Giants Win

Way to go, Flan

2012-01-29T01:04:00.000-08:00

Man, it makes me feel good to be a Giants fan to read about how the third base coach held a fundraiser this weekend for Bryan Stow. Chris Haft of mlb.com reports that the event took place tonight in Napa.

Theriot in the Orange and Black

2012-01-27T09:44:00.001-08:00

Jon Heyman of CBS Sports is reporting that middle infielder Ryan Theriot has signed a one-year deal with the Giants, meaning that the front office doesn't believe that Freddie Sanchez will stay healthy and that Mike Fontenot, Manny Burriss and Brandon Crawford are going to hit respectably.

Lefty Malo likes the idea, noting that Theriot kills lefthanded pitching. Here's his conclusion --

Keep in mind, Freddy Sanchez plays second base for the Giants, which means plenty of chances to look up and see " Theriot -- 2B" penciled into the lineup. All in all, not a bad move. Thank you, Orlando Cabrera for retiring and making it possible. With the Clay Hensley signing (which I missed yesterday), the Giants' 40-man roster is now topped up. They'll have to ditch someone to add someone. Hensley could well be the ditchee; his $750,000 contract is also non-guaranteed.

Here's the official story on the Giants site.

Hensley in the Orange and Black

2012-01-26T23:30:00.000-08:00

OK, I admit that I love how grim Clay looks in his rookie card from 2003. No smiling for this dude! "Here's my game face, OK?"

Clay Hensley, who gave up HR No. 755 to Barry Bonds at Petco Park, has signed a minor league deal with the Giants.

Yes, that homer tied the record by Hank Aaron. As much as the Bonds haters would like, that fact won't go away.

In any case, signing Hensley sounds like the front office is continuing to sign pitchers because they are expecting Barry Zito to be ineffective again in his SIXTH season as a Giant. Hensley was pretty effective in 2010 as a reliever, racking up a 2.4 WAR, but stunk up the joint last year as a starter for the Fish with a negative 0.2 WAR. Perhaps that's what happens when you're playing on a team with Scott Cousins

THIS is what it's all about for the Orange and Black

2012-01-25T21:06:00.000-08:00

Tim Lincecum's obvious preference for a short deal ought to be a wake-up call to the front office. The bottom line is that Lincecum wants to win another World Series before he retires.

John Perricone at Only Baseball Matters has a succinct but solid analysis of why Tim Lincecum opted for a two-year deal:

This deal shows that Lincecum is saying that unless the Giants start building an offense that matches his talents, he won’t be a Giant once he reaches free agency. Another two seasons of winning 13 games instead of 20, of seven starts without a single run to work with, of losing four 1-0 games…. these things are not acceptable to him, and if they continue, he will become a Yankee.

Tim already has two World Series victories. Let's have a look at the all-time list --

1.Whitey Ford10 146.0

2.Red Ruffing 7 8 5.2

Bob Gibson 7 81.0

Allie Reynolds 7 77.1

5.Chief Bender 6 85.0

Waite Hoyt 6 83.2

Lefty Gomez 6 50.1

8.Christy Mathewson 5 101.2

Andy Pettitte 5 77.2

Catfish Hunter 5 63.0

Vic Raschi 5 60.1

Mordecai Brown 5 57.2

Herb Pennock 5 55.1

Jack Coombs 5 53.1

Of the 15 guys on this list, nine are Yankees. THAT should tell you all you need to know about where this is going. It's very interesting to me that Whitey Ford -- a smart undersized pitcher who was consistently brilliant -- leads the list. Ford's final World Series win was in Game 1 of the 1962 Series at the Stick.

This is a mind-blowing stat about Ford -- he started the first game of the World Series EIGHT times. One of the odder things about the 1960 Series was that Casey Stengel held back Ford until Game 3, which he won. He then won Game 6 but wasn't available for Game 7, which the Pirates won 10-9 on the epic Mazeroski homer. Ford was upset over Stengel's decision and felt that the Yanks would have won the Series had he been able to pitch in Games 1, 4 and 7. Hard to argue with him about that -- and Stengel got fired after that season. During Stengel's tenure from 1949 to 1960, the Yankees won 10 pennants and seven World Series.

Ford was a rookie in 1950 and missed the next two seasons due to the Korean War. He was the best pitcher on the best team in baseball for next decade and picked up rings in 1950 (when he won the last game at the age of 21), 1953, 1956, 1958, 1961 and 1962.

I have no idea if Tim Lincecum has ever heard of Whitey Ford but I wouldn't be surprised if he had.

Cody Ross = Eddie Bressoud?

2012-01-24T23:02:00.000-08:00

Mlb.com is reporting that Cody's close to a deal with the Bosox, who need some outfield depth due to the Carl Crawford injury. Maybe he'll go back to hitting 23 to 25 HRs a year. Given Cody's role in the 2010 postseason, we Giants fans wish him well.

OK, you're truly a real Giants fan if you get the Bressoud reference. Eddie was with the team for six years from 1956 to 1961 as a shortstop but lost playing time in 1961 to Jose Pagan -- getting only 114 ABs all year -- and was left unprotected in the expansion draft. He was first player picked up by the Houston Colt 45s, who later became the Astros. Houston traded him to Boston, where somehow Eddie figured out how to pull the ball effectively. He spent the next three years lofting lots of fly balls off and over the Green Monster, hitting 14, 20 and 15 HRs along with 40, 23 and 41 doubles. He even made the All-Star team in 1964 and had WARs of 4.7, 2.8 and 4.4 in those years. In other words, he became a damn good player in Boston for awhile.

Eddie had only 94 HRs in 12 seasons -- including 25 in six seasons in the Orange and Black -- and he hit over half of them in those 3 seasons on what were pretty terrible Bosox teams. My impression just looking at the jump in performance in 1962-64, at ages 30 to 32, is that he must have been a pretty smart player to figure out how to hit that effectively in Fenway. He later coached in the minors and scouted for the Angels.

"Lincecum is taking all the risk"

2012-01-24T19:33:00.000-08:00

Henry Schulman of the SF Chron analyzes Tim's deal.Here's the key verbiage --

Lincecum is taking all the risk by going short on years (if accepting $40.5 million is considered “risky”). Pitchers get arm trouble, and though Lincecum’s health has not been an issue, he is mortal. He is bypassing the security of a longer deal in return for a potentially bigger payday down the road. If reports are true, Matt Cain is taking the opposite tack. He’s willing to accept a below-market, long-term deal in exchange for that security and stability. I’m told no deal is imminent with Cain.

The Giants’ risk on Lincecum is low. They are not saddled with a potentially crippling pitcher contract, and the worst that can happen is Lincecum walks in 2014 and the Giants have $25 million to spend elsewhere.

That said, the Giants should have plenty of money to play ball with Lincecum the free agent in 2014. Even if he and Cain consume $50 million of what should, by then, be a $140 million payroll (that no longer includes Barry Zito’s contract), they can build a pretty good team with the rest of the $90 million, particularly if younger players such as Brandon Belt, Gary Brown, Joe Panik, Kyle Crick, etc… pan out. They will be paid peanuts until they hit arbitration down the road.

Tim takes over from Barry Zito

2012-01-24T11:29:00.000-08:00

Tim's signing a 2-year deal for just over $40 mil. This isn't a surprise at all. What it means is that Barry Zito no longer has the top salary on the Giants. Here's what the SF Chron's beat writer just tweeted --

hankschulman Henry Schulman

Things move fast. An being told Lincecum, Giants have reached verbal agreement.

UPDATE -- he now says it's a $500,000 bonus for this year at $18 mil and $22 mil for 2013.

Blocking Belt

2012-01-23T00:10:00.000-08:00

For me, the most frustrating aspect of the off-season has been that the Giants didn't really address their dire need for more offense because --

1. they didn't upgrade at shortstop, where Brandon Crawford hasn't shown an ability to hit MLB pitching
2. they've gotten into a situation where Brandon Belt -- their best hope for an improved offense -- is probably going to be blocked from playing as long as Huff, Pagan, Melky Cabrera and Shierholtz don’t completely stink.

Julian Levine at Giants Nirvana has a long and very well-written post about it. Some highlights --

-- A team with hopes of contending, a steady stream of revenue, and a dire need to improve its offense passed on Jose Reyes, Jimmy Rollins, and Carlos Beltran. In fact, their only offensive additions consisted of Angel Pagan and Melky Cabrera, both of whom were acquired via trade, and both of whom are set to hit free agency after this season.

-- on an individual basis, the moves to retain Lopez and Affeldt aren’t all that bad. As a whole, however, especially as it pertains to the Giants’ needs and budgetary constraints, this was not terribly prudent allocation of money. The $5M that went to Affeldt would have been better spent on a dire need (i.e. a hitter).

-- The Melky Cabrera acquisition, on the other hand, might be the worst move of the offseason. The Giants are paying Melky $6M, which is a bit more than I was expecting. Jonathan Sanchez, in comparison, is getting $5.6M. Basically, the Giants didn’t save any money in making this trade. In retrospect, they essentially had the choice between $6M and Melky Cabrera, and they chose the latter.

I imagine the justification for this move is as follows: they needed a centerfielder, and they didn’t see Andres Torres as a suitable option. They otherwise would have non-tendered Jonathan Sanchez, so this way, at least they filled a position of need by ridding themselves of a wild southpaw. The problem, however, is two-fold: firstly, Cabrera was not all that more appealing an option than Andres Torres, if at all, despite a much better 2011. Secondly, the move was rendered pointless when the Giants went out and got Angel Pagan to play centerfield. Now they’re stuck with a relatively expensive player who — either directly or indirectly — is blocking Brandon Belt.

-- the outfield is now occupied: Nate Schierholtz in right field, Angel Pagan in center, and Melky Cabrera in left. Had the Giants never acquired Melky, there would be room for Belt. In fact, over a full season, Belt probably brings more value to the team than Melky. Few players on the roster have as much potential to improve the offense as he does*. So in effect, the Melky trade: cost the Giants $6M, did little or nothing to improve their team (as it pertains to how the players will likely be utilized), and blocked Brandon Belt, who was already yo-yoed between Fresno and the majors throughout 2011.

Culberson, Panik in the Orange and Black?

2012-01-22T13:56:00.000-08:00

Jonathan Mayo of mlb.com has tabulated the top second-baseman prospects and the Giants have one at No. 7 in Charlie Culberson and one at No. 10 in Joe Panik.

Given the propensity for Freddie Sanchez winding up on the DL, it would not be a surprise if one of them winds up in San Francisco this year.
Culberson will be 23 in April. He hit 10 HRs in AA ball last year and has been playing in the organization since 2007.

Panik is 21 and put up a slash line of .341/.401/.467 in the rookie league in 69 games last year.

Grab some birthday cake, meat!

2012-01-22T01:01:00.001-08:00

It's Mike Krukow's 60th birthday.

Thanks, Kruk, for keeping it fun to be a Giants fan. Here are some of my favorites from the Kruktitionary at Rehab the Crab --hard cheese, cement mixer and uglyfinder.

The Giants gave up Joe Morgan and Al Holland to get Kruk and Mark Davis in 1982. He had great years in 1985 and 1986 and retired in a Giants uni after the 1989 season.

I was at Chavez Latrine for Game No. 162 in 1986, when Kruk won his 20th. Candy Maldonado drove in 6 runs that day in an 11-2 stomping of the Dodgers.

Romo's deal sets the stage for Tim's

2012-01-20T23:50:00.001-08:00

It sounds like Tim's about to sign for 2012 and maybe 2013.

Chris Haft of mlb.com reports on the Giants web site that Tim and the front office appear to be heading toward a deal rather than an arbitration hearing. What's a few million between friends?

Romo signed for $1.575 mil. Haft points out that he retired 31 straight over 15 games at one point last year. I think Jim Barr still holds some kind of record for retiring 46 straight over two games.

Tim's 10 pitching duels last year

2012-01-20T21:16:00.000-08:00

Bill James -- yes, that Bill James -- has compiled a list for the Grantland web site of the 100 best pitching duels last year with Tim Lincecum having participated in 10 of them, including three of the top six. He didn't compile the number by team but the Giants have LOTS of those for Matt Cain, Ryan Vogelsong and Madison Bumgarner. Nos. 3 and 5 were losses to Clayton Kershaw and No. 6 was a Lincecum vic over Ian Kennedy. Interestingly enough, James did NOT include Barry Zito's best game of the year, the 2-1 vic over the Padres on July 6 but perhaps the utter flukiness of it didn't make it valid. Or maybe he just figures Zito was lucky. I was in Section 238 that night and Zito actually performed like a $126 million pitcher.

But this post is about Lincecum, who will probably make more than Zito does this year. Of the 10 games that James mentions, Tim went 4-6. That, ladies and gentlemen, is crappy offensive support.

Last year's season opener was No. 32 on the James list. What he doesn't say is that this game really set the tone for the rest of the season. During the late innings, of course, Bryan Stow was getting attacked by psychos in the parking lot --

The first of four pitchers' duels between the two studs. The Dodgers got a run in the sixth on errors by Miguel Tejada and Buster Posey. Bullpens exchanged runs in their last at-bats. Dodgers 2, Giants 1; snakebite loss for Lincecum.

Lincecum and Kershaw matched up four times in 2011, Kershaw winning all four contests, all four of them tremendous duels. In the four games Lincecum pitched 29 innings with a 1.24 ERA, but an 0-4 record. Kershaw was 4-0, pitched 30.1 innings with a 0.30 ERA.

Sadness about The Kid

2012-01-19T23:21:00.000-08:00

Count yourself as a real Giants fan if you remember that Gary Carter spent a season in the Orange and Black in 1990. Very sad to report that his health has taken a turn for the worse, the New York Daily News reports.

He signed a $250,000 deal and turned a decent year for the Giants with 9 HRs and 27 RBIs in 272 ABs and a 1.5 WAR.

The Kid split time that year with Terry Kennedy, who racked up a 1.2 WAR that year

Orlando Cabrera retires in the Orange and Black

2012-01-18T21:59:00.000-08:00

Jeff Sullivan at Baseball Nation reports that Orlando Cabrera's hanging it up. Here's a good trivia question in a few years:

Q. What do Ryan Klesko, Mike Matheny, Jeff Fassero, Dave Roberts, Duke Snider and Orlando Cabrera have in common?

A. They all played their last game as a San Francisco Giant.

The Giants gave up Thomas Neal for him. Once he arrived, it was pretty obvious that he was done, scoring just 4 runs in 133 plate appearance, driving in 13, getting 4 extra base hits and walking 4 times -- slash line of .222/.241/.270 and a -0.4 Wins Above Replacement in just 39 games. That's really awful. It beats me what the front office was thinking, other than "if he plays like he used to, we'll be fine."

No wonder he looks so happy in this card. He got paid $22 million by the Angels from 2005 through 2007 and racked up WARs of 2.9 in 2005, 2.3 in 2006 and had the best year of his career in 2007 with a 3.8 WAR.

Brandon Crawford didn't exactly light it up last year in 220 plate appearances but at least he has an upside...and a 0.1 WAR. He did walk 23 times, showing at least some plate discipline. In other words, the Giants might have won another game or two had they just stuck with Crawford.

