Here is Sunday morning's pre-game blurb on the Mercury News Website: "Caution planned for ace: Tim Lincecum will make his first start today since the flu prevented him from attending last week's All-Star Game, and the Giants won't push their prized pitcher."
Mmm, yah. Timmah got knocked around, threw 121 pitches and the Giants got season-swept by the Milbrewskis. As you've probably heard, the nice bit is that Sabean traded Ray Durham for two human beings and according to Henry Schulman will pay half his remaining $3 million salary. Still, that's two prospects, whom we'll discuss in a second, and $1.5 million to push toward Buster Posey's mystery signing bonus. It was the right move to make, and we'll see a lot of Burriss, Velez and Ochoa at second base, but fair warning that the Giants offense will get even worse. His detractors who can only remember his .218 average from last year refuse to acknowledge it, but Ray-Ray was having a good year. As Brewers GM Doug Melvin noted, he now leads the Brewers in batting average and on-base percentage.
Others will follow, quoth the Sabes: "We stayed true to our word. No matter where we were in the standings or what we thought our chances were, we needed at some point to turn our fortunes to our younger players. Our older players, if they were good enough in the market to be able to be acquired by somebody else, we were willing to do that. Thus, Ray is the first transaction."
Whom did the Giants get? A lefty starter named Steve Hammond who was doing well in AA earlier this year but after a promotion to AAA Nashville gave up 6 HRs in 17 IP. Despite that, his 5 BB / 20 K ratio was intriguing, and reportedly the Giants will keep him in AAA. He's 26 years old, so he's getting long in the tooth to be a prospect. The second guy is Darren Ford, a 22-year old OF in high-A ball who can steal a base if he gets on. His strikeout totals are shocking for a speed-and-defense guy, averaging nearly 130 a year in '06-'07 and up to 83 this year. Before he reached high A, his OBP was promising, but he's not getting on base as much these days.
Trades are always evaluated in two stages: immediately after the fact, then down the road once the players involved prove their worth or lack thereof. Immediate take on this: the Giants get two mediocre prospects, a lineup opening for their own youngsters, and a little salary relief for two months of a guy who is a nice bench piece and last year was the worst hitter in the National League. Strong work, Sabes. Down the road, if Hammond can contribute in '09 or '10 as a reliever or occasional starter, it's a bigger win.
Also of note: Keiichi Yabu went on the DL with a strained finger. Geno Espineli, a funky lefty reliever, is up from Fresno and made his debut today. The Fresno manager made him sweat a bit, though:
Grizzlies manager Dan Rohn called the lefty reliever into his office and told him he'd failed a drug test. Espineli, recently selected to the U.S. Olympic team, tried to gather himself, not knowing his skipper was playing a prank on him. "I was thinking, 'God, how am I going to explain this to everybody?"So who's the next to go? Among the hitters, I say Aurilia is most likely. The Giants won't ask much in return, he's not owed much remaining salary, he's well respected, and he still mashes lefties. Among the pitchers, Taschner could attract attention from teams that miss out on Rockies' lefty Brian Fuentes. If Fuentes moves quickly, the Giants could find a nice little market for The Special Agent before the deadline.
Do you like the Durham deal? Are you sad to see him go? Any favorite Ray-Ray moments to share? Discuss.
