“Wednesday” Web Watch

• All Bumgarner, all the time. Madison’s been putting up ridiculous stats, and the baseball world is noticing. Here are write-ups from MiLB.com, Baseball America, and Baseball Prospectus. What’s your guess on where he’ll end up on the end of season prospect lists? I would venture somewhere in the 15-20 range.
• The medium matters. Here are two different takes on the recent promotions of Sandoval and Rohlinger by Connecticut newsmen. (A sneak preview. One is measured. The other, not as much.) It must be hard to be a fan of a minor league team with all that turnover. Luckily I’m a fan of a terrible major league team so I get to follow terrible players for the whole season.
• This is a couple of weeks old, but Project Prospect updated its list of top 25 prospects not in the top 100. The list features Pablo Sandoval at number 6 (or is that 106?) He must be even higher now.
• In happier affiliate news, the Augusta Greenjackets and San Francisco Giants extended their affiliation for two more years. Even though the only hope for me to see some Giants minor league ball was for them to move to the Midwest League, I am happy about this extension. Augusta is a very well run organization with a growing fanbase.
• Not Giants related, but here’s an article on the Hardball Times profiling knuckleballers in the majors. I’ve never heard of Banks or Dickey before, but I’ll be following their careers more closely now.
• You’ve probably all read this, but I forgot to link this with all of the draft madness last week. Andy Baggarly posted an update on some top prospects in the Giants system. some of the Nick Noonan stuff baffled me. I’d be pretty surprised if they sent him to Connecticut, and very surprised if he hit well there. There’s no need to rush him, as the Giants have quite a few second basemen in the upper minors, albeit not of his quality. And the best plate discipline in the organization line? Smacks of Farm Director embellishment to me.
• Those are all of the links for now. I’m off to make some creamy onion soup. Till next Wednesday, sportsfans. (Prospect Watch will resume after soup is made and ingested.)

Prospect Watch 8/20/08

Another good day in the minors as Fresno and Salem-Keizer were the only losers.  Connecticut shut out Akron 8-0, but they still remain 4 games out of second place with 14 games to go.  The Giants sent down Eliezer Alfonzo to help out the offense, and Notgardo has been taking up the challenge admirably.  Unfortunately, second place Portland has shown no signs of letting up as it has won five of its last six games.

Fresno

1B John Bowker: 1 for 5, HR, K

RF Ben Copeland: 1 for 4

2B Travis Denker: 0 for 1

RP Scott Munter: 2.1 IP, 3 H, 0 BB, 3 K

Connecticut

2B Olmo Rosario: 2 for 5, HR, K

DH Adam Witter: 2 for 3, 2 2B, BB, K

SP Garrett Broshuis: 6 IP, 3 H, 2 BB, 7 K

RP Kelvin Pichardo: 1 IP, 0 H, 1 BB, 2 K

San Jose

2B Brad Boyer: 2 for 4, HR, BB, K, SB (15)

3B Matt Downs: 3 for 5, 2 2B, K

SS Sharlon Schoop: 3 for 4, HR, K

OF Darren Ford: 3 for 3, SB (11)

SP Daryl Maday: 6 IP, 6 H, 2 BB, 5 K, 2 R

RP Joe Paterson: 2 IP, 1 H, 1 BB, 2 K

Augusta

2B Nick Noonan: 1 for 4, BB, K, SB (27)

