I've been off the grid for 24 hours, part of which was spent here stuffing my face here, but plugging back in I've found two items of good news. First, Gavin Newsom has dropped out of the governor's race. I thought for a while early in his first term he would be a standard-bearer of sensible politics (yes, gay marriage is sensible), but between his inability to stand up to the kooks on the S.F. Board of Supervisors and his inability to keep his willie in his pants, he disappointed me tremendously. May he be merely a blip in our city and state political history.
I'm also slightly kinda heartened that the Giants signed Freddy Sanchez to a two-year, $12 million contract extension. There is a chance Sanchez's injuries at the end of 2009 are a grim harbinger of decline. It's a real possibility, which is why I hedge my enthusiasm. Well, that and the fact that Sanchez even at his best is not really that great.
But there is also a chance he could be a better-than-average second baseman with the glove and the bat for the next two years, and no matter how conflicted we are about trading Tim Alderson, Sanchez's work will be worth far more than what the Giants are paying, which is a very good thing. There's a good chance. For most of his career, he's been worth at least $10 million a year. Let's assume that the Giants' medical staff can get him fixed up right this off-season to get back to his usual decent-little-ballplayer kind of self. Then again, the medical staff probably greenlighted his acquisition in the first place, a move that made me, among others, say hmmmm, so I'm not quite as inclined to assume wondeful things about the Giants' docs these days.
What it certainly means is the Giants aren't going after Dan Uggla on the trade market, one name that's been bandied about as a possible power source. So as we've expected, the boppage will come at an outfield or infield corner. It also means that Kevin Frandsen isn't getting his big break next spring, but you didn't have to be Nostradamus to figure that one out. At this point, many planets and stars will have to align for Frandsen to get a full season of major-league at bats. The Giants seem dead-set on Frandsen as middle-infield utility, at best, and my guess is most other teams see him the same way, otherwise someone would have pried him loose from the Giants' death grip this year.
So let me qualify the Sanchez extension even more: It's a good move if the Giants find another big bat or two to boost this lineup. Sure, he's an upgrade over Emmanuel Burriss, in the same way that Edgar Renteria theoretically was an upgrade over 2008 Omar Vizquel, but unless he has another career year, he's a supporting character.
More 40-man roster movement: The Giants declined Noah Lowry's option and made him a free agent. They also outrighted Justin Miller and minor-leaguer Kelvin Pichardo to triple-A, removing them from the 40-man. I've updated the list to the right, removing all upcoming free agents, and I've included next year's estimated salaries for those on guaranteed contracts.
