Moore On The Move
So we got nothing for Matt Moore. One pitcher who is hurt and another who spent last year in A ball. That isn’t a surprise since Moore was probably the worst starting pitcher in the NL last season. I still don’t understand the move. Freeing up money? Moore only made 9 mil, that’s chump change.
Personally I would have rather kept him and hoped for a bounce back season. If we were moving 20 mil that would be different. Nine mil savings is probably going to the goddamn flower enhancement program outside the ballpark.
And now we might have to count on Beede as the #5? Yikes. Can you imagine how pissed off his wife is going to be that he has to cut back on the photo shoots and actually start focusing on baseball?
A Place To Talk About Giants Baseball 
I’m hoping that the Twitter post you provided in the last thread is accurate, with the starting 5 looking like this:
1) Bumgarner
2) Cueto
3) Samardzija
4) Blach
5) Stratton
Beede is approaching 25 and hasn’t shown squat that he belongs on any MLB roster, much less common sense – marrying some bimbo model/actress. Like you said, “yikes!”
Moore sucks, get him out of here. Dumb idea to pick up the option in first place. $9 mil? Like I said months ago, money better spent elsewhere.
picking up the option and then ditching him made no sense whatsoever. It shows that the front office has NO plan right now
so they (which might include new coaches) admit it was a mistake and move on. Better than keeping him and watching him suck for $9 mil.
This is what I found out about the 2 guys we got for Moore:
“Wolff has been known for his explosive fastball that already reaches the mid-90s for speed. He was drafted by the Rangers in the 6th round in 2013, and played for the Triple-A around Rock Express last year.
Cruz is still a young prospect at the age of 20. After four seasons in the Rookie League, Cruz has 127 strikeouts in 150 innings pitched. He has not gotten past the Rookie League yet, and most recently pitched for the Arizona League Rangers.”
First guy is injured isn’t he?
Sorry Flav – I hit the sack after that post. I don’t know if one of them are injured.
Looks like Spring Training roster fillers. Shocking. How can a guy be in the rookie league for 4 seasons? I assume TX is taking Moore’s entire salary, else this whole Moore episode makes no sense, or even negative sense, if that’s possible.
So far, the Moore trade looks like a crap sandwich on both ends. Duffy has been hurt essentially since he landed Tampa; Lucius Fox is trading water in A ball, and Michael Santos the pitcher looks like a nothing burger in the Marlin’s high A ball…
Part of the thing about Moore is, maybe Evans and FO have realistically adjusted expectations. Most here think SF is not a contender, so throw some of the young pitching into the mix and see what happens instead of a useless old fart with a 5.50 ERA. With ATT as home park no less. ugh.
Stratton was afterthought who only got in as injury replacement and he did fine last year. Let him get 30 starts and figure some things out.
A Moore return? Giants play the Rangers in a weekend series at home Aug. 24-26.
1st rd pick( yeah I know has done shit consistently wise) could be another bust like Gary Brown, but I want to see the implosion are not from Beede this spring .Hes a big strong dude(Cain like) get him out, I’m fucking sick and tired of these guys finally showing up to the show at 25-28, We’re gonna suck anyway play these guys like the girl too,Joan Gregarino are what ever his freaking name is.Hope Ramos fizz doesn’t fizzle, but get a hard look at him too!!!!
I agree it’s time to find out if Stratton is going to be part of the future of the Giants or not.
Watch Moore turn into a win machine in Texas.
BF looks to be on the right track. The Giants FO appears to have no clue what to do here. Stuck in neutral, burning gas. Dumping Moore is going to be passed as some sort of good move. OK, getting rid of a problem is probably addition by subtraction, as it frees money and opens a rotation spot for Stratton or whoever. I’d like to be a little optimistic, but this is looking like they have no good options to move themselves out of last place, or as the Giants say, 5th place…
For CBTax purposes there’s an averaging calculation that looks at the player’s total contract amount. I forget how it works exactly, but Schulman tweeted yesterday that Moore’s CBTax salary savings is significantly lower than $9 million.
Giants must have really just given up on the dude. Nice pickup, Sabes…
Actually, I guess is was Brisbee who told Schulman yesterday. Here’s part of the corr.
