morning…

• Eric Chavez said all went well with defense and batting practice yesterday. He’s going to keep taking BP and probably be in the lineup on Friday. He may not bat, but he’ll play defense for at least a couple innings until his spot comes up in the lineup. As of now, Chavez said he thinks he can be ready for opening day.
• Gio Gonzalez was scheduled to throw a bullpen this morning, his first time on a mound in a couple weeks. If all goes well, Gonzalez could be a candidate to make the season-opening bullpen, but he doesn’t have time to get into the rotation.
• Landon Powell, who has been out with a sore intercostal muscle, said he’s doing better, and he’s hoping to play on Friday.

Category: A's | 4 Comments »
Tags: