Posted by Rob McQuown on Tuesday, July 28, 2009 at 5:58 am

Spending a few words on the Soap Box before doing Roto Lunch today…  I simply don’t understand the Garko trade for SF.  Unless he’s meant as a strict platoon-mate for Ishikawa, I don’t think it helps the Giants, and it surrenders a decent-looking LHP prospect in the process.  Think Asdrubal Cabrera for Eduardo Perez, though it’s very doubtful that Barnes ends up being as valuable as Asdrubal.

Ryan Garko, career and 2009 “vs LHP” splits:

Career: .318/.393/.513

2009 only:  .333/.395/.565

Ryan Garko, career and 2009 “vs RHP” splits:

Career: .270/.341/.427

2009 only: .265/.349/.424

“So what?”, you may ask, “Travis Ishikawa can’t hit anyone.”  

Well,  not so fast.  Sure, it’s arbitrarily selecting endpoints, but from May 11 through July 23, Ishikawa hit .310/.355/.500 (or .307/.350/.487 through July 26).  And he’s much better against RHP (against whom he gets almost all of his AB):

Travis Ishikawa, career and 2009 “vs RHP” splits:

Career: .269/.321/.432

2009 only: .265/.319/.423

Now, Ishikawa hasn’t shown any ability to hit lefties, and as has been noted in the Roto Lunch column time and again, the Giants are very vulnerable to LHP (making them a great matchup for almost all LHSP).  But if Garko pushes Ishikawa out of playing time against RHP, that could really hurt the team.  Meanwhile, the three most glaring holes in the offense remain unadressed:

Giants catchers, 2009: .258/.274/.397

Giants 2bmen, 2009: .227/.281/.307

Giants shortstops, 2009: .245/.297/.306

It would be one thing if they were getting top-notch defense from these spots, but they aren’t.

At some level, teams have to take the deals which present themselves, but unless Garko is going to catch, this team had bigger fish to fry.  And while they didn’t give up either of their pitching gems – Bumgarner or Alderson – Barnes had fantastic numbers in the toughest league in all the minors in which to pitch (California League).  While he was only an 8th-round pick in 2008, BA suggested that he could have gone as high as the 3rd round, and SF has had pretty good success developing pitchers in recent years.

In short, Garko is a useful piece to a contending team (Wolf, Kershaw, De La Rosa look out!), but guys who can hit lefties hard and play lousy defense at undemanding positions aren’t difficult to find.  Brian Joseph’s recent article spotlighted some older guys who could presumably had for virtually nothing in trade.  It’s almost certain that a couple of them could hit LHP hard enough to be a platoon-mate for Ishikawa.  Meanwhile, Ishikawa appears to be coming into his own (his 3-year MLP’s from 2006-2008 weren’t great, but showed a .453 slugging, BUT his 2008 alone indicated a .268/.350/.553 hitter!)  Doesn’t Ishikawa deserve more than 237 PA this year, especially since his recent performance has been so “hot”?  If Garko costs Ishikawa at-bats against RHP, he’s probably hurting the team in those games, not to mention the prospect value given up.

Tip of the cap to Mark Shapiro, whose Indians are almost certainly losing very little in replacing Garko’s AB’s with at-bats from either LaPorta or Andy Marte, who are both destroying AAA pitching at Columbus.  Of course, if the Indians don’t find some guys who can pitch, and fast, some other GM may be reaping the benefits.

Please feel free to leave comments below. Questions for the author may be submitted to Rob McQuown at rmcquown@baseballdigestdaily.com or robmcquown@yahoo.com. Past articles for this author can be found under “Staff Writers” at the Baseball Daily Digest site.