Henry SchulmanVerified account
@hankschulman
I want to “thank” @mccoveychron for forcing me to read the CBA again, which always gives me migraines, after he said he thought #SFGIants might only be saving $4.5m in Moore’s AAV under luxury-tax rules.
Makes sense. Schulman is too busy scarfing doughnuts to do any of his own baseball research…
He does deserve a lot of the opprobrium heaped on him here.
Yeah, xoot. Something like $4.5M
So they pick up the dude’s option, then jettison him a few months later to save significantly less than 9 million. That is something a buffoon might come up with. I’m telling you, the Giants front office has no plan right now…..
I swear, if we got a bunch of Flappers together to analyze all the Giants players and minor league reports and all the other bullshit, we’d come up with some moves, and make intelligent draft picks. Cuz we don’t give a shit about PR. We’ve got business dudes, jokesters, lawyers, tax guys, admin guys, retail guys, dudes really into stats — whatever else Flappers do — we’ve got all the talent needed and baseball knowledge and love, to do just as badly as the Giants FO, and I’d say better, because we are into making baseball moves. This Moore thing just appears ludicrous. Execute the option, then give the guy away and not get benefit of all the salary dump? WTF is THAT?…
Yeah the San Wolff dude 26 years old had surgery on his right arm tendon in Aug( typical Giants to bag a injured player)
I’m actually intrigued with the other kid Israel Cruz 20 years old. He’s only given up 1 homer in 180 plus inning in the minors,! Maybe the Giants have hit a “diamond in the rough” with him for the future..
Why is the dude in rookie league for 4 years – he was 12 when they signed him?…
The only thing that will save this offseason is a return of the BBOTD.
Especially if she’s got right handed power…
Trading Moore definitely limits trading two of the pup pitchers. They are not adding a free agent starter. But $9 mill does let you make deals for Asivail Garcia and Hamilton and salary likely balances out. Problem is what value either Reds or White Sox place on our prospects.
Im not giving up a while lot for Hamilton. What do the White Sox want? Stratton and Shaw? Let’s make a deal then. Ramos and Arroyo off the table in my books. Suarez and Duggar for Hamilton???
Giants are boxed in and have to get creative. Maybe try for Abreu from the White Sox and move him or Belt to LF. MLBTR reports that AZ may make Tomas available. He was injured last year so try to buy low on him. That leaves Pence and Span without a role. Oh, well. I don’t trust Booby to accomplish any of this.
Rough estimate (averaging, more or less)–the Giants now have enough room under the CBTax threshold to accommodate Evan Longoria’s contract. MLBTR says the Rays may be listening to offers.
Rays better be ready to eat a lot of his huge deal. He’s pushing 33, production has been coming down, and that’s playing in a bandbox home park. Are we all saying Arroyo is no longer in the Giants future as 3b? I’m not, the kid has a glove. He looks like he should be able to hit…
I’m not advocating the possibility so much as fearing it.
Longoria’s locked up for 5 or 6 years. I just have this suspicious feeling. Machado’s arb eligible iirc and not locked up at all. Arroyo’s weak bat (sub .200, negative WAR) needs a lot of work. Longoria’s power was great in 2016, off last year, but he only SO 109 times in 2017. He could be a 20 HR guy at China Basin. Virtually all of his HRs go to LF or LCF. Just a feeling.
Said it before, Evans needs to go. He has no business being a ML GM.
Matt Kemp comes full circle
one writer’s reporting that the Braves have ALREADY DFA’s AGon. wtf?
DFA’d
this is why Stanton to the Dodgers never made any sense to me:
That Fodger-Braves deal makes absolutely no sense…why did the Braves just swallow a bunch of bad contracts???
The vaunted new front office of the Dodgers totally misfired when they signed McCarthy and Kazmir.
So, both sides end up eating a lot of contract money, apparently.
Hello, if these teams can do that — then let’s get some of that action going on Denard Span…
The Braves are very high on Acuna, as they should be. He is considered the #1 prospect in all of baseball.
The Braves and Dodgers did the classic thing of both teams trading bad contracts.
