Ex-Giant Conor Gillaspie Finding Success with White Sox

Now we know...the rest of the story. Sometimes it takes getting traded or released for a prospect to gain the perspective and attitude adjustment necessary to succeed. Good for Conor, I always liked him as a prospect but he was blocked with The G-men as long as Sandoval was there.


from SF Gate:

Ex-Giant Conor Gillaspie Finding Success with White Sox:

The White Sox were able to tap into his talent in ways the Giants could not during his six years in their system.

Gillaspie, 26, admitted this week that his immaturity held him back in San Francisco. He was a supplemental first-round pick in 2008 who got a September call-up that year and rubbed his teammates the wrong way with a misplaced sense of entitlement.

Gillaspie said he forced himself into an attitude adjustment after the trade that helped him on and off the field. He also credited the added maturity of having a child.

"After I was traded here I decided I was going to keep quiet and just listen to people so I could create a different perception of myself," Gillaspie said. "I also told myself that I don't have to be a superstar. I just have to do what I'm capable of."

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A bunch of players were claimed off waivers today | HardballTalk

Soooo.....we lose Surkamp to make room on the roster for Morse, when we still have Brett Pill on the roster, even though we've sold his contract to a Korean team? It's good to be the Giants GM!! The White Sox seem to be more enamored with Giants spare parts than the Giants have been of late. Surkamp joins Conor Gillaspie at the Second Chance Saloon that is the South Side of Chicago. It beats getting shipped off to Korea......maybe.....Do they have a Hawk Harrelson equivalent in Korea? That would be sweet.

from Hardball Talk:
A bunch of players were claimed off waivers today | HardballTalk:

The White Sox claimed left-hander Eric Surkamp off waivers from the Giants

Surkamp was hit hard in his lone start with the Giants this season, but he had a 2.80 ERA and 71/23 K/BB ratio in 86 2/3 innings over 16 starts between High-A San Jose and Triple-A Fresno. This was his first year back from Tommy John surgery. He’s not a hard-thrower, usually sitting in the 85-89 mph range, but has averaged 10.0 K/9 and 2.5 BB/9 in the minors.

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Giants pitching carries the load so far

Zito and Bumgarner are carrying the load right now while Cain, Vogie and Timmy scuffle. I suspect that there will always be two or three of the five going strong throughout the season. Once the playoffs hit, you're down to 3-4 starters anyway.

On the hitting front, how about that .500 hitting Nick Noonan? Three for five in his one start and three for seven in mop-up/ pinch-hitting duty. He's doing what I envisioned Conor Gillaspie would do with the bat in his limited appearances. It's good to see that when opportunity knocked, Nick answered the door. I'm not sure Conor was given that much of an opportunity, but.....maybe here in Chicago.

Note: Gillaspie @ .429 in the early going for the Pale Hose:
http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/players/8378/gamelog;_ylt=A2KJ3CYNRm1RKFMAUtVNbK5_

2013 NL WEST STANDINGS

Team	W	L	Pct	GB
San Francisco	9	4	.692	--
Colorado	8	4	.667	--
Arizona	8	4	.667	--
LA Dodgers	7	6	.538	2.0
San Diego	3	10	.231	6.0

Medical Watch:

• 1B Brett Pill (right knee surgery in March 2013), who had been on the 15-day disabled list retroactive to March 22, was activated April 15 and optioned to the Triple-A Fresno Grizzlies.
• INF Tony Abreu (left knee strain) went on the 15-day disabled list retroactive to March 22. He missed most of spring training.
• RHP Eric Surkamp (Tommy John surgery in July 2012) went on the 15-day disabled list retroactive to March 22. He is unlikely to return before midseason.
  
  
  On the farm, I got a chance to see # 1 prospect Kyle Crick pitch on MiLB.tv. You can see very early where the Matt Cain comparisons come from and also why he currently is in Class A ball. First couple of innings, lights out dominant. An inning or two later, the plates on wheels and the walks follow. He seems to have trouble maintaining / repeating his mechanics, which will come with 300-500 innings. So he's a couple of years away, but appears to be worth the wait. 
  
