BP: What’s the number one skill the Giants look for in their players? Colletti: It’s our view you can never have enough pitching. If you’re short in another area, you can always trade pitching, because it’s the toughest commodity to find. Our drafts have been pitching-heavy. The last couple of years we’ve started drafting more position players, but the percentage is still high on the pitching side. We’ve seen this year how it’s paid off, with (Jerome) Williams, (Jesse) Foppert, (Kevin) Correia, (Kurt) Ainsworth…Joe Nathan is one of our own, we used (Ryan) Hannaman to get (Sidney) Ponson, (Russ) Ortiz for (Damian) Moss. BP: Which do the Giants favor, high school or college pitchers? Colletti: We prefer college pitching. College pitchers are further along in terms of maturity and life experience. That doesn’t mean we haven’t taken high school kids. But when you’re 18 years old and you’re going away from home for the first time, it can be tough–there are a lot of different things that occur in a young person’s life. If a pitcher goes through the right college program though, we’ll know that he hasn’t been misused, and that he’s also been taught well. We do as much research as we can to make sure we don’t get a pitcher coming out to the draft who’s misused and might be injured. And that can easily happen at the high school level, sometimes the college level too. A major league club has a different level of investment in a player, to where you wouldn’t have used him the way he might otherwise get used at the high school or college level.
Elsewhere on this Web site, Joe Sheehan has often promoted TINSTAAPP, or “There Is No Such Thing As A Pitching Prospect.” To this we must add a second acronym, TINSWTBAPS–There Is No Sure Way To Build A Pitching Staff. Even just decent pitching staffs require an element of luck to come together. The 1984 Tigers required Willie Hernandez to pitch approximately twice as well as he had in any other season to make up for almost every other pitcher on the staff being just average. The 1933 Yankees had two Hall of Fame pitchers, Lefty Gomez and Red Ruffing, at the peak of their careers, plus a couple of other very good starters in Johnny Allen and Danny MacFayden. They were terrible. When Joe Torre put Mariano Rivera in the bullpen in 1996, he had no idea that the skinny righty would be one of the most valuable pitchers in the American League that season. You cannot plan these things.
Trot Nixon is still about a week away from returning to the Red Sox lineup as the team battles for the Wild Card slot. Nixon’s calf is making progress, but team sources say that he’s still experiencing “catches” when he runs above a certain effort level. Given their current lineup, moving Nixon to DH isn’t an option, but there’s been some internal discussion about trying him at first base. Outside of a change in the current situation–like a positional move or another injury–Nixon is likely to be back in the lineup for the weekend series against the Indians.
As expected, Melvin Mora tore his MCL in Toronto, but the news could have been much worse. The MRI returned only a partially torn ligament, and it is likely that Mora will be able to avoid surgery. Once the swelling is reduced he’ll begin an intensive rehab program, and will make a final decision on surgery by November. Why November? To give him time to recover in case surgery is necessary. All indications are that he should be able to avoid the knife and be ready for spring training. More importantly, Mora should retain his versatility and mobility.
When Randall Simon made the diving catch and threw to Matt Clement in stride, I cheered for two reasons: 1) Because it was a great play by my new favorite Cub, and 2) Because I knew right then that Clement had no residual problems with his groin. I did get clarification on the groin/calf mix-up, and it makes a bit more sense to me now. Clement was hit in the calf by a batted ball during his start on September 3rd. Running the bases afterwards, his changed gait caused a cascade which led to the strained groin. The muscle tends to tighten up on him after running, not pitching, so as long as his mechanics stay compact–always a problem with Clement–he should be fine.
The last 13 days of the season kick off in a big way tonight, with two series that pit teams locked in head-to-head battles for playoff spots.
White Sox at Twins
With just a half-game separating the two teams, this is effectively the first round of the playoffs, a nearly must-win three-game set for both. The Twins were on the brink just seven days ago after dropping the first two in Chicago, but bounced back to win behind Johan Santana (not a surprise) and against Esteban Loaiza (big surprise).
The Twins won’t have their best pitcher, Santana, who started last night against the Indians. That leaves them one bullet down against a very good offense. Working for them is that they’ll be starting two right-handers who can be tough on righties in Brad Radke and Kyle Lohse, against what is still a fairly right-handed Sox lineup. Watch Radke tonight: he threw 126 pitches in his last start, and Keith Woolner’s PAP3 research indicates that pitchers who exceed 121 pitches can see some negative effects over their next three starts.
Carlos Lee has cut down on his strikeouts and boosted his walks, fueling a second-half surge for the White Sox. Rickie Weeks zooms from top draft choice to the big leagues with the Brewers. Edgar Renteria and the Cardinals infield appear out of gas. These and other news and notes out of Chicago, Milwaukee, and St. Louis in today’s Central-riffic edition of Prospectus Triple Play.