Without a doubt, Brandon Belt was incredibly valuable to this offense. He was a man among boys the entire first half, and along with Kyle Russell, dominated the league like no other player really did. Michael Ambort was assigned to San Jose as the corresponding move to get Belt on the AA Richmond roster, so I guess he'll be the starting 1B now. He was struggling in the Eastern League, but he's an older player and could have the experience to improve on last year's stint with San Jose. Josh Mazzola was supposed to be at 1B this season, but he suffered an injury early on, and I don't know if he'll be back this year.
It's not necessarily about Ambort replacing Belt directly, but whether or not the lineup has enough depth for Ambort performing adequately to be enough. Here's a table that compares the AVG/OBP/SLG of each spot in the lineup for San Jose and a few teams they could run into in the playoffs. Ambort will be in italics using the league average for each stat. I bolded the places the Giants had the best hitter in that spot.
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I have to point out a few things first. Obviously since there have been some promotions, so there's a handful of small sample sizes that are tough to evaluate, particularly in the Rancho Cucamonga lineup. Secondly, of course lineups aren't set in stone, so they're not perfect barometers of lineup depth. I just used lineups from 7/2 and made some adjustments to include injured players or guys getting a day off.
San Jose's lineup composition is interesting, but they should still have enough quality hitters to get by. Juan Perez was an all star, and Jose Flores is having a great season. The Giants have some prospects that definitely have the talent, so if those guys can live up to their potential, they should have some quality depth. League average in the six hole is just so-so, but the Giants make up for it with good seven and eight hole hitters.
How about the rotation? The Giants use six guys, but I'm assuming they'll cut that down in the postseason. I'll look at ERA/WHIP of San Jose's new top four starters, and compare them to the top four of other contenders in the Cal League with good pitching.
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I mixed up the teams a bit to compare San Jose with teams that generally have better pitching. A couple notes: I split up Juan Oramas and Jorge Reyes for Lake Elsinore. They're piggybacking in the second half, but I think they're trying to spread out their innings enough for them to be able to pitch in the playoffs. Obviously a lot can change now and then, but those are decent guesses at their top fours right now. They might go in different orders, but I tried to put the guys with the most starts and better sample sizes at the top.
San Jose has an All Star at the top of the rotation, and Eric Surkamp also has some postseason experience. Justin Fitzgerald is a very good #2, and Oliver Odle compares favorably to #3's. Kyle Nicholson has had some ugly starts, but I think he's better than they show. I'd say that even without Westcott, San Jose has a solid rotation that compares well against potential playoff opponents. Lake Elsinore has some great depth, and even if Oramas and Reyes pitch on the same day, Erik Davis is still a good option.
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