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

12.04.2007
Mutually Assured Destruction

P.M. UPDATE: If the rumors of the past 48 hours panned out, the 2008 S.F. Giants would look something like this:

OF Andruw Jones 
OF Shawn Green
OF Jay Bruce or Alexis Rios or Adam Jones
3B Scott Rolen or Edwin Encarnacion
2B Ray Durham
1B Ben Broussard/Dan Ortmeier
C Bengie Molina
SS Omar Vizquel

SP Zito
SP Lincecum OR Cain (but not both)
SP Hiroki Kuroda
SP Kevin Correia
SP Pat Misch

RP Ron Mahay
RP Brian Wilson
etc etc

***

Joe Sheehan of Baseball Prospectus writes this morning about the insanity of the free-agent market and tops it off with a quote from War Games: “The only winning move is not to play.” (Tangential question: Why does Matthew Broderick refuse to age? What devilish elixir has he concocted?)

To that end: Kudos, Mr. Sabean. You have not yet played. We are watching you. The exception to calumny I’ll make: a reasonable short-term contract for Andruw Jones, two years max, to give the Giants a legitimate power bat in the middle of the lineup while they sort out the rest of the prospects. This isn’t going to happen, at least not to my liking, because any attempts to be reasonable will be outbid by a less reasonable offer. In other words, getting Jones at a comfy price requires the restraint of 29 other teams — and now I’ll let you wipe up the coffee you just snorted out your nose before asking you to move to the next paragraph.

Another BP-generated quote I’d like to pass along, this regarding the A’s desire to trade Dan Haren, from an anonymous source via Kevin Goldstein: “I don't think they're really interested in dealing him unless somebody does something stupid--which certainly could happen in this market.”

Setting aside the fact that this quote is so anonymous it could have been from Goldstein’s grandmother, the same can and should be said about a trade for Tim Lincecum. If the Reds want to offer Jay Bruce, the number one uberprospect in the land, the 20–year-old who forced his way into AAA ball last year and kept on hitting, straight up for Lincecum, then sure. 

It wouldn’t exactly be stupid of the Reds, but it’s a trade that favors the Giants simply because of the injury factor. Lincecum is far more likely to fall apart than Bruce. The advantage is somewhat tempered by the fact that Lincecum has begun to prove himself at the big-league level and Bruce hasn’t. But the advantage swings back when you consider ages: Bruce turns 21 next April, Lincecum turns 24 next June.

Anyway, it’s not going to happen because the Reds aren’t stupid. But you never know. Andy Baggarly of the Merc reports that one Reds official thinks the Giants “have to” trade Timmy. (For more on why the Reds and other teams are drooling, read this.)

It seems that nothing will happen until the Twins deal Johan Santana. That’s the plug holding back the flood.

Onward:

* Soon after Brian Sabean and Angels owner Arte Moreno slag the Marlins for asking too much for Miguel Cabrera, reports surface that he’s working hard to lose the baby fat. His conditioning is one fear inquiring teams have about him; his attitude and his impending free agency are the others.

* Which makes me wonder: how did Cabrera or Johan Santana vote in this weekend’s referendum? How about Omar Vizquel? Interesting that these Venezuelan ballplayers, all advanced capitalists, have never spoken out against their socialist wannabe Presidente-for-Life. 



Also on the Network:



[December 4, 2007 1:12 PM]  |  link  |  reply
Snorp said

"Interesting that these Venezuelan ballplayers, all advanced capitalists, have never spoken out against their socialist wannabe Presidente-for-Life."

I can't speak for them, but these guys do have family back in Venezuela. If it was me, I would be very careful about what I said publicly about a guy agitating to be dictator-for life. He may have lost the vote, but the country is not out of the woods yet with that guy.

[December 4, 2007 1:43 PM]  |  link  |  reply
Ohan said

What about this trade...

Lowry
Sanchez
Hennessey
and/or maybe Winn with cash

for

Edwin Encar.
Josh Hamilton

and that will still give us the option of bringing in Jones or Fukedome while still leaving an OF spot for Davis/Lewis/Scherholtz

[December 4, 2007 2:35 PM]  |  link  |  reply
ELM said

It's hard right now to get a handle on Lowry's value. Thanks to the potential trades of top-tier talent (Santana, Bedard, Haren, Cain, Lincecum) there's not enough data right now to figure out what he's worth. I'll bet he's not traded til after the meetings, or even not til the spring.

[December 4, 2007 5:46 PM]  |  link  |  reply
bigO said

San Francisco has expressed some interest in trading for first baseman Ben Broussard, who is being shopped by the Mariners. But the Giants might decide to wait and see if Seattle non-tenders Broussard on Dec. 12, and he becomes available as a free agent. THIS WOULD BE GREAT. HE'S A PLAYER AND WOULDN'T COST AN ARM AND A LEG.

The Blue Jays and Giants have floated the idea of an Alex Rios trade for Tim Lincecum or Matt Cain. Another name that's come up in discussions is third baseman Troy Glaus. But there are some health issues surrounding Glaus, who had surgery in September to repair a nerve in his left foot. If the Jays move Glaus, they would have to consider adding offense. ALEX RIOS????

[December 4, 2007 6:20 PM]  |  link  |  reply
trilljester said

I'm hearing rumors that the Marlins are sending Miguel Cabrera and Dontrelle Willis to the Tigers...

[December 5, 2007 2:41 AM]  |  link  |  reply
Cyrus said

If the Merc's article in Wednesdays paper is on, if the Blue Jays sweeten the deal they could get Lincecum from the Giants for Rios and a propect.

The question is, is sacrificing Lincecum better than gambling that Schierholtz doesn't turn into a 20 hr/85 rbi guy who can hit for some avg. in 2 years?