I'm confused about something. In his notes from the Mark DeRosa press conference, Baggs writes that the Giants will still look to add another hitter. Here's the Sabean quote:
"It's a chess game at this point. We're engaged in a lot of possibilities. We've still got some offers on the table."
Then
Baggs writes that one of those offers is to Juan Uribe, but the news today is that Uribe is on the verge of
re-signing with S.F. So with Uribe back in the fold, are the Giants still
looking to add another hitter? Or is that it? No matter where they added
another starter, they have the flexibility to make the roster work. But are any
of the remaining free agents worth the trouble?
I still don't see how this
becomes an above-average offense without trading Jonathan Sanchez for one
hitter or, in a stunning turn of events, Matt Cain for a package of players.
(What kind of package? What the A's got for Danny Haren is a good benchmark,
I'd say.)
No, I don't want to see Cain traded, either. But one advantage to trading Cain is that the Giants could receive not just a good hitter
but probably a couple promising arms, too, perhaps even a pitcher who could immediately take a spot in the rotation.
Remember,
a five-man rotation can be fudged the first couple months of the year. The
Giants have four off-days in April and three more in May, and no visits to Colorado. With some noodling
around, guys like Joe Martinez and Kevin Pucetas can patch around a big three
of Lincecum, Sanchez/Cain, and Zito, plus an innings-eating type whom the
Giants should be able to pick up on the cheap between now and January. There
are a lot of pitchers left on the market, and the start of spring training is
not far away. It would be nice to reduce the pressure to put Madison Bumgarner
in the rotation straightaway.
My guess
is that the Giants will wait for Jonathan Sanchez's arbitration case before
making a trade. Until then, it behooves them to accumulate as much starting pitching depth as possible, so when the opportunity to make a trade comes
up, they feel comfortable with who fills the resulting void.
