July 30th, 2009
Obviously, WCB was never that enamored with Freddy Sanchez. Don’t get me wrong. He’s a solid player and, assuming he gets healthy, clearly makes the Giants better in 2009. But, yesterday, we posted a couple of alternatives to acquiring Sanchez for fear of the organization giving up too much for a 31-year old who currently has an MCL sprain. Still, no one, in even our wildest of nightmares, foresaw one of Baseball America’s top 50 prospects, Tim Alderson, being included in a Sanchez trade. (Thanks to the Warriors brass, as noted below, this wasn’t the worst trade of the day in the Bay Area.) It was not too long ago that Sabean was discussing the Giants reluctance to part with their best prospects. My most accounts, Alderson was one of the top four, if not top three prospects, in the organization.
So, what changed? The Twins interest in Sanchez? The eight runs in three games against Pittsburgh? Ryan Klesko and Edgardo Alfonzo refusing to come out of retirement?
Whatever it was, this trade has compromised the 2010 flexibility for the organization. This team likely still needs a middle-of-the-order hitter, and now that hitter is going to have to be an outfielder. With Ryan Garko and Travis Ishikawa, first base is tied down next year. Sanchez’s 2010 option likely holds down second base. Edgar Renteria and Pablo Sandoval will be the left side of the infield, and Buster Posey will likely be the team’s everyday catcher at some point in 2010. The only good power-hitting outfield options (who don’t kill you defensively) on the free-agent market are Matt Holliday and Jason Bay. Whoever acquires those two, will likely have to overpay.
That’s why Alderson was valuable, and not untouchable. (To give you an idea about Alderson’s value: He was more highly regarded than any of the players acquired by the Indians in the Cliff Lee deal.) I always envisioned Alderson as someone who could be packaged with other prospects for a proven power-hitter. Either now, or in the next year. In this space last week, I suggested that I wouldn’t have been disappointed if the Giants organized a deal around Alderson and Conor Gillaspie for someone like Holliday. Or even perhaps Victor Martinez. If the Indians were so interested in Scott Barnes, couldn’t the Giants work a package around Alderson, Barnes and someone else for middle-of-the-order stud like Martinez? Martinez would certainly be a better fit for this team than the combination of Garko and Sanchez.
It’s pretty simple really. Sports trades are about value. Sanchez’s value is not great considering his $8 million option for next season that is likely to kick in once he reaches 600 plate appearances. Even if he doesn’t reach those plate appearances, the Giants could still pick up his option. And, if they don’t pick up the option? The Giants would risk losing Sanchez to free-agency and receive zero draft-pick compensation. The Pirates were dealing with these same parameters, which is why they were so aggressive in moving the second baseman.
This deal isn’t about whether Alderson will ever be a top-notch pitcher, or even a serviceable starter. It’s about forfeiting the opportunity to use Alderson, either now or in the next year, as a piece to something bigger and better. A hitter who may be the difference between the Giants being a playoff contender and a championship contender.
Instead, we settle for Sanchez. He’s a nice player, as an above-average offensive second baseman who also happens to field well. It’s not a horrible trade because it clearly makes the Giants better this year. But, it is a bad one because a significant player was dealt for one who isn’t a big difference-maker. It’s a bad one because the Giants didn’t even receive a lesser prospect in return (The Phillies got Ben Francisco). It’s a bad one because the Giants didn’t even force the Pirates to pay any of Sanchez’s salary. Now, Sabean and Giants fans have to hope that Sanchez puts together a stellar couple of months (maybe an OPS over .800) that leads the Giants into the playoffs and beyond. Even then, we’ll still probably be asking questions about whether this would have been a playoff team with or without Sanchez anyway.
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Categories: San Francisco Giants |
Tags: 49ers, Adam Kennedy, Alex Smith, Brian Sabean, Derek Burgess, Devean George, Freddy Sanchez, Giants, Hank Aaron, Jason Bay, Jason Giambi, Javon Walker, Marco Belinelli, Matt Cain, Matt Holliday, Michael Crabtree, Mike Singletary, Orlando Cabrera, Raiders, Randy Johnson, San Jose State, Tom Cable, Walt Harris, Warriors | No Comments
July 21st, 2009
I love Rich Aurilia and what he’s done for the Giants organization. I loved his unexplainable 37-homer season in 2001. I enjoy his team-first attitude and the fact that being a Giant means something to him. At some point, however, that only goes so far. The Giants have to let go of Aurilia. He’s not a major leaguer anymore.
Most of the season, the 37-year old Aurilia has stolen at bats from younger players who are more deserving. In his 116 plate appearances, Aurilia has struck out 22 times and he’s produced an awful .544 OPS and a .240 wOBA (.340 wOBA is average, so .240 is terrible). Aurilia is barely hanging on to a job, so I can somewhat understand him blaming his poor performance on limited at bats. But, that’s not the case. Aurilia is old, and he is just a bad hitter. I don’t expect him to admit it, but the Giants are the ones who have to admit these shortcomings.
