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

03.10.2008
Crede Clearwater Revival

Aaron Rowand wants to get the band back together. But Kenny Williams, playing the role of Saul Zaentz, could throw a wet blanket over the whole thing.

Word from the Chicago papers is that White Sox GM Williams doesn’t feel he needs to trade Crede. Right. The Sox have phenom Josh Fields ready to take over, Crede is due to make $5 M. Williams is basically trying to smoke out better offers from the two clubs showing interest. (His words: “I have had conversations with at least one team, two to be exact, and I did not feel there was anything there at this juncture.”)

As you probably know, one of those teams is the Giants, and the other is reportedly the Dodgers, who just learned that rookie 3B Andy LaRoche has an ouchie thumb and will miss a couple months at least.

I haven’t changed my thinking on Crede since this post. Several conditions must be met before he makes sense for the Giants. I’ve heard it said that trading for Crede is ridiculous, especially considering the Giants had a Crede-like player in Pedro Feliz.

Not quite. Crede’s career EQA is .258, Feliz’s is .246. Not a huge difference, but remember that Crede lost most of last year to a back injury. In terms of WARP, Crede’s best year is nearly twice that of Feliz’s best year: 8.8 to 5.2. On defense Feliz is considered elite, but a healthy Crede would not be far behind.

Summary: when both are healthy, Crede is demonstrably better, and he won’t require a multi-year contract as Feliz did this winter. Better enough to trade a valuable player for? Depends whether you think the Giants will hit this year as if their bats were … wait for it… stuck in Lodi again. (May 15: Things got bad. July 1: Things got worse. Sept. 1: I guess you know the tune.)

Feel free to use your own CCR-related metaphor to finish this post. Sorry, references to John Fogerty’s “Centerfield” are not allowed.



Also on the Network:



[March 10, 2008 5:11 PM]  |  link  |  reply
bigO said

I'm sure when we head into the 5th trailing 8-2 or so we'll be singin' "have you ever seen the rain?"

[March 11, 2008 7:52 AM]  |  link  |  reply
jeff d said

... or more likely wondering, who'll stop the @#!$ rain. doesnt sound like it'll be zito, who (as if we don't have enough problems) decided it's time for a new delivery again. This is getting painful to watch, and it's barely MARCH.

[March 11, 2008 11:45 AM]  |  link  |  reply
Mark O'Connor said

I queried the CCR oracle (the "Twenty Greatest Hits" album): SOMEDAY we'll be good again, right? Right?

>>>You better learn it fast; you better learn it young,'Cause, "Someday" Never Comes


Ouch, thanks guys. (CCR's from El Cerrito, maybe they're A's fans.)

[March 12, 2008 6:52 AM]  |  link  |  reply
Lyle said

Well, Bad Moon Rising is an obvious prediction of the 2008 Giants season. To that, I say that I'll remain a fan "As Long As I Can See the Kids."

[March 12, 2008 12:23 PM]  |  link  |  reply
ELM replied to Lyle

Nice. "Put a Schierholtz in the outfield / And a Merkin in the 'pen..."