#232 Giants Rookie Stars

The trio spent the entirety of 1972 in the bigs to replace various vacancies....Chris Arnold was never more than a short term call up...played exclusively for Giants in 1971-76....hit well in the minors exceptionally at times....in hitter friendly PCL slugged at a .343 clip in 1971....mostly was on the SF bench thereafter....Starting in 1978 played three years in Japan.....Jim Barr.....graduate of the famed USC baseball....drafted six times at various stages in his development....drafted same year as teammate Dave Kingman....workhorse type pitcher....pitched over 200 innings five consecutive years....1972 collected only 8 wins but a strong 2.87 ERA....best run was 1974-76 the victor in 13, 13, and 15 games respectively.....lost effectiveness starting 1977....Angels invested free agency dollars on Barr in 1978 with poor to average dividends....returned to Giants in a middle relief role....won 101 games.....Giants rookie of greatest impact rookie of 1972 was Dave Rader.... took over the starting backstop due to the departure of Dick Dietz....voted #2 in NL ROY honors....career became a roller thereafter....hit poorly 1973 dropping 30 points....rebounded nicely for the remainder of his San Francisco days raising his cumulative BA by 19 points....starting 1977 played on a different team over the next four years....St. Louis, Chicago Cubs, Philadelphia, and Boston in that order....finished his last year with a .329 BA.