Remember, the Giants still had a shot at the Wild Card at the end. They had an eight-game winning streak and were 13 above .500 at 83-70 with nine games left. Then they lost 2-1 to the Dodgers and Kershaw to go 3-6 the rest of the way. Cabrera went 0-for-3 in that game.

Three days later, he hit his one HR as a Giant in a 3-1 loss to the Dbacks. He flew out in the 9th in what turned out to be his final MLB at bat as the Giants dropped to 84-73.

Just for the hell of it, I looked up the Cards regular season record -- 90-72. Had the Giants gone 7-2 in the those last nine games, they could have made the playoffs...

Pandoval signs for three years

2012-01-17T23:17:00.000-08:00

I was impressed at how well Sandoval bounced back last year and committed to staying in shape. Andrew Baggarly of the Merc-News makes the point that the Giants have been convinced that he'll stay that way. They bought out the 3 years of arbitration for a guy who looks like the best Giants third baseman since Matt Williams was in his prime.
I like this deal a lot. Pablo has shown us a lot in his four years in the bigs. He's only 25 and already an elite player. Henry Schulman of the San Francisco Chron believes it could be a real bargain --

The Giants did not have to sign him for longer than a year. But they bought his three arbitration years with salaries of $3.2 million for the coming season, $5.7 million in 2013 and $8.25 million in 2014 - a bargain if he can replicate his 2009 and 2011 seasons.

The Giants know what Sandoval looks like 3 1/2 months after the final out of 2011. They put him through a physical before completing the deal. "I think we've seen Pablo's commitment grow," Bobby Evans, Giants vice president of player personnel, said. "He's still very young in the game and young in his potential. With time, I think he'll continue to prosper as he continues to find a balance of priority in his conditioning. We see a commitment. We know that Pablo understands there are still challenges that he is facing and will continue to face, yet this is a confidence that we have in him that he's going to do everything possible to earn that contract and the next one."

Memories of Mays

2012-01-17T23:13:00.000-08:00

Robert Creamer has been interviewed by the Sports Past and Present site and talks at length about No. 24. He recalls seeing one of his first games at the Polo Grounds --

I saw Mays play a lot. My father and I were in the moderate crowd at the Polo Grounds in May 1951 when Willie played his first game for the Giants. My father was only a mild baseball fan, although he told me his favorite ballplayer when he was a kid in New York back at the beginning of the 20th century was a bearded outfielder for the Giants named George Van Haltren, which indicates a certain degree of baseball intensity. In any case he and I drove down from Tuckahoe to the Polo Grounds, bought tickets (which you could do then) and sat in the lower stands between home and first base. Willie had broken in a few days earlier in Philadelphia where he went 0 for 12 in three games. He was batting third which if it seems a high spot for a brand-new rookie seemed a proper spot to take a look at a rookie who had been batting something like .477 in the minors.

The top of the first took some of the fun out of the game right away. Warren Spahn was pitching for the Boston Braves and in the top of the first Bob Elliott hit a three-run homer for Boston, which took a lot of the starch out of the Giant fans. If Spahn was on, and had a three-run lead already, we didn’t have a prayer. Spahn set the first two Giants down in order and here came Willie, our fabulous new rookie. I forget what the count went to — a ball and a strike, something like that. Spahn threw the next pitch and Willie hit it on a line high and deep to left center field. I cannot recall if it hit the wooden façade high in left field or went over the roof and out of the park. All I remember is the electric excitement that shot through the park at the sound and sight of our precious rookie in his first at-bat in New York hitting a tremendous home run off the great Spahn. “He’s real!” was the feeling. “He’s real!”

$6 mil for Melky

2012-01-17T11:59:00.000-08:00

The Giants signed Melky for $6 million -- a bargain if he plays like he did last year. Santiago Casilla got $2.2 million.

Melky had a 2.9 WAR last year -- far higher than any other Giants offensive player other than Pablo Sandoval.

Brown in the Orange and Black

2012-01-16T22:13:00.001-08:00

One of the forgotten moves in the memorable 2002 season came when the Giants acquired Kenny Lofton in a deadline deal with the White Sox. A decade later, I regret that the Giants didn't try and keep him longer. He has a career WAR of 65.8 -- higher than some of the guys in the Hall of Fame. Let's remember who it was who drove in the winning run with two outs in the 9th that got the Giants into the World Series that year. So it's more than intriguing that Giants prospect Gary Brown is mentioned in the same breath as Lofton.

I haven't gone to the always interesting Bay City Ball site for awhile but Chris Quick has a loooong recap of the top 5 prospects, led by Gary Brown, followed by Joe Panik, Tommy Joseph, Erik Surkamp and Heath Hembree.

Rory Paap is particularly enthused about Brown -- It’s probabaly foolish and wishful thinking that I’m fairly optimistic about the Giants’ system–which is frankly pretty thin–but I am. Fittingly, there’s no player on this list or any other that I’m more excited about than Gary Brown. I cannot wait to see what he does with the daunting challenge that Double-A will be for him in 2012. I hope he’s up for it. I think he is.

With the exception of Torres’ remarkable 2010 season, the Giants have not had a quality center fielder or a legitimate leadoff hitter since Kenny Lofton, and he came only for one half of a (nearly triumphant) season to patch up the Shinjo-Calvin Murray debacle. That’s 10 seasons. Gary Brown, if all goes to plan, is the answer to a painful, decade-long problem. He puts the demons of Dave Roberts to bed.

Brown is lightning fast, has excellent contact skills with a surprising amount of pop (14 home runs, .519 SLG in San Jose), and his absolute floor as a defender in a premium position is probably around average. If he can polish up his outfield instincts and continue to draw walks and get on base at a respectable rate, he’s going to be a very useful player with more star potential than Panik. And finally, I can confirm that he’s nothing like Aaron Rowand, the only exceptions being their Fullerton alumni status and a penchant for being hit by pitches. And that particular skill might well prove to be pretty handy given how dangerous Brown ought to be on the paths.

Giants sign Angel

2012-01-16T16:51:00.001-08:00

That would be Angel Pagan. According to ESPN, the club reached a one-year deal for $4.85 million and avoided arbitration. He made $3.5 million last year for the Mets.

Andrew Baggarly of Merc-News has a couple of snarky blog posts in response --
extrabaggs Andrew Baggarly

Put another way, Pagan will get nearly a third of what Aaron Rowand will receive for not showing up for work every day.
extrabaggs Andrew Baggarly

Yes, Rowand signed a minor league deal with the Marlins. I'd imagine he'll compete w/Scott Cousins for a job. How about that, Giants fans?

No arbitration for Tim?

2012-01-16T12:45:00.001-08:00

Henry Schulman of the SF Chron thinks the two sides will have a deal by Wednesday

Belt = Maris?

2012-01-15T16:27:00.000-08:00

Steve Treder at Hardball Times has an entertaining post comparing the startling similiarities between the 2011 version of Brandon Belt and the 1958 version of Roger Maris --

This isn't to suggest that Brandon Belt is the second coming of Roger Maris. Not necessarily, anyway. But in wondering just how this young left-handed slugger might (or might not) develop over the coming years, we have one highly intriguing comp with a famous left-handed slugger of long ago, just staring us in the face.

I remember the and 1958 and 1961 seasons vividly, mostly because the Giants contended until the last week or so of both of them. For the life of me, I couldn't understand why Roger Maris engendered so much negative reaction in 1961. He seemed like a completely decent guy to my 9-year-old mind.

A cap tip to Giants Nirvana for pointing out the post.

The impact of the Pineda deal

2012-01-14T22:14:00.000-08:00

Tis truly the hot stove season --

Bryan at Around the Foghorn has an intriguing post. He believes that the Yanks-Mariners deal (Jesus Montero for Miguel Pineda) means that the Yankees are now less likely to make a run at Matt Cain next year -- assuming that the Giants have locked up Cain by then to a multi-year deal.

Again, it's hard for me to imagine Matt Cain in anything other than a Giants uni. A flyball specialist like Matt might have a rougher time in Yankee Stadium than in AT&T Park aka Mays Field.

.609 in 2004

2012-01-14T00:16:00.000-08:00

You can call yourself a hardcore stats geek if you know what that headline means.

Jeff Sullivan at Baseball Nation has posted "An Incomplete Collection of Barry Bonds Fun Facts," including this stunner -- Barry Bonds had an OBP of .609 in 2004! Over a full season! Joe Carter had a career OBP of .306! Barry Bonds' OBP in 2004 was twice Joe Carter's OBP in his career!

And here's a pretty good list from Baseball Reference...

1.	Barry Bonds (39)	.6094	2004	L
2.	Barry Bonds (37)	.5817	2002	L
3.	Ted Williams+ (22)	.5528	1941	L
4.	John McGraw+ (26)	.5475	1899	L
5.	Babe Ruth+ (28)	.5445	1923	L
6.	Babe Ruth+ (25)	.5319	1920	L
7.	Barry Bonds (38)	.5291	2003	L
8.	Ted Williams+ (38)	.5256	1957	L
9.	Billy Hamilton+ (28)	.5209	1894	L
10.	Babe Ruth+ (31)	.5156	1926	L
11.	Barry Bonds (36)	.5151	2001	L
12.	Babe Ruth+ (29)	.5126	1924	L
13.	Babe Ruth+ (26)	.5123	1921	L
14.	Mickey Mantle+ (25)	.5120	1957	B
15.	Rogers Hornsby+ (28)	.5072	1924	R

The way to San Jose?

2012-01-13T00:28:00.000-08:00

It beats me. I read this column twice and I still don't know what to tell you...

The Oakland A's look like they're going to become the San Jose A's, at least according to Mark Purdy of the Mercury-News, despite the Giants having territorial rights. He surmises that Selig will have some kind of compromise to compensate the Giants. It appears the Merc-News is edited by shovel. The column's kind of sloppy on detail. I read this passage and have no idea what Mark is talking about since he doesn't bother to explain the boldface --

Trying to determine how an A's-Giants resolution might look is difficult. The most obvious template is the settlement received by Baltimore Orioles owner Peter Angelos when the Montreal Expos were moved to within 40 miles of Angelos' franchise and became the Washington Nationals. As compensation, Angelos received guarantees from MLB on ticket revenue and franchise value.

Angelos was asked Thursday if he sees any parallels between that and the A's-Giants state of affairs.

"I don't have much knowledge about the situation," Angelos said. "But I wish them both luck."

Adios, John Bowker

2012-01-11T22:34:00.001-08:00

I thought about saying "Sayanora, John Bowker" since he's been released by the Phils so he can sign a deal to go play baseball in Japan. I have some affection for Bowker -- he was always tearing it up in the minors but just could not hit consistently in the bigs.
Adios means "Go with God, John Bowker." For those of you who don't recall, he was dealt away on July 31, 2010 to the Pirates for Javier Lopez. Grant Bisbee at McCovey Chronicles has an excellent post about it.Here's some of it --

John Bowker was, for a weekend or so, the slugger of the future. Then he struggled so badly that he was removed from the 2008 Giants' lineup. That was … hard to do. After returning to the minors, he put up a fantastic 2009 season in AAA, even by Pacific Coast League standards. He hit for average (.342) and changed his approach at the plate, leading to more walks (.451 OBP). He had 47 extra-base hits in 366 at-bats.

And he couldn't hit a breaking ball if he stood in front of home plate with the lid of a garbage can. But now we're ahead of ourselves.

At the same time he was demolishing Fresno, the Giants' right fielder was having an abysmal season, as was the entire team....

He's one-man shorthand for the nuttiness of Giants baseball, and why we love and hate it so.

The comeback kid has a 2-year deal

2012-01-11T18:34:00.001-08:00

The Giants haven't been able to lock down Matt Cain or Tim Lincecum but they did manage to get their presumptive No. 3 starter signed to a two year deal today.

Chris Haft's story from mlb.com notes that Ryan started the year in the minors and was summoned back the bigs after Zito's injury on April 16. Twelve days later, he got the first of his 13 vics in a 5-2 game where Aaron Rowand drove in three runs. It was Ryan's first MLB victory since 2005.

Happy birthday, Stretch!

2012-01-10T23:00:00.000-08:00

A terrific shot by timbo94066!

I thought for awhile about my fave games where Stretch was the hero. The first was his first game on July 30, 1959, when he hit two triples and two singles.

Twenty years later, at the home opener on April 10, he pinch hit for Roger Metzger in the bottom of the 9th with two out and no one out in a 2-2 tie. I was there that day at the Stick and the anticipation as Stretch came out was electric. We KNEW something good was about to happen -- as it had so many other times when Stretch came up. We were right. He lined a single to right and was replaced by Max Venable in his first MLB appearance. A few moments later, John Tamargo pinch hit for Vida Blue and clobbered a pitch into the second deck. I can still see it and still hear the happy roar of that crowd.

THANKS, STRETCH!!!!!

"For Jan. 9, he's doing pretty well"

2012-01-10T01:02:00.000-08:00

Who? Buster Posey, that's who. The quote is from the Giants trainer Dave Groeschner in a story by Chrs Haft on mlb.com

I'd have to say this is the best news of the offseason so far for Giants fans -- Buster is now doing sprints of 30 and 60 yards. Fingers crossed and let's hope Dingbat Psycho Scott Cousins doesn't get a deal anywhere.

Freddy's comeback coming along, I guess

2012-01-08T11:20:00.001-08:00

I guess this is where veteran experience pays off. When he's healthy -- like he was six years ago, in his prime -- he's formidable. He racked a 5.5 WAR in 2006 with a batting title and 53 doubles.

Chris Haft of mlb.com posts that Freddy Sanchez has started hitting off a tee. He notes that Freddy's had so much experience with being on the DL that he knows how to rehab and is further along this time. Why am I not particularly re-assured? Anyhow, here's the key verbiage --

Various injuries limited Sanchez, 34, to 111 games in 2009 and '10 and 60 games last year. If there's anything positive about this, it's that he has learned to pace himself and maintain patience as he rehabilitates. "Obviously you want it to go easier," said Sanchez, a .297 lifetime hitter who's penciled in to bat second in manager Bruce Bochy's lineup. "You still want to hurry up and rush things. But having gone through it, I know that I'm a lot further than I was last year or the year before."

"I hate the Dodgers" -- John Montefusco

2012-01-07T02:05:00.000-08:00

Oh, my. I've discovered the SABR web site and their massive biographical database and just read the recap of John Montefusco's career.

I'd forgotten that The Count broke into the bigs on Sept. 3, 1974 as a reliever for Ron Bryant -- who had pitched six batters and not gotten out -- and proceeded to pitch the next 9 innings and beat the Dodgers, 9-5 and hit a homer in his first MLB at bat. After the game, he said, "I wanted to beat the Dodgers--I hate the Dodgers, I'm from New Jersey, and I've always been a Yankee fan."

Giants fans didn't have a lot to cheer about in those days so The Count was a fan fave right off the bat. When he shut out the Dodgers 1-0 next year on the Fourth of July, he said, "This is the greatest game of my life."

I think I went to this one on July 17, 1976 -- a complete game beauty over the Phils, 4-1

Petit = Vogelsong?

