Two months too late, but I'll take it. My opinion of Sabean just skyrocketed from Useless to Incompetent.

Let Jon Sanchez take over or begin the Pat Misch era.

Morris is gone and good riddance. Amazing Pittsburgh took his entire salary on.

Too bad we couldn't dump the salaries of Feliz, Aurilia, Roberts and Durham. It just shows how bad and overpaid that quartet really is.

Getting Wilson back would completely miss the point of the entire trade. Let's hope that's not the case.

I wouldn't be surprised if Russ Ortiz jumps into the rotation as a showcase for a potential August trade. Note how few starting pitchers were traded at the deadline. Surely there will be a need in the next few weeks, even for an emergency guy to help get a team through the dog days.

Wow, I cannot believe Sabes just made a trade that a Billy Beane style GM would make in the same situation. Trading an aging starter for a player who has proved himself to be a patient hitter who doesn't seem to rush to make outs is just so.. refreshing.

Lefty, I was just about to ask if anybody has any word on how Russ Ortiz has been coming along. My money's on Russ to patch the rotation hole, at least for the next few weeks.

Sabean said in today's press conference that Ortiz needs another rehab start before he's ready. So maybe Misch or Sanchez until then.

Ortiz is now starting in the minors to get his arm stretched out. A couple days ago he went 4 innings, gave up two hits and struck out 5.

Same thing with Misch since his demotion. He's now started two games, going four innings both times.

Any other tidbits from the press conference, Jefferson?

I enjoyed this comment.

"I think more than likely Nick Sabean just made David Littlefield look like a damn fool."

Yes, from that it seems that neither Misch nor Ortiz are ready.
I wonder if they will bring up someone from Fresno for 1 start? Either Kinney or Plamer are on the right schedule.
Kinney: age 30, ERA 4.36, WHIP 1.31, IP 119, BB 28, K 104.
Palmer: age 28, ERA 4.48, WHIP 1.35, IP 122, BB 41, K 85.
Palmer is younger, Kinney has better numbers, esp BB and Ks. They'd have to send someone down, assuming Davis is put on the 25 man. Maybe with the 31/30 coming up they'll go with the extra pitcher.

Blackley is on the 40 man roster and Kinney and Palmer are not. If Ortiz and Misch are both not ready then it will be Blackley until they are.

After thinking about it, I just do not see how Wilson can NOT be TPTBNL. His salary for the next 2 years: 6.5 and 7.25 Mil. And we need a replacement for Omar.
How can that not be the deal?

>Either Kinney or Plamer [sic] are on the right schedule.

But they're not on the 40-man roster. To add one of them, someone would have to be removed and exposed to waivers.

No guesses on which ex-Brave prospect in the Schuerholz has had the best career?

Sabean made a point of not having to pay any of Morris' salary so why would he then be adding Wilson's salary? In addition, why wasn't say Sweeney added to the deal so that Wilson could have been announced now with no concerns about any additional moves being required to make space on either team's 25 man or 40 man rosters?

I very much doubt if we are getting Wilson and I sure hope we are not. If we are, this is very much another loser deal for Sabean.

oops -- that should be "in the Schuerholz era"...

Jason Schmidt, I'm guessing for the trivia.

Sabean might have done very well in this trade but his success has nothing to do with Davis. His only abilities are his batting eye and, I guess, his speed. He is a non-entity.

I think next year it will be Sanchez, though I love him as a shutdown guy in a late inning role. He has the stuff to come in for an inning and be very special.

In the short-term, Russ probably gets the shot, though Misch has warranted a look or two as well.

It is my understanding that a PTBNL cannot be playing (?or have played?) in the same league as the acquiring team. So Wilson (and anybody else currently playing for the Pirates) can't be the PTBNL.

Jesus, MP, I hope that is true, complete, and accurate. And, RM, I didn't hear that point (not taking any salary), so that sets my mind a little easier.

"It is my understanding that a PTBNL cannot be playing (?or have played?) in the same league as the acquiring team. So Wilson (and anybody else currently playing for the Pirates) can't be the PTBNL."

Not really a problem. Dustin Mohr ended up effectively being the PTBNL in the AJ deal when the Giants later traded a PTBNL to the Twins for Mohr. The two PTBNLs cancelled each other out or if you will were the same player.

MarcoPolo is correct about PTBNL. Here is what Rob Neyer's Transaction Priner on ESPN says about PTBNL.

http://espn.go.com/mlb/s/transanctionsprimer.html

Player To Be Named Later
Quite often, you'll read that a player has been traded to another team for "a player to be named later."

There are two restrictions at work here. First, the transaction must be completed within six months. And second, the player named later can't have played in the same league as the team he's being traded to. That's why the player named later is almost always a minor leaguer.

And what if the teams can't agree on who that player will be? This happens rarely, but if no names are agreed upon initially, the clubs will agree on a price to paid in lieu of a player.

