Giants' September Call-Ups

I looked around, and it was harder to find a list of all the minor leaguers the Giants just called up than I expected, so I thought it would be a good idea to post a list based on the Giants’ current roster from the Giants’ website.  Here they are:

OF John Bowker, 1B Jesus Guzman, C Buster Posey and pitchers Waldis Joaquin and Dan Runzler.

That’s not a whole lot.  However, the Giants had recently promoted 3Bman Ryan Rohlinger and pitcher Alex Hinshaw, and the additional roster space allowed them to activate Andres Torres and add yesterday’s winning pitcher Brad Penny.

Teams fighting for a post-season spot aren’t going to play the young guys unless they think the young guys can help them win each time they go out there.  Thus, there isn’t much point in incurring service time and major league salary for prospects who aren’t going to play anyway.

Of course, there are numerous guys who deserved to be promoted but weren’t.  There’s a good chance a few of them will be once the AAA and AA seasons finish in the next week or so.

Fresno middle infielders Kevin Frandsen and Matt Downs arguably deserve a call-up.  Pitchers Ramon Ortiz (3.11 ERA) and Osiris Matos (3.48 ERA) are also good candidates. Geno Espinelli (3.64 ERA) might get the call, but only because he’s a left-hander.

Unfortunately, Fresno starter Kevin Pucetas, who looked so good the first half of the season, had a 7.36 ERA over his last ten starts and finished the year with an underwhelming 4.66 ERA.  No place for him on a pennant-contending team.

Steve Edlefson had a terrific 2.00 ERA in 20 AAA appearances, but with 15 walks in 27 AAA innings pitched, he doesn’t appear to have major league control yet.  The Giants already have Alex Hinshaw if they want wild guys with good stuff.

The most obvious choices for call-ups from AA Connecticut are pitcher Madison Bumgarner and 2Bman Brock Bond.  Bumgarner is now 9-1 with a 1.95 ERA in 106 AA innings, so you have to figure he’ll get a look unless the Giants decide that he’s pitched enough already this year, or they don’t want his major league service time to start running.

Bond has cooled off considerably, hitting only .171 over his last ten games.  His season batting average has dropped to .329, but that’s still good enough to lead the Eastern League.  The poor finish may well prevent him from getting a call-up, especially with Frandsen and Downs ahead of him on the depth chart.

The big surprise call-ups were obviously Buster Posey, who the Giants had planned to send off to the Arizona Fall League, and pitcher Dan Runzler.

Posey was called up because of the lingering injury problems of Bengie Molina and the Giants’ need for another catcher.  Henry Schulman of the San Francisco Chronicle wrote a piece today trying to stir up some trouble in typical sportswriter fashion (if there isn’t any news, try to drum up some news by manufacturing a controversy), by asking Molina whether he thought the Giants were trying to send him a message by calling up Posey.

You have to love sportswriters trying to create dissension when a team is fighting to make the post-season.  Really, where’s the controversy?  Molina is hurting, and who other than Posey can the Giants add to the roster to give them more options at catcher?  Clearly, Sandoval will be playing at third if he’s healthy enough to play at all.

If Molina wants to consider Posey’s promotion a message from management, he needs to get over himself.  There’s a wild card spot yet to win.

I can see why the Giants called up Runzler.  His minor league numbers suggest he’s got electric stuff, and although there are some questions about whether his control is major league worthy, he could be a very effective September pitcher, since no one in the majors has ever seen him pitch.

Runzler finished the year with an 0.76 ERA across four minor league stops with 23 hits allowed, 24 walks and 83 Ks in 59 innings pitched.  Major league hitters are going to have their hands full with Runzler this month if he can get the ball over the plate consistently.

The Giants’ thinking is probably the same with Waldis Joaquin.  After a slow first half, Joaquin came on gang-busters in the second half.  In eight appearances at AAA Fresno, he allowed no runs, five hits, two walks and recorded 16 Ks in 10 IP.  He’s obviously got great stuff, and only one National League team to date has seen him pitch.