This is kind of amusing, from Eric Stephen:
“Kemp is under contract for two more seasons at $21.5 million per year, of which the Dodgers were already scheduled to pay $3.5 million each season per their original trade of Kemp to the Padres in December 2014.”
Culberson played well for the Dodgers last season. It’s the Billy Bean thing of treating players like interchangeable widgets.
And there’s this:
He added: “This was strictly a financial dump in 2018 but a baseball trade for 2019 as the #Dodgers will be back in play for anyone they desire next winter.”
I’m sure the giants will make a big play for Harper. A PR play…
And who will ever forget….
I love Posey’s down and out pattern to the dugout!
The Giants caused Harper to miss a lot of games last season.
I’d love to see the Giants consider Harper. No current player mirrors Barry Bonds himself more in personality and playing style than him. I bet we go after him hard.
Been off the blog for a bit, but here are a few quick takes on the topics for the week:
Ozuna: This one bummed me out. We had been in talks with them, we have prospects they like, but couldn’t get it done. If they were insisting on Ramos and we said no—I support that logic. I thought of Blade on this one as he has been on the Ozuna bandwagon for years.
Moore: I would have kept him. He was part of my sign Lo Cain and hope for bounceback years master plan.
Moscone/Milk murders: Remember them well. Thought they happened on my birthday, but when I looked it up, it was the day before my 14th birthday. It was bit of a bigger deal in my family as Dan White represented the district where my grandparents lived and my mom grew up (Portola/Vis Valley) and went to church at St. Elizabeth’s where my parents were married and I spent many a Sunday as a kid. Local boy gone bad.
Smithereens: Loved them. Back in those days I always appreciated an “alternative” band that had a driving guitar sound. Saw a great show by them at the California Theater in downtown San Diego back in the day. Cal Theater was great spot to see a show, but has been shuttered for years now and is scheduled for demo to make room for condos. Favorite Smithereens song = “House We Used to Live In”
Giants Front Office: I’m not too down on them—yet. I don’t like the Moore trade, but praise them for making a valiant run at Stanton and don’t want to see them get in the mode of just making deals to say they made deals.
Sign Lorenzo Cain and I will be singing their praises.
We need a glove and he’s a cut above………Lo Cain
Swings a right hand bat and I’m down with that……Lo Cain
Need to sign
Need to sign
Need to sign……..Lo Cain
So you lose a pick, we’ll get better quick……Lo Cain
Don’t forget this fact, Span’s coming back…..Lo Cain
Need to sign
Need to sign
Need to sign….Lo Cain!
You’ll get Austin Jackson, instead!
Nice job on the song lyrics!
Classic!
See the Detroit Lions all in grey? Neither can I…
The Bears are terrible.
San Diggity, you near the Lilac fire at all?
Miles of foul territory.
Great photo and story.
Mine won’t be as good as San Dog’s.
Let me tell you how it will be….
Jackson!
Years of the contract will be three….
Jackson!
He’s Austin Jackson….
Yeaaah….Jackson!
Martinez, Cain, and his teammate, “Moose,” as well as anyone else having been offered a team qualifying offer – are not coming here.
In short, the Giants NEED draft picks, and are not going to be giving up draft selections for any of these types of players. This has been widely reported.
With a farm system in tatters, they better not be taking on FAs that require a draft pick give back…
i wouldn’t put too much stock in what has been “widely reported.”
With this imbecilic front office – you’re right, they’re liable to do something stupid like adding Martinez or Cain.
This is the funniest one yet. I go with C.
It would indeed seem the Giants FO has no plan, for next year, or beyond that. If they’re thinking of lining up the planets to get Harper the following year, as LA is possibly doing, I’m not sure they should waste their time. I really don’t see Harper wanting to come to SF. He hates SF. The team, anyway. And he doesn’t really seem like a SF kind of guy.
The recent Dodger salary dump does seem to be a move to acquire Harper next year. Consequently, you’re probably right that it’s a waste of time to attempt signing him (except to ensure that the Dodgers, etc., pay the maximum amount for him).
It’s sad that after 3 in 5, the Giants brain trust seems to be playing checkers to the Dodgers, Snakes, Rockies, and even sad sack Padres playing chess.
