This article is courtesy of our friends at The Giants Baseball Blog
Written by: Trevor Cole
Here we are folks, the NFL is officially finished with until next fall, and full focus has shifted back to baseball, and in the Bay Area, around the San Francisco Giants. With just 10 days until pitchers and catchers report, the Giants appear to have made all the moves they’re anticipating before the opening of camp.
In the last couple of weeks, they came to agreements with key arbitration figures such as Tim Lincecum, Pablo Sandoval, Ryan Vogelsong as well as their two newest additions, Melky Cabrera and Angel Pagan. The Giants also scoured the bargain bin and came up with a guy who’s been a starting shortstop for much of his career, and a fairly decent one at that, in Ryan Theriot, a player whose skill set this team definitely needed. It’s helped them round out what appears to be their 25-man roster, barring any unforeseen injuries or extreme breakthroughs, but as I write this, this team still has just 3 outfielders who’ve played in over 100 major league games (not counting Aurbey Huff) and as I’ve voiced here plenty in the last 6 weeks, I feel this team should be still trying their darnedest to deepen that very thin outfield. I mean, even if they are banking on Brandon Belt coming into his own and taking over the left field job, it would leave Nate Schierholtz or Angel Pagan as the only backup outfielder with any kind of experience. However, the fact still remains, that there just aren’t many viable options left out there who could come in provide guaranteed stability, but as I’ve been saying, why not take a flyer on someone who will sign for the league minimum and give them a shot this spring? With Ross off the market, it leaves only Raul Ibanez and Magglio Ordonez and as I’ve said here before, of the two I’d go with Ordonez. He’s no longer a 500 at-bat player, but give him 400 ab’s platooning with Schierholtz in right and I bet he’d give you a nice return, especially considering the discounted price tag.
Speaking of discounted price tags, we saw Clayton Kershaw do the Dodgers a tremendous favor by inking that 2 year, $19 million deal, that probably has Tim Lincecum chuckling under his breath. I mean, when you compare the last two seasons for each pitcher, Kershaw has actually been slightly better than Timmy, going 34-15 with a 2.47 era to Lincecum’s 29-24 record and 3.20 era. Lincecum has him beat on the strikeout totals by a small margin, but I’ll take the wins and low era and give up the extra K’s. Now you won’t find a bigger Lincecum fan than myself and I think the deal he got was completely just, but I just wonder a bit if the Giants may be kicking themselves a little after seeing that Kershaw deal. On the other hand, this could actually help the Giants’ long-term efforts with not only Lincecum but Matt Cain as well, who must have said something at the fanfest that I missed because Giants fans are getting a bit frantic in thinking Cain may bolt after the season. I mentioned a few posts back that I think the Giants should offer Cain the same deal the Angels gave Jered Weaver (5 year/$85M), and see if he bit, but now I’m hearing numbers north of 5 years and $100 million. Cain was the one guy I thought to be almost a sure bet to be a Giant for a long time, so this is either mis-interpreted news, or a complete surprise to me. It all the sudden raises the question, what if, just what if, Cain and Lincecum are both in other uniforms for the 2014 season! Think Brian Sabean will be beating himself up for not taking full advantage of this window of opportunity? I’d say so, and it would probably be as an un-employed GM too, cause that’s about the time his contract is up as well!
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