Give 'em Some Stankeye!

The news that Kevin Frandsen may miss the season due to a ruptured Achilles tendon just plain sucks. In 2008, when the Giants come to bat, it's likely to be one of the most interminable things to watch since Inland Empire, but at least we could look forward to seeing if Frandsen's .300-hitting stick in the minors could survive in the Show. Now I don't even have that, and with the Giants also refusing to give guys like Dan Ortmeier and Fred Lewis everyday jobs in lieu of the usual overpaid fogies, it's going to give me all the more reason to just pop in GTA IV* this April instead of watching on the days Tim Lincecum and Matt Cain don't pitch.

It's just another sad speed bump in Frandsen's short career. After 2006, when it seemed as though Ray Durham's impending free agency might open up a starting job for him, the Giants went ahead and re-signed Durham to a two-year contract, a move that proved to be a disaster on several fronts (though I defended it at the time, so no bitching from these quarters). Frandsen spent most of April in the minors, but proved he didn't belong there by smoking the ball, as he always has.

Upon his return to the majors, Frandsen settled into a utility role, then took most of Durham's at bats after the latter's Lemaster impersonations finally wore on the Giants. Frandsen had a scorching September and seemed to have an inside track on a starting job in 2008, whether at the newly vacated third base or at second in case of a Durham trade. Unfortunately, the Giants found no takers for Durham and just inexplicably never seemed to really consider Frandsen an option at third. He was given an aborted audition at shortstop, but he wasn't going to be spending much time there anyway with Vizquel returning soon.

For whatever reason, the Giants just don't seem to want to give Frandsen a chance. He essentially got screwed over in the battle for third base. You know your organization doesn't take you seriously when they'd consider offering a good pitching prospect for one year of Joe fucking Crede over letting you play.

Now this happens. Make no mistake, this is a terrible injury, and drives another stake into whatever "youth movement" the Giants think they have going. Here's hoping for the speediest of recoveries for Frandsen, and hopefully we'll get to see him on the diamond in '08.

*That is, if there isn't another mission as maddeningly difficult as that gawdawful "Supply Lines" level in GTA San Andreas. All of my friends have heard me bitch on and on about this at one point, so now you readers get the honor.

I have never, ever gotten angrier at a freaking video game than I did when I was trying to beat this level. Whoever thought that flying a crappy little RC plane (which is impossible to control) around a city and trying to kill a bunch of nerds in vans, on a limited gas tank, would be fun should have his nose broken. It's frigging impossible, and I was on the verge of throwing my controller into the TV screen trying to beat it. And I'm a mellow guy! I distinctly remember yelling, "This isn't fucking fun!" in my room at four in the morning as my plane crashed into the street for the gazillionth time.

The worst part? The worst part? The level is optional. But did I know that? Of course not. So when I finally beat it and then found out it wasn't even mandatory to move on in the game, I wanted to scream. Needless to say, if there's another one of these ridiculous side levels in the new GTA, my sanity will not be the better for it. OK, end rant.

Labels: kevin frandsen, random gta rant

Well, it seems as though Kevin Frandsen is not guaranteed to be the club's starting shortstop in Omar Vizquel's absence. Apparently, Bruce Bochy has been so horrified by Frandsen's defense that he's looking for other options, something not too surprising for those of us who remember watching Frandsen fumble around at the position last season.

The Giants' infield situation is now a complete mess with Vizquel out, and the team is reduced to the unenviable position of gagging through a Frandsen/Eugenio Velez/Rich Aurilia dogfight at third base and shortstop. Here's a (very, very) tentative projected Opening Day lineup, updated to fit the void left by Vizquel. People with heart conditions may want to leave the room now.

LF: Roberts
RF: Winn
CF: Rowand
C: Molina
2B: Durham
SS: Aurilia
1B Ortmeier
3B: Frandsen

I'm not sure what's more disgusting: the fact that any team would be content to trot this out on Opening Day, or the fact that this actually represents an upgrade over the Giants' ideal lineup with Vizquel gone. Obviously, it's a huge defensive dropoff with Vizquel out, but in any case, if we're using movie analogies, this lineup is pure Manos: Hands of Fate territory.

