Orange Black and Blue Orange Black and Blue: Walk/Run-Off Wonders; The Posey-Sandoval Question

Friday, August 22, 2008

Walk/Run-Off Wonders; The Posey-Sandoval Question

Another walkoff win for the Little Giants, who have taken to playing at home in a way their much older predecessors did not.

In typical San Francisc (the omission of O is intentional) Giants fashion, the fateful ninth inning run was scored without a hit - praise be to Manny Burriss's batting eye and feet as well as Kevin Gregg's wayward accuracy.

And give credit to big Matt Palmer, who bounced back from a horrific debut to go 6 and 2.

Also, I've noticed I've been remiss in lauding Dandy Randy Winn for hitting in a manner so hot, Paris Hilton's thinking of suing.

Future Ruminations: While watching Pablo "Runaway Beer Truck" Sandoval motor around in one of his frequent trips to the basepaths, I thought to myself, this 22 year old could be really the future at catcher.

Then I realized we just signed him.

But, with apologies to Ivan Ochoa, our situation at shortstop is a little less rosy. However, do we already have a solution?

Many of you heard about Buster Posey playing all nine positions in a game this past season at FSU. His prowess at all nine positions was due in part to the fact that he was recruited as a shortstop, playing there his freshman year before transitioning to catching.

Now although the Giants just made a huge investment in Posey, it's not as if shortstop is a position of far less scarcity, particularly given the fact that Posey's bat would play just as well there. In addition, Posey, who's game has been compared to Craig Biggio's, might have a longer career by playing a less physically demanding position.

With his mid-90s fastball and leadership skills, heck, we may even get our own Derek Jeter out of it.

Bear in mind, my sole impetus for the idea is due to the absurdly small sample size of Sandoval's major league career, notwithstanding his sublime year in the minors. But Sandoval is producing at the major league level and looks to have a lot of potential at the position, having thrown out 44% (30 for 68) of basestealers in the minors - and he can do it with both hands, too! Sandoval, already looking like he belongs in The Show, is only seven months older than Posey.

The case that Sandoval could shift to first to make room for Posey is a little bit of a tougher pill to swallow, mostly because of the continued ease at which you can either find or develop power hitting first basemen, Brian Sabean's struggles aside. It would be a waste of Sandoval's skills behind the dish to have him at first, anyhow.

So I leave it to you: is this a terrible idea? How do you envision the 2011 infield?

14 comments:

JLev said...

For the life of me, I still can't figure out why Manny Burriss isn't starting over at SS. It's his natural position, he's better with the leather than anyone but Chris Berman and we have a glut of young (albeit likely subpar) options to fill the 2B hole.

As for Sandoval/Posey, I am just hoping that we have the wonderful dilemma of having two catchers who mash. If the problem came down to selecting the better of two goods, then I'd be happy as a Sabes in slop-hacking hitters.

Tim said...

why does throwing with either hand even matter?

would he catch with a different hand depending on the batter?

if that's the case, he's gotta be the C of the future. if not, i advocate trying out "Bacon Egg and Cheese" Sando at 3rd base...

Hasan said...

Hopefully, we would have Conor "Mueller" Gillaspie at third in a couple of years, right?

Chris said...

It seems like the Giants are going to face a welcome "problem" within the next couple of years: namely, a glut of talented players coming up from the minors, plus the young talent they already have.

As for Burriss at SS, I think that's a good idea. I know some have concerns about his bat. What's his ceiling as a hitter in the mlb? .265?

Chris said...

I put you guys on my blog roll. Respect. (:

Hasan said...

Thanks, Chris! I, for one, have high expectations of Burriss. The kid was drafted in 2006 and really had no business sticking in the big leagues - Sabes et al didn't think he was ready for the callup but once Bocock underperformed, they were left little choice. For Manny to have an adequate season with the bat having no ABs above A is pretty impressive.

Also remember that he was the NCAA stolen base champ in his last year at Kent St. From all accounts, he works hard and has a good head on his shoulders. In a best case scenario, I could see a Steve Sax kind of career for him, although an Eric Young game may be more plausible.

So yeah - I guess I have high hopes for him. ;-)

JLev said...

Hasan's biased because of the DC angle, but I also like Burriss a lot. Also, I have no problem with a SS hitting around .265 as long as he can get on base at around .340 to .350, which I think he can considering he's right around .327 right now and could improve.

I'm not of the new school ARod, Tejada, HanRam school that thinks that you need a big bat at SS. I want my SS to be a glove-first kinda guy with decent offensive numbers. Viz's sub-mendoza avg notwithstanding, your SS is most valuable as a fielder first.

Hasan said...

Plus bat aside, I hear Buster Posey plays a mean short...

Chris said...

Burriss does seem to have a knack for getting on base. That .340 or .350 OBP would be nice.

It's funny to think back to Bocock being our STARTING shortstop on Opening Day. I remember he drew a walk sometime in that series and someone on the SFGate blog seemed really impressed. Will Bocock ever see MLB playing time again? I'd suspect not on the Giants, but another team?

I don't see Burriss performing any worse than Bocock had he been Opening Day SS, but I guess the front office wasn't even considering him at the time. But really, Bocock? What was the thought process that got him there?

Hasan said...

My question was: what was the thought process in not having a viable backup to a 41 YEAR OLD SHORTSTOP?!?

They simply had no better choice until the emergence of Burriss, and to a lesser extent, Ochoa.

Chris said...

HanRam sounds like a Masters of the Universe (He-Man) character.

I think there was one called MerMan. Then there was Man-at-Arms. There was also a guy whose main ability was to use his head to ram into stuff.

HanRam is definitely a MOTU character.

Tim said...

Chris, you're thinking of "Ram Man". Also, on that note, check this out, coming in at #1:

http://www.cracked.com/article_15813_5-most-ill-conceived-action-figures.html

Chris said...

Thanks for the link, Tim. That was incredible. Fisto? Tung Lashor? Amazing.

Giants players if they were MOTU characters:

Velezor
Cain-E-Faces
Molinok
Lincelash
Winn-At-Arms
Taschstor

There have to be some others. Sorry to derail the conversation, but couldn't resist!

Hasan said...

This went somewhere I couldn't have possibly imagined this morning...

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