Who the hell is Trevor Brown?

No. Seriously. Who the hell is Trevor Brown? I don't even remember him from last year as a callup. That's how bad of a blogger I've been. I haven't even read up on randoms that made the roster. This isn't my job, per se, but people are hounding me to write something, and I'm not even prepared to do so! I suck.

Let's do some research together, Catfish style. Ok. Google Image search!

Click to enlarge. Borderline NSFW. And you will likely have nightmares.

I see mostly disturbing art by some sick son of a bitch that is into either abusing dolls or having dolls abuse him. Looks kind of like that weird school girl stuff the Japanese are into-- but way darker and more bizzare. Throw a sweaty, near-sighted serial killer from his mom's basement in Van Nuys with a Japanese pervert into a Vitamix blender and you have The Other Trevor Brown's art. I'm serious. Look at this stuff.

This is me right now. I feel you, Nic Cage from 8MM.

Mixed into this episode of Law and Order: SVU, I do see a couple of  team mugshots of a guy that appears to be the goofy love child of Tim Lincecum and Matt Duffy! That's him!

 

The Giants took Brown in the 10th round back in 2012, and of course it's news to me that he plays a pretty damned good second base as well. In fact, he played 95 games as a 2B and 90 as a catcher between 2012-14, but they had him catch exclusively last season. 

That's not only impressive, but it's super rare. More often than not catchers end up being more Bengie Molina than Craig Biggio (who began as a catcher), but the Giants really seem to have put an emphasis on versatility and fluidity. Hell, look at Posey. Even Susac fits into a similar body type with the ability to do more than just catch. 

Susac of course lost the job in spring partially due to a sore wrist and Brown's hot start in AZ.

While I like what I'm reading about him, I don't think we can expect too many huge moments like the one Friday night against LA in which he:

• Caught Matt Cain's first decent performance in forever and looked fine doing it
• Broke up a combined no-hitter by hitting his first major league home run 
• Tied the game
• He did so in the rain, AGAINST THE DODGERS
• His moment ended up being bigger than Crawford's walkoff, which is insane
• Most importantly, he endured and enjoyed the postgame Amy G interview like a true champ

Despite his red hot spring performance in which he hit in the high .300s, his track record in the minors stat-wise does nothing to move the needle. He only hit 7 career minor league homers, and sported both a .244 average and a .616 OPS. In case you're wondering, he hit .261 last year at Sacramento.

His moment was a great one despite its early season occurrence. In an early April game that felt like late September against the hated Dirtbags, he really rang the baseball bell for me, announcing that yes indeed, the boys were back in town.

While I wouldn't expect many more big hits from Mr. Brown, he's intriguing and I've enjoyed his presence thus far.

Odds & Ends

-- I'm really hoping that this pitching staff doesn't end being one where we "pray for rain" if you know what I mean. Remember those years when it was "Lincecum, Cain, or pray for rain?". Seems crazy, but let's say between Samardzija, Peavy, and Cain, we have 3 huge friggin wild cards-- Peavy and Cain being the least predictable, what are the next moves? Heston as the long man is there to fill a spot if Peavy or Cain go off the rails on a consistent basis, but when do they consider bringing up a Crick or a Blackburn-- neither of which seem ready.

What we should hope for is that Samardzija doesn't suck and regains his Cubs form that didn't take place all that long ago. As for Cain and Peavy? Just keep us in the game because I like this lineup.

-- Pitchers hit Eighth? I'm ok with it. It's certainly interesting. When Tony La Russa or Joe Maddon do it, it's quirky and weird, but when Bochy does it, he's got a reason, and the reason is probably a good one. Let's see where it goes.

-- How nice was it to see Dave Roberts picking up right where Mattingly left off? I like DR, I really do, but I'm going to have to make fun of him at every turn. He's the one that made that poor life choice.

-- What would you have done with Ross Stripling? Leave him in to give up a hit and risk running up the pitch count? Expose him to possibly ruining his own no-hitter and bumming him out? Now that I've slept on it, I don't have a issue necessarily with Roberts pulling him. He's a rookie, it was his first start, and it's better for a young pitcher's psyche to know he left the game with nary a blemish on the field. Hopefully he's not going to be a pain in our ass for years to come and regresses toward the mean.