More love for Buster

John Sickels of Minor League Ball.com agrees that Buster Posey is the Giants top prospect. Here are his rankings of the top 10 --

1) Buster Posey, C, Grade A: No-brainer. All he needs is playing time.
2) Madison Bumgarner, LHP, Grade A-: Almost went with B+, but strikeout rates aren't everything. More concerned about dropping velocity. May still go with B+ eventually.
3) Thomas Neal, OF, Grade B: Solid all-around hitter, saw him in Arizona Fall League and he convinced me bat is for real.
4) Zack Wheeler, RHP, Grade B: I'm hesitant to give a grade this high to any high school pitcher without a pro track record, but I really like Wheeler.
5) Roger Kieschnick, OF, Grade B-: Love the power and he's not just a one-dimensional slugger, but the high strikeout rate and low walk rate is concerning. How will he transition to Double-A?
6) Tommy Joseph, C, Grade B-: Have to see where he fits defensively but scouting reports about the bat are very positive.
7) Dan Runzler, LHP, Grade B-: Very impressive relief arm, if he throws enough strikes.
8) Waldis Joaquin, RHP, Grade B-: Another impressive relief arm, if he throws enough strikes.
9) Jason Stoffel, RHP, Grade B-: Another impressive relief arm, could be a bargain as a fourth rounder.
10) Francisco Peguero, OF, Grade B-: Difficult to grade, speed and high batting average are positives, but walk rate is way too low. Borderline C+.

Buster leads the list

Baseball America lists Buster Posey as the Giants' top prospect followed by Madison Bumgarner. Here are the top 10 --

1. Buster Posey, c
2. Madison Bumgarner, lhp
3. Zack Wheeler, rhp
4. Thomas Neal, of
5. Dan Runzler, lhp
6. Tommy Joseph, c
7. Roger Kieschnick, of
8. Ehire Adrianza, ss
9. Brandon Crawford, ss
10. Francisco Peguero, of

Here's part of Andrew Baggarly's analysis -- Bochy and Sabean have reputations for favoring veterans and giving short leashes to unestablished players, so their extensions were unpopular with some Giants fans. Their critics will monitor the Posey situation carefully.Managing partner Bill Neukom lauded the farm system's 411-286 (.590) record, by far the best among major league organizations. Four of San Francisco's six U.S.-based affiliates reached the playoffs, with high Class A San Jose and short-season Salem-Keizer winning league titles.Neukom said the Giants would continue to invest heavily in player development and emphasize homegrown talent. They committed $3.3 million to high school righthander Zack Wheeler, whom they tabbed with the sixth overall pick in the draft. Scouting director John Barr also drafted a couple of power hitters in high school catcher Tommy Joseph and Louisville third baseman Chris Dominguez. Two prolific sluggers at San Jose, outfielders Thomas Neal and Roger Kieschnick, offered further hope at striking a balance in a traditionally pitching-heavy system.

Bye bye Bud

Bud Selig reiterates his plans to retire after the 2012 season, according to MLB.com and the Chicago Tribune. Key "accomplishments" of the Selig era --

1. Incompetence at the bargaining table leads to cancelation of the 1994 World Series.
2. Decides that All-Star game should be a tie
3. Disgraceful conduct toward Barry Bonds -- in essence, declaring him guilty prior to trial -- during the breaking of the buddy Hank Aaron's home run record.
4. Allowing extensive conflicts of interest --his daughter owning the Brewers, the 2-year ownership by MLB of the Expos....

I could go on but why bother?

The Panda projections

Jimmy Hascup at Bleacher Report has an interesting post about whether Pablo Sandoval is a long-term star. He's pretty optimistic in the short term, even if the team continues to surround him with lousy offensive players. Here are the numbers again --

572 At Bats
.330 Batting Average (189 Hits)
25 Home Runs
90 RBI
79 Runs
Five Stolen Bases
.387 On Base Percentage
.556 Slugging Percentage
.353 Batting Average on Balls in Play

Here are the key points --
-- After taking a look at those numbers, remember one important element: Sandoval played for the fifth worst offense in baseball. Without him, Giants’ lineup would’ve probably had trouble holding its own in Triple-A. That’s how bad it is. And it makes those season numbers that more astonishing.

--If you’re looking for a player with some strike-zone discipline, then you’ve come to the wrong place.Sandoval’s most incredible stat is his tendency to swing at pitches outside of the strike-zone, which he does over 41 percent of the time, second highest in baseball. Then you see that he connects on over 75 percent of them and you can’t refrain from saying, “Wow.” There are other hitters with higher outside-the-zone contact rates, but none of them swing at balls nearly the amount Kung Fu Pando does.

--Sandoval’s average is obviously his biggest asset, though he is beginning to show some serious run-producing abilities. While the average came courtesy of a high .353 BABIP, Sandoval had a .367 rate his rookie season, and one near .340 in the minors.

--There’s definitely no reason to think his success this season was based purely on luck. The one thing owners should feel confident about is his ability to sustain the batting average.
A groundball rate in the minors over 47 percent and a line-drive rate of 15 percent (though it is over 20 percent in the majors), provides a great basis for keeping the average over .300. Especially as it seems Sandoval is growing (no pun intended) as a hitter, he’s turning some of those groundballs into line drives and those line drives into flyballs.

--Despite the absurd swing rates on balls out of the zone, Sandoval doesn’t strikeout that much, just 238 in the minors and a 13.5 percent rate in the majors. He also walked 52 times this year, which is eye-raising considering how impatient he can be.

