A New York State of Mind
The Giants were *rumored* to have interest in Brett Gardner. It was irritating to listen to the KNBR morning show with the host (Murph) not even knowing who he was. How can you be the host of a major morning sports broadcast show and not know who all the players are? And we aren’t talking about some random journeyman or a brand new rookie. Gardner isn’t an all star but he’s 30 and entering his 7th major league season with the Yankees. Anyway, that was astounding.
I don’t expect the Giants to trade for Gardner or anyone with the Yankees because they don’t have what New York wants: major league ready talent. We have barely enough of that to fill out 8 spots in the line up and Sabean isn’t trading away any starting pitching. Romo? I guess, but that just creates another hole and Sabean doesn’t like to create holes in his major league roster.
Plus, I don’t think Gardner is worth Romo. Gardner would probably hit ok at ATT Park but I’ve always felt he’s a little overrated. He’s fast, sure. And that’s it. And as he eases into his 30’s you don’t get faster you get slower……
I’ve been an *Ichiro* guy for a while now. And he could be had for much less than Romo. But the Giants don’t like him because he’s 40. That is ridiculous. Ichiro will be able to hit until he’s 50. Especially at AT&T Park where he would bang doubles and triples one handed while eating a Sheboygan with the free hand. And I would posit that a 40 year old Ichiro would dwarf what a 30 year old White Shark would do every game of the week and twice on off days. Plus, it would send Blanco to his rightful spot on the bench.
Either way, neither guy will get acquired. I’m just trying to do my diligence and keep up with my *esteemed colleagues* at mlbtraderumors.com 🙂
What the hell, I’m in the mood for a poll:
A Place To Talk About Giants Baseball 
Here’s a fairly interesting development that Sabean should check into before the van leaves for Tampa this morning: The Phillies will move Domonic Brown as long as the team they trade him to will take Papelbon and the 39 mil he’s still owed. I would send Romo+ to the Phillies for Brown and Papelbon. And don’t forget the hidden bonus pick up: Brown is the guy who *fixed* Belt’s swing when no one else could. Plus he bangs.Imagine what Brown could do for Belt (hell, all the hitters) if he were allowed to work with them daily! 🙂
If we could get the Ichiro who hit .322 for the yanks in 2012, fine. Unfortunately, he hit .260 last year, slugging dropped 100 points, and he was basically a singles machine–25 XBH in 550 ABs. 2012 he had 13 doubles in 220 ABs and 19 XBH altogether. 2013, in 300 more trips to the plate as a Yankee, you get more 2 doubles 2 triples 2 bombs. He never walked much even in all those golden years;; OB is below .300 and OPS+ was 75 last year. Doesn’t seem like he is hitting the ball hard enough to get doubles anywhere, including ATT.
I think he’s about done, tho with his skill set he could hit .260 for a long time, agreed. I just don’t want to see him make so many outs and hit 7th or 8th in the order and basically be a replacement level player. He’s a first ballot HOFer–I’d rather see him leave the game gracefully instead of in a rocking chair.
I’d do the deal you proposed too—Paps might do better at ATT (and away from the philly fans/media) and Hembree could see how the job is handled. Brown might not hit as many bombs but would be a good middle order threat, definitely. And amaro jr. is basically clueless, good trading partner for sabes.
I like the Romo for Brown and Papelbon idea. If SF takes on the salary do they really need to include more?
The mental image of Ichiro powering down a Sheboygan while he strokes on through the 5.5 hole is a good one so thanks for that.
willie, makes a good point about Ichiro’s decline but regardless of his OBP he puts the ball in play which is something Sabean and Bochy love. He may not strike out enough for them though.
“I don’t expect the Giants to trade for Gardner or anyone with the Yankees because they don’t have what New York wants: major league ready talent. We have barely enough of that to fill out 8 spots in the line up and Sabean isn’t trading away any starting pitching.”
“Plus he bangs.Imagine what Brown could do for Belt (hell, all the hitters) if he were allowed to work with them daily!”
You’re on a roll Flavor! I caught that first line as I was sipping hot coffee and it got spit across my mom’s computer desk. Whoops! Second line had me laughing as well. I kept thinking of a UPS delivery truck stopping at Sabean’s house and Dominic Brown being delivered 1st class to his door step and the delivery guy saying, “What Can Brown Do For You?” Hilarious. 😉
Can you put a “Someone else” option in the poll?
Really, if the Giants can’t find a LFer with some power, then they might as well just roll with Blanco. As WD said, Ichiro was nothing more than a singles hitter last year, and as BF said, Gardner will be on the wrong side of 30. Unless the Giants can get either one for an unused AT&T brick, I’ll pass.
However, absolutely yes to Brown & Papelbon. I was at the game last year when the Giants scored 2 in the 9th off Papelbon to win 2-1. Needless to say, the Philly Phaithful were a bit demonstrative in their feelings toward Papelbon, and the mere thought of him as the closer for another year might cause a riot at any of the Phillies’ annual winter caravans.
Getting another lefty slap hitter seems superfluous. Makes more sense IMO, to get a RH power guy to take advantage of ATT and to complement Blanco. Unfortunately, not seeing any names but Mike Morse, who looks like Nady/Francouer redux.
In any case, they need some RH pop off the bench. Too many times last yr a tough lefty reliever came in to put away the latter part of the lineup.
