In what may be one of the toughest end to spring training, Bruce Bochy and Brian Sabean have the unenviable position to dole out the final spots to the regular season roster, leaving more than a few deserving players off the list.
Consider this... if the Giants are to keep the normal 12 man pitching staff, one of the following position players must be dropped from the regular season roster:
Aaron Rowand
Travis Ishikawa
Nate Schierholtz
In addition, only 1 of these pitchers will get the 12th spot on that pitching staff:
Jeff Suppan
Ryan Vogelsong
Guiermo Mota
Dan Runzler
First the Position Players... please state your case below:
Rowand: Really? Go ahead and release me... you still owe me $24 million til 2013. Besides I'm your only backup at Center Field and somehow I still have god-like numbers for a random streak of 2 weeks every season... who would give that up?!
Shierholtz: But who would all the girls fawn over when I'm gone?
- Posey: *ahem*
Shierholtz: Dammit...
Ishikawa: I'm your only backup 1st baseman right now! Its not like you have a rookie of the year candidate who can play 1st base in the farm system!
- Belt: *ahem*
Ishikawa: Dammit...
As for the pitchers, I think its a very good idea to keep one of the two long relievers aka 6th starters on roster (Suppan/Vogelsong). One point that has been continuously shoved down our throats is the fact that none of our starting 5 last year had any time missed due to injury. Having the insurance in a 6th starter like Suppan or Vogelsong would help the Giants in just that situation.
Mota has been inconsistent, but I personally don't have a problem with him in our bullpen. In fact I sometimes think he's more reliable than one Santiago Casilla... Runzler is still young and can spend some time in AAA until we decide one of the bullpen regulars no longer deserves their spot.
Laws of the Day
Bumgarner pitched 4 flawless innings of baseball yesterday, allowing only 1 runner, but picking him off so that he faced the minimum amount of batters. Oh and he also struck out 6 of them.
Minimum Batters for 4 innings: 12
Strikeouts: 6
6/12 = 50%
I agree with keeping Mota. But between Rowand, Ishi, and Nate...gosh I don't want to see any of them go. At least they got a World Series out of it:)
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