  
  San Jose is loaded with starters / pitching in general. Edwin Escobar looks sharp from the left side. Good stuff, good control. Good feel for pitching. Then Crick and Clayton Blackburn, who I have not seen to date but appears to have a feel for pitching like the Rays Jeremy Hellickson. Efficient and gets guys out while hitting bats. If that wasn't enough you have LHP's Ty Blach and Adalberto Mejia, who scuffled a bit in the early going. 
  
  
  That's not even including LHP's Josh Osich and Bryce Bandilla. The Giants seem to be taking the "you can never have enough pitching" philosophy and expanding it to "you can never have enough LHP".  
  
  
  I was surprised somewhat to see college pitchers Martin Agosta and Chris Stratton in Low-A Augusta, but given the logjam in San Jose, maybe not too much. 
  
  
  Working up the chain, Richmond (AA) seems a bit prospect barren by comparison. At least from the mound. RHP Jacob Dunnington will be interesting to watch. Twenty-one years old and pitching AA could be a challenge. It will be interesting to see if he maintains his 10+ K/9 rate.  At the plate, Richmond is the place to be for the future Giants. C Andrew Susac is off to a good start. He may be blocked at the big league level by this Posey kid. The IF is loaded with 1B Ricky Oropesa, 2B Joe Panik, SS Ehire Adrianza and 3B Adam Duvall. The corners are potential power bats, have to see if they hit for high enough average without a plethora of K's. Adrianza has the glove, his bat may keep him down and he may be blocked by the Crawford kid in SF. Joe Panik is interesting. His stat line indicates he is the most prepared to hit at the higher levels. He may have to move to 2B and he should be able to handle the move. If his stats continue at AA-AAA he should be in SF in some capacity very soon. 
  At Fresno, all eyes remain on OF's Gary Brown and Francisco Peguero. I was surprised the Giants moved SS Carter Jurica this high but he looks pretty good at SS so far. The pitchers to watch here are LHP Mike Kickham, RHP's Jake Dunning, Chris Heston and future closer RHP Heath Hembree. 

When the Giants come to and leave town...the life of a big-time, big-league prospect

This must have been a really good team. This card shows how difficult it can be to project young minor league talent.

Nick Noonan was beginning to take the career path of Conor Gillaspie. Good LH bat, solid enough defensively, but little opportunity to crack the big club. Sliding down and off prospect lists left and right on the way towards earning a one-way to Palooka-ville ( or Chicago in the case of Gillaspie ).

from When the Giants come to town blog:
When the Giants Come to Town...:

The Valdez move leaves Nick Noonan in the driver's seat for the last IF roster spot, although the Giants will undoubtedly be looking intently at waiver wires as spring training winds down.

The Giants also released minor league OF Wendell Fairley who was part of the 2007 draft class.  The current scorecard on the 6 first and supplemental first round picks from that draft:

Madison Bumgarner- Currently Giants #2 starter and quickly becoming a star in the major leagues.

Tim Alderson- traded in 2009 for Freddy Sanchez who did not help the Giants in 2009, but came with an option that helped the Giants re-sign him.  He was an important member of the 2010 World Series Championship squad.

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Tim Alderson made an appearance this spring with the Pirates, evoking memories of the days when there did not seem to be a clear consensus as to who would be more successful in the professional ranks. The events of the past couple of years seem to indicate that Bumgarner was the man all along. But I'm not sure it was so clear 4-5 years ago.

The same thing with Wendell Fairley. It shows how quickly "can't miss" can go to "whatever happened to?"

His five-tool potential never really translated into actual performance on the field. Some big hits and big misses, that's for sure.

Giants trade Conor Gillaspie to White Sox - Yahoo! Sports

Not much return for a decent prospect but Gillaspie was never given much of an opportunity in the bigs with the G-men, maybe a change of scenery and all that. Decent enough bat and his numbers were always good enough in the minors to indicate he would be a capable ML hitter. The knock now may be that he is considered somewhat of a four-A player, although 40 AB's is not enough to make a definitive call. We'll see what happens but he clearly wasn't going to get another look is SF.

from Yahoo Sports:
Giants trade Conor Gillaspie to White Sox - Yahoo! Sports:

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. (AP) -- The San Francisco Giants have traded third baseman Conor Gillaspie to the Chicago White Sox for minor league pitcher Jeff Soptic.