DH Thomas Neal: 2 for 5, HR, 2 K

1B Angel Villalona: 1 for 5, 2B, K

RP Mitch Lively: 1 IP, 2 H, 0 BB, 0 K, 2 R

Salem-Keizer

3B Conor Gillaspie: 1 for 4, K

1B Mike Loberg: 2 for 4, 2B

2B Jose Flores: 2 for 4

AZL Giants

CF Wendell Fairley: 2 for 4

SS Brandon Crawford: 1 for 4, 3B, 2 K

RF Ryan Mantle: 2 for 4

SP Jorge Bucardo: 6 IP, 2 H, 1 BB, 8 K

RP Chris Wilson: 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 BB, 2 K

Notes

2B Olmo Rosario

Originially from the Dominican Republic, Olmo Rosario was signed by the Tampa Bay Devil Rays and released in 2002.  Last year he played in the Canadian American League and was named the player of the year.  The Giants purchased his contract from the Nashua Pride this offseason.  He is prone to run hot and cold, but he has had a good year overall, putting up a line of 300/335/468.  He is on a serious hot streak, hitting 364 in the month of August (helped out by his 21% Line Drive rate).  He may have some major league value as a utility infielder, as he’s played all over the field this season, albeit primarily at 2B.  Unfortunately the Giants are stacked with the utility types (Velez, Ochoa, and now Downs) so perhaps Roasario will have better luck with a different team.

OF Wendell Fairley

Wendell has also been hitting better of late, putting up a line of 293/508/393 in the month of August.  Monthly splits are always iffy because of the small sample size, but it looks like Fairley has started hitting more groundballs and putting his speed to work (which may also explain his rising BA).  This may be good for the AZL, but I’m not sure it’s beneficial to him in the future when he will face better infielders at higher levels.  Since he’s been praised as a five-tool prospect, hitting groundballs would also negate his power.  What this all means to me is that he needs to refine his hitting approach and work on hitting line drives and elevating the ball.  One pleasant surprise has been his walk rate.  Whether or not it’s a product of wild AZL pitchers it remains to be seen, but I’m optimistic.  I would like him to start out at Augusta next year, but I would understand if the Giants held him back until Salem-Keizer.  He could be a late bloomer like Fred Lewis, which wouldn’t be bad at all.

Prospect Watch 8/18/08

In the process of updating the Minor Transactions page, I discovered that the Giants had activated Henry Sosa off the DL and sent him to Augusta. He hasn’t appeared in a game yet, so I suspect he’s working with a coach down there. I’m inclined to give his performance a mulligan for this season, but the injury definitely hurt his prospect stock.

In more exciting news, Brandon Crawford makes his debut for the AZL Giants in a night where the Baby Giants shut out the Baby Brewers and the Little Giants outslugged the Visalia Oaks. Connecticut had the day off.

Prospect Watch 8/17/08

Connecticut snapped its three game losing streak with a defeat over Erie. Unfortunately the losing streak dropped them to four games behind second place. It was also a day of position changes as Erick Threets started a game and catcher Elio Sarmiento played at second base.

John Sickels

reviews his preseason Giants Top 20 on his blog.

For comparison, here’s my preseason list:

1	Angel Villalona
2	Madison Bumgarner
3	Tim Alderson
4	Henry Sosa
5	Nate Schierholtz
6	Clayton Tanner
7	Nick Noonan
8	John Bowker
9	Wendell Fairly
10	Pat Misch
11	Travis Denker
12	Waldis Joaquin
13	Charles Culberson
14	Paul Oseguera
15	Ben Snyder
16	Pablo Sandoval
17	Nick Pereira
18	Andy D’Alessio
19	Osiris Matos
20	Emmanuel Burriss

Why do they call it a bullpen?

As a general rule I try to avoid writing about players on the major league club, but with so many rookies finding their way onto the roster this year, it’s become unavoidable. First, the pitchers:

Prospect Watch 8/16/08

Truism: Better late than never.

Also true: I’ve never watched Buffy The Vampire Slayer before. I saw the show for the first time recently and was intrigued. To the lines!

Prospect Watch 8/15/08

It’s finally done.

Also some minor league games happened. Salem-Keizer was blown out by Spokane, the BabyGiants had the day off, and a certain number one prospect in the Giants system was a giant among men. Onto the lines:

Prospect Watch 8/14/08

Happy Friday, all. A dismal day in the minors yesterday as the AZL Giants were rained out (isn’t the point of playing in AZ to avoid rain outs?) and Connecticut lost for the first time in six games. The less than inspiring lines:

Prospect Watch 8/13/08

In the midst of promotions, demotions and signings, minor league life continued as usual as all of the affiliates played games (and Fresno played two). Connecticut continued its winning ways even without Rohlinger and Sandoval. They are still two games out and tied for third. They’ve won five games in a row and eight of their last nine. Here are the lines: