9.20.2005

San Jose Giants win the California League title

Congratulations to the 2005 California League Champs!

I would be remiss not to use my lunch time to congratulate the San Jose Giants for coming from behind 0-2 games in a 5 game playoff and sweeping the three games at home, winning last night, 3-1 behind the stout pitching of Jeff Petersen and Jason Waddell, who got the win after taking a loss earlier in the series. Petersen pitching 6 strong innings, giving up 4 hits, 1 BB, 1 R/ER, 1 HR, with 5 strikeouts. Waddell was even stronger, going 3 innings, giving up 2 hits, 0 R/ER, with 7 strikeouts to take the win after the Giants rallied in the bottom of the 7th for 3 runs, with Nate Schierholtz driving in the eventual winning run with a single and Travis Ishikawa driving in the insurance run with a sac fly.

Many of these players will probably be promoted to Double-A next season, Norwich Navigators presumably (I recall the Giants renewing their operating agreement with Norwich last season), so we might be looking at a championship there next year. At minimum, they will have a premium hitting club as that was what drove this club this season, with EME, Frandsen, Schierholtz, Ishikawa, Clay Timpner, Eliezer Alfonzo, Jake Wald, Todd Jennings, Brian Buscher, and John Bowker who were all hitting well at SJ. However, Frandsen and Alfonzo were promoted to AAA by year's end, having both did well at Norwich-AA, so they should be at AAA to start next season, if not higher. And EME might get a chance at AAA depending on how he recovers from the surgery by spring training (that was what was holding the Giants back from promoting him from SJ, as he would need to field a position in the higher leagues).

2 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

watch for kevin to make the jump t to the bigs, if not immediatly after st, then pretty close to it

Tue Sep 20, 03:00:00 PM PDT  
Blogger obsessivegiantscompulsive said...

I would love that more than anything, mainly because it means that we somehow got rid of Alfonzo's and Durham's salary and also because that means that Frandsen was doing really well and I'm rooting for him.

You seem to think that somehow there is a sure way of getting rid of Alfonzo and Durham that would be palatable to the Giants management (just dumping them is not an option). What is this strange magic that suddenly make the two of them disappear off the roster and allow Frandsen to jump to the bigs?

Because there's no way the Giants will make him sit in the bigs when he can start in the minors; he could prepare to start in 2007. Plus the Giants need a 2B/SS backup next year and Frandsen plays 2B, not SS. Angel Chavez I assume is auditioning for the job as we speak.

Speaking of backups, I assume Ellison and Linden will be the outfield backup, with Feliz as Bonds' personal backup in LF, keeping Alou in RF all season. He will probably back up 3B as well plus pull some 1B duties against tough RHP that Snow can't hit (assuming he returns and the Giants don't sign a power hitting 1B; don't know who's out there).

Wed Sep 21, 12:04:00 AM PDT  

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