The 25-year-old Gillaspie spent parts of three seasons with the Giants, hitting .205 with a home run and four RBIs in 29 games and 44 at-bats.

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Will Brandon Belt be the 2011 version of Buster Posey?

In praise of Brandon Belt, who may be the Giants next premiere prospect. He rises to the top of my list, ahead of the seemingly forgotten man, Conor Gilaspie.

from espn.com

Jason Grey is a scout for ESPN, and said this about Belt: "Having… [seen Belt] for the first couple of weeks of the AFL. There’s no doubt in my mind Belt is legit and a potential middle–of-the-order threat in a big league lineup capable of hitting for average and power." He went on to say "I’ve liked Belt’s Approach, the quality of his at-bats, his ability to generate power without over swinging and his ability to go to the opposite field with some juice. He’s played good defense at first base and has showed good athleticism, enough that I’ve changed my mind to think he might not look out of place should the Giants choose to play him in left field, where he dabbled a little bit in the minors this year."

and this analysis from Project Prospect by Adam Foster:
http://projectprospect.com/article/2010/08/14/first-look-scouting-brandon-belt

Brandon Belt first caught my eye during the 2009 College World Series. But it was largely because he had been one of the University of Texas' best hitters. Despite a 6-foot-5, 205-pound frame, the lefty was more of a gap-to-gap threat than a slugger.

...I see an athletic hitter with little head movement who does a good job staying back with his upper body then explodes his hips through the ball. Belt does all this while maintaining a level swing path and keeping his barrel in the zone for a good amount of time. What's more, he displays an impressive amount of wrist strength, accelerating his hands through the ball as he makes contact.

Good stuff.

Doug Mapson, the Giants Coordinator of Amateur Scouting, gave a glowing report on Belt to John Klima of Baseball Beginnings. The 29-year scout who is best known for signing an amateur named Greg Maddux called Belt an "emerging young hitter" last summer.

"Here’s a guy who is 6-5, 220, who is a good athlete and a good fielder, has a good arm, he’s just learning to hit and he’s had moderate success," Mapson said. "I think all the upside is in front of this guy."

"We’ll see what kind of offensive player he becomes, but anyone who thinks they can solve hitting in just a few years of amateur ball is sorely mistaken," Mapson continued.

So far, so good.
- Good athlete
- good base runner
- selective hitter who works the count
- advance hitting approach
- gap to gap hitter with power potential down the road

Sound like the early reviews that came in on Buster Posey. The only question mark seems to be how well does he hit at the AAA level and where does he play once he gets to SF? It seems like 1B and LF are the possible options. The 1B Belt - LF Huff option seems most likely, but it all depends on how the returning vets perform as well.

There's likely not as much of a push within the organization to elevate Belt as rapidly as Posey given the respective bonus payments invested in each player. Posey was a mega-bonus, top of the first-rounder versus Belt drafted as a fifth-rounder. Given the success that Posey enjoyed, there is a natural inclination to get giddy and hope that lightning strikes twice. It will be better for Belt and the organization if they can afford to be patient in Belt's development, but the comparisons -- both what the eyes and the statistics tell us -- are striking.

Stat.......Posey....Belt
K/PA.......0.089....0.159
BB/PA......0.178....0.150
OPS........1.058....1.116
K/BB.......0.500....1.061

Posey's numbers were top of the line in all four categories, generally a solid indicator of future success. Belt's progress seems to indicate that perhaps lightning can strike twice for the Giant. Perhaps sometime around the middle of the season, Belt can move up and contribute a sorely needed left-handed bat to the Giants lineup.

Scanning the farm system and the development of the pitching prospects, it may be a lean year in 2011. Looking further down the line there are some RHP prospects that bear watching. Jose Casilla, Seth Rosin and Jason Stoffel seem as if they could appear on the MLB roster towards the end of 2011 ready to contribute. Rosin and Stoffel are solid, if unspectacular, prospects with Casilla displaying perhaps the highest ceiling. Zack Wheeler may be two or three years away and the early returns were not gaudy, but he has done nothing to downgrade the opinion that he will be a top of the rotation starter down the road.

WHERE DO THE GIANTS GO FROM HERE?

Now that the smoke has cleared from the initial free-agent signing blitz and the Rule 5 Draft has been completed, where do the Giants currently stand going into next year and how can they improve their chances before spring training?

