SF Giants headed toward homegrown lineup

Scott Ostler

Should the Giants trade some of their kids for stopgap help at catcher and second base?

That's old-school. Back in the day, whenever the Giants had a need, they would sign or trade for Wendell Washed-up. The farm system produced turnips and rutabagas.

Something happened. The farm started producing productive produce, prodigiously.

Forward-thinking reader (this column attracts 'em like flies) Gerry Escolar looks ahead to the 2013 season and sees an entire starting lineup, plus pitchers, that is farm-raised, organic and free-range.

Here's Escolar's lineup: Darren Ford (cf), Emmanuel Burriss (2b), Gary Brown (lf), Brandon Belt (1b), Pablo Sandoval (3b), Buster Posey ©, Brandon Crawford (ss), Nate Schierholtz (rf).

Starting pitchers: Tim Lincecum, Matt Cain, Jonathan Sanchez, Madison Bumgarner, Zach Wheeler. I would add Ryan Vogelsong to the mix - a homegrown Giant who wandered several years before returning home. Six superb starters? That's a headache for Bruce Bochy and Dave Righetti to sort out.

Relievers: Brian Wilson, Sergio Romo.

I would shuffle the batting order to: Ford, Sandoval, Posey, Belt, Brown, Schierholtz, Crawford, Burriss. No way Posey bats sixth.

One un-Giant-like thing you've got throughout the lineup: speed.

Who is Gary Brown? An outfielder playing his first full pro season in San Jose. Legend has it Brown is faster than Ford, who is slightly faster than the wind.

Brown is 22, 6-foot-1 and 190, a right-handed outfielder out of Cal State Fullerton. He slowed after a sizzling start, but through 71 games he's hitting .320 with 47 RBIs and 33 steals, but 14 times caught stealing.

Wheeler, a 6-3, 180-pound lefty, is 6-3 for San Jose, with 74 strikeouts in 65 2/3 innings. He'll be 23 in 2013.

Plenty of ways to mix-n-match. For example, Posey catching two games out of three, with Sandoval catching the third. Posey playing a game at first, with Belt moving to left ...

Next job for the Giants: Get all these guys to sign a forever-a-Giant solidarity pact.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?...L#ixzz1QlMiHrsn

Tim Lincecum pitched today - and will thus not pitch in any of the 4 games at Colorado that I'm going to :angry:

I've just seen the tentative 2012 schedule. Some things look quite odd, for example two 2-game series back to back in May (14th/15th vs Colorado, 16th/17th vs St Louis) I don't recall seeing this sort of thing happening in the past - seems weird.

Thought I could just bump this up, not sure if there's any Giants or NL west team fans around here.

Pat Burrell just announced he's retiring, he wasn't too effective last year in SF hitting only .230 so maybe that's a good decision.

Of course The Freak deservedly got his 2 year $40 million extension, which is still less than Sabathia and Santana, and about the same as Halladay makes, so nobody could argue that a 2-time Cy Young winner like Tim should negotiate less money than those guys.

Disappointed with last year after the euphoria of 2010, though I suppose everyone was shocked at how the DBacks went from winning 65 games in 2010 to winning 95 in 2011 without hardly adding anything, so that was the big difference in the west.

James

I wouldn't have given Lincecum anything like that. He's made it absolutely clear that as soon as he hits free agency he's off, so why pay more than necessary, he was under team control for those two years anyway, and the Giants wouldn't have had to fork out anywhere like as much through arbitration.

How will the contract they've given Lincecum and the $20m they'll have to pay Zito in 2013 affect the Giants chance of signing their real Ace next year? Matt Cain will have been watching closely, and unless he hits a wall or something this year he'll want at least as much.

Dunno, though that Zito contract is the one that drives most Giants fans mad, not the money they are paying Tim for the next 2 years, though Giants fans dont care much what they pay Tim as long as he's one of the best pitchers in the game every year and is often unhittable, which Tim is. But they probably will need to find some money. I'm die hard Giants, but the truth is the Giants farm system ranks close to the worst in all MLB. The only good prospect we have is Gary Brown. They have maybe improved in the hitting department, picking up Melky and Angel, and hopefully getting Posey and Sanchez fit, + then throw in a bounce-back year for Aubrey Huff, and if all that comes together the Giants can't help but improve on an offense that was I think last in the NL in runs. And cutting loose Tejada and Rowand helps too. thats how I see it anyway for now, but bring on the spring.

Great couple of weeks for SF, 9-4 record so far, had a look at a of the games on MLB.tv and everyone is playing nicely which I know makes it harder to cut guys but it's what you really want each spring. Zito struck out 4 in 4 innings last night.

Hoping the 13 position players making the roster looks like this

1. Pagan - CF
2. F. Sanchez - 2B
3. Cabrera - LF
4. Posey - C
5. Sandoval - 3B
6. Scherholtz - RF
7. Crawford - SS
8. Huff - 1B

9. Theriot - IF
10. Fontnot - IF
11. Stewart - C
12. Blanco - OF
13. Belt - 1B or OF
14. Pill - 1B or OF

Not been discussed on here yet but what are Giants fans thoughts on this? will it make it tough to sign Lincecum?

The biggest deal for a right hander, its's always a risk signing a pitcher to a massive deal like this when the threat of injury is so much greater then with a position player.

It had to be done I guess, if they can't re-sign their Ace, then rumbling would start.

They do have some money coming off the books at the end of this year. but in 2013 they'll be paying Cain, Lincecum and Zito a combined $62mil. that means half their budget will be going on three players, and one of them isn't good enough to be a 5th starter! It will make it difficult to find enough cash to fill out the rest of the rotation and find guys for the offence. Cain and Lincecum better get used to having no run support, they'll have to do it for a fair few years yet.

So what's the story with Tim Lincecum? Are there rumours of him pitching with a health problem, because he's looking anything but like a Cy Young winner this season.

Against the A's today he got help from the A's hitters who swung at a lot of bad pitches first time through the order, but second time they were ready for him.

How will the contract they've given Lincecum and the $20m they'll have to pay Zito in 2013 affect the Giants chance of signing their real Ace next year? Matt Cain will have been watching closely, and unless he hits a wall or something this year he'll want at least as much.

I asked the same question some time ago, and it was answered some time later:

Matt Cain

6 years/$127.5M (2012-17), plus 2018 option

signed extension with San Francisco 4/2/12, replacing final year in previous contract

$5M signing bonus

12:$15M, 13-17:$20M annually, 18:$21M club option ($7.5M buyout)

2018 option becomes guaranteed if Cain 1) pitches 200 innings in 2017 or 400 innings in 2016-17 and 2) is not on the disabled list at the end of the 2017 season with injury to right elbow or right shoulder

award bonuses: $50,000 each for Gold Glove, Silver Slugger. $0.1M for All-Star. $0.15M for LCS MVP. $0.2M for WS MVP. $0.25M for MVP ($0.15M for 2nd in vote, $0.1M for 3rd, $75,000 for 4th, $50,000 for 5th). $0.5M for Cy Young ($0.25M for 2nd in vote, $0.1M for 3rd, $75,000 for 4th, $50,000 for 5th). $1M each for any subsequent Cy Young awards

at signing, largest-ever contract for right-handed pitcher

Are there any plans to move Posey to 1st base permanently, his bat is far too valuable to the team to keep playing him at catcher surely?