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

01.24.2008
Adios Feliz

Perhaps that title should be in the form of a question, but Henry Schulman reports that Brian Sabean is ready to move on:

"We made a two-year offer, which he rejected. We've pretty much moved on from there."

He also said this:

"To not give guys like Frandsen and Ortmeier a chance to play, in the phase we're in, would be counterproductive."

That's about as close as Sabes will come to the "R" word, aka The Phase That Dare Not Speak Its Name.
Also on the Network:



[January 24, 2008 1:57 AM]  |  link  |  reply
Dan from NM said

Recession?

Geez, I hope Feliz is really gone. A two-year deal makes no sense for this team. (Plus, we need the draft pick.)

[January 24, 2008 10:15 AM]  |  link  |  reply
obsessivegiantscompulsive said

Well, Feliz will have to sign in order for us to get a draft pick. I wonder if there is a time limit on when we get a draft pick, I mean what if he doesn't sign with someone until July, after the draft?

What we got to remember here, is that the key word in the statement is "pretty", in that it won't be pretty if the Giants do sign Feliz. "pretty much moved on" still leaves the door ajar for Feliz to still his limp bat into our lineup in the worse of circumstances.

[January 24, 2008 1:01 PM]  |  link  |  reply
ELM replied to obsessivegiantscompulsive

I doubt he'll remain unemployed until July. He's still a useful ballplayer. In fact, for a team with plenty of offense already, he'd be a great addition who could hit 20+ homers batting eighth or ninth and play Gold Glove defense.

I wager he'll have a contract before spring training.

[January 25, 2008 1:14 AM]  |  link  |  reply
obsessivegiantscompulsive replied to ELM

Good point, but I was mainly just using a hypothetical case.

Still, who is looking for such a 3B. Phillies reportedly are interested. They and the Pirates (rebuilding so no)are the only NL teams with worse 3B hitters, plus Dodgers and Cards are about where the Giants are, but obviously the Cards have traded for a new 3B already and the Dodgers have a young stud coming up in LaRoche plus they recently publicly said that they are not pursuing Feliz (in any case).

In the AL, ironically the ChiSox are one of the teams with a worse 3B OPS for the season, but they most probably will be playing Fields, I don't see them playing Crede and they most definitely won't be signing Feliz then.

Other AL teams around the Giants OPS (i.e. Feliz's OPS) are Minnesota (sound like they are going to use Harris to play 3B), Detroit (now solved!), and Texas (not going to replace Blalock though), plus nearby teams include Cleveland (Casey Blake is there and probably his offensive plus counters Feliz defensive plus, so why change?) and KC (Gordon is their future).

So, there appear to be no AL team whose 3B offense is approximately that of Feliz who might want an upgrade in defense.

Now, we could go higher to the 750 OPS range, if you think that Feliz offense makes up for losing about 50 points of OPS (don't know if there's a ratio people use to convert or not, so I'm just using this as a hypothetical), and the teams in that range include: SD (no, Kouzmanoff), Oakland (no, Chavez), Houston (got Wigginton, so I don't think so unless really want defense, but just dumped Everett, one of top SS fielding around), Tampa Bay (no, Longoria up soon), Baltimore (rebuilding, not condemning :^), and LA Angels (got Figgins and other better options, plus Brandon Wood coming up).

So that really only leaves the Phillies as the top (and only other) team pursuing Feliz, luckily they have such a great offense - 2nd in MLB in runs scored - plus are one of the few teams where Feliz would actually be an offensive upgrade for them, as well as a defensive upgrade. They seem like a no-brainer to me, so they must be balking at the 3 year demand.

Also, the Merc's account noted that a source said that Feliz feels like bolting from his agents and would even consider signing a one year deal with the Giants at this point, though obviously two years would be better from his viewpoint. It is unanswered whether the Giants would reopen the door, though Sabean noted, "We moved on. I don't see us doing business.", which to me leaves the door open, as he doesn't see it right now, but might later. Still, given that they said they've moved on, that usually means that Sabean's patience has been tested and when he moves on, he moves on, as Shooter, Dusty, and Aurilia found out when they tried to leverage the Giants into a big contract.

[January 24, 2008 3:58 PM]  |  link  |  reply
rocketdog said

This is great, especially if it gives Frandsen a shot. However: I hate to be the party pooper, but MLB Trade Rumors reports Giants are still in the mix for Morgan Ensberg or Joe Crede. Hennesey is mentioned as trade bait. Anything's better than Feliz, but that would suck.

[January 24, 2008 4:57 PM]  |  link  |  reply
Matt said

I just can't believe Sabean actually offered Feliz a two-year deal. Didn't he say in an earlier interview that there was no way they were going to give him anything more than one year? And for Feliz to reject that?! Unless the fine print said that Sabean also gets to have relations with Feliz's wife whenever he wants Feliz is delusional to think someone else will give him a great deal to start at 3B.

[January 25, 2008 12:17 AM]  |  link  |  reply
obsessivegiantscompulsive replied to Matt

Sabean said that he was not going to offer a 3 year contract, but worded it such that reporters caught on and asked, therefore, would the Giants go 2 years, and Sabean said he would.