When the Giants Come to Town, It's Bye-Bye Baby

07.23.2007
Countdown

A week and a day to the trading deadline. A few interesting developments:

* The Yankees are 7.5 games behind Boston. That’s still a big margin to overcome, but it’s a lot smaller than the 12 game deficit they faced a few weeks ago. You certainly won’t see a white-flag sale in the Bronx, and if they creep a couple games closer in the next few days, you might see The Boss order Brian Cashman into full-on buying mode. Any time the Yankees are buyers at the deadline, it’s good for sellers. And the Giants are sellers.

* And of course the closer the Yankees get, the more pressure Boston feels to make short-term moves.

* Over the weekend the Chronicle reported the Giants are asking not just Pat Misch to start games in Triple-A, but Russ Ortiz as well, perhaps to prepare for one or more current starters being traded. Meanwhile, Matt Morris’s trade value is looking smaller than Omar Vizquel’s OPS. Quoth Schulman: “Those familiar with Seattle's thinking believe the Mariners would want much more than Morris for [Wladimir] Balentien.” (If that name doesn’t sound familiar, click here and read the final item.)

* Detroit wants bullpen help. The Giants have pitchers. Giant trade talk has mainly focused on Matt Morris, Noah Lowry, and the veteran hitters, but the Giants shouldn’t say no if teams ask about Brad Hennessey, Vinny Chulk or Kevin Correia. Unfortunately, Chulk yesterday continued a season-long trend of letting lots of inherited runners score. But whoever loses out on the Royals’ Octavio Dotel could be willing to part with a decent prospect. Among the Giants current relief corps, Jonathan Sanchez would surely fetch the highest value.

* With their first shot at the playoffs in eons, the Brewers aren’t going to sit still as the Cubs advance. Now with ace Ben Sheets out for at least a month, Milwaukee says it will move hot rookie Yovani Gallardo into the rotation. But Fox’s Ken Rosenthal says he may not be the answer as the team plays deep into the season, or even the post-season:

Gallardo, 21, worked 155 innings last season. He already is at 112 1/3 this season, and the Brewers don't want him to exceed 180. The team's original plan was to monitor Gallardo carefully until August, then turn him loose. Now, it might not be possible for him to go deep into the season…

With all the young hitters in Milwaukee, Lowry could bring back a potential future All-Star. How about Lowry and Durham for Rickie Weeks and a pitching prospect? Weeks has slumped big-time this year, but he’s only 24. He’ll get better. 

* The division factor: The Rockies are now only 5.5 back in the NL West, which means four teams in the Giants’ division could be buyers. Does Sabean dare make a trade to help a division rival?

Also:

* Batter up!
Also on the Network:



[July 23, 2007 4:29 PM]  |  link  |  reply
Steve said

Got down to a 0.12! I should try out! Most of mine were in the 0.18 range, though.

[July 23, 2007 4:42 PM]  |  link  |  reply
pantalones said

Interesting. Kinda misses the point, though, which is that in baseball you have to decide whether or not to swing, not just when to swing. Now, if the screen flashed FASTBALL STRIKE or SLIDER IN THE DIRT, it would be a lot more difficult.

And I would probably owe Pedro Feliz an apology.

[July 23, 2007 5:09 PM]  |  link  |  reply
Gordo said

Most exercise I've had in a week! I also hit a .12, though most ended up in the .23 range.

To pantalones' point, it could show you Fastball or Fostball and only reward you when you pick the right spelling.

[July 23, 2007 6:23 PM]  |  link  |  reply
Chris said

Eat your hearts out:

http://www.baycityball.com/images/homerun.gif

I can play firstbase too.

[July 23, 2007 6:33 PM]  |  link  |  reply
pantalones said

Home run, Chris? Please. You swung too early and pulled it foul. Just a loud strike.

[July 23, 2007 7:21 PM]  |  link  |  reply
ELM said

.06 seconds? That's impossible unless....wait a sec, what's your hat size?

[July 23, 2007 8:04 PM]  |  link  |  reply
trav said

how do i copy the picture...i got a 0.00 but it actually just says "0 seconds"

[July 23, 2007 8:14 PM]  |  link  |  reply
obsessivegiantscompulsive said

As well, I wonder if the Giants might try the unorthodox thing and go with 6 starters since they have 38 games in 38 days coming up. That is, use the 6th starter as if he was the day off that normally would be there regularly, once a week.

Yeah, if I had Balentien I would want more than Morris for him. However, it is not just a matter of whether you want to or not trade Balentien for Morris, it is more particularly whether you feel that you are close enough to get in the playoffs, and being only 2 games behind and the Angels looking to acquire a big hitter, sometimes you have to kiss the frog and hope he turns into a prince.

There have been people who dismiss Sabean putting together the pitching staff that we currently have because he doesn't have position prospects, but look at the names being bandied about in trades, there are good position players available, but the cream of the crop for starters looks to be Contreras, Livan, and Morris.

And Morris is the best of that bunch, thus far this season. Nothing against Morris, but he doesn't compare with Adam Dunn, Renteria, Mark Teixira, and Jermaine Dye, names I have seen come up in trade rumors. Heck, to me, he doesn't even compare with Ryan Church, OF with the Nats.

And yet, neither does Contreras and Livan compare with Morris. Contreras absolutely stinks this year; yeah, he might cost less in prospects (though I recall him having a big contract too), but do you really expect to win with a 5.76 ERA pitcher who is 35 years old? And Livan is also cheap in trade because he is a free agent this offseason, but for once he's not having a contract drive like he did when with the Giants or Expos. Probably because his overall record was pretty bad the last two seasons, ERA in the high 4's. At least Morris was clearly pitching well this season before hitting his bad patch recently. But clearly, each has their warts that will reduce his value to the acquirer.

At least Morris can explain his down times the past two seasons. Last season, he had his rib injury - his ERA was in the low 4's when that apparrently happened - and the year before, he had shoulder surgery in the offseason and wasn't able to exercise and build strength for that season, which explains why he was dominating for about half the season and then not dominating.

So the key question then for acquirers of Morris is: is he just a first half guy, or is he just finally hitting his first bad patch of the season, a dead arm period, before coming back?

His next start tomorrow will probably determine what GMs feel. If he can pitch a good game, that will assuage fears whereas if he gets bombed again, he will probably have to go through waivers to get traded, and he should make the through, with $9.5M on the plate for next year and the rest of this season. It would be particularly good if he could strike out somebody, anybody, as he has two straight games with no strikeouts.

[July 23, 2007 11:03 PM]  |  link  |  reply
Chris said

Lefty,

The only performance enhancers I've been on today was a couple of dark German beers.

I'm innocent I tell you!

[July 24, 2007 12:51 AM]  |  link  |  reply
ELM said

.06*!

[July 24, 2007 1:22 AM]  |  link  |  reply
Drew said

hahahaha 0.02 ...no that's not my BAC...lol

[July 24, 2007 1:28 AM]  |  link  |  reply
Zheetos said

Apparently I can bat 1.000 at the big league level. >_>