Call-Ups or Hang-Ups: San Francisco Giants and Brandon Belt
By Wally Fish
Once again it is collaborative post time here on Call to the Pen. This month’s topic is September call-ups. To get the ball rolling, I posed the following question to each of our Lead Writers, “Which player do you want your team to call-up in September and why?” It is a simple question but I think you will find the responses to be very diverse.
Taking the path less traveled this month, I decided to post each team’s write-up individually instead of grouping them by league or division as we have done in the past. To mix things up further I decided to chime in with my own thoughts on each team.
Up 3rd in our series we have the San Fransisco Giants. Representing Frisco Fastball is none other than Lead Writer Bryan Rosa. Check out what Bryan and I have to say after the jump.
Bryan’s Take:
When it comes to September call-ups for the San Francisco Giants, there are a few ways the team can go. There might be more of an organizational need to calling up a prospect who can cover the left side of the infield such as Ryan Rohlinger or Emmanuel Burriss, but I’m all about impact even if the position is covered. So, if given a choice, my big call-up would be current Richmond Squirrel 1B, Brandon Belt. Taken in the 5th round of the ’09 draft our of the University of Texas, Belt has excelled at each level and has advanced quickly. He hit .383/.492/.628 with 10 home runs, 18 steals, 58 walks and 50 strikeouts in 269 at-bats for San Jose in the California League. After being promoted to AA Richmond, he continued his success with a .337/.413/.623 line to go with with 9 homers and 40 RBI in 46 games. Just this week he was promoted to Triple-A Fresno. Through two games, he has just 1 hit in 6 at bats but that 1 hit was a home run and he’s also drawn 3 walks and swiped a base.
The problem with Belt being called-up come September is that he does not currently reside on the 40-man roster. So that leaves the Giants in a pickle as somebody on the 40 man roster would have to be DFA’d to provide Belt a spot. My pick for that is left handed specialist, Alex Hinshaw who hasn’t performed to expectations. The Giants didn’t call him up when both left handers in the bullpen, Jeremy Affeldt and Dan Runzler both went down with injuries at the same time earlier this season, and that speaks volumes. If there was ever a time for Hinshaw to be part of the Giants plans, that was it and it didn’t happen.
Belt wouldn’t get much playing time behind Aubrey Huff at 1B (and the occasional Buster Posey start), along with Travis Ishikawa being the defensive replacement 1B. But when you can hit, you can hit, and another bat is always a welcome addition to any lineup. Plus, it helps get Belt’s feet wet at the major league level. A place he’ll soon be on a regular basis.
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My Take:
Bryan is spot on here with his proposed call-up of Brandon Belt. Typically I like to see guys get at least a little bit of time in Triple-A before they get thrown into the major league fire, but the Giants took care of that by bumping him up to Fresno this week. If he plays every game until the end of the Pacific Coast League season he will wind up with a 13 game “primer” to ready himself for the show. The Giants are in a bit pickle with Belt beyond the 40-man roster spot that he would take up. As of today, the Fresno Grizzlies sit at the top of the PCL’s Pacific South division and look to be playoff bound. The reasoning I used with the Royals potential call-ups of their Triple-A players holds true here as well, with one major exception.
The Fresno Grizzlies, like the Omaha Royals, are in the mix to earn a PCL playoff birth and there are a lot of organizational, mental, and emotional benefits to having your prospects experience the rush, exhilaration and pressure of postseason baseball in the minors. Unlike the Royals, however, the Giants themselves are contending for a playoff spot and that makes the potential playoff success of Fresno a bit of moot point when it comes down to whether or not the team should call-up Brandon Belt or any of the other current Grizzlies.
If he can help the Giants win games, even if it is just as a bat off the bench for the last month of the season, the team almost has to consider getting him to the big leagues sooner rather than later. The Padres are pulling away with the NL West and San Francisco now sits 6.0 games back, but they are currently in the driver’s seat for the NL Wildcard and that has to play in their decision here. Playing for the future and protecting prospects is all well and good, but you only get so many shots to reach the playoffs. Even if you play for the Yankees, nothing lasts forever and nothing is guaranteed (just ask Don Mattingly).
Clearly, like Bryan, I think Brandon Belt should get called up to the majors. Personally, I would wait until the PCL regular season has drawn to a close on the 6th to make the move instead of bringing him up on September 1st, but the reasoning for doing the latter is certainly sound and valid. This all assumes of course that he handles the rigors and competition of Triple-A in the coming week or so, but I have all the confidence in the world that he will do so.
If Belt’s call-up does come become a reality, he will be the 6th player from the 2009 draft to reach the majors and follow in the footsteps of 1st round picks Stephen Strasburg (Washington), Mike Leake (Cininnati), Mike Minor (Atlanta) and Drew Storen (Washington) as well as those of 2nd round pick Andrew Oliver (Detroit). Incidentally all of those players, except for Oliver, have held their own at the highest level.
It would be a meteoric rise for Belt to go from making his professional debut in High-A this spring to his major league debut in September but I believe he can handle it and be an asset for the Giants as the season draws to a close.