The rapid-fire signings of Jeremy Affeldt, Edgar Renteria and Randy Johnson plugged some obvious weak spots, but many remain. First base, Third base and Second base are still question marks. Geez, that's all of the bases!!! At best, we have elevated to a team that may challenge the .500 mark. That leaves fans hoping that like last year, .500 is good enough to challenge for the division crown. Maybe GM Brian Sabean should set his sights a little higher.

The Rule 5 Draft cleared a few items up. First, what was gained. The Giants picked RHP Luis Perdomo from the Cardinals in the Major League phase of the draft, which means Perdomo has to be on the roster next year. He's a 25 year old relief pitcher, 6-0, 170 lbs. with a reported 93-94 MPH fastball and a "dastardly" slider according to Baseball America that allowed him to hold RH hitters to .153 average in the minors last year. A situational reliever. Maybe means bye-bye to Kevin Correia, Merkin Valdez or Jack Taschner.

The Giants lost OF Ben Copeland to the A's in the Major League phase. He was a AA player at Connecticut who was dropping off the radar as a prospect due to his age (25). They lost C Elio Sarmiento to Texas and 2B Kyle Haines to Philadelphia in the AAA phase. Not a highly rated prospect in the bunch.

The Giants did not lose 3B Jesus Guzman (24), recently acquired from the A's, after knocking around the last couple of years in AA with the A's and Mariners. Guzman's bat has blossomed in Venezuela this winter enough to attract other teams attention as a Rule 5 prospect. The fact that he was not snatched may indicate that his recent development is considered a bit of an anomaly, but he should replace 3B Ryan Rohlinger as a challenger to either Conor Gilaspie or Pablo Sandoval at third base.

As for the current roster and positions, here's my current take:

Starting Pitching: STRENGTH
Lincecum, Cain, Randy Johnson and Barry Zito backed up by the pick a lefty combo of Noah Lowry and Johnathan Sanchez (loser traded?)

No need to look at RHP Paul Byrd as an option anymore.

Relief Pitching: STRENGTH
Brian Wilson as the closer, backed by Affeldt, Bobby Howry, Sergio Romo, Alex Hinshaw and Perdomo with Taschner, Valdez and Correia looking for new addresses.

Affeldt signing removes LHP Will Ohlman as a free-agent to look at. If closer were an issue Jason Isringhausen and maybe Trevor Hoffman would be options, but too pricey given the mileage IMO. Howry removes Braden Looper as a potential signee.

CATCHING: STRENGTH
Either Molina and Sandoval split duties (close to ideal) or Buster Posey proves he is the real deal in spring training and forces a Molina trade (be still my heart <3). I think we are OK here going forward.

INFIELD: NIGHTMARISH
The signing of Edgar Renteria takes care of the need at SS. I could live with the winner of Eugenio Velez and Manny Burris at 2B (both are switch hitters) with Kevin Frandsen maybe in the mix as well. Unless Conor Gilaspie is the REAL DEAL at 3B, this is a problem. I'd settle for the second coming of Bill Mueller or even Al Gallagher at this point. Guzman and possibly Sandoval or Frandesen could compete here as well. I'm rooting for Gilaspie on the basis of upside. First base will be a glorious competition between Travis Ishakawa, Sandoval, John Bowker and journeyman Josh Phelps (that's how bad it is).

Signing Joe Crede would help 3B for now, but would delay Gilaspie's development. Sean Casey might help at 1B or Erik Hinske. Pat Burrell could help either at 1B-3B or LF. Hinske is a flex player as well.

OUTFIELD: SOMNOLENT
Freddie Lewis in LF, Aaron Rowand fixed in CF and Randy Winn in RF with Nate Schierholtz competing for a starting spot in right or left and Dave Roberts cashing $6.5M per to backup. Between his salary and Zito's $14.5M, we're paying $21M in salary to guys who suck and are living off their glory days.

Burrell in LF would be an improvement. Bobby Abreu will likely end up elsewhere. Eric Hinske would be the economic option. Burrell and Abreu would lend some credibility to the worst OF group in MLB.

Well, there you go. Get to work Mr. Sabean, the clock is ticking. It won't be long until we hear those magic words, "Pitchers and Catchers Report".