2012-01-06T01:20:00.000-08:00

Well, we can only hope. The sharp-eyed Julian at Giants Nirvana (the former Splashing Pumpkins) has found out via a Spanish-language site that Yusmeiro Petit -- with 36 MLB starts -- has been signed to a minor league deal by the Giants.

These kinds of signings do occassionally work out, you know. But the guy hasn't shown much in a season with the Fish and 3 with the Snakes.

Not that it matters much, but he's a horrible batter -- 3 for 61 for an 0.49 batting average. Most fans are full of it when they say that there as good as an MLB batter, but they could actually make a case with Petit. He went 1-for-27 in 2009 with one walk after going 0-for-13 in 2008.

Vogelsong, in addition to racking up a 3.7 Wins Above Replacement last year with a 13-7 record in 179 innings, also got 12 hits in 53 at bats and scored 7 times.

Cain in pinstripes?

2012-01-04T22:17:00.000-08:00

Tyler Kepner of the NY Times is theorizing that the reason why the Yanks haven't gone after big-ticket free agent pitchers this offseason -- they're saving for a year from now when Matt Cain and/or Cole Hamels may be available.

Well, the Yanks can wave the gazillions around. I'm not sure that a smart flyball pitcher like Matt would enjoy pitching in a homer haven like Yankee Stadium. And it's hard to imagine Matt in anything other than a Giants uni. The always astute MC O'Connor at Raising (Matt) Cain posted a pretty good recap yesterday in a forecast for 2012. Some highlights --

Such an interesting character for such a soft-spoken guy. When they stick the mike in his face he is generally dull and relies on the usual ballplayer platitudes ("Eli called a great game and the guys made some great plays.") At the same time, he's the player rep. He must be reasonably smart and articulate to fulfill that role. Being the longest-tenured Giant I imagine gives him some gravitas and trustworthiness beyond his age (a mere 27). Alabama-born and Tennessee-bred Cain makes his home and is raising his family in San Francisco. How many Giants can say that? Matt lent his voice to the "It Gets Better" campaign (Bravo, Giants). He makes little or no off-season noise, generates no controversy, and always seems to be there when the Giants do some community thing. I think I remember him getting ticked off at one of the Hairston brothers in a ball game, but that's about it. Maybe there was a Dodger game or two where he showed some emotion, I forget. The point is that this guy is so stoic and self-contained as to be almost boring. And he's so consistent and steady when he performs that you don't really appreciate how good he is until the season is over and he's racked up another 200+ innings of first-rate pitching. He has to be taken as a whole. Tim Lincecum is exciting just to watch--the freaky delivery, the chance of a dozen strikeouts, and that ridiculous pitch they flail at every week. Pablo Sandoval is so weird and full of quirks, has outsized emotions, and hits doubles off his shoe tops. Buster Posey makes it looks so easy and was born to speak to a room full of reporters. It isn't hard to imagine him as a manager some day. Brandon Belt looks like he's still a kid and sometimes plays like one. Not Matt. He's been the same from the day he debuted and spent every season getting a little better at doing the same thing over and over again, namely throwing strikes and getting outs. You hear ballplayers talk about "keeping it simple." Look no further than no. 18! I expect more of the same for 2012.

Joe Torre becomes more Evil

2012-01-04T21:36:00.000-08:00

This post is a reflection of my Eternal Hostility Toward the dodgers.

It's hard to believe the Joe Torre could be more evil than he already is. I really didn't think much about Joe while he was racking up 4 World Series rings in five years but then he aligned himself with the Forces of Evil by becoming manager of the Dodgers. Then he got bored and got a flunky executive job for Bud Selig, during which he decided NOT to do anything about changing the rule that lets no-talent psychopaths like Scott Cousins maim a legitimate star like Buster Posey.

Now he's decided to ditch Bud and try buying the dodgers -- a franchise already tainted with the stink of Walter O'Malley, Rupert Murdoch and Frank and Jamie McCourt -- with real estate hustler Rick Caruso.

If any dodger fans are reading this and want to tell me what groovy people O'Malley, Murdoch, McCourt and Torre are, don't waste your time. I'm not going to post your comments.

Huffing and BLUFing

2012-01-03T22:09:00.000-08:00

Aubrey Huff is spinning hard and I don't mean on a spin cycle either. This is damage control.

Well, you've got to give Huff points for recognizing publicly how badly he played last year and admitting it to Henry Schulman of the SF Chron. But the BLUF (Bottom Line Up Front) -- what a knucklehead! Why would you not be in tip-top shape when the season started? No wonder Sabean and Bochy blasted him at the end of the season for being out of shape. Surely, he must know that he's got the potential to stink because he's been a lousy player in other seasons too.

A very knowledgeable Bosox fan and good friend reminds me that Huff's performance in his career is all over the map. He had a 5.8 WAR in 2010, a 3.7 WAR in 2004 and a 3.0 in 2008. He's also had a negative WAR in half of his 12 seasons, including three of the last four when it was -0.9, -0.8 and -0.7.

In other words, he's consistently inconsistent. Had he put up the seasons of 2003, 2004, 2008 and 2010 in the other years, he would have been a potential Hall of Famer. Maybe all the Pilates will help.

The Thrill in the Hall?

2012-01-02T22:06:00.000-08:00

Julian at Giants Nirvana has an excellent post making the case for Will the Thrill getting into the Hall of Fame.

I always thought that Will missed out on the MVP in 1989, when he was the best player in the NL. Kevin Mitchell won due to his 47 homers -- a huge number back then. Will's Wins Above Replacement was 9.4 while Mitch's was 7.7, so it wasn't egregious but an MVP and/or a World Series ring might have been enough to get The Thrill into the Hall. (Oddly enough, Lonnie Smith -- who always seemed like a very good but not great player, had a very impressive 8.7 WAR that year).

Will retired pretty early at age 36 to spend more time with his son with autism. Julian makes a strong case --

Clark only played 15 seasons, so he didn’t stick around long enough to compile great counting stats. Additionally, he’s hurt without attention to context. His peak years occurred from 1987 to 1992, during which time he hit .303/.378/.515 with 151 homers. That’s quite good, but it’s even better when you consider how weak offense was during that period. In four of those six years, the National League OPS was below .690, and in two of them, it was below .680.

Nate -- better than average

2012-01-02T20:35:00.001-08:00

Maybe there's some hope for the Giants outfield now that Aaron Rowand's been kicked off the team...

Man, it was frustrating watching the Giants last season when it seemed no one other Pablo Sandoval could hit consistently while Rowand continued to get at bats. I'd kind of forgotten that Nate Schierholtz was pretty decent before he went down with a season-ending injury he sustained in August; he played his last game Aug. 21, when the Giants were only a game and a half out of first. The Giants never seemed to be able to get hot in September like they did in September 2010. And it turns out that Nate Schierholtz was putting up offensive numbers that were significantly above the league average, M.C. O'Connor observes at Raising (Matt) Cain. Here's most of his post --

Nate's .278/.326/.430 line rates a 112 OPS+ with B-R and a 107 wRC+ with FanGraphs. Would it surprise you that he's about 10% better than the average hitter? I sorted NL hitters with 350+ PA by OPS and discovered that Nate's .756 is 53rd of the 117 listed, sandwiched between Alfonso Soriano and James Loney. Pablo Sandoval was 10th at .909, just behind Carlos Beltran (.910). The rest of the lineup was terrible: Cody Ross 66th (.730), Jeff Keppinger 97th (.677), Aubrey Huff 98th (.676), Andres Torres 111th (.643), and Aaron Rowand 115th (.621). Nate, when given the everyday job, delivered the goods. He wasn't a superstar, but he wasn't asked to be one, either. More important than that, he didn't stink. I know, I know, damning with faint praise. But he didn't. The other guys did stink, and that matters. Note that four of those names are no longer on the team.

I have good feelings about Schierholtz and 2012. He's under team control (arb-eligible this year, FA in 2015), he's not quite 28 (February), and his game is still improving. We've seen his tremendous glove and the value it delivers to the team, now we hope to see his bat show more polish and consistency. He has over 200 more games played in the minors than majors (and over twice as many PA) so he is still developing. I think we saw a lot of positives before the injury and I'm expecting more of the same. If I've learned anything over the years, it is to appreciate what a player can do rather than what he cannot. And that a player who has never had a full season has not had a real chance to reach his full potential. Nate can give the Giants solid production, speed on the bases, and range and athleticism in the field with a deadly goddamn cannon to boot. He needs to stay healthy, be steady, and play his game. If he can do that the 2012 Giants will be much improved over the 2011 version.

Happy New Year!

2012-01-01T15:37:00.000-08:00

Here's a superb shot from Artolog taken from the 2008 season, when Tim went 18-5.

This was one of the five losses, coming against the Brew Crew. Tim was down 2-0 in the 7th and hit Richie Weeks, gave up a single to JJ Hardy and a 3-run homer to Ryan Braun. The Giants wound up losing 7-4, coming up with two in the 8th and two in the 9th.

Here's hoping for a bit more run support for Tim in 2012!

Best game of 2011

2011-12-31T10:28:00.000-08:00

I didn't have to think twice about this one -- July 6, 2011 -- Giants 6, Padres 5 in 14.

Nate Schierholtz hit two of his nine homers that night. The first was a two-run shot in the 4th; 10 innings later, he hit a high high high fly to right that just made it onto the arcade.

With the Giants down 5-3 in the 8th, Sandoval hit a two-run double to tie it up for the next six innings. Wilson came on in the 9th and did his usual high-wire act, giving up two singles. Then he struck out the side in the 10th.

In fact, the Giants bullpen did not allow a baserunner in extras that night -- it was 15 up and 15 down. Romo took the 11th and 12th; Javier Lopez got them in the 13th and 14th.

And there was the 14th inning stretch that night. A few moments later, on a 1-2 pitch, Nate ended it.

Thanks and Happy New Year to everyone who read this blog this year.

LET'S GO GIANTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

RIP Don Mueller

2011-12-30T09:31:00.000-08:00

He passed away at age 84 on Wednesday in St. Louis. Mueller got the second hit in the epic 4-run rally in the 1951 playoff, then broke his ankle sliding into third on Whitey Lockman's double. Clint Hartung pinch-ran, Ralph Branca came into pitch. The season concluded a few minutes later with Bobby Thomson's "shot heard round the world."

He was one of key players on the 1951 and 1954 Giants. David Pinto at Baseball Musings recaps his career --

He was an all-star twice, leading the National League in hitting in 1954, the year of last New York Giants World Championship, and the penultimate one for the franchise. He was a successful hacker; he seldom struck out or walk, but managed a high batting average, .296 for his career, but a low OBP, .322.

Mueller was 12th in the 1954 MVP voting, which Mays won easily (Johnny Antonelli was 3rd and Alvin Dark was 5th; Sal Maglie, Hoyt Wilhelm and Dusty Rhodes all got votes). He was still starting in right in 1957 but had declined and the team had young outfield talent like Felipe Alou and Willie Kirkland on the way. The Giants sold him to the Chisox just before the 1958 season started.

He had a nickname -- "Mandrake the Magician." I assume it was because of his bat control. He had a total of 167 walks and 146 strikeouts in a 12-year MLB career of over 4,500 plate appearances.

Charles Johnson?

2011-12-29T23:10:00.000-08:00

Apparently, the partner with the largest stake in the Giants doesn't want to give interviews. That's kind of strange, to say the least, for a business that depends on the good will of the public.

My memory is fading -- I just needed a full minute to remember the name of the last managing partner of the Sf Giants (Bill Neukom). Mark Purdy of the San Jose Mercury-News is out with a column that says some reclusive multi-millionaire named Charles Johnson -- who's made billions in mutual funds -- has become the most powerful among the owners of the Giants. Good for you, Mark. What does it mean? He couldn't persuade Johnson to give him an interview so if Mark knows what it means, he's not telling.

I don't know about you but I'm not very impressed so far. I suppose I should be grateful that the partners don't seem to be like Frank and Jamie McCourt. But here the Giants win the World Series in 2010; the partners kick Neukom out a season later; the Giants have the second worst offense in the MLB and make two moves in the offseason to improve -- getting Angel Pagan and Melky at a cost of Andres Torres, Jonathan Sanchez and Ramon Ramirez. The fans have sold out every game last season and are left with having to hope for Melky Cabrera, Buster Posey, Aubrey Huff and Freddy Sanchez having career years.

I hope you're planning on doing a little bit more than just giving us the silent treatment, Mr. Johnson.

The Tim gap

2011-12-28T18:40:00.000-08:00

If Jon Heyman of CBS Sportsline is to be believed, there's still a big gap between what the Giants are offering Tim Lincecum and what he'll accept. Jon reports that there was a 4-year $80 million deal that was on the table at some point.

It's yet another indication of just how awful the Barry Zito deal is for the front office, since it means that it's going to be used as a benchmark in negotiations with any other pitcher.

I think the Giants should let the A's move to San Jose, as long as the A's agree to take Zito off their hands. Here's part of what Heyman said -- A case could be made that Lincecum has been baseball's best pitcher over the past four years. He certainly has been its most decorated, with three strikeout titles to go with all the other hardware. Lincecum, a Seattle native, has thrived since te Giants made him one of the best No. 10 overall picks ever a few years back. San Francisco has embraced his quirky delivery and nature. Likewise, all indications are that he loves the city and wants to stay a long while. The rival Dodgers gave star outfielder Matt Kemp a $160-million, eight-year extension this winter.Lincecum, 27, is 69-41 with a 2.98 ERA, but that doesn't tell the story of the brilliance he has displayed. He was only 13-14 in 2011 when a incredible lack of offensive support undermined his efforts.

"Give us Cain"

2011-12-27T22:33:00.000-08:00

It's hard to imagine but Matt Cain will be in his walk year in 2012 so it would make sense to lock him up now -- particularly since the front office has been telling everyone that the Cain contract is why they couldn't sign Carlos Beltran or pursue Jose Reyes, Jimmy Rollins or Prince Fielder.

As a way of salvaging what's been an offseason of mixed blessings at best, Grant Bisbee at McCovey Chronicles makes a persuasive argument for giving Matt Cain a contract extension. Here's the last half --

A rough benchmark would be Jered Weaver's five year, $85 million contract extension. Weaver hasn't had a run of success as lengthy as Cain's, but he's been a 200-inning guy who picks up Cy Young votes. He's two years older than Cain, so it's not a perfect parallel, but then again Cain has never had a season as nice as Weaver's 2011. While the Weaver contract was widely lauded as a bargain, it's worth noting that it was a Boras-negotiated product. It probably wasn't drastically under market.

When taking ballpark into account, C.J. Wilson has been better than Cain over the past two years, but he was a reliever before that, and he's already 31. His five year/$77.5 million contract is somewhat useful as a comparison -- especially when you figure that the competition of the open market allows for some inflation that you might not see with an extension -- but Cain should be more expensive.

The one thing I do get from the Weaver and Wilson contracts, though: It isn't crazy to think that Cain could sign for five years. It's not crazy, but it might not be likely. Here's a comparison that might be more apt, even if it's scarier: CC Sabathia for seven years, $161 million. Sabathia entered free agency as a 28-year-old, as would Cain. And while it's weird to think about now, Sabathia wasn't always Crazy Joe Innings Eater -- he topped 240 innings in each of the two seasons before free agency, but he usually fell just shy of 200 innings in every season before that. It's unlikely that Cain would get nearly that much, though.