I always thought Sabes was the smartest guy in the room. Instead, it’s obvious Sabes couldn’t pour piss out of a boot with instructions on the heel.
The FO did great for awhile there, elevating the team to among the best of class in baseball, winning those rings while also seemingly building a team for the long run. That whole “homegrown infield” thing was pretty cool, and of course the drafting of Cain, Timmy, Posey, and Bum before that. What, did they just get fat happy and content and stop with the good drafting and somewhat decent minor league system? Since installing that all home-grown infield, etc., it seems the whole thing just stopped. Someone dropped the ball. Error, FO. It’s going to take awhile for Bell to get the system back up and running again….
Sabean had a good run with top ten draft picks. He (let’s hope he’s involved) has another shot next year.
well, Cain was 25–the others, top tens
Not mentioned too much here and definitely getting a pass by our “eunuch” like media is Charles Johnson.
Johnson is currently principal owner of the Giants, although he leaves team control duties to the head of the ownership group, Larry Baer. Other members of the group include Scott Seligman, Peter Magowan, Philip Halperin, Allan Byer, and David S. Wolff.
All of these cats would be crucified in the NY, Boston, or Chicago media. Here, they’re hardly mentioned. Richest owners in baseball and they’re all AWOL.
The question of the Giants FO being more lucky than good, which was debated during the 3 in 5, comes back in force now. Sabean drafted Cain, Timmy, and Bum all in the first round. Cain was a smarter pick, since in 2002 the Giants were drafting low – 25th. After they turned to crap in the dark period 2005-2008, they had a series of high picks. Those Timmy, Bum and Posey high picks arguably were no-brainers, zumie’s chimp could have picked ’em. Timmy the Golden Spikes guy in 2006 (10th); Bum(10th 2007 pick, rated 14 by Baseball America), Posey (5th overall in 2008, Golden Spikes). What Sabean DID show intelligence on was putting the core four together for 2010-2014, and the rest of that shut down Pen, particularly 2010 and 2012. The polyglot rest of roster put together, to me, was at its best in 2010, that Misfit team. The 2012 title was another pitchfest dominant team with the Pen again nails, and 2014 was Bum’s masterpiece post season. So, it is very arguable that this FO wasn’t super intelligent or creative in putting those 3 in 5 rosters together, but once they were together, Bochy captained that ship to huge success. Maybe they just need to redux that cycle, now that they are back at having high picks. Let 2006-2008 drafting success happen again, with a draft of some position players of consequence…
Fun fact I did not know before:
Posey was drafted out of high school in the 50th round of the 2005 Draft by the Angels.
Instead,he went to Florida State to play ball and the rest is history…
While the Giants were winning the World Series in 2010, they drafted Gary Brown, and started a period of weak drafting. Panik was one of the few bright spots. Maybe some others will eventually pan out. Blach and Stratton have some potential. Arroyo showed flashes of something. Maybe Ramos will be the real deal.
2010 will always be my favorite season as a fan of any major league sports team. Truly memorable, and ending in joy. The only quibble was not winning the first title at home…
Kinda miss the one and done Bowtie Bill Neukum in the ownership’s office….
Yeah, his termination always seemed kind of odd. Rumored to be connected to the eating of Rowand’s last year on his contract. If true, that’s strange.
Bowtie should of gotten the key to the city for showing the cojones to get rid of Rowand! That’s the problem with this team now, nobody has the “Hairy Balls” to make the tough decisions like dumping players past their expectation dates!!
Bill Walsh never had that issue, he would dump your ass a year early then a year to late, and of course he might of been criticized by fans/ players for his actions , he was usually always right..
Me too. Bowtie wanted to win. By the by, Charles Johnson is one of the largest donors to Republican and Tea-Party-backed political campaigns, e.g., Tea Party-backed Arizona Representative Ben Quayle, who lost his seat in November 2012.
https://yaledailynews.com/blog/2013/12/05/yale-donor-is-among-nations-top-political-contributors/
$250 million gift to Yale. Nice.