--The possibilities are endless for Sandoval, if the Giants had some formidable pieces in their lineup. But of course they don’t, and unless they do something drastic this offseason, Sandoval will have to again be the team’s offense.Sandoval’s value will be dulled, as long as the lineup remains as feeble as it is now. Regardless, I expect him to have another excellent, top-5 third basemen-worthy season.
My projections: .333 AVG, 26 HR, 97 RBI, four SB, 87 R.

Big bucks for Tim the Wizard

John Shea of the San Francisco Chronicle reports the details on how the Tim Lincecum arbitration case will play out. Shea points out that Tim won't be a free agent until after the 2013 season. My guess is that Tim will settle for something in the range of $14 million a year. But that's just a guess.

With hindsight being 20-20, it's easy to see the smart thing would have been to sign him to a multi-year deal after last season -- say 4 years for $35 million. Instead, Brian Sabean continued to focus on fading talents last offseason and signed Edgar Renteria for $20 million rather than make things solid with a future Hall of Famer. Yet another reason why Sabean should be fired.

Dodgers hit with cash crunch?

The best news about 2010 for Giants fans continues to come from Los Angeles, where Jamie McCourt's bitter divorce battle appears to be preventing the Dodgers from getting any better. Her estranged husband, Dodger owner Frank McCourt claims in his latest divorce filing that he's got little real cash and recently had "only" $167,000 in his checking account. Bill Shaikin of the LA Times says the liquidity problems "raises questions" about the team's ability to make offseason deals.

Orange and Black thanks

Whatever shortcomings the Giants front office has in evaluating talent, they do more than OK in terms of supporting worthwhile causes. Brian Wilson, Stretch, Aaron Rowand, Jeremy Affeldt, Barry Zito and The Big Unit are all mentioned as public service contributors in this article by Chris Haft for MLB.com.

Happy Thanksgiving to all.

Ishikawa makes Topps rookie team

Travis Ishikawa gets a postseason honor, apparently for being the only rookie first-baseman who got a significant amount of playing time while not being horrible this season. Just the same, he wasn't exactly tearing up the league since the Giants felt they needed to trade Scott Barnes for Ryan Garko in late July.

He had 363 plate appearances and took 30 walks, got 9 HRs and 39 RBIs -- really unimpressive for a first-baseman. Still, he's not as bad as starting Jose Vizcaino and he's only 26. And his fielding looks decent --he only made three errors all season. And I haven't heard any word that the Giants are going to try bringing Garko back -- who was significantly worse than Ishikawa while in the Orange and Black for 127 plate appearances with 2 homers and 12 RBIs.

Once again, the Giants have inadequate production from first base -- a constant refrain of the Sabean era. Frankly, we would have done better getting Will Clark to un-retire. The Thrill's only 45.

Damon in the Orange and Black?

SI's Jon Heyman reports in his listing of the top 50 free agents that the Giants are interested in Johnny Damon, who he rates as the 5th best of the current crop. Here's his analysis of the guy my wife called "Damon of Nazareth" when he was with the Bosox -- Agent Scott Boras suggested a four-year deal would be appropriate in light of Jorge Posada's deal of that length a couple winters ago. The Yankees are believed willing to give him two years, but it will be interesting to see whether they compromise at three. He is believed to badly want to stay but will have outside interest at least from the Giants.

Seventh place for the Panda

Pablo Sandoval came in 7th place in the NL MVP voting today, finishing with 89 votes just ahead of Chase Utley. Albert Pujols won a well-deserved third MVP. Tim Lincecum came in 18th tied with Shane Victorino.

Chris Haft of MLB.com filed a report noting that Jeremy Affeldt got a single vote.

Torrealba in the Orange and Black?

Chris Haft of MLB.com reports that the Giants have contacted Pablo Torrealba about signing as a free agent who would presumably back up Buster Posey. He went 14 for 34 against the Giants this year.

MY SNARKY REACTION -- it's time to go after a difference-making bat rather than some guy whose stats are inflated by playing in Denver.

Buster Vs. Bengie

I'm always slightly amazed at how little coverage the Arizona Fall League gets but I suppose sportswriters have other tasks with basketball and football in full swing. In any case, I looked up how Buster Posey had done during the AFL. The answer is that he didn't exactly set the league on fire with 16 for 71 and a .225 batting average, 12 RBIs, 2 doubles and 2 homers, and a .338 SLG. Still, he did show pretty good strike zone judgment and get 13 walks to give him a decent .345 onbase percentage.

Why do I say decent? It turns out there were only two guys on the 2009 Giants MLB roster who got a better OBP -- the Panda at .387 and Fred Lewis at .348, followed by Andres Torres at .343. Benjie had an abysmal .285 after getting only 13 walks all year -- the same number Buster got in 84 PAs in Arizona. A lot of what's been written so far this offseason is that the Giants shouldn't give Buster the job automatically, but given the lack of available $$$ (thanks to Zito, Rowand and Renteria), I say let him play. The quicker he learns how to play in the MLB, the better. It's been suggested that the 37-year-old Pudge would make sense, but I feel obliged to point out that he had an even lower OBP than Bengie last year at .280. That MVP he won was back in the 20th Century.

Bengie has gotten a total of 184 walks in 4,743 ABs in his unending search for the perfect fastball. His failure to get on base has meant a lot of extra outs and killed rallies. The 2009 OBP is down there with Chris Davis of the Rangers, Rick Ankiel of the Cards and Casey Kotchman of the Bosox at 522nd of the 970 guys who got up to bat last year in the MLB -- all guys who didn't get anywhere near Bengie's total of 504 plate appearances.

It's a little odd but the last name on the list is Brian Wilson, who went 0-for-2. Sandoval is often mentioned as having a "free-swinging" approach but he managed to get four times as many walks as Benjie with 52 this year.