Giants add 6 to their 40 man roster; Eyre signed by Cubs

The Giants announced the addition of six players to the 40 man roster. They are:

• RHP reliever Kelyn Acosta (20 years old)
• LHP reliever Jon Coutlangus (24, if I recall correctly)
• LHP starter/reliever Jesus Reina (21)
• C Elizer Alfonzo (26)
• 1B Travis Ishikawa (22)
• RF Nate Schierholtz (21)

The only real surprise of the group was the addition of Elizer Alfonzo, as he is pretty old for a prospect (26 years old is the age that Ron Shandler says a minor leaguer goes from prospect to non-prospect; I would recommend getting his 2006 book if you like Bill James type of analysis, I feel like I got more out of his 2005 book in terms of concepts I can use everyday than I did out of Baseball Prospectus' books from the past three years, which is good for the excellent analysis they do but then you need to subscribe to their website to get all the updated and adjusted stats whereas I can apply Shandler's stuff on data I can pick up anywhere and quickly see how the player look like, skill-wise. I would also recommend Shandler for any fantasy baseball stuff as well).

Except for Acosta, all had a significant role in helping the San Jose Giants win the California League championship this past season. They are part of the Giants of the future that Sabean was noting in his first post-season press conference. Frandsen, EME, Bowker, and Timpner will probably follow them to the 40 man next season, as well as a number of other pitchers, like Brian Wilson, Gino Espinelli, Justin Hedrick, and perhaps Joe Bateman (not sure about exactly how the rules govern the need to put players on the 40 man, so I'm basing this on relative ages and guesses on when drafted relative to players just promoted).

Eyre Goes to Cubs

On a sad note, Eyre has left the Giants to join the Cubs, signed to a two year contract for $7M with a player option for $4M for a possible total of three years. There are the usual incentives for games pitched and if he becomes the closer. I've seen a variety of different versions of the contract, here is the latest. In the end, it was being closer to home that pulled him away, according to the press acounts I've seen, plus, of course, the guaranteed third year he wanted and the money.

These are his prizes for one great year:

• $1M signing bonus
• $2.7M in 2006
• $3.5M in 2007
• $3.8M player option in 2008
• $2.4M in possible bonuses over the three years
• no-trade clause in 2006
• limited no-trade for 2007/8 blocking deals to 10 teams (presumably the 9 Western Division teams plus another Central team - I would go with maybe Pittsburgh, at least Detroit is a pitcher's stadium, though KC is not barrel of fun either)

According to this article, there could be a physical reason why he became better with the Giants. He was diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) in May 2002, three months before the Giants picked him up. But with medication, the article notes, things changed for Eyre.

I checked on his 2002 stats and the results are stark: in April about as ugly a month as any pitcher could ever have in a nightmare, but from May 2002 to the end of the season, he was very good in three of the five months, OK in the fourth, and bad for the fifth (his first month with the Giants but included 1.1IP/1ER with the Blue Jays; first month with Giants was 3.86 ERA, though 2.58 WHIP). Overall, he had a 2.12 ERA, 1.39 WHIP, after April.

Starting from taking his meds in May (being nice and including whole month since it was very good plus made my math easier), he pitched 229 IP, with 200 hits and 101 walks, giving up 16 HRs and striking out 188 for a 3.03 ERA and 1.31 WHIP. That's a h9 of 7.9, bb9 of 4.0, k9 of 7.4, and hr9 of 0.6; only the bb9 is bad but it was much improved in 2005, which went well with another increase in k9.

Good bye and good luck (except for games that affect the Giants playoff and World Series chances), Giants fans will miss him.