IMO the Giants ethos really changed when McGowan got pushed out of ownership. Apparently because of the Zito deal, mostly. Yeah, he deserved some crap for that one. But, he had NY Giants roots, a real feel and love for the game. I think that when he was turned out the whole organization went in a very corporate direction. Neukom stemmed the tide for a bit as principal owner, then the corporatism forced him out, too, and Johnson took over as biggest owner. A guy that runs a bunch of money and mutual funds sees everything as an investment, and in terms of ROI, not necessarily in wins. With Baer the figurehead owner/CEO, whenever I hear that guy I feel like he’s totally bullshitting, that there is a secret, hidden reality going on he doesn’t want the fans or public to know. Neukom at least appeared sincere in his love of being a part of the game. Baer to me could just as well be flogging some kind of retail product line or new software, or even marketing Class A space for, uh, say, a real estate development company…
I do agree with SD that the hot stove season isn’t over yet, so the jury is still out on this FO.
I’m down with getting rid of Moore. He’s a head case and was a massive failure last season. IMO, don’t write off the 2 prospects we received from the Rangers. They’re young and may amount to something down the road.
Ok, blade. If either of those two ever get even a sniff of the major leagues, Giants or other team, I’ll owe you a big soda water and a Cha Cha bowl at ATT…
Lilac Fire not near me, but we’ve had some precautionary blackouts in my area in hopes of preventing fires, so it has been an odd week.
Zum–I think your Jaxman song is well done!
Agree, that is greatest super 70’s ever…and that is saying something. It seems to me that I have seen other photos and BB cards of Joe Torre over the years where he has a bizarre/menacing appearance—especially that early 70’s sideburn look with the Cards.
Turner Classic Movies did a tribute to all the movie people who passed away this year. It’s always mind-blowing seeing the long parade of names and faces, and get reminded about them.
As AK pointed out, Bill Walsh would rarely allow his teams to be in the situation the Giants find themselves in. Him being nicknamed the genius was appropriate.
Following on the investor-as-owner thing, compare Johnson to Lakob of the Dubs. Lakob is in the investment biz, too. But, on the venture capital side. VC dudes aren’t into investments as annuities, as low risk or spread the risk portfolio artists. They’re betting that of every 15 start-ups they drop money into, maybe 1, at most 3 in a dream scenario, will hit as some form of success, either as getting bought out before IPO, or going IPO. Their hit rate is low, because they roll the dice on new markets, “disruptive” tech, new approaches, and people who are brilliant and maybe just a little more than a bit wacky.
So, Lakob hires on a player agent as GM, who has never worked in a FO before. Result: Meyers is Exec of the Year. Lakob fires his first coach who actually turned the team around, and hires a guy who has never head coached before. Result: Kerr is a huge success. Lakob brings in Jerry West who represents the Dubs nemesis for decades, to be the yoda of the FO for the first 5 years of his owership — resulting in Klay Thompson and others. All those rolls of dice result in a title. Would Baer bring in somebody from the Doghair’s past brain trust to be a sounding board for Giants management? Never…
All good points. Again, responsibility rests with this stale ownership group. Yeah, they’re making bundles of money, but they’re soulless.
Read this snarkk . . . Not much to hang my hat on, but that’s all I have.
http://lastwordonbaseball.com/2017/12/16/texas-rangers-acquire-matt-moore/
These Ranger guys sound to me like a zillion other dudes in the minors. Kid that wrote the article is just out of high school. I’m not saying they should not have gotten rid of Moore. They obviously gave up on him; Rags must have told management that he could not help the guy, and Curt Young probably wanted no part of a psych rehab project with Moore. But, picking up his option and then almost immediately dumping him and not getting all the benefit of that salary dump to the salary cap just seems crazy.
Don’t order your Cha Cha bowl lunch just yet, blade…
😉
LMAO.. Seriously? Just out of high school?
Fake (sports) news!
Read the bio way on the bottom of the article on the esteemed sports journalist/author “Carson Babbini”, a freshman at U of Minn. He looks like he just got done jacking off to pornhub in his dorm room…
Him and Torre
After his sophomore year, Drumpf will nominate the highly experienced Carson to be a federal district judge in Minneapolis…
Dave Mustaine in his Metallica days