Defensively, Aurilia does a pretty good job. He hasn’t played enough to really analyze it, but the UZR numbers on FanGraphs say that Aurilia has been slightly above average at first and third base. However, I think we’ve seen enough of John Bowker to suggest that he can be okay at first base. He certainly looks a lot more comfortable there than he did a year ago. Bowker would be a downgrade defensively from Aurilia, but he is obviously more capable of bigger things offensively.
Still, Bowker will probably be the one to go, when the Giants bring up Ryan Sadowski for today’s start. It’s a shame because I think the 2009 Giants should have been about getting as much at bats possible for the unknowns such as Bowker, Travis Ishikawa, Kevin Frandsen, and Nate Schierholtz. The team has already failed to give Frandsen many opportunities. Now, I worry, that the 2009 handling of Bowker will be go down as a missed opportunity. When this season is over, we likely won’t know much more about Bowker’s major-league potential than we did when the season began. And, it will mostly because of the team’s loyalty to an old, unproductive hitter like Aurilia.
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Categories: Uncategorized |
Tags: 49ers, A's, Aaron Rowand, Buster Posey, Giants, Jason Giambi, John Bowker, Kevin Frandsen, Matt Holliday, Michael Crabtree, Michael Vick, Nate Schierholtz, Raiders, Rich Aurilia, Rod Woodson, Ronny Turiaf, Ryan Sadowski, Sergio Romo, Tim Lincecum, Tom Watson, Travis Ishikawa, Warriors | No Comments
July 10th, 2009
I haven’t said much about Pablo Sandoval not be selected for the All-Star game because this “last man vote” was great publicity for him (not that he wants it). Most of the baseball world was finally taking notice of what Giants fans have been watching all season: A portly but athletic, versatile, fun-loving, smart, high-effort guy who is a breath of fresh air because he plays the game the right way.
Despite the newfound publicity, it won’t be a big deal nationally if Sandoval doesn’t make the All-Star game as an injury replacement. While his numbers dwarf many other players on the team, it’s an East Coast media-driven country. Down the road, however, when Sandoval is getting the same type of respect as Albert Pujols (and he will, as we’ve made clear before), this slight will look moronic. Sandoval is going to consistently be one of the top five players in baseball in the next five years, while playing in a pitcher’s park. Historians will look back at his first full season and wonder why he wasn’t playing with baseball’s best in mid-July.
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Categories: San Francisco Giants |
Tags: 49ers, A's, Bill Neukom, Buster Posey, Charlie Manuel, Freddy Sanchez, Giants, Ian Kinsler, JaMarcus Russell, Jason Giambi, Jesse English, John Bowker, Kent Huskins, Madison Bumgarner, Pablo Sandoval, Raiders, Rickey Henderson, Rob Blake, Scott Hairston, Sharks, Stephen Curry, Steve McNair, Tim Alderson, Tim Lincecum, Warren Sapp | No Comments
July 2nd, 2009
As annoying as last night’s debacle was, Brian Wilson’s two TV appearances yesterday was much more of a train wreck. He was on ESPN’s First Take and the Giants Pregame Show on Comcast SportsNet and continued to be as unfunny as Steve Lyons. Even worse, the hosts of the shows, Dana Jacobson and Scott Reiss, laughed along with Wilson’s unfunniness.
Why so many of these TV folks try to hype up Wilson as a funny person is beyond me. Maybe it’s because of the boring TV show, Life of Brian, where admittedly I’ve only watched a few minutes. I just know those few minutes I watched, I’ll never get back. A guy walking around with a video camera, only amusing himself is not what I call great TV. I’d rather watch Full House re-runs. Jacobson called it dry humor yesterday, but if it’s not funny, it’s someone making themselves look ridiculous (particularly with that hair).
Maybe I’m making a big deal about nothing, but considering how the Giants are finally in the national sports news for being a respectable team for the first time in five years, Wilson appears to be poor representation. Basically, he looks like douche bag. That’s what I would be thinking if I were a fan of another team watching Wilson for the first time. ”Who is this loser and what is that dead animal on his head.” (more…)
Categories: San Francisco Giants |
Tags: 49ers, A's, Amare Stoudemire, Andy Roddick, Bobby Howry, Brian Boucher, Brian Sadowski, Brian Wilson, Charlie Steiner, Chris Mullin, Dallas Braden, Edgar Renteria, Giants, Jack Cust, Jason Giambi, Jermaine Dye, Kent Huskins, Kurt Suzuki, Leon Powe, Michael Kay, Mike Grier, Pablo Sandoval, Patrick Willis, Raiders, Sharks, Tony LaRussa, Vernon Davis, Warriors | No Comments
May 27th, 2009
There’s a lot to like about a 26-year old lefty who throws hard with a lot of movement, and strikes out over a batter an inning. In the case of Jonathan Sanchez, however, he has little value to the Giants. I bring this up because a lot of us are asking when, and if, Sanchez will ever get it. That “it” word mostly means command. Sanchez has had zero command in most of his 288 innings of work. That’s why he has a career 5.12 ERA. Still, some scouts and fans drool over his stuff, thinking that Sanchez is someday going to be an awesome pitcher. That may happen, but it makes little sense for the Giants to wait and see if this ever happens.