When it comes to preventing runs, Cain is roughly Sabathia's equal (both have a career 125 ERA+), and he's younger than both Wilson and Weaver when they signed their contracts. Something splitting the difference, then? Six years will make up for the gap between Cain and the older pitchers, and an average annual value of somewhere between Wilson and Sabathia's first Yankees' deal, erring on the low side, seems right. If I had to guess -- with the disclaimer that I'm at least a little clueless about this stuff -- I'd wager that a six-year, $100 million contract would be on the high side of reasonable, with the outside chance of Cain telling his agent to "gimme a Weaver."

I wasn't expecting Fielder or Reyes. I was hoping for Beltran, but I certainly wasn't expecting him back. Here's the difference between those players and Cain: I am 100%, no-foolin' expecting a Cain extension before the season starts. The front office and ownership essentially promised us as much when explaining why they couldn't pay Beltran, Reyes, Furcal, Alex Gonzalez, the other Alex Gonzalez, or either Jeff D'Amico.

Cain. Give us Cain. This offseason should be whapped on the nose with a rolled-up newspaper. Bad offseason! Bad! But here's hoping that the Giants can at least scrape some of the bad feelings on the side of the curb.

A bright Brandon Belt outlook

2011-12-26T19:37:00.000-08:00

Damn, I love alliteration (see headline). And I love good writing about the Giants, which is why I was pleasantly surprised on the day after Christmas to come across an outstanding piece of analysis about Brandon Belt's outlook for 2012 by Paul Rice at the Fake Teams site.

Rice makes the argument very persuasively that Belt is a good low-cost option if you're constructing a fantasy team -- particularly since he was still an above league-average batter despite a weird 2011 that featured a decidedly murky strategy for handling Belt, two trips to the minors, a busted wrist, an outsize contract to Aubrey Huff, the insistence on playing Rowand, Huff and Schierholtz most of the time and the trade for Carlos Beltran. And now it looks as if the front office isn't counting on Belt coming through since they traded for both Angel Pagan and Melky Cabrera -- obviously with the idea of probably giving them starting slots. Is Belt going to play left and is Schierholtz sitting with Pagan in right? Or is Belt going to play first with Huff sitting? Really hard to tell at this point.

Here's most of Rice's post (and the boldface is mine) :

-- Belt launched a home run in his second game, but then pretty much stunk as a regular for the next few weeks. The Giants, never a franchise in tune with small sample size vagaries in regards to young players, sent Belt down in a heartbeat once Ross returned to the active roster. Belt then did what he had always done in the minors... he hit the living crap out of the ball. It was almost as if 60 major league plate appearances might not have been an accurate gauge of his abilities.

-- Belt returned to the majors in late May amidst frequent demands from the fans that be made the regular first baseman. Unfortunately, he immediately broke his wrist and had to go on the DL. He returned six weeks later, only to sit and rot on the bench for a couple of weeks before being sent to AAA, again, when the Giants acquired Carlos Beltran. When Beltran immediately hurt himself, Belt was back up for good, only this time the Giants converted him into their regular left fielder and left him alone. Quite a turbulent flight for a green rookie trying to establish himself in The Show.

-- Belt's final .228/.306/.412 line doesn't jump out at you, but it was good for a 101 OPS+, so with all of the craziness surrounding his year and the inconsistency, he was actually above league average as a hitter. He looked undeniably miserable in April and particularly in late-August, when he was an undisciplined train wreck who looked late on every fastball. He teased fans with flashes of his incredible potential, including a two-homer showing in Florida where he bombed one to the opposite field, over the Teal Monster. It never all came together, however, and despite a strong power showing in September, he still had trouble making contact and didn't draw walks or show the patience that he had in the minors.

-- A lot of people are willing to give him a mulligan. The wrist injury plus the Giants' ridiculous mishandling of him during mid-summer sent his season off the tracks and would probably screw up anybody.

-- Verdict: Boom...if the Giants will let him. No one knows what Belt's role will be when the 2012 season dawns. The Giants brought in Melky Cabrera and Angel Pagan to shore up the outfield, and they seem insistent on playing Nate Schierholtz regularly in right. Aubrey Huff is still around for another year at first base. While the wisest option would probably be to cut Huff and play Belt (that would have been the wise option last year, actually), the Giants are already giving $12 million to Aaron Rowand to play for the Marlins and will be paying Barry Zito $19 million and praying he doesn't suck out loud. The team will probably be loathe to swallow more money, even if it means another sub-replacement level season from Huff.

-- So Belt might be screwed by circumstance, but let's pretend he does get to play regularly. I predict big things, mostly because his power is completely legit, and he showed the ability to hit for average and draw walks in the minor leagues. That typically doesn't just disappear upon reaching the majors, especially for a player like Belt, who played like a man among boys in his first professional season. Screw it...I'll predict something like .280-25-80 given a full season's worth of plate appearances.

-- Belt's first major league home run was a bolt to dead center field at Dodger Stadium, so any doubters as to his power potential should have been quieted right there. He's a 25-30 homer threat, although some of that might be squashed by playing at AT&T Park, a notoriously difficult home run park for lefties. His fantasy appeal is elevated because he's outfield-eligible as well, although long term I don't know how well he profiles as a starting outfielder. He didn't look great out there, and his one-season defensive numbers were ugly.

-- Belt is a guy to monitor right down to the end of spring training. If he leaves Arizona with a starting job, jump on him, especially in NL-only leagues. His minor league numbers are so good, I can't believe that his true talent is simply the strikeout-prone mediocrity we saw last year. With 500-odd plate appearances, bank on 20 homers. If he starts in season in AAA, he's a good keeper league grab with the potential to make an impact later in the season a la Posey in 2010.

Oakland A's fiasco may be ending

2011-12-26T09:49:00.000-08:00

As I've said before, I don't really care what happens to the Oakland A's except that they should lose every time they play the Giants. They've won four World Series while in Oakland; the Giants have won one. Still, they've often been a third class operation, what with their current insistence on tarping over the top deck.

The A's put out one of the worst teams ever in 1979, which went 54-108 and had an attendance of 306,763. Yes, you're reading that right. I attended a game in late April that year in which the World Champ Yankees drew only 7,000. The A's won that game 1-0 with a guy named Craig Minetto pitching -- the only game he ever won in the bigs.

Bob Nightengale of USA tweeted on Christmas Eve that the owners of the Oakland A's will be given permission by MLB to move the franchise to San Jose by February -- no story on this at this point, just a tweet...or at least not one that I can find.

It's hard to imagine that the Giants owners are OK with giving up the territorial rights to San Jose -- which were a big deal at various points when the Giants ownership was trying to figure out a way to leave Candlestick Park before figuring out that building a park in China Basin made sense.

Frankly, this guy who owns the A's, Lew Wolff, is more than a little annoying. He's been whining about being stuck in Oakland since he bought the team in 2005. Dave Newhouse of the Oakland Tribune wrote a column about how he believes Wolff is a liar just before the World Series. He makes the good point -- how are fans supposed to go to the Colisseum (or whatever they're calling it these days) when the owner's bad-mouthing the location? Here's some of the key points --

-- Wolff has painted a vile picture of Oakland, and how unresponsive the city has been to his needs for a new ballpark. A big lie

-- Wolff has been offered other sites in Oakland that he has refused to look at because, flatly, he only wants San Jose, where he has established business ties.

-- And here is "Moneyball" creator Billy Beane -- the real Billy Beane, not the Brad Pitt portrayal -- contending that he won't have the revenue to produce a winning team unless the A's get a new stadium. Hey, Billy, look out your office window. Between the Coliseum complex and Hegenberger Road is enough land to build a new ballpark, extra parking and that "baseball village" Wolff keeps envisioning. The highway is there, BART also is in place and the Coliseum complex is dead center in the middle of five Bay Area counties. What's not to like? Well, there's always those empty Coliseum seats, if you listen to Wolff.

-- The Haases didn't complain about Oakland; they embraced Oakland. And they drew 2.9 million one season (1990). Meanwhile, Wolff and Beane carp about the A's having baseball's worst attendance. But why buy tickets to help an owner who's trying to move your team? As reader Jim Zelinski continually tells me, "The A's should be happy their attendance is that high."

-- Beware of a Wolff in wolf's clothing. Oil Slick Lew contends he has spent millions of dollars on potential sites here, such as the 66th Avenue location across from the Coliseum. But small businesses there refused to leave. It was all a sham. Multimillionaires such as Wolff can waste millions -- because they have millions to waste. Wolff has been contemplating his exit from Oakland from the very day he arrived in 2005.

Merry Christmas, Lou Seal!

2011-12-25T21:10:00.000-08:00

Here's Lou Seal showing some holiday spirit at the Giants holiday party on Dec. 14. Photo from the official San Franciso Giants web site.

Merry Christmas, Barry Zito

2011-12-25T20:33:00.000-08:00

He's a big supporter of the Giants holiday party -- given for 250 children from Bay Area homeless shelters -- in keeping with his active support of worthwhile charities throughout his career. Chris Haft of mlb.com does a nice job of detailing the Dec. 14 party.

Merry Christmas, everyone

Dear Santa -- here's all I want for Christmas

2011-12-24T09:57:00.000-08:00

Dear Santa -- I could ask for world peace or $1 million or continued good health to my family and friends or that Scott Cousins would just shut up or that the Dodgers would lose all 162 games or that the Republicans would lose every single election next year but I want to ask for something that's a little more realistic: another World Series championship for the San Francisco Giants.

I got the idea to ask for this by looking at this

great photo by Jason Braun of the World Series victory parade

Santa, I don't think I'm out of line to say that should you come through for me on this, Buster Posey will play a significant role. His 162-game average thus far -- 22 HRs, 89 RBIs and a slash line of .294/.353/.462.

I realize that I already have more material possessions than many other people in the world, so I'm OK with not getting anything in that area -- especially if you can deliver on this. And I promise that we at Giants Win won't forget your contribution should the Giants win another World Series. I can see the title of the post already, sometime around Oct. 31 -- "Yes, there is a Santa Claus!"

Thanks so much for all you do and best of luck tonight!

The key is Melky

2011-12-23T15:59:00.000-08:00

That's my takeaway from the Giants offseason so far -- they traded Jonathan Sanchez (who could turn around and win 20) to get Melky, who had a damn fine year playing in a pitchers' park in KC. I think people are assuming that Cabrera and Pagan are just average guys....

But Melky had a 2.9 Wins Above Replacement last year -- which would have made him the 6th most valuable player on the Giants after Pablo, Tim, Matt Cain, Vogelsong and Madison Bumgarner. (Pagan was pretty bad last year with a 0.2 WAR, but he had a 5.1 WAR in 2010)

Henry Schulman of the SF Chron believes that people don't quite see the upside yet on Melky -- I must admit I think folks are underestimating Cabrera’s potential impact. The guy did come to bat 706 times for Kansas City last year and hit .305/.340/.470 with 18 home runs from the second spot in the order and playing 81 home games in a pitchers’ park. An outlier year? Kind of hard to say that when the guy is supposed to be 27 years old.

To compete for another division title, the Giants are banking on a healthy Buster Posey and Freddy Sanchez, a fitter and more determined Huff in another contract year, Panda being Panda, a few more hits from Brandon Crawford, the potential emergence of Brandon Belt, better defense and athleticism, and the usual strong pitching staff, which largely remained intact.

As usual, the Giants will go into the season with a lot of ifs. They will not be alone.

Adios, Carlos Beltran

2011-12-22T23:39:00.000-08:00

Why didn't the Giants try harder to get this guy after the team put up a season of putrid offense? My most optimistic reaction is that they've finally committed to going with the young guys.

Two years for $26 million for the Cards, according to mlb.com. I'm really struck by how affordable Beltran is. Despite the bleating about how the Giants have no money left, this deal wouldn't have been that hard -- not after a season in which the Giants sold out every single game. I suppose there's some blame to be placed on Barry Zito and Aaron Rowand for eating up $30 million of the 2012 payroll...

The fear isn't hard to understand. Older players get injured more. Beltran missed a lot of games in 2009 and 2010 and only played 145 games combined.

As I've said previously, it looks as if the Giants front office has given up on signing players who are in their fading years -- particularly after the experiences with Edgardo Alfonzo, Steve Finley, Dave Roberts, Ryan Klesko, Mark DeRosa, Aaron Rowand and Aubrey Huff (in 2011). It's blown up in their faces so many times that they may have finally decided to focus on finding another Pablo Sandoval.

But then, I read Henry Schulman's report that the Giants aren't planning to rush Gary Brown to the bigs even though he's already 24. It sounds as if the front office believes that Angel Pagan and Melky Cabrera are going to deliver career years and that Brandon Belt is finally going to start raking.

Nats won't let DeRosa retire

2011-12-21T21:25:00.000-08:00

I'm kind of shaking my head over this one -- Mlb.com is reporting that the Nationals are near a deal to sign free-agent bust Mark DeRosa, one of the worst signings by the Giants in memory. DeRosa's deal was as bad as the Dave Roberts signing -- a guy who used to be adequate who simply was too banged up to play at the major league level anymore. And apparently, they are both terrific guys in the clubhouse.

Along with the flameouts by Aaron Rowand and Miguel Tejada, DeRosa's failure may have been what finally led Brian Sabean away from signing fading veterans. Hell, for all I know, the cumulative effect could be what persuaded the front office to throw in the towel on the pursuit of Carlos Beltran.

This waxen image of DeRosa in his 2010 Topps card makes him look like he's ready to turn a double play -- even though he spent nearly all his time on the bench while he was in the Orange and Black. Man, he was awful when he did play! The Giants were obviously seduced by the 33-year-old DeRosa of 2008 -- 21 HRs, 87 RBIs and a career high slash line of .285/.376/.481 for a Wins Above Replacement of 3.7. He had a -0.7 WAR in 2010 and -0.2 WAR in 2011 in San Francisco, all for $12 million. I'm not sure what the Nats are thinking.

Are you listening, Barry Zito?

2011-12-20T21:58:00.000-08:00

The Giants look like they aren't counting on Barry Zito to be anything but his usual useless self in 2012. According to Andrew Baggarly's tweet, they've signed Eric Hacker, who's pitched a grand total of 8 MLB innings.

They also signed MLB mediocrity Brian Burres to a minor league deal per MLB Trade Rumors. Why would I say something so mean? Burres has pitched six seasons and 350 innings in the MLB for a career Wins Above Replacement of 0.1.

Can Dave Righetti work his magic as he did on Ryan Vogelsong last season and get one of these guys on track? Fingers crossed at this end! Vogelsong had a WAR of 3.5 last year -- only Sandoval (6.1), Lincecum (4.3) and Cain (3.8) were better.

Well, you can never have too pitching, especially when you're giving up a roster spot to Zito -- and you're on the hook for paying Zito another $36 million more dollars for the next two seasons.

Ready, Freddy?