If Frandsen doesn't win the third base job, or moves to second in the event that the Giants can unload Durham, it'd likely mean that either a Joe Crede trade becomes a sure thing, or Velez gets a shot. Since it's probably a bad idea to give up a good pitcher for the honor of watching Crede star in Feliz II: Electric Boogaloo, it seems best to see what Velez has to offer.

Velez opened some eyes after putting up a .318/.373/.560 line at single A in 2006, with 64 stolen bases in 80 attempts. Unfortunately, he was way older than most of the competition and was playing in the hitter-happy Sally League. He's another of these slap-happy guys who can't work a walk to save his life, and I'm sure he'd just be a nightmare at the major league level. Then again, he's young enough to possibly make good on those minor league numbers, so why the hell not at least give him a chance to exceed my Neifi-level expectations?

Of course, there's a better option sitting in front of everybody's face, and yet no one (well, almost no one) gives him a mention. Justin Leone is now batting .571 in the Spring and is practically begging for someone to notice him. I've said it before and I'll say it again: give the guy a @#&$! chance! His career OPS in the minors is .846, so he clearly has something in his bat. He's likely a better option than the unholy Frandsen/Aurila/Velez troika and if he does end up stinking he can be discarded because he isn't getting paid much. It makes no sense, I tells ya.

Labels: bad movie analogies, eugenio velez, give leone a chance, kevin frandsen, spring training battles

Omar Vizquel's injury may turn into a disaster of larger proportions than first thought, because it may quicken the seemingly impending (and ill-conceived) trade for White Sox third baseman Joe Crede. Why would a shortstop going down affect the third base slot?

Simple. With Vizquel out for at least the first few weeks, Kevin Frandsen is now the favorite to get much of the playing time at shortstop. Frandsen was seemingly the top third base option going into the season, so now that he is filling in at another position, it creates a gaping hole at that spot. Thus, it would behoove the Giants to snap up a major league-ready third baseman, post-haste.

Just not Joe Crede. As I mentioned a while back, Crede is just not any kind of answer at third base. Imagine a crappier facsimile of Pedro Feliz, if that can be believed. Unfortunately, the Giants have been rumored to be on the cusp of acquiring him all winter, apparently spurred on by Aaron Rowand's non-stop praise of Crede's intangibles (the Giants still have "character" and "grit" listed higher than "performance", I guess).

Crede may surprise us and turn in a good year that nets the team a draft pick, but more likely he repeats his usual combination of injured and sucky, and we have the same unwatchable mess at third base that we've come to know so well. Knowing Brian Sabean, he'll probably find a way to give up something of value for a player Sox GM Kenny Williams is desperate to get rid of.

-Into the blog arena steps The Bay Area Sports Machine, written by a Mr. Lomez (no Bob Sacamano as a co-author, though). It discusses all Bay Area sports, all the time, with more focus lately on the Giants, obviously, as Spring Training has arrived. Check it out, and take a gander at my personal favorite post for starters.

-Now for the really nerdy stuff. If any of you readers also happen to be fans of the movie Blade Runner, mosey on over to this weird website that I update once in a blue moon. In celebration of me finally being able to watch the BR: Final Cut Five-Disc Special Edition that I got for Christmas, I've been posting some stuff about the movie and some of the neat add-ons contained in the new DVD set. If you think this site charts new waters of dorky obsessiveness, you ain't seen nothing yet.

--This looks awesome...

Labels: dumb trades, joe crede, kevin frandsen, omar vizquel

As I try to overcome the post-celebratory hangover following the departure of Pedro Feliz to the Phillies, I guess I should pause and acknowledge that Philadelphia is probably the most ideal fit for our old friend Happy Pete. The Phillies had a gaping hole at third base, and they have a lineup good enough to hide Feliz's many weaknesses with the bat. As amazing as it seems, Phillies third basemen last year were collectively worse than Pedro. Much worse. As bad as Feliz was, at least the Giants weren't giving 287 plate appearances to Abraham Nunez.

Now that Feliz is hitting at the bottom of a great lineup and is now moving into a very homer-friendly ballpark, I'd be willing to bet that he smacks 30 homers and knocks in 110 runs. This wouldn't mean he would be any better, obviously, as his OBP would still surely suck. However, I'd bet that if Feliz does bust out those artificially good counting stats, myriad sportswriters who don't understand Park Factors and lineup context will ream the Giants for letting Feliz go. Meanwhile, us Giants fans who know better will just lean back and chuckle softly to ourselves.

