New Players, Same Old Giants

The Giants lost 4-3 today to the Astros in Houston.  Same old story: Cain pitched pretty well, but gave up homeruns to Geoff Blum (Blum is the definition of a mediocre player, but he’s always worn out the Giants; at least he also hits the Dodgers hard) and Kaz Matsui (he’s good for about one homerun every 75 ABs), and the Giants scored only three runs on eleven hits, because they only drew two walks and only hit two doubles, no triples and no homeruns.  Hunter Pence also threw out Renteria at home trying to score from second on a single.

The Giants made a couple of moves in the last few days, putting Andres Torres on the DL with a hamstring pull, recalling John Bowker, and sending Ryan Sadowski back to AAA Fresno (so who makes the next fifth start — my guess is Joe Martinez, who has pitched well in five starts for Fresno as he works his back from the skull fracture he took from a major league line drive early in the season; or Ramon Ortiz, who has pitched awfully well at Fresno too; probably not Kevin Pucetas: he gave up nine earned runs in his last start against Tacoma).

The move that really puzzles me is the decision to call up Waldis Joaquin from AA Connecticut.  He’s only 22 this year, and he has a good arm, but he hasn’t even made any of my updates on the Giants’ minor league players so far this season, because his numbers didn’t strike me as impressive.

At Connecticut this year, Joaquin is 4-5 with a 2.67 ERA in 36 relief appearances.  In 54 IP, he’s allowed only 36 hits, which is great, but he’s given up 28 walks and recorded 40 Ks, which is not.  A guy who is walking 4.7 batters per nine innings in AA ball is not a guy with major league control. Last year he had ERAs above 4.30 at both Class A Augusta and Class A+ San Jose, although his ratios were pretty good.

I haven’t ever mentioned Joaquin because he’s only been about the 5th best reliever on the Connecticut Defenders this year after Ben Snyder, Joe Paterson, Matt Yourkin and Dan Otero.  Joaquin is the youngest of the bunch, but that doesn’t mean he’s the guy who’s the best to pitch in the majors right now, especially with the Giants in a pennant race.  I’d also rank Osiris Matos and Steve Edlefsen at Fresno ahead of Joaquin, at least in terms of their major league readiness.

I can see choosing to call up someone who hasn’t gotten a shot before, if only because a newbie has more minor league options left.  Ben Snyder hasn’t played since he took a line drive off his noggin on July 28, so it will probably be awhile now before he gets a call-up, but he was probably the most deserving.

Steve Edlefsen has taken off like a rocket this year, working his way from Class A+ San Jose to AAA Fresno.  He’s got a combined ERA at the three levels (about half of it at AA/AAA) of 1.54 with 34 hits allowed, 27 walks and 61 K’s in 52.2 IP.  However, I do note that except for the ERA and the strikeout total, Edlefsen and Joaquin look a lot alike.

The Giants got lucky last year, promoting Sergio Romo, after only three appearances at AAA Fresno and after not pitching especially well at AA Connecticut, to the majors where Romo blossumed right away.  Maybe Sabean’s hoping to catch lighting in a bottle again.

Also, Joaquin has been hot lately.  In his last ten appearances, he has a 1.20 ERA with 12 Ks and 4 walks in 15 IP.  However, Edlefsen has put up almost the same numbers in his ten appearances at Fresno, which is far more impressive than similar numbers put up at Connecticut.

My guess is that Joaquin is not ready, gives up a lot of runs and gets send down quickly.  However, you never know.  Sometimes, it’s just the luck of the draw, and the player who gets the shot gets hot and sticks around.

Assuming that Joaquin has great stuff, he may be able to fool major leaguers with it until he’s been around long enough for everyone to know what to look for and what to lay off of.  When that happens, Joaquin won’t last long, because I don’t think he has major league control yet.  If nothing else, the call-up puts him on my radar, and I’ll keep an eye on him for future reference even if he’s quickly sent back down.