2011-12-19T22:10:00.001-08:00

John Shea of the San Francisco Chronicle interviews Freddy Sanchez -- who was among the more missed Giants last year. When he's healthy and hitting in the Orange and Black, it's a thing of beauty. He's saying all the right things now, but whoa -- this guy has been brittle ever since he got to San Francisco.

What's really intriguing, of course -- he played in 157, 147 and 145 games in the 3 seasons with the Pirates during 2006-08.

He's made the All Star team four times and racked up a 5.5 WAR in 2006 -- the 11th highest mark in the NL, when he finished 17th in MVP voting.

He went down on June 10 with 60 games under the belt. The Giants signed Bill Hall, who played 16 games at second and is no damn good any more, and then tried Jeff Keppinger, who started 56 games and had a -0.6 WAR in the Orange and Black. They only gave up Henry Sosa and Jason Stofel to get Keppinger, who's been OK in the past but stunk as a Giant. Adios, Jeff.

Why does Freddy give us Giants fans so much hope? That's easy -- Oct. 27, 2010. Three doubles in his first three World Series at bats...all off Cliff Lee. The second and third 2Bs drove in the first and second runs of the game. How did that taste, Cliff?

107 days to opening day

2011-12-18T21:53:00.000-08:00

Another fine shot by sugarmelon.com
It was taken on May 15, 2010 during a classic 2-1 victory by the Giants over the Astros. Tim Lincecum went 5-0; Juan Uribe hit a 2-run homer in the 4th off Roy Oswalt.

Tim gave up 4 hits in 8 innings. Brian Wilson came on the save it in the 9th and started by giving up a walk to Pedro Feliz -- yes, THAT Pedro Feliz -- and a single and another walk before closing it out. Feliz got only nine walks in over 300 plate appearances with Houston that year; he got only 230 in over 4,500 PAs in 11 years. He's only 36 but didn't play in 2011. Amazing how his WAR over his career is 5.4 -- 7.1 from defensive Wins Above Replacement and a negative 1.7 on offense. A really fine fielder, no doubt. But only had one year where his offensive WAR reached 1.0 in 2004 with 22 HRs and 84 RBIs and 23 walks for a .276/.305/.485 slash line.

Who's ready for more? Me. I am.

Whiteside back in the Orange and Black (sort of)

2011-12-17T23:30:00.000-08:00

Eli Whiteside was one of the real symbols of the Giants' offensive ineptitude last season.

The Giants have just signed Whiteside to a deal after not tendering him a few days ago. It makes sense, I suppose, to have a guy who knows how to handle the current pitching staff -- even if he can't hit MLB pitching. He was the worst batter on the second-worst offensive team in the league in 2011, so he must have some kind of knack behind the plate. Here's the key part of the Chris Haft's story for mlb.com --

Whiteside batted .197 in 82 games this past season, including a National League-low .163 (17-for-104) after the All-Star break.

He had a -0.5 WAR last year. But it wasn't all futility last season. I was there at AT&T Park on July 7 when Whiteside homered to left to give the Giants a 1-0 lead and Barry Zito -- BARRY ZITO -- dazzled the Padres for a 2-1 vic. That was about as good as it got last year for Eli and Barry. Eli had 12 RBIs at that point and only drove in 5 more runs all year; it was Zito's third and final vic of 2011.

Because he knows the pitchers, I guess he's a stopgap if the other catchers are hurt, or maybe a decent trade chit, I guess.

April 6, 2012

2011-12-17T22:55:00.000-08:00

If you're a real Giants fan, you're not counting the days until Christmas right now. You're counting the days (110) until opening day.

Great shot by sugarmelon! I sure wish the Giants had a few more day games on the 2012 schedule....

There are only three day games at AT&T Park in April -- the home opener against the Pirates on Friday, April 13, and the two Sunday games on April 15 and 29.

There are seven home day games in May and another seven in June. Just four in July and six each in August and September for a total of 33 out of 81. There are 48 night games. I guess I'm old-fashioned -- I like day games best.

Bonds prosecutor still whining

2011-12-17T01:52:00.000-08:00

After wasting tens of millions of taxpayers dollars on a pointless prosecution of Barry Bonds, the prosecutors won't stop complaining about how "inapprpriate" it is that Bonds isn't going to the can. Guess what, dude? You act like you're the second coming of Jesus Christ when the truth is that you bungled the case. It's now widely perceived as a witch hunt at a time at a time when many prosecutors appear to lack the guts to go after real criminals. Howard Mintz of the Merc-News sums it up here (Conte is Victor Conte of BALCO) --

To critics, including Conte, the government's case was a waste of taxpayer money to go after a superstar whose legacy was already tarnished by strong evidence he used performance-enhancing drugs in the latter stages of a surefire Hall of Fame career. But to the government, it was a case designed to show that no one can undermine the grand jury process by lying under oath, regardless of their fame.

A comment by Rick Goddard of Iowa hits the nail right on the head, after someone complained that Bonds was let go because he's rich --

On the contrary, a normal Joe would have been let go. There was no significant crime attached to the testimony, so a regular person would have been sternly reprimanded, but let go in the end. Bonds was a target to set as an example and advance the prosecutor's career. Nothing like convicting a high profile person to do that. Too bad for him, he lost.

Joe Torre = worthless

2011-12-16T08:48:00.000-08:00

If you've worked in offices for any amount of time, you've probably noticed that there are always a few executives at your job who have a nice office without offering much in the way of benefit to the line employees. And when you take a moment from meeting deadlines and dealing with the 10 crisis situations that pop every day, you may sort of wonder what the hell they do.

That's sort of what Joe Torre has become.

Former Dodger manager Joe Torre has decided not to do anything about a rule change to outlaw the kind of sociopathic assault from Scott Cousins on Buster Posey. Andrew Baggarly reports on his Extra Baggs blog that Bruce Bochy isn't giving up.

Torre has a cushy job now as a VP of something or other and his answer is basically "stop bothering me with your whining and man up...I dealt with it when I was a catcher."

OK, let's say that Scott Cousins had decided to try maiming Rod Barajas of the Dodgers instead. I'd feel the same way. The rule needs to be changed and umpires need to penalize dingbats who violate it. Just because Pete Rose did it 40 years ago in an All-Star Game doesn't make it right. Here's Torre's lame response ...

Although Giants officials remain in favor of a rule change that would protect catchers from being targeted in home-plate collisions, the matter didn’t come up officially at the winter meetings last week in Dallas. It didn’t get past Joe Torre, Major League Baseball’s vice president for on-field operations.

Torre heard out Giants manager Bruce Bochy in several phone calls over the summer but declined to recommend that the rules committee take up the matter.

“Well, listen, I knew it was more emotional than anything else,” Torre said last week. “None of us like to see that. But I really haven’t heard anything that would encourage me to change anything or recommend a change. Being a catcher for a lot of years, I knew what the consequences were.”

"A waste of taxpayer money"

2011-12-14T21:19:00.000-08:00

That's what Victor Conte calls the federal government's witch hunt of Barry Bonds in a story by Howard Mintz of the San Jose Mercury-News.

The feds are arguing that Bonds should receive a harsh sentence -- They maintain Bonds should receive the harshest sentence in the entire BALCO episode aside from Troy Ellerman, a lawyer sentenced to 30 months in prison for leaking the BALCO grand jury transcripts to the San Francisco Chronicle.

Ah, yes -- Troy Ellerman. Truly an embarrassment for the Chronicle. In 2007, it came to light that San Francisco Chronicle reporters Lance Williams and Mark Fainaru-Wada had decided to stay silent about leaked grand jury testimony. Were the reporters ever disciplined? No, except perhaps in the court of public opinion. Here's how Tim Rutten of the LA Times put it back then (boldface is mine) --

On Thursday, we learned just who they were protecting when Troy L. Ellerman, a defense lawyer for one of BALCO's vice presidents, pleaded guilty to contempt of court, obstruction of justice and filing a false declaration with a federal court. Ellerman leaked the testimony to the Chronicle reporters, then went out and argued that the ensuing publicity would deny his client a fair trial. Worse, he actually filed motions with the court alleging that prosecutors had leaked the testimony and that charges against the BALCO official should be dismissed.The two reporters maintained their silence while all this occurred. Worse, Fainaru-Wada returned to the defense attorney's office to obtain still more leaked testimony after their source had lied in public and to the court.

To assert any form of journalistic privilege in a situation like that is something far worse than moral obtuseness. Conspiring with somebody you know is actively perverting the administration of justice to your mutual advantage is a betrayal of the public interest whose protection is the only basis on which journalistic privilege of any sort has a right to assert itself.

More Mota in the Orange and Black

2011-12-14T18:38:00.000-08:00

Guillermo Mota's back for another year, according to Chris Haft of mlb.com

2012 will be his 14th season in the bigs. He's assembled a 4.4 WAR over 13 years -- 2.8 of that as a Dodger in 2003 when he pitched over 100 innings. He's never started a game.

He went over 80 innings for only the second time last year. He went 2-2 -- the game I remember was over Memorial Day weekend in Milwaukee when he couldn't hold a lead in the 9th and Jonathan Lucroy squeezed in the winning run.

That was amidst one of the worst stretches of the year -- three days after dingbat Scott Cousins tried to maim Buster Posey as part of a 3-game sweep by the Fish, followed by losing two of three to the Brew Crew. Mota was also the losing pitcher in the Posey-Cousins game.

A Giants Win hat tip to Julian Levine at Giants Nirvana for an excellent post about Mota, who was part of the reason why the Giants went all the way in 2010. Here's part --

This year, the Giants’ bullpen allowed 26 home runs. Mota accounted for ten of them. Home runs aside, Mota was solid: he struck out nearly a batter an inning (8.63/9), setting a career high in K/9. His xFIP, 3.63, was the lowest he’d posted since that dominant 2003 season, and it was one of the better marks on the team (lower than Brian Wilson, Javier Lopez, and Santiago Casilla). Twice this season — the Barry Zito foot injury, and the Madison Bumgarner disaster start — Mota went 4+ innings. He had never done that once before 2011. On August 3rd, Mota struck out six over two innings of relief, tying a career-high. It was the most strikeouts he’d tallied in a single game since — you guessed it — 2003.

Years from now, when you’re looking back at the first Giants team to win a championship in a decade, Guillermo Mota won’t be the first name to come to mind. Nor will he be the second. Or the third. There’s a chance that you won’t even remember him. But if you do, you’ll probably remember him with some modicum of fondness. Which is more than can be said for Jose Guillen. And if you go out and buy a Mota jersey, I won’t judge you.

The Tejada fiasco

2011-12-13T22:45:00.000-08:00

Miguel wants to stay in the bigs, the Baltimore Sun tweets. And while we're asking something we may not get, I'd like to have dinner with Kristen Bell, Mila Kunis, Emily Blunt and Zooey Deschanel, too.

Maybe Brian Sabean is finally learning. Maybe the combo of Edgar Renteria plus Miguel Tejada has led the front office to give Brandon Crawford a real try in 2012.

I got to thinking -- how much worse would the Giants have been had they simply swallowed their pride and signed Edgar Renteria again? This post by Grant at McCovey Chronicles made me wonder ...The first lines are pretty witty -- Well, say, that didn't work out well. The idea behind Miguel Tejada wasn't a bad one. Really, I don't mind the idea. Sure, with the benefit of hindsight, I would have rather had the Giants done something more productive with the $6 million, like put it in the bank for the 2011/2012 offseason, give it to Andres Torres as a holiday bonus, or dump it out the window of a Greyhound bus passing through Yuba City.

Edgar, as it turned out, was pretty awful in a Reds uni with a -0.1 WAR at the age of 35. He only cost the Reds $2.1 million while Miguel cost the Giants $6.5 million, at the age of 37.

Miguel wasn't quite as bad as Edgar with a 1.0 WAR -- with most of his value on defense.
So maybe THIS was the signing that FINALLY, FINALLY, FINALLY got Brian Sabean to think "You know, maybe signing guys in their middle 30s isn't such a hot idea after all." Here's the rest of Grant's post (boldface is mine) --

But here's a fun fact: Giants shortstops as a group hit .210/.265/.299 on the season. Tejada brought those averages up. Tejada was the leader of the three Giants shortstops in 2011. His .225/.253/.324 line as a shortstop was as good as it was going to get. And, in fact, it got much worse. Also, I have a real screwed-up, Batman-villain definition of what constitutes a fun fact. Your definition of fun fact may vary.

And here they are again, $6 million and Thomas Neal poorer, still without a shortstop. It's almost certainly going to be the least-productive lineup spot again this year, though there's at least a chance for some good defense now. I might be a little hard on Brandon Crawford, but if he's going to come in under a .600 OPS like Tejada did last year, at least he'll do it fielding like a major-league shortstop. Bay City Ball has a great post about just how poorly Crawford can hit while still being tolerable. It's actually sort of encouraging, in a way.

My preference would have been the deal that the Brewers gave Alex Gonzalez. Heck, if they aren't going to spend it this year, it might as well go to a Crawford-type with the potential to run into 15 homers. But that would have been using the same logic as the Tejada signing -- throw some money at a wall, and hope a player outhits his projections. It probably would have ended just as messily.

Over the last three years, the Giants spent $24 million on shortstops, and all they got were some .300-or-worse OBPs and poor range. They should probably stop doing that. And, heck, they did. Maybe it's time to give them a little credit for not jamming the same square peg into the same round hole. Brandon Crawford might struggle offensively this year, but he'll be a heckuva lot easier to watch than Tejada was.

Fontenot staying

2011-12-13T00:12:00.000-08:00

The Giants decided to keep Mike Fontenot and let Jeff Keppinger go.

John Shea of the Chronicle reports that the deciding factor was that Fontenot played shortstop pretty well. Hardly a ringing endorsement of Brandon Crawford.

He had a pretty good year in 2008 with the Cubs with a 3.0 WAR. I like that he's willing to take a walk, unlike so many of the Giants hitters.

My fave Fontenot game is easy. It was the first one I went to this year -- April 13, 2011. He came into the game batting 0-for-9 but had Ted Lilly's number. He doubled in the 2nd to drive in Brandon Belt and homered in the 6th, two batters after Sandoval had homered to put the Giants ahead for good at 4-3 over the evil Dodgers.

More reason to bash the Marlins

2011-12-12T19:02:00.000-08:00

As if Scott Cousins and the 1997 and 2003 playoffs weren't enough reason to disdain the strangest franchise in the MLB, now comes news that Aaron Rowand -- who pretty much wasted the $60 million spent on him by the Giants while whining about his lack of playing time -- has signed a minor league deal with The Fish.

I hope he strikes out every time except if it's against the Dodgers.

How bad was Rowand? In four seasons as a Giant, he contributed almost nothing --WAR ratings of 0.5 in 2008, 1.3 in 2009, -0.1 in 2010 and 0.9 last season. He was so awful in 2010 that he forced the Giants to turn in desperation to Andres Torres. THAT was Aaron Rowand's biggest contribution to the Giants' World Championship, ladies and gentlemen.

