Brandon Belt named Giants starting first baseman

[Upton]

San Francisco Giants rookie Brandon Belt, a top prospect in the organization, was informed today that he will begin the season as the team's starting first baseman.

Belt wasn't exactly a long shot to make the club out of spring training. During the winter meetings, GM Brian Sabean said the club would take a good, long look at the 22-year old -- and they did.

Belt had a fine spring, batting .282/.338/.479 with 3 HR, five doubles, and 13 RBI in 71 AB (second-most to Pablo Sandoval's 75 at bats). He logged 139 innings at first base this spring, the most of any Giants player besides Sandoval (148 innings at third base). Belt will probably bat sixth or seventh in the lineup to start.

Jon Heyman over at Sports Illustrated has already christened Belt as the 2011 NL Rookie of the Year.

http://www.22gigantes.com/2011/03/belt-named-giants-starting-first.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+22gigantes%2FySKM+%2822gigantes%29

I don't like this move, for several different reasons, one is because if the Giants had just waited until after April 11th to bring him up, the date of his free agency would have had an extra year added to it..I just don't understand the rush.

[Condem]

1. This fucking needs to be a thread?????

C'mon, Upton. We're getting very trivial.

[Upton]

2. This is definitely not trivial Condem..

Belt is considered the top prospect in the Giants organization, many others believe him to be the top prospect in baseball..During spring training, it's been like a soap opera..the big question being whether or not Belt would make the team..Personally, I think they're rushing him, but the majority of Giants fans have been clamoring for him, looks like they got their way.

[Jack Rabbit]

4. One little thing, Upton

I don't care what Condem or Md/Md think, I appreciate the information you provide about our world championship team. After all, I don't read the San Francisco Chronicle any more (and I never liked Glenn Dickey, any way).

[Upton]

5. Thanks Jack..

I appreciate that. Our world championship team...it has such a great ring to it..

[Onceuponalife]

24. Don't get too used to it LOL

[Auggie]

3. I believe there were Jason Heyward threads last year...

Heyward was the highly touted rookie for the Atlanta Braves. There were also threads about Nats phenom Stephen Strasburg. Belt's promotion from AAA to The Show has been anticipated by Giants fans for months. This is a relevant thread topic for the Sports Forum.

[Condem]

7. Gosh. Maybe you guys are right.....

[Auggie]

10. Hey dude...

it's baseball season. This is the Sports Forum. There are are going to be baseball threads.

Chill.

[El Supremo]

12. They are going to be insufferable this year.

Just put them on ignore.

[Auggie]

13. Ignore: perfect solution

[hughee99]

6. Are you suggesting they wait 2 weeks before bringing him up

just so they can keep him on his rookie contract for an extra year?

[Upton]

8. Why not take advantage of his status?

That's not my only concern however. Belt started last year in A ball, finishing with a brief stint in AAA Fresno, where he hit only .229 in 13 games. So, not only did he jump 3 levels in 1 year, but he never fully established himself in AAA. If starting the year in Fresno and then being brought up a couple months later was good enough for Buster Posey, who was by far the most MLB ready and polished Giants rookie in memory, why not Belt? It's not as if the Giants don't have other options at first base..

[Auggie]

9. A lot of teams do this hughee99

[hughee99]

11. I'm aware of this, and for owners it makes all the sense in the world

However, given the non-sports discussions about unions and management screwing them over, it seems like the sort of thing that would outrage most DUers if it were not about sports.

[HuckleB]

20. I dunno.

Baseball's union seems quite strong. In fact, I'd like to see the union start to advocate for the fans a bit more. Salary distribution across teams needs to be addressed in baseball, and the union is the only place where that can be done to create more equality among the teams, the players and the fans.

[hughee99]

23. I agree on the distribution...

I don't think a hard cap will ever get implemented in MLB, but I think a progressive cap would do better. Maybe x2 for the first 10 million over, x3 for the next 10 million, x4 for the next 10 million and X5 beyond that. They can still overspend, but it will get prohibitively expensive if they go too far over the cap.

Also, perhaps some sort of "bonus" for resigning your own player for all teams. Big market teams would have an incentive to resign their own players rather than getting the big name free agent, and small market teams would be able to offer more for their own stars than a big team may offer. For example, Tampa and Boston can both offer Crawford 20 million a year, but Tampa gets a revenue sharing bonus of $5 million a year so their 20 million only costs them 15 million whereas Boston would have to pay the full amount. This may enable Tampa to offer $22 million a year (costing them only 17) where Boston might not go to 22 million.

In the end, if the union is advocating for the fans, though, are they really doing their job? They're supposed to be advocating for the players. Wouldn't that be like the teachers union advocating for the parents instead of the teachers they're paid to represent?

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

14. .282!

In spring training!?!

Be still my heart.

[hughee99]

15. That would have made him one of their top 4 hitters last year.

Wet paper bags all over the Bay area have nothing to fear from the Giants hitters once again.

[Auggie]

16. Bookmarked

We'll discuss this in October

;)

[hughee99]

17. Please do.

I'm pretty confident in this prediction. You can bring it back up in October while you're trying to grasp how such a great pitching staff is sitting at home in the playoffs.

[Upton]

18. Interesting stats..

the Giants were 9th in the NL in runs scored last year, while finishing 1st in team ERA. Meanwhile your AL Red Sox were almost exactly the opposite...9th in ERA and 2nd in runs scored. Boston didn't make the playoffs, the Giants won the WS.

Now what does all this mean? It demonstrates what most baseball aficionados learned a long time ago..pitching, not hitting, wins championships....

[hughee99]

19. How about this...

The Giants got into the Playoffs on the LAST DAY of the regular season. Surely, such a dominant team had this sewn up early... nope. If they can get into the playoffs, the Giants, with their pitching can get them another ring, but you have to have SOME hitting. Last year, the Giants had TIMELY hitting, but that's not reliable.

The Giants pitching was almost as good the year before and they missed the playoffs completely. Pitching is certainly more important than hitting, but you can't have NO hitting (see 2009 Giants). By the way, Boston won 89 games with half an offense in the toughest division in baseball (3 wins fewer than SF against MUCH tougher competition, if SF were in the AL east, they'd have missed the playoffs too). The Giants pitchers pitched great and the hitters hit AT THE RIGHT TIME. I haven't seen anything to convince me their hitting is better, so you may need to bust out your rabbit's foots and horseshoes in September if you want to play in October.

[Upton]

21. The Giants had a superior lineup in 2010

as opposed to 2009. Additions like Burrell, Huff, Posey, Ross, and making Andres Torres the regular CF, helped them jump from near the bottom of the league in runs scored in 2009, to the middle of the pack in 2010. Now, this year, at least on paper and despite the loss of Uribe, you can make an excellent case the Giants have again improved their hitting.

You make some good points, but I agree with Auggie...we'll see in October. One thing I can assure you though, as long as the Giants starters stay away from any significant injuries, they'll be right there contending again.

[hughee99]

22. Timely hitting.

I contend that the hitters aren't better (though Posey is an upgrade). The reason they were in the middle of the pack was TIMELY hitting. If you think "Pat the Bat" is the solution to your problems this year, you're going to be disappointed.

[Onceuponalife]

25. Wow, a walk and an infield single

Great start for this top prospect *chortle*