Belt, The Offense, Tanaka, When Does the Niner Game Start?
Belt asked for 3.6 mil and the Giants offered 2.05 mil. The Giants haven’t gone to arbitration with a player since 2003 (AJ Jackass) and there’s no way they’re going to start now. They’ll hit 2.75 mil, maybe a touch more. And Belt deserves it. He developed into one of the premiere NL first basemen last year.
I’m pretty optimistic about the O next year. We have a healthy Pagan. A slimmed down-contract-year-driven Panda. A paid Pence. An ascending Belt. And Crawford is only going upwards on both sides. Morse. A former MVP who is 26. I’ll tell ya, if Scoots can make a fist, we might just have a team that can score in the high-600’s runs. Maybe the low 700’s? I can’t emotionally tolerate that threshold. Back down to the high 600’s. Better.
The Dodgers are in serious negotiations with Tanaka.
Feel better?
A Place To Talk About Giants Baseball 
Tanaka’s wife has singing aspirations, She wants to live on the west coat. He’s going to be an Angel.
seriously, when do pitchers and catchers report?
February 13
Flav is now calling Belt one of the premiere first basemen in baseball? Somebody run over to Alpha Beta for a hard pack of Virginia Slims cuz you’ve come a long way baby (giraffe).
I really haven’t been following the Tanaka talk. I just saw now that he went 24-0 with 1.27 last year. And he’s in serious talks with the Doggers? Yikes.
First of Belt is a darn good defensive first baseman and second he ended the year hitting. I do think that he is on the verge of break through. He’s had to do a lot of learning at the big league level that is normally done in AA or AAA. We’ve seen the growing pains of the baby giraffe now I do believe that we are in for some good solid, possibly great play from him.
I hope Belt holds steady and gets as much as he friggin can out of Baer. Hold out for $3+ million, and don’t sign any long term screw me deals like MadBum did
Nobody held a gun to MadBum’s head to sign that deal. He signed because he wanted to. He wanted to buy out all his arb years and some free agency because he didn’t want to deal with contract talks for a long while. Clearly the money was unimportant to him. He wanted long term security and that is what he got.
Let’s hope he doesn’t start crying In Sabe’s office, if they give him the $3M – between Morse and Buster’s need to “rest,” the Giraffe might be lucky to scrape together 400 PAs with a show of weakness like that!
I’m not convinced Belt’s one of the premiere first basemen on the Giants…
His K% is still too high for my tastes, especially considering his bomb production but his WAR is impossible to deny. He’s one of the very best in either league.
I like Belt and expect him to have a breakout season this year. However, right now he is only the 4th best 1st baseman in the National League (based upon his WAR number of 4.4). Next season I am hoping he climbs to 2nd or 3rd.
Love what Montana said about Kap. Joe is spot on about what Kaepernick needs to do, if he wants to be a great QB. Great discussion (and agreement with Joe) by ESPN First Take crew, Stephen A. Smith and Skip Bayless.
http://espn.go.com/nfl/playoffs/2013/story/_/id/10308636/colin-kaepernick-san-francisco-49ers-gets-advice-joe-montana
Thanks blade, I needed a reminder on what an ass Skip Bayless was. Couldn’t even watch the clip with all the spittle flying.
Yep. It was a glorious day when he left the bay area.
Each of last two seasons Belt has finished year very strong. Last year only hitters better on the entire team were Pence and Posey, and I think Belt actually got his OPS about even with Posey’s And at $3mil he’s one helluva bargain. Something wrong with being 4th best at his position in the entire league for that money?
The park kills his power numbers, so as long as he stays here he’s not going 30/100 and will be overshadowed in this division by AGon and Goldschmidt. But if he can keep the OB high and yank the occasional bomb down the RF line or take an outside pitch over the LCF fence, the upside is Keith Hernandez territory.
Nope, nothing wrong with it WD . . . By the by, AGon is rated 6th behind Belt (per ESPN stat ratings).
Second thought, maybe Belt does need a new agent: our boy Nate is getting $5.5 mil from the Cubs.
Keith Hernandez territory? That would be amazing.
He just better not slip to Enzo Hernandez territory.
I think the upside is .290s with 15-20 bombs and excellent D, consistently. And hopefully without the drug drama. I like the kid, understand if you don’t feel he reps traditional power out of that spot.
Crawford is the guy who might be in enzo land. Imo, Belt is the best defensive, and maybe offensive, player on the entire IF.
If nba really wanted to market the game they’d show every Dubs thunder game they could. Durant was spectacular, Dubs and Curry battled them, plenty of offense and great shooting from both sides.
Contrast that with game I saw end of while getting my hair cut before that, Clips and the Bricks. Last couple minutes Griffin gets hammered on a breakaway by Chandler. So, leading by 15, Doc leaves him in and they post him up every time down the floor. Finally he’s backing down a guy Shaq style, plows into him on a hop and levels him, picking up a T for his efforts. Thug ball, best left on the playground.
