Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Jack is Back!!!

Today, the Giants re upped with Lefty reliever Jack Taschner for 1 year/$835K. Taschner had filed for arbitration earlier this week, and happened to actually be a super two based on his position. It's hard to think of him as being in this position considering he has been in the Giants organization for 10 years now and will be 31 this spring.

Taschner had a good first year up with the Giants in 2005, in 24 games posting an ERA of 1.59 and a WHIP of 1.23. But then he regressed a little over the next 3 seasons, showing signs of inneptitude and brilliance, but all in all just inconsisent. Too inconsistent to be counted on in key sistuations, as the Giants found out the last few seasons. Fortunately for Taschner, the Giants have made 2 key signings (Affedlt and Howry), identified 2 key relievers in the minors (Romo and Hinshaw), and found their closer of the future (Wilson). This leave the pressure roles to others and allows Taschner to work on his consistency in earlier inning game time situations, and quite possibly his confidence.

With both Affedlt and Hinshaw as Lefty relievers, the Giants now find themselves in a somewhat unique situation, whereas they have 3 solid lefty options to go with this season, as most teams only have two and occasionally one. This gives the Giants the option of dealing one from a position of power if they so choose, and also possibly makes one the odd man out, as they may only want to carry two.

I suppose if there is an odd man out it will likely be Hinshaw to open the season at AAA for more seasoning because he regressed this spring, or the more likely scenario of Taschner being dealt. Taschner is the most likely to be traded, as Affedlt was just signed via free agency and Hinshaw is still very young and unproven. If he is traded, I see it in one of two ways, either he is included in a package for a hitter with the likes of Lowry/Sanchez, or a midseason deal once he has had the opportunity to showcase himself and the giants are clearly out of it.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I really dont like Taschner

I would not put Hinshaw back in the minors to have this chump blowing giving up runs like crazy

Jim Ellis said...

While I don't dislike Tashner as much as you, I also don't trust him. His inconsistency has been at times awful, especially in key situations. I had I hopes for him over the years and is probably why I'm still hopeful.

That being said, I don't want to see Hinshaw back in the minors either. For most of last season, he was the only thing that worked not named Wilson...until they called up Romo. What I meant was if Hinshaw has a bad spring, kinda like Brian Wilson did in 2007, I could see him start the year in Fresno. That would secure Taschner a job, at least for a while.

I really think Jack gets traded this year. The stars seem to be aligning for it, what with Affeldt and Hinshaw around for at least the next two seasons. Multiple teams had interest in Taschner last summer and presumably more will this year. I think the Giants hold him until the roster shakes out, try to let him build some early value in April/May, and deal him as part of a package with Noah Lowry/Jonathan Sanchez, which ever one ends up being the odd man out. If Lowry doesn't return to form, I can still see Taschner being dealt.

A package of:
Lowry(Sanchez)/Taschner/Velez/Pucetas or Sosa certainly should be enough to garner a productive, young, middle of the order type hitter...Ryan Zimmerman??? JJ Hardy??? Dan Uggla???

Any thoughts?