Matheny backing Buster

2011-12-12T13:47:00.000-08:00

John Shea of the San Francisco Chronicle has a nice recap on Mike Matheny's pioneering ways in MLB as to keeping catchers healthy. Concussions ended Mike's career when he was in a Giants uni. You may remember that Mike took a strong position against the Scott Cousins' assault on Buster Posey. Matheny says he's a fan of Buster's. Here's some of the verbiage --

Last year, baseball added a seven-day disabled list for players with concussion symptoms - along with neuropsychological testing requirements - and Giants catcher Eli Whiteside was placed on it in August.

As for that other Giants catcher, Buster Posey, Matheny is rooting from afar. In May, Matheny criticized the Marlins' Scott Cousins for "hunting" when taking out Posey at home plate, ending his season with a broken leg and ligament damage in his ankle.

"When you meet him, Buster's a guy you instantly like," Matheny said. "He brings a lot to a team as a person and player. I've always been a big fan."

Giants manager Bruce Bochy spoke with Posey about playing some first base in 2012, not just because Posey's coming off an extensive injury but to keep his bat in the lineup more.

"I know Buster well enough that that doesn't excite him," Matheny said. "He wants to catch. He made the transition before from shortstop, and everybody in baseball knows he can make this transition just as well. But once you fall in love with the position of catcher, it's hard to play anywhere else."

Why Angel Pagan?

2011-12-11T13:47:00.000-08:00

In reading Andrew Baggarly's recap of the winter meetings, there's a line deep in there about Angel Pagan --

Angel Pagan is an .069 hitter at AT&T Park. He’s 2 for 29 in nine games. One of those hits was a clutch, two-run home run off Ryan Vogelsong that gave the Mets the lead in a game July 8.

I was at that game in the Arcade seats and so I got to see Pagan's homer close up -- a no doubter to deep right center in the 5th after the Giants had scratched out a run in the 4th on a Sandoval double, a Huff ground out and a Schierholtz sac fly. What Baggarly doesn't mention is the horrific 9th inning, which started with a 2-2 tie, followed by Wilson giving up a homer to evil Giant-killer Scott Hairston and Pagan getting on base on a long drive to center that Torres couldn't handle. It was only the second error of the year for Torres. By the time the inning was over, the Mets were up 5-2 and they was no comeback in the bottom of the 9th.

I'm not saying that the July 8 game made the trade likely -- after all, Pagan went 0-for-4 in the next two games against the Giants -- but it certainly must have put him on the radar of the front office.

The meaning of the Winter meetings

2011-12-11T13:29:00.000-08:00

I've just stumbled across Andrew Baggarly's comprehensive recap for the Mercury-News, filed two days ago, of the Winter Meetings and the implications for the Giants.

It's an excellent read. He leads off by asserting that Brandon Crawford leads the list of "winners" -- Not only did the Giants pass on adding a shortstop like Alex Gonzalez (who signed with Milwaukee), but they don’t even plan to pursue a cheap right-handed bat at the position such as Edgar Renteria, Yuniesky Betancourt or the like. They are going Crawford, whole hog. He will be the everyday shortstop, and perhaps there’s a reason that Bruce Bochy wasn’t given any veteran fallbacks that he might be tempted to lean on.

He also listed Emmanuel Burriss and Brett Pill (they're making the roster), Matt Cain (he's going to get big bucks due to the CJ Wilson deal) and Andres Torres (he'll get playing time) as winners. The most interesting analysis (to me) was naming the Giants pitchers as winners --

With Crawford the committed shortstop and plenty of speed in the outfield on days that Melky Cabrera, Angel Pagan and Nate Schierholtz start alongside one another, the Giants defense looks to be the most improved aspect of the team. Sure, Pagan’s 10 errors last year are a concern and he sometimes makes bad decisions when he throws to bases. But as one official told me, how many runners does a center fielder throw out, anyway?

Even if you don’t think that outfield defense will be much of an improvement, the everyday play of Crawford should be worlds better than Miguel Tejada and Orlando Cabrera last season. Or the season before that. Combine Tejada and Cabrera with Juan Uribe and Edgar Renteria and you’ve got a group with as much mobility as the Burghers of Calais.

Losers include Carlos Beltran (the Giants have decided against signing him, probably due to concerns about injuries), Aubrey Huff (The additions of Pagan and Cabrera leave left field and first base as the two muddiest positions on the field), Brandon Belt (Unlike Crawford, Bochy will have alternatives if Belt struggles), Pablo Sandoval (they probably want him to be the emergency catcher), and Giants pitchers --

I know, I know. They’re winners for the improved defense that will play behind them. And it’s reasonable to assume the Giants will score more runs with Cabrera and Pagan, who make them much less of a station-to-station offense. But the Giants didn’t add to the middle of the order. They didn’t get Jose Reyes (who wouldn’t have come to San Francisco anyway) or re-sign Beltran. They’re banking on better health and the “law of averages,” as Brian Sabean put it. All well and good, but tell that to Tim Lincecum the first time he loses 1-0 to Clayton Kershaw.

Here's how Baggarly sees the Opening Day roster:

Rotation: Lincecum, Cain, Bumgarner, Vogelsong, Zito (with Surkamp the next line of defense).
Bullpen: Wilson, Affeldt, Romo, Lopez, Casilla, Mota, Runzler
Catchers: Posey, plus backup (either Hector Sanchez or Chris Stewart)
Infield: Huff, Freddy Sanchez, Crawford, Sandoval, Pill, Burriss, Belt, plus either Fontenot or Keppinger
Outfield: Pagan, Cabrera, Schierholtz.

It looks weird with three outfielders and eight infielders, but Huff, Belt and Burriss can all play in the pastures. (Sandoval only plays left field in Taiwanese ballparks.)

The Giants will make the call on Fontenot or Keppinger on Monday, when one of them won’t be tendered a contract.

They’ll have to determine whether Hector Sanchez should back up or play every day at Triple-A. They certainly love the progress he’s made, and his offensive potential.

Once Mota’s deal is finalized, there will be just one bullpen spot left open, in theory. Runzler finished strong last season and is a clear frontrunner, but the Giants always seem to find at least one non-roster surprise in Scottsdale. So Runzler will have to throw strikes to claim that last job. I still expect they’ll provide more competition in the form of non-roster invitees for the No.5 starter job, too.

I'm already ready

2011-12-10T11:12:00.000-08:00

Here's my Christmas wish aside from world peace and an end to hunger -- I wish the Giants would play more day games, especially on Saturdays. There's nothing like baseball on a Saturday afternoon, you know.

If you could not tell, let me say -- I am already fired up. On a Saturday morning in December, here's what's on the mind of Giants Win. The top shot from the right field side is by hyperlith. The nice shot from the club deck is by sugarmelon.com

How to waste taxpayer money

2011-12-09T22:44:00.000-08:00

When organized and corporate crime diminish the qualify of life for ordinary citizens, the Barry Bonds prosecution has further embarrassed itself by demanding 15 months in prison. The SF Chron reports that sentencing is on Dec. 16.

Here's one comment that sums it up nicely -- 15 months? I am offended by the US Attorney's position. While all the real crooks got 4 months or less, they want to give Bonds 15 months simply because he wouldn't kiss their back side. What a total waste of money.

What you get for $130 million

2011-12-09T21:10:00.001-08:00

John Shea of the San Francisco Chronicle projects the Giants' 25-man roster at a cost of $130 million. More than 30% is tied up in three guys -- Zito, Rowand and Huff -- who were no damn good last year. All the Giants beat writers are convinced that the Giants will NOT go past $130 million in 2012. It's good to see that Zito no longer is the top paid Giant at $19 million; that person is now Tim Lincecum at $19.2 million.

What the front office is counting on are top-of-expectation performances from Buster Posey, Pablo Sandoval, Freddy Sanchez and Angel Pagan to carry the team -- plus the hope that Huff, Cabrera, Schierholtz and Belt get hot and that Crawford shows he can hit MLB pitching. For the second worst offense in MLB last year, that's a lot to hope for.

Chris Haft of mlb.com reports that Buster's rehab is going well. Good to hear -- as long as Psycho Scott Cousins doesn't get a contract, there's always hope.

Angels owner tells Dodgers to go to hell

2011-12-08T23:27:00.001-08:00

How much does Artie Moreno hate the Dodgers? He hates them as much as I do -- which is a lot.

Make no mistake -- a large component of the massive $254 million deal the Angels just made for Albert Pujols is driven by the owner Artie Moreno telling the Dodgers that they're no longer the leading baseball franchise in Southern California. Frank McCourt's gross mis-management of the Dodgers has played a major part in this but Moreno's seized an opportunity to make the Dodgers feel like a second-tier franchise that's gotten run into the ground.

I don't think it's any accident that this happened less than a year after psycho thugs decided to try killing Bryan Stow in the Dodger Stadium parking lot -- something that they obviously believed that they could get away with, given McCourt's strategy of cheaping out on security. Not only was it the last straw for Bud Selig, who decided to try forcing McCourt out, but also for many Dodger fans who had gotten sick and tired of a team that wasn't going to contend plus the obvious lack of security.

Even though Angels Stadium is only four years younger than 49-year old Dodger Stadium, it feels about 40 years younger.

Anyhow, the Angels also are probably figuring that they have to get better if they're going to the get to the postseason, so they also signed CJ Wilson for 5 years at $77 million -- all told $331 million in a day.The LA Times -- which only turned on McCourt once it became obvious that he's a crook -- put it bluntly that this move is about sticking it to the Dodgers --

Pujols' deal is the second-largest in major league history. And it gives the Angels the kind of star power to challenge the Dodgers, who are struggling on and off the field, as the region's premier baseball franchise.

Grant Bisbee has an amusing story for SB Nation about how Brandon League and Kendry Morales helped make the Pujols deal a reality.

Hembree and Huff

2011-12-08T00:41:00.000-08:00

My second-day take on the trade of Andres Torres and Ramon Ramirez to the Mets? I see it as having the biggest impact on two guys -- Heath Hembree and Aubrey Huff.

Giving up Ramirez, who's been stellar in the Orange and Black, says to me that the front office feels strongly that Hembree is now ready in 2012 and even if he isn't, there's plenty of depth in the pen. As for Huff, I won't go into the fact that the Giants got a thoroughly crappy year from him in return for a $10 million investment. Had Huff gotten in shape and played anywhere near the 2010 level, when he finished 7th in the MVP voting, the Giants would have been in the postseason.

So I believe that one of the real points of ditching Torres -- who clearly had reverted to a part-time player last year -- and getting Angel Pagan is to make it clear to Huff that he won't get the same number of ABs in 2012 that he unjustifiably did last season. It still annoys me in the same way that Bengie Molina annoyed me -- what's so damn tough about getting into the best possible shape, particularly for a guy who's had negative WARs in three of the past 4 seasons?

It's a bit sad to see Torres go, given the magical 2010 he had and the fact that he seems like a genuinely nice guy. But he's also going to be 34 and may not ever get back on track.

John Perricone at Only Baseball Matters isn't impressed with the trade --

we’re still looking at one of the weakest outfields in major league history. Scheirholz, Cabrera and Pagan combined to hit less than 25 home runs last season, and playing at PacBell won’t help either of the newcomers boost their stats.

Bochy envisions Huff playing some left and right to give Belt more consistency by settling in at first. Nonetheless, we’re gonna need huge seasons from Belt, Posey, Sandoval and Sanchez to have any chance to overcome the huge numbers of outs our outfielders are gonna produce. (not to shortchange Brandon Crawford, but, come on)

Adios, Andres and Ramon

2011-12-07T02:19:00.000-08:00

The Giants are done with 2010 as they traded away a couple of the many heroes of that glorious season. They've gone slightly younger by trading Andres Torres and Ramon Ramirez to the Mets for Angel Pagan.

They have also ditched the idea of signing Carlos Beltran and it looks like the outfield will be Nate, Angel and Melky, according to Grant at McCovey Chronicles.

No big Orange and Black deal

2011-12-06T00:47:00.001-08:00

That's the latest word from John Shea of the SF Chron, who asserts that the Giants aren't signing anyone like Carlos Beltran, or even Cody Ross. Here's my guess what the opening day lineup will look like --

Cabrera CF
Sanchez 2B
Sandoval 3B
Posey C
Huff LF
Schierholtz RF
Belt 1B
Crawford SS
Lincecum P

No Rollins in the Orange and Black

2011-12-04T21:27:00.000-08:00

That's the depressing word from Chris Haft of mlb.com on the Giants web site. He says that Rollins will cost too damn much to accept a free agent deal with the Giants. I've posted this just as the mlb.com site posts that Jese Reyes has signed a 6-year deal with the Marlins.

What the hell is going on? How is it the Fish have the bucks to sign Reyes and the Giants are too poor to go after Rollins? I guess the excuse is the $30 million paid this year to Zito and Rowand.

It's too bad about Rollins, though, as he's from Alameda and would probably enjoy being a Giant. Haft contends that the Giants still have a shot at Carlos Beltran, however.

A Giants Win hat tip to Chris Quick at Bay City Ball for a thorough analysis of shortstops. He really likes Rollins but warns against signing Ryan Theriot or Yuseny Betancourt. Here's what he said about Rollins --

Rollins is probably the most well rounded shortstop in our grouping. He can hit, field, run, and he’s been relatively healthy. In Giants terms, Rollins is more affordable than Reyes, but there haven’t been any indications that the Giants are interested in Rollins. He’s been a very good player over his career that does a little bit of everything. I like him and would be thrilled to have him.

8 years for Tim?

2011-12-04T13:30:00.000-08:00

File this one as "for what it's worth" as I don't think anyone has written about this previously. SI's Jon Heyman tweeted earlier today that Lincecum's initial counter-offer was for eight years @SI_JonHeyman --

#sfgiants seek middle ground w/ lincecum. 1st bid months ago was 4 yrs, he'd like 8. Tim ok w/1 or 2 yrs too. in line for $18-20M via arb

Stuck with Sabean

2011-12-03T14:40:00.000-08:00

A Giants Win hat tip to Julian Levine at Giants Nirvana for coherent analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of Brian Sabean -- now that we're stuck with him for two more years. Julian is more than fair here in terms of asserting that Sabean may not have been responsible for the Rowand and Zito signings (which has always struck me as a bit of a "dog ate my homework" excuse -- how is it that he shouldn't be blamed?). It's also something that SF Chronicle dingbat Bruce Jenkins contends so I'm automatically suspicious.

But the post is well-written and reasoned. Here's the core of it --

On a very basic level, he seems to be incapable of putting together a good offense, which ultimately stems from a flawed approach when it comes to evaluating hitters. A look back at the hitters he’s acquired in recent years, and this becomes evident. Sabean guaranteed Miguel Tejada, a 37-year-old shortstop, for $6.5 MM in November. The original Aubrey Huff signing worked out well, but that was quite obviously just as much luck as it was Sabean, and it’s not like Huff was Sabean’s first (or even second) option. Oh yeah, and Huff 2.0 is a disaster so far. The Edgar Renteria deal was too lucrative, and though the Juan Uribe contracts were both quite successful, it (again) seems like luck played a large role. Consider that Uribe was an 80 OPS+ hitter in eight seasons prior to coming to San Francisco, but in his two seasons here, he was north of 100 (107 OPS+). It’s obviously not all blemishes here, but there seems to be a pattern. I think the two best examples of recent Sabean screw-ups in player evaluation are Orlando Cabrera and Willie Bloomquist. Cabrera was so clearly a useless player when he was acquired, and yet the Giants gave up a decent prospect in exchange for him. To nobody’s surprise, Cabrera was awful in his brief time here. And then there’s Willie Bloomquist, career 1.3 WAR — all of which came in his first two seasons, who the Giants offered a two-year $4.6MM deal. These kinds of moves/offers only reinforce that Sabean stereotype.