So it seems that this deal works out for all involved. Feliz gets to go to greener pastures playing for a contending team, and the Giants get to be rid of Pedro Feliz. All is well. Meanwhile, the Phils get the best fielding third baseman in the majors, and his horrid plate discipline will be sort of hidden by all the runs being produced by guys like Chase Utley and Ryan Howard. I'm not sure why they felt they had to tack on a second year for the honor, though.

So with Feliz gone, the Giants would seem to have a hole at third base. Or do they? The in-house option is Kevin Frandsen, who used to be regarded as the heir apparent to Ray Durham at second base, but who is now stuck between a rock and a hard place after the Giants re-upped Durham after the 2006 season. I used to be a big disbeliever in Frandsen's usefulness at third, but now that I think about it...why not?

Frandsen's defense isn't going to match Pedro's, but his ability to get on base is almost certain to be light years better. Frandsen is also criticized for being a slap hitter without much power, but, as I've mentioned on this blog before, his career slugging percentage in the minors is .458. That might not translate to a .450 slugging rate in the majors, but for the sake of comparison, Feliz hasn't topped .430 since 2004, and he'll be 33. Frandsen will be 26 and has room for improvement. Frandsen also turned it on in a big way at the end of last year, posting a .906 OPS in September in 73 at-bats.

So, really, it's worth the Giants' time to see what Frandsen can do, especially since 2008 should be regarded as a learning year, of sorts. I think a reasonable expectation would be for Frandsen to turn into Bill Mueller, and we all loved Mueller for a very long time. I'd much rather give Frandsen 300 at-bats, find out he can't play, and then move on to something else rather than go out and pick up some crappy veteran who we know can't play, and then watch Brian Sabean bitch some more when the guy sucks and the fans get testy.

Speaking of crappy veterans, here are some other third base options, in order of the level of rumor buzz surrounding them and the Giants:

Joe Crede: Word was abuzz this morning that the Giants had a deal in place for Crede, the White Sox third baseman, to be made when Crede proves he's healthy in the spring. If the Giants give up anything valuable (like, say, Jonathan Sanchez) for Crede they should be ashamed of themselves. Crede is a terrific fielder, but he's also a terrible hitter who has had one good full season (2006) in his entire career, and even then he put up a poor .323 OBP.

So the equation becomes good glove + bad bat= Feliz part deux? Kind of, but what's scarier is that from 2003-2005 Crede was putting up sub-Felizian numbers while playing in a hitter's park. At least Feliz had the excuse that Mays Field squashes home run numbers. Add in the fact that Crede missed almost all of last year with a back injury, and back injuries for players turning 30 tend to not really go away, and this just seems like the worst possible solution. Why let the cure for third base be worse than the disease?

OT Stupid Side Note: Did you realize that Crede won the Silver Slugger Award in 2006...ahead of ARod? Yeah, that's right. I mean, Crede had a pretty good year, hitting .283/.323/.506 with 30 home runs. ARod hit .290/.392/.523, though, with 35 homers. Yes, that's a bad year by ARod standards, but that still beats Crede's production, especially in OBP. I doubt anybody pays attention to Silver Sluggers anyway, and nor should they, so I guess I shouldn't get too worked up, but sheesh.

Also, did you know that Crede has a cousin who closed for a short period of time in the late-60's? Add that to your collection of useless info to bore people at parties with.

Morgan Ensberg: I love the huge 2005 and I love the 101 walks in 2006, but at this point he's pretty much a train wreck. He'll still draw a walk, but his power seems to be completely gone and a lot of that may have been aided by Houston's short left field porch. As a cheap one-year flyer, he's a better option than Crede, but that's not saying much.

Dallas McPherson: He's completely dropped off of the face of the rumor planet, which is interesting because he'd seem to garner a lot of interest from young, rebuilding teams. Or teams that should be rebuilding, like, say, the Giants. McPherson put up monster numbers in the minor leagues, but his performance in the majors has left a lot to be desired, and now he's an injury-riddled former phenom trying to find his way again. As a spring training invitee battling for a job, he'd be a wonderful guy to give a shot to, because the power potential that made the Angels go gaga once upon a time is likely still there.

