Around the Horn: S2S Opening Day Recaps, WTGCTT Lines, Age vs. Level at MCC, Giants Window at BTB, Advanced Stats at MLC

Have a lot of work to catch up on, but wanted to do a quick post here at OTF. I just realized I haven't shot out a lot of links lately, and I figured it would be a good time to throw out some interesting pieces I have read over the past week and share it with people who follow it here. The list complies of a nice array of pieces from some Giants-centric, and just general baseball blogs out there on the Web.


Seedlings 2 Stars Minor League Opening Day Coverage

If you haven't checked it out on the blogroll, please check out the work at Seedlings 2 Stars. It's a Minor League blog run by the FanSided network. Wally Fish runs the baseball side of things and keeps things going at S2S, and they have some great writers who contribute to the site. Nathaniel Stoltz, whom I was a big fan of during his Bleacher Report days, used to write for the site and helped start it, but it seems like he has gone away from the site and is doing something different. Wally asked me to write for the site, and I have contributed three pieces so far: a look at the top Latin American position and pitching prospects from the NL West, and a Opening Day recap of the Sally.

I'm still figuring out my role with the site (kinda tough to write as freely as I do here with so many other writers contributing and being new to the staff), but I expect to write 2-3 times a week for the site on general minor league and perhaps scouting stuff (I would like to delve into more foreign and Latin America scouting pieces, since it doesn't seem anybody on the site has claimed a stake or expertise in that area to my knowledge). So, for now, don't expect much "general" minor league or scouting stuff on this site for the time being (the DPL Profiles and Draft looks I'll probably save for S2S), but that could be a good thing as it will allow me to focus more on being "Giants-centric" here at OTF.



When the Giants Come to Town Begins It's Grind

If you want to look at the most committed Giants blogger (and especially Minor League blogger on the net), look no further than Dr. B of When the Giants Come to Town. With the start of the Minor and Major League seasons, Dr. B has started his daily recaps, which highlight top performers from every Giants Minor League team in action that night. While McCovey Chronicles does the same thing with poster Steve S, I really do enjoy Dr. B's take on the Minor League standouts each night. It has become daily reading for me, and definitely has made things easier here at OTF. Don't know how he manages to teach in college while still posting as much as he does!


Age vs. Level by Roger at McCovey Chronicles (Part I and Part II)

One of the most ambitious "Giants-centric" pieces I have read in a long time, this two-part series by Roger is so good that I am in the middle of reading it over again to sink it all in. Complete with thorough writing and graphs to back it up, Roger at McC takes a look at how teenagers who break in at A-Ball end up as Major League players in comparison to players who break into A-Ball at higher ages (such as college guys for example). It is an interesting piece to read, especially when you consider the Giants' draft strategy for the past decade or so (favoring low-ceiling, low-risk college guys in comparison to higher-ceiling, higher-risk teens). It isn't something that will take you a couple of minutes, but it's an engrossing read and one of the more enjoyable pieces on McCovey Chronicles I have encountered on the Fan Posts section in a long time.


David Fung's "Visual Look" at the Giants Window to Compete at Beyond the Box Score

I have loved Fung's graphical take on "the Window", which was a phrase used by Billy Beane explaining the Athletics plan and how their time to compete was in limited spurts during his tenure there due to the Small Market and limited budget (Jonah Keri wrote an interesting piece on it for Grantland that refuted Beane's position). Fung's graphs are always great, and the pieces give a nice general glance of what teams (the Giants in the case) will be dealing with not only now, but four to five years down the line. If you can, check out the others, just to see what the "windows" to compete are like for the other teams in Major League Baseball.


Minor League Central

It kills me that I haven't found this site earlier, but Minor League Central is basically to Minor League Ball what Fangraphs is to Major League Ball. While the site's creators and analysts note that not all of the data is completely accurate (they are subject to the recorders of the numbers, whom they admit are less accurate at the lower levels), it does give a little bit more "advanced" numbers from players who are currently in the Minor Leagues. Expect me to use more numbers from MLC in future posts (though I have already started), and I can't begin to tell you how enthralled I am that a site like this exists on the Web. I'm about as excited as Chris Farley was when one of his "comrades" told the "Sheep Pudding" story around the camp fire in the movie "Amost Heroes."

Writing for a New Site...But OTF Will Still Go On

So, for those who may not be aware, I got an invite from Wally Fish of the Fansided network to write for Seedlings 2 Stars, Fansided's Minor League blog. Being that I am one of those people who always loves new challenges and opportunities, I have decided that I would contribute to their blog as a staff writer. I already posted my first article for their site, which is a look at the Top-5 Latin American position prospects in the National League West (Peguero comes in at four, and Adrianza and Sanchez are honorable mentions). I hope to write one on pitching prospects at some point this week. They want me to write a couple of times a week, which I think I can do while still keeping up consistent posts on this blog.

Also, side note, I know some of the grades might be a little off from what you see here. To give some context, I am an optimist at heart with the Giants. Yes, I'm anti-Eli Whiteside and anti-Chris Dominguez, but for the most part I tend to cut the Giants a lot of slack on things, especially when it comes to player evaluation. I mean, I was a guy who supported Fred Lewis and John Bowker as everyday Major League players, and Lewis has just been cut by the Indians this Spring and Bowker is playing for the Yomiuri Giants of the NPB. So, that just goes to show you how green I am when I come to evaluating talent. In terms of where I'm at in the Minor League analyst circles, I would say I'm just starting High-A, and I'm trying to take advantage of the hitter-friendly environments of the Cal League.

But, the point is, I tend to be more optimistic when I look at Giants prospects. Adrianza would be a C+ prospect to most analysts, but I think of him as a B on this site because I think his bat will come around and I think his glove is Gold Glove worthy. Same goes with Joe Panik, who I rate as a B+ prospect while most analysts would think of him as a B to B- guy based on his tools. Hence, the way I think of Giants prospects on this site is not really a clear cut standard...or at least not yet. With S2S, while I will be covering prospects from my perspective, I will also be covering and evaluating them based on what the general consensus is from scouts, publications and other web sites. So, while Francisco Peguero may be a B prospect on this site, I rate him as a B- prospect on S2S because the general consensus on him from most people is that he's a B- guy. I think when trying to cover prospects on a National scale, one has to take into consideration all the sources. I do that here, but as Shankbone said in a comment, I do try to give a lot of consideration to guys in the Giants system, because to be frank, I am a Giants fan and as much as I hate to admit it, I am biased in favor of the Giants.

I don't know if this clears anything up, but hopefully it'll give some context and explain the differences as I rotate my posts between here and S2S. God knows where I'm going to get the time to do all this posting, but when you live where I live and have the job I have, you do manage to find time.

I am shooting to get No. 21-25 in the prospect list done by tomorrow. I have already started, just didn't have the time today to really get finished. For all those who read this blog, thanks for reading and check out S2S. They're going through some writer turnover, but they got some really good stuff and a great staff. Definitely glad to be aboard.

Just a couple of more days to Opening Day. Hoka Hey!