That’s mostly because Sanchez already has enough service time so that he is eligible for arbitration after this season. He’ll be arbitration-eligible for the next two seasons after this, before he becomes a free agent following the 2012 year. This means that if Sanchez ever figures it out, the Giants are going to have to pay for it. It might be that Sanchez won’t figure it out until his free-agent walk year. Finding players to outperform their salary is something that is becoming more and more important in building a major league team. Sanchez still has some value to other teams that don’t have much pitching in the high minors, or a fifth starter, because he still has an opportunity to outperform his salary in the next few seasons.
Considering the Giants have so much pitching in the minor league level, it means that
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Categories: San Francisco Giants |
Tags: 49ers, A's, Andres Torres, Dallas Braden, Dave Libbey, Giants, Jason Giambi, Jesus Guzman, Jonathan Sanchez, Jose Canseco, Kevin Laue, LeBron James, Michael Bush, Nomar Garciaparra, Paul Wong, Raiders, Russell Branyan, Scott McKillop, Sergio Romo, Shawon Dunston, Tim Lincecum, Todd Lichti, Trevor Scott | No Comments
May 8th, 2009
As a Giants fan, let me express great joy and satisfaction that Manny Ramirez has tested positive for steroids. (Okay, it’s not steroids, but a drug that builds testosterone for steroid users. It’s still steroids. Period. Anyone one who believes otherwise has their heads up Tom Lasorda’s ass, or their name is Peter Gammons.) As a Giants fan, who is also a baseball fan, I’m not going to sit here and say that this is sad for the game. Baseball already has a black mark on it because of the rampant steroid use over the years. That hasn’t changed much since today’s announcement. All Manny did was take some heat off of A-Rod. Nobody should be shocked he is a user. Perhaps, they can be shocked that Manny used while knowing he would be tested. That was stupid. But, Manny being a user shouldn’t be a surprise because his body was much bigger than it was in Cleveland. His power numbers have continued to rise as he got older, when he’s supposed to be past his prime.
Giants fans should feel happy because we’ve been bashed by Dodger fans and the national media for cheering Barry Bonds when he was going through his steroid mess. We’ve been ridiculed, stepped on, picked on, laughed at, and made to feel inferior. (Okay, I’ve been watching too much Revenge of the Nerds.) Anyway, those doing the criticizing of Giants fans had forgotten that Bonds gave the team’s fans years of greatness and helped build a ballpark that is the crown jewel of ballparks in baseball.
I’ll enjoy this moment because I hate the Dodgers. And because L.A. has had an insufferable Man-gasm since the day he arrived. Now? Dodger fans are crushed to learn the news, just as Giants fans were crushed when we learned of Bonds’ use. There is a major difference, of course. Bonds had already been playing for the Giants for over ten years when we found out, while Manny has been a Dodger for ten months. When Ramirez returns in July, Dodger fans will be cheering just as loudly for Ramirez (for as long as they’re in the ballpark anyway) as Giants fans cheered for Bonds. In fact, Manny will almost surely receive a standing ovation in his next Dodger Stadium at bat.
It means we cheer for the name on the front more than the name on the back. I hate it when there are those in the media who say fans obviously don’t care about steroids because we’re still going to the games and still cheering steroid-abusers. That doesn’t mean we don’t care. It means we enjoy baseball. We still see movies even though we may not like the actors/actresses, because we know there’s a decent chance it could still be a good movie. (Unless it has Keanu Reeves in it. Then we know it sucks.) As fans, we’re defenseless in the steroid mess because we don’t have a vote on what should be done to the cheaters. If it were up to us, we would likely vote for Buster Olney’s idea for a zero tolerance policy and an automatic lifetime banishment for all users.
But it’s not up to us. So we’ll do what sports fans do, and cheer for our teams and the players wearing our team’s uniforms. That’s why Shawn Merriman is revered in San Diego and why Yankee fans cheered Jason Giambi the last few years. Surely, A-Rod will be welcomed back to the Bronx as well, even though we all know now that he is a known steroid user. Maybe, those who were bashing Giants fans back in the day will now understand our cheers for Bonds. Whether they do or not, as a Giants fan, I’ll bask in knowing that the bad guys have another steroid abuser (I’m not forgetting about you, Gagne) on their team.
