Maligned Giants farm system shining brightly this season

Gotta give some kudos to the Giants farm system, as they completed a very successful year, including supplying a number of players who contributed signficantly to the Giants this season: Jason Ellison, Lance Niekro, Scott Munter, Brad Hennessey, Jack Taschner, Jeremy Accardo, Todd Linden, Kevin Correia, and Matt Cain. And don't forget that Lowry is not that long from the farm system either. Plus prospects were traded to bring LaTroy Hawkins and Randy Winn to the team.

I cannot find the article that I recall reading that triggered this post but the Giants farm system had a high winning percentage, going 364-302 as an organization, a .547 winning percentage, and all the teams finished high in their division:

• Fresno came in 2nd, but had a losing record of 68-76. Cain, Frandsen, and Linden top performers.
• Norwich finished 3rd, going 71-71. Ortmeier, Begg, Mazone, and Burres top performers.
• San Jose finished 1st in first half, 2nd in second half, 1st overall plus won first round of playoffs this weekend, finishing 85-55 overall. Frandsen, Schierholtz, EME, Wald, Timpner, Ishikawa, and Bateman top performers.
• Augusta finished 2nd in both halves and 2nd overall, going 77-59 in total. Sanders and Acosta top performers.
• Salem-Keizer finished 2nd with a record of 45-31. Mooney, Thompson, Yens, Romo, McKae, and Anderson top performers.
• Arizona Rookie finished 18-10 in 1st place. Nunez, Richardson, Gornati, Grace, Martinez, and Thomson top performers.

As noted, San Jose won their first round of playoffs, sweeping Modesto 3-0, winning 14-2, 6-5, 6-0. Frandsen, Wald, and Schierholtz were the stars of the sweep. They face Lake Elsinore next, starting Thursday. In an article on San Jose's playoff series in the Merc, it was interesting that Ishikawa was the only player quoted, none of the other stars of the team was quoted.

Lastly, there was a recent chat (free to visitors) on Baseball America, talking about their player of the year selection, and a Bob Davis from SF asked "If you had to select a Player of the Year for the San Francisco Giants organization who would it be? Todd Linden, Kevin Frandsen, Eddy Martinez Esteve, or Dan Ortmeier?"

John Manuel's reply was this: "Hi Bob. Maybe word has gotten around that I'm excited about Giants prospects... I actually will go off your board and say Marcus Sanders. Todd Linden still strikes out a ton. I like Kevin Frandsen, nice year, but Sanders gets my vote for excitement, ceiling and for what he did this year, essentially playing the second half of the year, we are told, with one arm due to another shoulder injury." I dug up his stats: .300/.407/.400/.807 with 5 homers in 420 AB, 86 runs scored, 40 RBI, and 57 steals in 66 attempts but also 90 SO to go with 69 BB. Not bad for a one-armed guy.

Speaking of which, I wondered what happened to Eddy Martinez Esteve. He played almost every game of the season for San Jose, including last game of the season, and yet he did not play at all during the three game series in the first round. So I checked around and found out that he unfortunately suffered a season-ending foot injury earlier in the week and that is why Frandsen is playing for San Jose again, as he was with Fresno to end the season. Which is kind of appropriate because the two of them were awarded Co-MVP of the team for 2005.