Then there’s the positive, of course. Under Sabean, just one year ago, the Giants won the World Series. He’s assembled a pitching staff that’s consistently great; he had plenty of opportunities to trade Tim Lincecum, Matt Cain, Jonathan Sanchez, or Madison Bumgarner for a bat, but he kept them around long enough to win a championship. He has an extensive scouting background, so it doesn’t seem too far off to give him some credit for the homegrown pitching, as well as the solid core of young hitting talent the Giants have formed in Pablo Sandoval/Buster Posey/Brandon Belt.

Unfortunately, it’ll be his task in the next few years to complement this talent with solid regulars. He’s not nearly as bad as some might say, but I can’t get around the fact that I’m just not excited about the prospect of having him around for the next few years. If history tells us anything, it’s that shopping for position players isn’t his forte.

Four months to go

2011-12-03T02:21:00.001-08:00

I think you know what I mean, don't you? Wouldn't you like to be heading out to see the Giants today?

Nice shot of Matt Cain by erangi2

Alex Gonzalez in the Orange and Black?

2011-12-01T23:38:00.000-08:00

Well, this makes sense in the veteran-obsessed front office of the Giants -- let's sign Alex Gonzales! Which one? The one who's turning 35. Matthew Pouliot of NBC Sports thinks it's a terrible idea to sign a good-field no-hit shortstop whose offense will probably decline in 2012.

Hasta la vista, Jeremy and Ramon?

2011-11-30T20:18:00.000-08:00

Craig Calcaterra at NBC Sports is reporting that the Giants are trying to trade Jeremy Affeldt and/or Ramon Ramirez -- two of the heroes of 2010. Affeldt has a $5 million salary, which seems pretty high until you consider that the KC Royals are willing to pay that for a post-surgery Jonathan Broxton (see, I didn't call him that perjorative word for "overweight" this time). Here's part --

Ramirez would be an attractive pickup for someone. He struck out 8.7 batters per nine innings last season and isn’t expensive. Affeldt has his uses too, but his current salary seems way too much for a guy like him.

Hating the Dodgers and discourtesy

2011-11-29T23:39:00.000-08:00

I deplore discourtesy and rudeness, yet my ingrained hatred of the Dodgers provoked me several times in the past to refer to Jonathan Broxton -- the occasionally dominant closer -- as Fat Broxton. I may have done this to other players but I know I did it on multiple occasions with Broxton.

Well, he's no longer a Dodger so I won't be calling him Fat anymore. Who knows how he might have done had he not been so overweight? He was pretty banged up and only pitched 12 innings this year with a plus 5.00 ERA but the KC Royals have taken a gamble on him with a 1-year $4 million deal. The 6-4-2 Blog points out that he's been awful since a meltdown game in June 2010 against the Yanks when he could not close at Chavez Latrine (there I go again hating on the dodgers) with a 6-2 lead.The Yanks tied in the 9th and won in the 10th on a Cano HR. Ah, sweet memories!

More of the same Orange and Black

2011-11-29T13:14:00.001-08:00

Bruce Bochy and Brian Sabean were extended through 2013 with a club option for 2014.

I suppose this means more great pitching and more lousy hitting for the time being. That's what happens when you win a World Series that way.

Maybe I should write longer posts

2011-11-28T23:34:00.000-08:00

Longtime readers of this blog know that I am a fan of David Pinto's Baseball Musings site. He's an astute judge of what's important and writes very well. Occasionally, he'll refer to this blog -- such as over the weekend when he referenced my call to Fire Hensley Meulens. I didn't go into detail as to WHY, other than saying the team was terrible last year on offense and that Meulens had been bailed out in 2010 by career years by Torres and Huff plus strong playoff performances by Ross, Uribe and Renteria. I also took a somewhat gratuitous shot at Meulens by pointing out that he was a pretty terrible MLB player.

In response, David said that I should blame Brian Sabean for assembling last year's team and that with Posey back and Sandoval mashing, things may be better. That's a fair assertion. Still, we are going to have to agree to disagree as to Hensley Meulens. I say he should have been shown the door, much as Aaron Rowand and Miguel Tejada were. As I said in the headline, I probably should have explained myself more thoroughly, so here goes.

The Giants offense was particularly awful because very few of the hitters had any patience. It's one thing when you're Sandoval and can square up damn near any pitch. It's quite another when you're Miguel Tejada or Aaron Rowand and flat out refuse to work a walk -- setting a crappy example for the young guys on the team. How bad was it? Really bad:

-- the Giants were 29th in runs scored at 570
-- The Giants were 24th in walks at 448
-- the Giants were 29th in number of pitches seen at 22,835
-- the Giants were 29th in onbase percentage at .303

That, ladies and gentlemen, is a team that's hacking A LOT at bad pitches. And I would maintain that a batting coach DOES bear part of the blame -- particularly when an even marginal increase in offense would have gotten the Giants into the postseason. Anyone who watched the Giants play last year knows that the team had a hardcore propensity for swinging at pitches out of the strike zone. Here are the top walkers last year --

-- Ross, 49
-- Huff, 47
-- Torres, 42
-- Burrell, 33
-- Sandoval, 32
-- Fontenot, 25
-- Crawford, 23
-- Belt, 20
-- Whiteside, 18
-- Posey, 18
-- Stewart, 16

In case you've read this far, Cody Ross is tied for 86th in MLB; Tejada took 12 walks; Rowand took 10.

So perhaps Hensley Meulens was doing his level best with a bunch of free swingers. But these team's offensive numbers are flat out pathetic. I'm going to assert that another hitting coach -- particularly one who would say over and over and over "Stop swinging at pitches out of the strike zone, dammit, or you're not going to play!" -- would have delivered a better offense.

Belt = 30 for 100

2011-11-28T01:09:00.000-08:00

A morsel of tasty post-Thanksgiving news -- Brandon Belt has done pretty well in the Dominican winter league and shown some consistency, according to the Giants Scout site.

Unless the Giants sign Carlos Beltran, my guess is that Belt will be an Opening Day starter for the second year in a row.

This was the lineup on March 31 in a 2-1 loss to Kershaw at Chavez Latrine -- a game that pretty much set the dominant tone for the rest of the season...

Torres CF
Sanchez 2B
Huff RF
Posey C
Burrell LF
Tejada SS
Belt 1B
Sandoval 3B
Lincecum P

Fire Hensley Meulens now

2011-11-25T21:12:00.000-08:00

After a horrific offensive season, it's truly out of misguided loyalty that the Giants batting coach has not been fired. The Oakland A's just wound up with a terrible offensive season and got rid of their hitting coach -- that's what smart teams do. Comcast is reporting that Oakland has hired Chili Davis, a guy who actually knew how to hit.

Meulens was pretty terrible as an MLB player, posting a negative -1.8 WAR over 7 seasons. He got his job saved in 2010 when guys like Andres Torres and Aubrey Huff had career years along with the postseason magic of Cody Ross, Juan Uribe and Edgar Renteria. Last year showed he's no damn good as a coach.

Adios, Cody?

2011-11-25T20:45:00.000-08:00

The Giants didn't offer arbitration to Ross or Pat the Bat. Had Ross played a full season, he would have been signed again, I believe.

It looks like the Giants may have a starting outfield under 30 for a change -- Belt, Cabrera and Schierholtz.

Happy Thanksgiving

2011-11-24T13:46:00.000-08:00

I'm very thankful for my wife, friends, good health and to all you who take the time to read my posts -- and I hope it's worth your while -- and to the San Francisco Giants, who give me so much enjoyment.

Let's go, Giants!

Call the Waaambulance

2011-11-23T13:33:00.000-08:00

One of the worst sportswriters to walk the planet -- Bill Plaschke of the LA Times -- is complaining about Ryan Braun winning the MVP over Kemp. What a no-talent hack he is. Cry me a river, Bill.

Here's the really annoying thing -- Plaschke, in a hackezoidal tone of sincere outrage, makes all the super-obvious points that Kemp had a better statistical season but that the writers decided that the Brewers getting to the NLCS carried enough weight to pick Braun. He even cites WAR. Then he kills any momentum that his argument would have by admitting that Kirk Gibson deserved the MVP in 1988 despite his statistical shortcomings (76 RBIs). It turns out that Gibson's WAR was the best in the league by a miniscule amount over Brett Buter (who finished 19th), Strawberry and Orel Hershiser.

Give me a break, Bill. Give me a goddam break, you dingbat. Why would I say such a snarky thing? Because he's contending that Gibson deserved the MVP because of non-statistical contributions.

What this brings back is the annoying and stupid sportswriter contention that they somehow can divine the intangibles like what an awesome "clubhouse guy" Gibson was. I despise sportswriters who insist that they "know" something that fans can't see. Hey Bill -- you're not as smart as you think you are. Let me enlighten you, you dingbat.

Plaschke insists that Kemp deserves the award because the Dear Old Dodger Franchise was having a tough year, what with the McCourts and "apathy." Excuse me? That has to be flimsiest of flimsy arguments. The team won 82 games and didn't contend -- so what the writers are saying is, "We think there's more value from a guy who played MEANINGFUL games all year."

So why bring up this "he saved the franchise" nonsense? The column is so poorly written is that we can only speculate. All I can guess is that this is yet another example of Dodger supporters feeling like they're somehow entitled to win every pennant because of some kind of moral superiority that the team has -- despite the eternal embarrassments of screwing over Brooklyn and Chavez Ravine, the rampant steroid abuse by Manny and Gagne and LoDuca, trading away the most popular player (Mike Piazza), the beating of Bryan Stow, two of the worst owners in memory (McCourt and Fox) and the obsession by the fans with batting beachballs in the stands.

As for players getting jobbed -- get a load of the 1962 results, when Maury Wills won the MVP even though he wasn't even the best player on his own team. Willie Mays had a 10.6 WAR, followed by F Robby, Aaron, Bob Purkey and Tommy Davis before we come to Wills with a pathetic (for an MVP) WAR of 6.1.

Kemp loses MVP

2011-11-22T11:11:00.000-08:00

Well, I do live in LA so it's been a real big laugh just now to see that Ryan Braun won the MVP over Matt Kemp. I was convinced that Kemp would win -- probably due to the worshipful tone of the local coverage here plus the 8-year $160 million deal he just signed. Plus he actually had a slightly better season with a WAR of 10.0, compared to 7.7 for Braun. Still, anything -- ANYTHING -- that goes against the Dodgers is a good thing. Pablo Sandoval finished 17th.

I suppose that making the playoffs makes a difference; it sure did in the AL MVP race.

I still am a bit bitter over Maury Wills winning the 1962 MVP over Willie Mays.

Hembree in the Orange and Black?

2011-11-21T22:28:00.001-08:00

Whenever one thinks about the future of Giants baseball, we have to start with the awfulness of the $36 million that Giants will waste on Barry Zito in 2012 and 2013 and the $12 that Aaron Rowand will get paid in 2012. That, ladies and gentlemen, limits what the Giants can do elsewhere.

I haven't been paying attention at all, but there soon could be another Heath who's closing. It seems like Brian Wilson has been closing forever, but Chris Haft of mlb.com seems to think that Heath Hembree is the closer in waiting, as the Giants would have to pay Wilson big bucks next year at arbitration:

Right-hander Heath Hembree generated plenty of excitement last season by amassing 38 saves and 78 strikeouts in 53 1/3 innings at high Class A San Jose and Double-A Richmond. By this time next year, the Giants might need a replacement for Brian Wilson, whose eligibility for salary arbitration will make him extremely expensive and thus difficult to squeeze within the payroll. Hembree, who turns 23 on Jan. 13, could be San Francisco's next closer.

Grant at McCovey Chronicles thinks that making Wilson a long-term deal is a huge mistake at this point. After a stellar 2010, he was occasionally quite lousy in 2011, leading Grant to declare that such a signing is the Number One Fear of the Offseason. (My number one fear is that the Giants will do something really stupid like trade Brandon Belt for someone like Rafael Furcal). In any case, Grant believes that Wilson will begin to cost huge bucks in 2012 and beyond...and that Heath Hembree is likely to be the next closer --

On a team with payroll constrictions, though, he can't possibly be a part of the future. If the Giants want to be quasi-frugal, if they want to hit a certain number when it comes to year-to-year profits, they've forfeited their right to a luxury closer. Committing to Wilson for almost $10 million a season for several seasons would be a miserable allocation of money. Even if you assume that Wilson will be effective despite his declining velocity and horrific walk rate last year -- a huge assumption -- the Giants still can't afford a luxury closer. Luxury closers are for teams that can afford luxuries. The Giants can't afford a real shortstop.

Part of me thinks that the Giants are of a similar mind, and that they'll be looking really closely at how Heath Hembree's season goes. Committing a baleful of cash to a closer, even one who is as marketable as Wilson, is never a great idea, and the Giants have been burned by Benitez and Robb Nen in the recent past.

The curse of Charlie Finley

2011-11-21T01:00:00.001-08:00

Charlie Finley continues to muck things up for the Giants, even though he's been dead for 15 years.

I've never cared for the Oakland A's very much. I've always been a Giants fan. Charlie Finley moved from KC to Oakland in 1968 despite there being limited evidence that Oakland would support a baseball team. So when the A's moved to Oakland, it hurt the Giants attendance to the point that the team nearly moved to Toronto in 1975.

When the A's won three straight World Series in 1972-74, they barely drew a million. Then the A's managed to get whipped by the Dodgers in 1988, then pounded the Giants into submission in 1989, then folded up like a card table against the Reds in 1990.

Just as under the Charlie Finley regime, the current ownership of the Oakland A's has decided to run the team on the cheap. Fans are less likely to show up to the crappy Colisseum. The current owners have been whining about needing to move to San Jose for years even though the Giants have the territorial rights.

Now that the Giants have figured out how to draw fans -- by building a fine stadium to replace the Stick -- Bud Selig is trying to strongarm the Giants into giving up those rights. If Bud's in favor of it, I'm against it.

Billy Beane has apparently gotten fed up by the tightwad Oakland owners, if Peter Gammons is to be believed. Gammons said Beane may take the Dodger GM job if the Oakland A's aren't allowed to move to San Jose.

Crawford's murky outlook

2011-11-20T14:49:00.000-08:00

It's really a bit depressing that the Giants just can't seem to develop position players who can hit at the MLB level. And it's no wonder the Giants wanted to find a shortstop who can hit, even to the point of offering Willie Bloomquist a pretty decent deal.

Chris Haft of mlb.com has a story on the Giants official web site summing up Brandon Crawford's performance in the fall league. He did fine against righties but doesn't have much hope against lefties. He hit .344 (21-for-61) against right-handed pitchers and .130 (3-for-23) off left-handers. Reading it is not exactly guaranteed to resolve any of the doubts you may have surrounding the Giants 2012 offense.