Willie-our hoops team is getting better. Played a team last night that blew both teams out earlier in the year and we gave them a much better fight this time. The players and the assistant coach (me) are both getting a better grasp of what the head coach wants run. Having a lot of fun, but still too many hot dog and/or pizza dinners.
Totally agree with you that Belt can be a Keith Hernandez type guy. Mark Grace and Wally Joyner also come to mind.
Just because it hasn’t been said in a while: K rate tells you absolutely nothing about how productive a hitter has been that isn’t already reflected in his OPS. A reduced K rate would, however, very likely mean a higher OPS.
I could almost guarantee you that if technology was used instead of a home plate ump, Belt’s K/BB ratio would improve.
I’d love to see them go to tech full time for the strike zone and get batter reputations, ump styles, did-he-hit-the-glove? and all that crap taken out of the equation.
it’s related to the number of home runs he hits. If you have a high K rate YOU BETTER have a lot of home runs. If not, then the K’s aren’t worth it.
Belt already is a Keith Hernandez type guy (albeit with more power), if last year’s performance becomes the norm.
I think you guys are seriously underestimating Keith Hernandez or just going by stats alone. One of the headiest ballplayers ever. Comparing him to Belt is like comparing a Rhodes scholar to a slow 4th grader.
Kick their butts Loo!
Amen. Just on fielding alone, Belt’s got a long way to go before he can approach Hernandez-like status.
Agree with Loo . . . Umm, how about he plays for the next 10 years before we compare him to a legitimate star. What’s next? Gehrig?
Nostalgia, more powerful than cocaine. My comment was qualified by an “if.”
And mine was *the upside* which I said twice. In other words I think that is his ceiling should he able to continue to mature and improve given consistent PT esp vs. LHP.
James – Willie, I understand what you guys were saying. My respect for Hernandez is just so great that I can’t handle seeing “Belt” in the same paragraph regardless of what the words are.
BBOTD gone? Looks like I picked the wrong day to give up sniffing glue.
amen brother.
Dissing Belt is a losing game. He’s in the top echelon of NL 1bmen, and he’s still learning how to hit, and to ignore Bam Bam and the insults he gets from management. Were I he, I’d sign off my arb years at a very high price only, and then scoot somewhere else my first FA year, preferably a place with a regular right field so that my HRs would increase by about a dozen…
I don’t think anyone is “dissing” him. Everyone has high hopes for him. Just my take, but I think some of us (including me), have a tendency to look through rose colored “homer” glasses. If he continues to improve from last season, I’ll take it. Biggest position player improvement IMO has to come from Panda, full year of Crazy Horse doing what he did in September, and Posey rediscovering some semblance of his MVP performance.
I’m actually very optimistic about Belt. I just don’t see him ever in Keith Hernandez’ league in any way whatsoever. I would be thrilled if he had a career comparable to Adam Laroche.
Flavor, sent you an FD NFL lineup and need your Good Housekeeping Seal Of Approval. 🙂
replied. (2 emails)
Thanks Flavor!
With just 5 mins left to post in the Cal Derby at GGF, the public has bet down HARBAUGH, 10-1 on the ML to the current 5/2 favorite. If it wasn’t for our dumb public, where would our great society be today?
that’s the kind of hunch bet I thought you’d be all in on. Maybe if it was named “Manning?”
HARBAUGH drifted up to 6/1 as they entered the gate. Jimbo didn’t even live up to those odds as he finished next to last. If that 3 yo chestnut son of BROTHER DEREK is any indication of what’s to come to Harbaugh tomorrow…?
There’s always the option to give Jimbo an extension and big raise so he can continue the legacy of both Marty Schottenheimer and Marv Levy and be known as the Niner coach who loses all the big games.
All kidding aside, I do like ROOKIE SENSATION a bit here coming up in the STRUB at SA. 1st try on conventional dirt, but he’s bred for it and has proven winning sibs over it. Cuts back from 1 1/4 to the new 1 1/16 dist. of this race…8/1 makes him a play today…
ROOKIE SENSATION and HARBAUGH can go share a stall together. Shit. To make matters worse, my man Bob Baffert runs 1-2. Serves me right.
Opener at the Meadowlands approaches. Loo? Little help.
wait, you’re telling me that a horse people bet down solely due to his name didn’t run well? That’s shocking.
No. I think the usually “informed public” thought there would be a decent chance HARBAUGH could be a “LF” and maybe wire ’em. Jimbo received early pressure and was done after 6F. It happens. Don’t need to tell you.
the ML guy knows about possible Lone-F’s, it’s factored into the line. If that horse is named “Prickley Pete” or “Snowflake” or some other random shit he might get bet down to 8-1 on that Lone-F theory. The only way a 10-1 ML gets bet down to 5/2 (and doesn’t win) is if there’s a bunch of dumb money on him. And betting his name the day before the biggest game SF has seen in years is more than enough reason to explain how he got bet down so hard.
I must be misinformed about this Tanaka thing. I thought a team had to win the bid for the posting first, then only after that happened could the winning team negotiate with the player. No?…
I think they changed the rules this year to any team willing to give the posting team 20 mil AND come to an agreement with the player gets the winner, winner, chicken dinner chant.