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Categories: San Francisco Giants, Uncategorized |
Tags: 49ers, A's, Aaron Rowand, Alex Rodriguez, Alexei Semenov, Bengie Molina, Cal, Eric Gagne, Gary Park, Giants, Jack Cust, Jason Giambi, Joe Horn, Manny Ramirez, Matt Holliday, Matt Williams, Mike Mitchell, Nomar Garciaparra, Pablo Sandoval, Pedro Feliz, Raiders, Sam Keller, Sergio Romo, Sharks, Shawn Merriman, Trevor Cahill | No Comments
May 7th, 2009
The frustration continues over the inability of the A’s and Giants hitters, so I thought I’d look up some monthly splits of the veteran players to see if there’s much hope for the rest of the year. The younger guys like Travis Ishikawa, Manny Burriss, and Kurt Suzuki don’t have a big enough sample size to make these numbers interesting.
Let’s start with the A’s. A lot of hitters take off in the warmer months, but the A’s have a lot of guys who like to get going in June. Will they still be within shouting distance when we get to June?
Matt Holliday
April - .307 Avg., .850 OPS
May - .308, .924
June - .345, .941 (could be raising his trade value here)
July - .321, .922
Aug - .308, .891
Sept - .316, 1.000
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Categories: Oakland A's, San Francisco Giants |
Tags: 49ers, A's, Aaron Rowand, Andre Ward, Andrei Kirilenko, Barry Zito, Bengie Molina, Bob Howry, Bobby Crosby, Brett Anderson, Brett Favre, Buster Posey, Darrius Heyward-Bey, Eric Chavez, Fred Lewis, Giants, Jack Cust, Jason Giambi, Jeremy Affeldt, Justin Duchscherer, Mark Ellis, Matt Cain, Matt Holliday, Orlando Cabrera, Raiders, Randy Johnson, Randy Winn, Russ Springer, Scott Feldman, Sean Gallagher, Tom Cable | No Comments
May 1st, 2009
(Thanks to the loyal West Coast Bias readers for helping us go over 52,000 hits in April. It’s not great, but not too bad for only starting up three-a-half months ago. We’ve also slightly changed our look here, and if there is anything you like or don’t like about our new look or content, please feel free to email me. Thanks again for your continued support, and don’t be afraid to tell a friend about www.westcoastbias.com)
For a team that was poised to contend this year, the criticism has been rolling in, from a variety of sources, on Matt Holliday and the A’s.
“It’s too early to figure Holliday’s a bust, but on the other hand it’s not early early, you know? April is a whole month, and you shouldn’t have to wait a whole month for your (supposed) power-hitting outfielder — and your highest-paid player, to boot — to hit his first homer.” - ESPN’s Rob Neyer
“Here’s more reason for concern about Holliday: His power outage didn’t just start this year. After Aug. 19 last season, this man hit one home run, and slugged .326, in his final 129 plate appearances of the season. So that comes to one homer in his last 203 trips.” - ESPN’s Jayson Stark
“An early look at Oakland leads me to believe that they are asking a lot of their young starting rotation to take stress off of a bullpen that has already lost its closer in Joey Devine. If Matt Holliday and Jason Giambi don’t offer more sock, they are probably in trouble.” - Talent evaluator to ESPN’s Buster Olney
“Because we brought it up, what about that identity? It’s safe to say the A’s don’t have one so far. For a young team, they’re really quite old. Forever geared toward the future, they have precious few players in their prime. For every line drive off the bat of Kurt Suzuki (he looks like a better and smarter hitter each day), there are pangs of regret surrounding Jason Giambi, Eric Chavez and Nomar Garciaparra.” - Bruce Jenkins
It isn’t a good sign to be 8-11, with a bullpen that, while good, has mostly overachieved. Still, the A’s hitters, with the exception of Kurt Suzuki, have mostly underperformed. After yesterday’s win, in which Holliday finally homered, the A’s are hitting only .233 with a team OPS of .624. Last year’s awful offense wasn’t even this bad.
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Categories: Oakland A's |
Tags: 49ers, A's, Aaron Rowand, Brett Anderson, Bruce Bochy, Dallas Braden, Darrius Heyward-Bey, Eric Chavez, Frank Jirik, Fred Lewis, Giants, Gino Torretta, Glen Coffee, Jason Giambi, Julius Peppers, Justin Duchscherer, Ken Margerum, Kurt Suzuki, Manny Pacquiao, Marques Harris, Matt Holliday, Nate Schierholtz, Nomar Garciaparra, Orlando Cabrera, Raiders, Randy Winn, Ricky Hatton, Sanjay Lal, Tim Brown, Travis Buck, Trevor Cahill | No Comments