Speaking of Frenchy, he reportedly wants another shot after having lazik surgery and switching to a lighter bat. Good luck, Jeff.
What did Felipe Alou say a few years back? Don’t want old ball players coming to SF to die on the field…or something like that…
Did watching his son turn him off that much?
I love Ichiro, but I’m fairly certain his “sell by date” was 2 years ago easily. In fact, ask Dirt how I’ve been blinded by the back of his baseball card in Fantasy League . . . Sad to say, his best days in fantasy and reality are long gone.
40 is young to me and in most fields too. The Giants are famous for being a boneyard for old players. Haven’t we had enough of this? Remember how many old players the Giants used to obtain? I hope those days are gone for good.
It is true. Blade loves him some Ichiro. Almost as much as trying to trade one armed pitchers named Josh Johnson.
San Diego would have traded with me if they had been allowed to join the Flap League by our Commissioner.
Alex Pavlovic @AlexPavlovic 5m
Murph said Tim Hudson chose No. 17 since Bochy is wearing his usual number. There’s your Giants hot stove news for the day.
Where’s “None of the Above”?
According to the cbs site, AZ willing to dump Eaton Skaggs and another young arm to get the one dimensional Trumbo. Guarantee they would be rebuilding their OF again in a year.
In a column about phils also trying to dump off Hamels (no) and Cliff Lee ( yeah, at $25 mil for 2 yrs he’d give SF a lot more than TL, imo) bur refusing to give back any bucks, saw a great line from a blogger who calls Phils GM “Ruin Tomorrow Jr.”.
Sorry, the only 40-year old I want to acquire for the Giants is Nolan Ryan, about 25 years ago. Plus, I’m not sure Ichiro eats Sheboygans…
Trumbo heading to AZ. Here’s his HR tracker, not sure why anyone thought he wouldn’t be able to hit them out of AT&T
http://www.hittrackeronline.com/detail.php?id=2012_165&type=hitter
According to this, the Dbacks gave up some real questionmarks for Trumbo. They didn’t give up the future at all to get this guy. WTF is Sabean doing? Couldn’t the Giants use 25+ HRs in LF? Now they’ve got Goldschmidt + Trumbo = nearly 80 homers between the 2 of them. Everybody says give Sabes time. OK. As he takes his time, people are making deals and the pool of LFers gets smaller until maybe there’s nobody worth a crap left…
http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/mlb/2013/12/10/arizona-diamondbacks-mark-trumbo-trade/3962351/
I like Eaton a lot. But I’d still rather have Trumbo obviously.
No idea Hector Santiago was involved. Dude is very good in my opinion. Can close or start. Angels did well in this trade.
With Doc Halladay’s retirement the Phillies are pretty squeezed on the mound. So is their tapped-out farm system. It’s more than moderately doubtful that realists in their organization are anticipating a run for the roses this coming season. Rebuilding time. Most everyone’s on the bubble~ recent breakout Domonic Brown among them. Their big need: Starting pitching. #’s 3 and four from the San Jose Five plus #2 or three from among SF’s top three bullpen prospects would likely get the job done.
Not anticipating the NLE pennant or even a WildCard run in ’14, Philadelphia might be tickled deep coral pink by netting a possible bullpen addition for the coming season as well as a pair of likelies for the season after and/or probables for ’16. That deep is their current do-doo.
Relax people. I’m sure Sabes is makin it rain at this very moment.
Agree. At Mineta airport and keeping an eye out for any free agents by passing SF airport.
Making it rain or making it hail? I’m sure some nickels are involved!
Well, it is the rainy day fund after all.
I miss the days when we could just pick what we wanted from the Pirates roster. McCutchen would look pretty sharp wearing orange and black.
No shit. Sabes butt f*cked that team regularly back in the day. Sigh.
If the guy can’t catch the ball…he probably allows more runs than he can produce.
I’m on the way to a meeting, but I urge everyone to read Chris Haft’s gorgeous tribute to Roger Angell at MLB.com. I truly identify with the heartfelt sentiments expressed there. It’s all about love for the Giants and writing. I’d post a link but am late, per usual.
Nice. Thanks for the heads up.
Haft also says Sabean open to extending Pablo in ST if he shows up in good shape.
Cool article, Pawlie. I read Haft’s Giants articles sometimes, but I didn’t know he was also a lifelong fan of the Giants. What a dream gig for him.
Here’s his article about Angell:
http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article/sf/mlbcom-reporter-chris-haft-recalls-how-roger-angell-empathized-with-him-over-giants?ymd=20131210&content_id=64541812
I’m assuming everyone here knows that Haft is the Giants beat writer for MLB.com, but maybe not everyone knows that.
Has the 2nd wild card caused Sabean to lower the bar? Concede the division – make the playoffs and roll the dice? Loo wonders.
I hope not. The 2nd wild card is awesome but I wouldn’t want to be a wild card team. I love the one game playoff. But I wouldn’t want my team in the WC for obvious reasons.
The Sox are Eaton it up in their OF now so Giants are apparently sniffing around soon to be 30 Y.0. Dominican CFer Alejandro Aza (0r something like that). Lefthanded hitter. Moderate pop might translate down to 10 or so at W.M. Field. Some base-stealing ability. Have no idea what SF could offer the South-Siders, though, as they are said to be pretty loaded with mound prospects.
Giants seem to be all over the place on LF possibilities according to the old rumormill stream.
Why would we want another LH hitter in LF? We need a RHer…