Extra Baggs: Bobby Evans calls Alejandro De Aza an important addition, and a 14-inning loss underscored the Giants' need - Giants Extra

Another lower tier pitching prospect is moved. A LHP to boot. Kendry Flores, who was moved earlier in the year may get some innings with the big club before the year is out, so perhaps this will accelerate Ysla's arrival in the bigs. De Aza gives the bench a little more length. Bird has worked out well so far, so maybe we're scouting bats better on the professional level than we do on the amateur level.

from Giants Extra:
Extra Baggs: Bobby Evans calls Alejandro De Aza an important addition, and a 14-inning loss underscored the Giants' need - Giants Extra:

In case you missed it earlier, minor league lefty Luis Ysla is the player going to Boston for De Aza. And outfielder Ryan Lollis was designated for assignment to clear a 40-man space.

'via Blog this'

One of my personal prospect favorites, RHP Clayton Blackburn is making a push for some starts with the Giants and seriously, can he be any worse than the back half of Madison and The Broken Down Boys? 

Sorry, but you could see Peavy's breakdown coming even while he was pitching pretty well in the first five. Some loud outs plus the fatigue of an aging veteran was just enough to ignite the Dodgers rally that took the lead from the Gigantes.

Step 1 ) Bring up Blackburn Step 2) Give Blackburn some of the starts we're burning on all these automatic L's. What have you got to lose?

Kendry Flores is the cost of replacing Panda

So now we learn the true cost of losing Panda, the replacement cost.

Juan C. Rodriguez ‏@JCRMarlinsbeat  8m8 minutes ago

#Marlins getting RHPs Kendry Flores and Luis Castillo from #Giants for Casey McGehee.

McGehee gives about the same production offensively, probably a bit of a drop-off defensively. He also comes cheaper at $3.5M versus Pablo's $8.5M or so last year. Maybe we can bring back Vogie now.

Kendry Flores is going to break a lot of hearts in Giant Prospect Prognostication-ville. He was a favorite of the stats crowd for his K/9 - BB/9  efficiency of about 4:1. He may not arrive until 2016 anyway, so a potential piece of the future leaves the franchise. Detractors would point to a bit of a drop off moving from Low-A to High-A as a bit of a warning sign against his chances of making the big squad. In Florida, he has more of a chance to advance. Luis Castillo is a non-prospect IMO.

from mlb.com
http://sanfrancisco.giants.mlb.com/team/player.jsp?player_id=572309#gameType='R'&sectionType=career&statType=2&season=2014&level='ALL'

The big club starts out 4-1, and the Poco Gigantes strut their stuff

SF Giants No. 20 prospect Kendry Flores | 1st start of 2014

 connerglennpenfold

It's good to be a Giants fans. This ConnorGlennPenfold has a nice YouTube channel going on there. His clips last longer than some of my MiLB streaming games, and I paid for those.....but anyway, thanks CGP for an extended look at the Poco Gigantes.

This kid Flores has had a small, but growing, number of advocates for what seems like years now. I can see why. He has a nice mix of pitches, what appears to be a smooth, low-stress, repeatable delivery, which means he will throw strike after strike after strike and he will likely do it for year after year after year. 

He is twenty-two year old, and begins the year in High-A San Jose, so he's likely a couple of years away. But you throw this guy in there with Clayton Blackburn (also at High-A) and Kyle Crick (AA - Richmond) and the Giants will have solid pitching for some time. This kid seems to have a good feel for pitching and his advanced stats reflect that, Flores sports a career 5.0 K/BB ratio and it was 8.0+ at Augusta (Low-A) last year. 

Blach and Blackburn have similar stat lines to Flores which to me indicates they are very advanced as pitchers rather than just simply throwers. Some things about the flame-throwers like Hembree and Crick, mainly a high level of walks, pose some red flags as far as whether you can put the label of "future-closer" or "top of the rotation starter" on them. In other words, Crick and Hembree are beginning to worry me just a wee bit. 

KENDRY FLORES  A   San Francisco Giants 

Born: November 24, 1991  (22.133)

PlaceAzua, Dominican Republic

Ht/Wt 6-2 / 175

Bats/Throws Right / Right

Drafted:Signed as UDFA 2010 by SF

Richmond might be the rotation to watch this year for Giants prospect watchers, much like San Jose was last year.  

This is a look at the top pitching prospects in the Giants organization. I have to admit, Stratton and Agosta in High-A is a concern as well. Given there age and experience, AA seems like more the spot for them, but WDIK......?

AAA - Fresno

Edwin Escobar LHP 

Heath Hembree RHP 

Mike Kickham LHP

Jake Dunning RHP

Dan Runzler LHP

AA - Richmond 

Kyle Crick RHP

Clayton Blackburn RHP 

Ty Blach  LHP

Aldaberto Mejia LHP

Derek Law RHP

Josh Osich LHP

Cody Hall RHP


High-A  San Jose 

Kendry Flores RHP 

Chris Stratton RHP

Martin Agosta RHP

Any way you look at it, that's a lot of pitching and nicely split up between LHP / RHP, starters and relievers, and HS pitchers versus college pitchers.