Aug 16 2008
A Win-Winn day for the Giants and their future
Buster Posey won the Golden Spikes Award in 2008 for the best college amateur player in the country.
It was an exciting day for the San Francisco Giants full of some great pitching performances and a glimpse of their future. The biggest news was the Giants signing top pick Buster Posey before the deadline and locking him up to a 6.2 million deal. That is more than this year’s top overall pick Beckham and 200,000 more than last year’s top pick Matt Wieters. Overall, Giants fans have to be excited about this kid and for our future. He is predicted to be one of those rising stars and a player that can help a team win like a Joe Mauer for instance, with more power. With Florida State, Posey led the NCAA in batting average (.472), on base percentage (.572) and slugging percentage (.908). He also led Florida State with six saves and did not give up an earned run in eight appearances. This kid’s playing days as a shortstop might be over, however, his catching days with the Giants are coming soon. Jokingly, he might be our setup guy too in the future. Just kidding. Why not, this kid can play all nine positions like he did in a college game last year and also hit a grand slam in that games. The future is set and the sky is the limit for Buster Posey.
It was a win- Winn day for the Giants as Matt Cain put on another solid pitching performance and threw seven innings of one run ball to lead the Giants to a 5-1 victory. Winn carried the offensive side of the things for the Giants as he went 4-4 with a run scored, two RBI’s and finished a triple short of the cycle due to a ground-rule double that barely cleared the fence off the bounce. Winn has been on a tear this month and is the hottest hitter in the National League. There is speculation that Winn could be traded in the offseason with the emergence of Nate Schierholtz and said to be major league ready. However, it would have to be a sweet deal for the Giants to trade Winn and would have to receive a top or good mid-level prospect in return and a proven reliever. Otherwise, we have to keep him. Being deep in the outfield really can’t hurt us. And Winn hasn’t been underachieving as one could say for the Giants. He has quietly been the most consistent player for the Giants these past few seasons. This season he is hitting .302 avg. 6 HR 52 RBI 31 doubles, one triple, and 22 stolen bases. And he plays some stellar defense in right field. However, it’s a win-Winn situation whether we keep Randy Winn or trade him for some top prospect in the offseason and pass the torch to Nate Schierholtz who is tearing up minor league pitching and in the Olympics.
Another piece of our future is southpaw pitcher Madison Bumgarner who just threw a dominating six inning outing, where he struck out 12 guys in a 6-0 win. This guy is a flat out stud and he is left-handed. Let’s get this kid on the fast track and promote him to Double-A next season and be ready to be in the rotation in 2010. Cause in 2009, there is no need for him in the rotation. We are kind of clogged up there. Our bullpen could use some help though. Nonetheless, Bumgarner has to be untouchable in any trades in the future as he is 13-3 with a 1.52 E.R.A, which tops in the South Atlantic League. This kid is for real just like Tim Lincecum was. He was the 10th pick for the Giants in 2007 like Lincecum was the 10th pick in 2006. Hence, our future is set with Bumgarner and loaded with other pitching prospects.
To close this day out, Brad Hennessey, last year’s Giants Closer and started this year as a middle reliever and was ineffective and demoted to Triple-A and became a starter again, pitched a complete game gem against the Portland Beavers in a 5-3 win and went 1 for 4 at the plate. Overall, it was a good day for the Giants and their bright future!