Sometimes, at the time of the deal the team receiving the player will provide the other club a list of minor leaguers, and later the club will have their pick of the players on that list. This list is negotiated at the time of the trade. In recent years, the Minnesota Twins lost Enrique Wilson this way. When it came time for Cleveland to make their choice, the Twins did what they could to "hide" Wilson, but the Indians found him anyway.

Finally, sometimes "Player to be named later" is used to trade players on the Disabled List, since it can be embarrassing for a club to trade for a guy who's on the DL.

Marco's right. You example doesn't prove him wrong either, as the Twins and Giants aren't in the same league.

Secondly, Jayson Stark's blog lists the player to be named later in this trade to come from an already agreed upon list of PROSPECTS.

The article and press conference (link at sfgiants.com) noted that the Giants did the deal because the Pirates are paying for ALL of Morris's contract, everything. Plus they might get some money (minor) if they cannot agree on a PTBNL.

Davis is a non-prospect, his best skill is his speed, he has a nice batting eye but regressed when he reached AA and AAA, as did his BA, which meant his OBP went down too, so don't look at his career numbers, look at his last two seasons in AA and AAA, much lower, around .350, which means another drop when he plays in the majors.

The best thing that can be said about him is that he gives Timpner some competition in CF, but neither appear to be locks to be starting CF, they both look like reserve, AAAA OFs.

Grant at the McChronic put it well when he said Davis could be the Giants' next Jason Ellison.

Well, how are you factoring in his good production this year at AAA and acceptable production (in few ABs) in MLB?

Hey, I already posted that - "Jason Ellison type" - last night at 5:40PM. :^P

He is almost a clone for Ellison, OK BB/K ratio coming up minors, OK BA, steals bases but too low success rate, interesting defense made up by speed. The only difference is that Davis can steal around 40 bases per season, while Ellison is in the 20's.

Just thought of this, but I think the key thing now is that he is a right-handed hitter who could platoon in CF with Roberts. His OPS is almost 100 points better against LHP in AAA this year. And, small sample, he's hitting LHP better in majors too. However in 2005 and 2006, he hit worse against LHP than RHP. However, if you believe in BABIP, he was unlucky against LHP and lucky against RHP in 2006.

Frank, Jason Ellison looked about as good as Davis at 26 and limited MLB ABs.

ELM, I posted my transcription of the press conference in the comments on my post on Morris.

Here is what I wrote, with some comments from me:

"Listening to the Brian Sabean news conference, it was noted that Davis is interesting for his speed and playing CF plus the PTBNL "could be pretty good too". Davis seems better than, say, Joey Gathright [OGC COMMENT], in that in addition to speed, Rajai has demonstrated an ability to hit for some average and get some walks, making him leadoff material.

Sabean also noted that Davis will join the team soon and he will be further evaluated closely then.

About other trade possibilities for other vets on the team, there was some interest, but movement was slow on the part of buyers, so he expects players to make it through waivers and allow them to make further moves in August, and they are definitely open to moving players.

He also mentioned that there were two other teams who are contenders interested. Someone asked if doing the deal before having to waive was a motivation and Sabean said that it wasn't, that getting the flexibility now was more important than what might happen after the deadline, in the waiver period. [OGC COMMENT]In other words, the bird in the hand cliche.

About the new starter, sounds like Ortiz is not ready, he needs another rehab start, but would not commit to naming Misch or anyone.

Parameters about PTBNL: usually a named group of players is the pool that SF can pick from, plus date for player to be agreed on by both teams, both are agreed upon the deal; if later agree on PTBNL then player traded, if not, then there is a cash consideration; that's how PTBNL is normally done he noted.

Pitching as future yet pitching traded dichotomy, what is balance asks reporter: see how things turn out, give people opportunity, wanted flexibility in the offseason. Noted that if they were unable to sign a position player, they might go after pitching and strengthen that.

Turned the page on how things were done in the past, that resulted in Morris being dealt. [OGC COMMENT]This seems to imply that in the past, wouldn't give up and would keep the vets, but now willing to shut down and move on to prepare for next season. That is part of what was noted when Sabean was re-signed to his extension. That it happened to be the Pirates apparently was just how it worked out, perhaps if he pitched better, the contenders would have offered more."

That's about it, not too much said. Main things:

* he thinks Davis is a pretty good ballplayer (no...) and that the PTBNL will be another pretty good ballplayer, they will look the horse in the mouth now and see what they got, it is one thing to scout, another to have the player there.

* Morris made his bed with the performance he put in the past 6 weeks.

* Most key thing is the flexibility to do other things now in the off-season, whether getting more hitting (main objective) or more pitching (if unable to get hitters).

* Not sure who's taking Morris's next start other than it is not going to be Ortiz.

Hey, great post on Baseball Analysts, read, it's funny: http://baseballanalysts.com/archives/2007/08/wtf.php