Sadly, his agent is Scott Boras, which probably means he's looking for a major league deal, perhaps even for more than one year. Guaranteed money for a guy who is coming off back surgery and who couldn't break a .300 OBP in three major league tryouts? No thanks.

Justin Leone: I've been curious to see what this guy could do if given a real chance in the majors, but it looks like he's destined to go the way of Roberto Petagine. He hit .269/.383/.498 at AAA Fresno last year and the Giants threw him a spring training invite for 2008. He'll be 30 and his ZiPS projections (.233/.319/.375) are totally uninspiring, but he's never been given a good chance and he'd cost virtually nothing to take up a roster spot. His career batting line in the minors is .260/.363/.480, so it seems like he's got something to offer. If the Giants aren't going to give Frandsen a shot, then Leone is my guy.

--It's probably a sad attempt at patting myself on the back, but at least give me some credit for correctly predicting where Feliz would go, sort of.

--One more thing. Bold prediction for 2008: Feliz leads the majors in GIDPs. It would seem to make sense with Pedro's lack of patience and all of the runners he'll have on base for him. You heard it here first.

Labels: happy pete, joe crede, kevin frandsen, positional battles

The sensation I feel right about now after Pedro Feliz's decision to decline the Giants' arbitration offer is somewhat akin to what Chief Bromden must have felt at the end of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, either the book or the film, take your pick. I feel like I've been stuck in a nuthouse for years, with all sorts of loonies surrounding me and one hell of a bitch nurse who won't let me go out on a freaking boat trip. Only instead of the likes of George Sorenson obsessively washing his hands, there's Brian Sabean, poking me with a small plastic baseball bat and jabbering on and on nonsensically about the Giants' need to fill the team with proven vets to surround Barry Bonds. Like it was for poor Chief Broom, it's been a long series of hallucinations of stupid personnel decisions that only a madman could think would improve a baseball team.

Now, with this one move, my eyes have been awakened. I don't feel small anymore. I can grab Pedro Feliz, throw him through the window, and run and run all the way into a new Giants era. "I been away a long time", indeed. I've been away too long from horrible first pitch hacks at sliders two feet off the plate, from weakly hit grounders to the shortstop in crucial late-game situations, from OBP numbers that would make Johnny LeMaster hold his nose.

This, fellow Giants fans, is known as progress. If the Giants really want to move on and get younger and better, jettisoning one of the worst hitters in baseball is a great way to start. Now the Giants can sit back and pray that some dumb team (the Twins perhaps, as they seem to have the same disregard for on-base percentage that the Giants do) will sign Feliz and they can get a draft pick out of the whole debacle. Getting a draft pick for Feliz after his years of suckitude is a little like being given a napkin after having a bag of manure dumped on you, but it'll have to do.

The most talked-about in-house option to replace Feliz is Kevin Frandsen. A lot of Giants fans (including me, at least until recently) are worried that Frandsen won't be a feasible option at third base because his power is lacking for the position. Here's the thing: so is Feliz's. Over the past three years, despite the double digit home runs, Feliz hasn't broken a .430 slugging percentage one time. That's not good. Meanwhile, Frandsen's career slugging in the minor leagues is .458. Meanwhile, it goes without saying that his ability to get to first base is also clearly better.

Bottom line: Frandsen may not be the answer in the long run, but it's worth a shot to find out if he can at least be Bill Mueller. If nothing else, the chances of him being a better player than Feliz, even without the defense, are so high I'd throw all my roulette chips on it. Even last season, Frandsen's .331 OBP dwarfed Feliz's hideous .290 mark, and Frandsen also out-VORPed him 2.9 to -2.7, despite having nearly 250 less at-bats (!).

--Before I get too excited, it must be pointed out that there is still a chance that Feliz could come back to the Giants. In the olden days, if a player refused, or was refused, arbitration with his former team, he could not renegotiate with that team until May 1 of the next year. Under the new CBA, though, starting this offseason, a team can now negotiate with a player any time it wants after the arbitration deadline.

The only difference would be that, if Feliz does come crawling back, it'd be on the Giants' terms. Like, the team could say "here's $2 million to be a part-time player and defensive specialist, take it or leave it." Which is the way it should have been since forever.

Labels: happy pete, ken kesey is rolling in his grave, kevin frandsen