One option has gone away -- It looks like the Pirates are going to sign Clint Barmes for a 2-year $11 million deal, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

As for Brandon, the Giants did give him 220 plate appearances. He showed at least a little plate discipline with 23 walks, though I'd bet that a lot of those were when he was in the 8th slot.

I'm not quite sure what the obvious alternative to Crawford is -- sign Mike Fontenot (who's not going to get any better at 31, cost $1.1 million in 2011 and had a 0.8 WAR in 252 PAs)? sign Jimmy Rollins? They reporters who cover the Giants aren't indicating that Rollins is a probability. It would seem that the Giants may be doomed to having another season with crappy production from shortstop.

On a somewhat related note, Trevor Cole at Giants Baseball Blog believes that the best option for the Giants is to sign Carlos Beltran to a two-year deal.

Angel in the Orange and Black

2011-11-19T15:02:00.001-08:00

What a strange saga this has been -- and here the portagonist is only 21.

I never thought this was going to happen after the legal problems but Angel Villalona has managed to resolve the difficulties and is on the 40-man roster after reaching a settlement over his lawsuit against the team. The Giants are out $2.1 million after signing Angel at the age of 16. He's so young that it's still hard to say how this will play out though the self-righteous will tsk-tsk about this.

Andrew Baggarly of the Merc-News provides details, along with disclosing the other guys selected for the 40-man roster to protect them from the Rule 5 draft along with DFAs for Darren Ford and Waldis Joachim for the second time. OF Roger Kieschnick, 2B Charlie Culberson, RHP Dan Otero, RHP Hector Correa are the others along with OF Tyler Graham. Baggarly see Graham as the only surprise. He's a real hustle guy. Here's an excerpt from a piece Baggarly wrote for Baseball America -- Tyler Graham stole 60 bases for Triple-A Fresno — 16 more than anyone else in the Pacific Coast League.

And yet he probably saw the red light more than any player on Manager Steve Decker’s roster.

“I had to red-light him most of the time, actually,” said Decker, whose club stole a league-high 209 bases. “He was so aggressive, he’d be flashing me the green light pretty much every time. I’d have to say, `No, Tyler, we’re down by three.’ But that’s his personality. He plays so hard.”

The murky return of Freddy Sanchez

2011-11-18T21:13:00.000-08:00

Damn, he was magic in 2010. Grant at McCovey Chronicles warns us not to expect much other than another injury-dominated season like last year. Anything else is gravy.

Grant notes that the Giants have mounted a rather odd propaganda campaign in the offseason --

Buster and Freddy are coming back. Buster and Freddy are coming back. Buster and Freddy are coming back. The former is coming back from a serious leg injury. The latter is Freddy Sanchez. He's pretty okay! When he's healthy! Which is rarely!

It's easy to joke about a player's fragility and say that he has dried seaweed for hamstrings, or something like that. But are the Giants forgetting how Sanchez's shoulder exploded? He dove for a ball. He didn't even do it awkwardly.

His shoulder didn't catch as he rolled, and he didn't leap six feet into the air and land on his shoulder. He did a very normal baseball thing, and his shoulder exploded. That's kind of a red flag.

Signing the Orange and Black aces

2011-11-17T12:33:00.000-08:00

Chris Haft has a long post on the Giants web site about the efforts by the front office to sign Lincecum and Cain to multi-year deals.

In other news, the MLB will expand the playoffs next year -- a move to placate the crybaby ownerships of the Yanks and Bosox -- and the Astros will move to the AL West in 2013. I like the latter move as it removes the advantage that the four AL West teams have had.

And now for an opposing point of view...

2011-11-16T23:03:00.000-08:00

The excellent Where Have You Gone Joe blog has a long post expressing strong reservations about the Jonathan Sanchez deal. Key factor is just how poorly Brian Sabean has done in free agent acquistions of centerfielders -- Steve Finley, Dave Roberts and Aaron Rowand being the prime examples. I would add Tsyoshi Shinjo to the list.

In any case, the reason why the Jonathan Sanchez trade seems so hard to take for so many Giants fans is very simple -- it means more, not less, of Barry Zito. In other words, the utter uncertainty of a Sanchez start was still a far, far better option than the "we give up" feel of a Zito outing. Here's how Where Have You Gone Joe puts it --

Jonathan Sanchez, his 95 mph fastball his 9 strikeouts per nine innings, and knack for breaking hitters down, in spite of his capacity to load the bases on 2 walks and a HBP, still having the ability to pitch out of trouble will be replaced in the starting rotation by none other than the only free-agent signing worse than Aaron Rowands -- $126 Million bust-out, pie throwing, Barry Zito. He of the 83 mph fastball, 9 runs per nine innings, no ability to get out of trouble and singularly talented to almost guarantee a loss every time he starts a game, all while displaying an absence of mound presence, confidence, and command, but offset to an extent by the curious ability to lift his leg while standing on a MLB pitching mound in bicycle pants.

As Skipper Bruce said: “I’m not gonna hide from it. Barry Zito is our fifth starter next year.”" A vote of confidence

At least the Giant fans have only two more seasons after five years of having the biggest laughingstock in the history of major league pitchers on the roster.

Revisiting THE TRADE

2011-11-15T23:31:00.000-08:00

I've been wondering about the Melky Cabrera-Jonathan Sanchez trade for a few days and have come to the conclusion that it was the right thing to do. He was flat out lousy most of the year. His best game was in late April when the Giants beat the Rox, 6-3, to go 10-7 for the year, as Jonathan pitched into the 7th and gave up 2 earned runs on two hits, 4 walks, 4 strikeouts.

Here's the last game that Sanchez won as a Giant on June 2 to lift his record to 4-3 -- he pitched into the sixth but couldn't get out the inning against the Cards after giving up 4 runs, three hits, six walks and striking out ONE. The Giants won 12-7 as Aubrey Huff 3 homers, or one quarter of what he'd hit all year. Sanchez would lose 4 more decisions before he got shut down after a particularly dispiriting 9-2 loss to the Buccos.

Here's most of what Paulie at Give Em Some Stankeye had to say --

-- I don't hate this trade, and at the risk of appearing either contrarian or outright dimwitted, especially in the eyes of fellow Giants fans, I actually kind of like the deal. I'm not in love with Melky Cabrera, and I wish, as do we all, that the Giants could have received a better player for our friend Dirty, but I don't think the team got shafted at all. One thing this morning's deal has done though, is put me in the totally unexpected and alien position of actually defending Brian Sabean.

Let's take a step back for a moment and try to assess Jonathan Sanchez's actual trade value. Some people see a relatively young strikeout artist and solid number three starter coming off of a subpar, injury-plagued year. Perhaps his poor performance was caused by his injury, and he is primed for a comeback this season. Me? I see a totally inconsistent, 29-year-old walk machine with exactly one truly good season on his resume and who now has an injury history.

I've always been concerned about Sanchez's ongoing battles with the evil base-on-balls monster but last season the walks just became untenable. Sanchez had always walked a lot of batters, but not an ungodly amount, and he'd always been able to get away with the wildness by being stingy with giving up hits. In 2011, though, his BB/9 rate shot up to a horrific 5.9. Unless your name is Nolan Ryan, you just can't survive that way. Sanchez's problem with walks meant that he was utterly incapable of working deep into games (just two of his nineteen starts lasted seven innings!). This created a huge burden for the bullpen and made Sanchez's starts just unwatchable in general.

If you look at the history of pitchers who last a long time in the league, you'll see that generally their control improves as the years pass. The aforementioned Nolan Ryan is just one example. Sanchez, again, saw his walk rate skyrocket, and with his general history of bad control, that's a horrible sign (the elevated walk rates were evident before his injury, before you go playing that card). Even his strikeout rate dropped a little, and now he's coming off of an arm injury and due to make somewhere around $6 million in 2012. Opposing front offices, even bad ones, aren't exactly chomping at the bit to trade for a pitcher like this, so why in the world do people still think Sanchez could bring an All-Star or anything even close back in a trade?

There's an old axiom, coined by Branch Rickey (supposedly), that it's better to trade a player a year too early than a year too late. I believe this is what's going on here and I give Brian Sabean credit because I think he sees what I do. I've given up all hope that Sanchez will ever reign in his control problems and I think he's done being an effective pitcher. Call me reactionary if you want, but 2010 is looking like the fluke, not aught eleven. The incredible spike in his walk total, the injury, and the fact that pitchers at his age generally don't magically discover the strike zone all combine to scare the hell out of me. I think the walks and high pitch counts and early exits are going to cause too much wear on his arm, and I think, unfortunately, that it's all downhill from here for Sanchez.

Cabrera is out-of-shape and is, by all metrics, an atrocious center fielder. His surprisingly good season with the bat could have also been a total fluke. It's absolutely possible that I could look like a complete blithering idiot in a year as Melky is DFA'd in July and Sanchez wins the AL Cy Young. Hell, I've looked like an idiot before, believe you me.

I think the opposite is true here, though. I think Sanchez has very little left in his arm and I think the Giants just got decent value for him now because they wouldn't have gotten anything for him after this season. Pitchers with his extreme command issues don't last long, and now that he's an injury risk, I think it was fair to bid adieu. Count me as maybe the only soul on the Internet who has this opinion, but I think that, in the end, the Giants are going to come away winners in this deal, and it won't be close.

Matt Cain = Mr. Quality Start

2011-11-15T18:29:00.001-08:00

The Giants web site has posted a pretty good story by Chris Haft of mlb.com that details why Matt Cain was one of the top pitchers in baseball this year.He had the most quality starts in the NL this year...

Opponents hit .217 off Cain, the league's third-lowest figure. Among the top Cy Young contenders, only Kershaw, who led the NL with a .207 figure, was more efficient.

Cain outperformed all of the NL's Cy Young candidates in preventing the long ball. He yielded nine home runs, fewest in the Majors among pitchers who worked at least 200 innings. His per-nine-inning average of 0.37 homers allowed ranked second among NL pitchers behind Pittsburgh's Charlie Morton (0.31).

Many experts deride the value of a "quality start," since the criteria (three or fewer earned runs allowed in at least six innings) don't define pitching excellence. Nevertheless, Cain's 26 quality starts topped the NL, ranked third in the Majors and reflected the consistency he maintained.

Reggie Smith in the Orange and Black?

2011-11-13T13:37:00.000-08:00

You can count yourself as a real Giants fan if you remember that Reggie Smith played a year as a Giant in 1982. He was pretty good player throughout his career, mostly with the Bosox, Dodgers and Cards. This card is from the Nite Owl blog with Reggie listed as a member of "I'm Bad Ass and You're Not club" along with Jeffrey Leonard, Gorman Thomas and Johnny Bench and a few others.

Reggie finished 4th in MVP voting in 1977 and 1978. I was at a game in Chavez Latrine on August 10, 1978, when Reggie hit a monstrous homer in the first off Vida Blue -- it hit the top of the back wall in the leftfield bullpen, at lest 30 feet up.

What was sort of amazing about the offseason signing in early 1982 of Reggie as a free agent was that he'd gotten into a brawl with a Giants fan on Sept. 24 of the previous year. Frank Robinson was the Giants manager at the time and said something on the order that Lasorda was partly to blame "because he has his head up a TV camera." Dodger Blues has a recap of the incident.

Reggie was 37 at the time and put up decent numbers for the Orange and Black with a 2.8 WAR. And he was in the lineup on the last day of the season when Joe Morgan knocked the Dodgers out of postseason contention with a 3-run homer in the 7th in one of my favorite Dodger gags.

No Reyes in the Orange and Black

2011-11-13T13:01:00.000-08:00

No way that it's happening, says Chris Haft of mlb.com in his mailbag column posted on the official Giants web site. He also says that more deals are coming --

Giants management surely realizes that Cabrera isn't the cure-all for the club's ailing offense. Count on Sabean making another acquisition or two before Spring Training begins. During the 2009-10 offseason, for example, he followed the signing of Mark DeRosa by retaining Juan Uribe and Bengie Molina and adding Aubrey Huff. This year, Sabean made moves designed to improve the offense before (Jeff Keppinger) and after (Orlando Cabrera) trading for Beltran. These clusters of deals indicate that the Giants won't stop with Melky Cabrera. As for pursuing Reyes, it's just not going to happen. Yes, Giants fans deserve to be rewarded for their faith with the best possible ballclub. But signing Reyes to a five-year, $100 million deal simply doesn't fit the Giants' economic structure right now.

Already waiting for next season to start

2011-11-12T12:13:00.000-08:00

This just seems like the right shot to post on a cold Saturday in the middle of November. A fine photo by Rod Begbie, taken during 2008 season.

I couldn't help myself -- What a lousy team that was! It went 72-90. The Giants hit 94 homers all year, becoming the first team since the 1995 Phils not to go over 100. The top WAR numbers:

Lincecum -- 6.9
Cain -- 4.0
Winn -- 3.7
Molina -- 1.6
Lewis -- 1.5
Sandoval -- 0.9 (in a mere 154 plate appearances)
Durham -- 0.8

Kevin Correia had the highest negative WAR at -1.4, barely beating Brad Hennessey at -1.3.

I guess it's a reminder why so many fans like me thought three years ago that Brian Sabean was a failure as a GM -- particularly given the resources that he has. I must point out that the 2008 Giants, as lousy as they were, did manage to score 640 runs. That's SEVENTY more than the 2011 Giants.

Barmes in the Orange and Black?

2011-11-12T11:35:00.000-08:00

Ah, yes. We're deep into the offseason where far smarter sites than this one do a fine job of offering up wisdom (Since X happened, it's likely that Y may come to pass). One of the key issues for the Giants front office has been what the hell to do about shortstop since Brandon Crawford didn't exactly burn up the MLB after his first-game grand slam.

Anyhow, the recent signings of Jamie Carroll and Willie Bloomquist provoked Chris Quick at Bay City Ball to explore whether Clint Barmes is the solution.

Andrew Baggarly of the Merc-News tweeted three days ago that the Giants were interested in Barmes. I've been so slammed with my real job that I didn't notice until today when I began wondering why there was so much discussion about a guy best known (by me) for having had one of the strangest injuries ever -- breaking his collarbone while carrying a bag of venison. He had a 2.9 WAR last year, the best of his career and far higher than any other Giants position player other than Sandoval (Nate and Cody both had 1.6 WARs). But he's also going to be 33. Here's a tidbit -- he went 0 for 14 in the NLDS in 2009 against the Phils.

Chris believes that the Giants are not going to sign Jimmy Rollins or Jose Reyes. He thinks Barmes is now the best available SS:

There’s a good chance that the Giants were never “in” on Carroll, but that doesn’t change the fact the the infield market is really starting to get thin. If the Giants decide to go into 2012 with Brandon Crawford as their starting shortstop, I can’t help but wonder if it’s based on a huge leap of faith, an awesome internal evaluation, or the cold hard truth that the team is being cheap. Like most things, it’s probably a combination of all three, but short was a big problem in 2011 and it’s looking like it has the potential to be sore spot next season.

Man, Clint Barmes is really starting to look good right about now.