Bay City Ball

The Giants last place finish in 2007 not only secured their 5th overall pick in the amateur draft in June but also for the Rule 5 Draft this December. The Rule 5 Draft is a little more popular in years past because some teams have found hidden gems in the draft. Probably the most well known Rule 5 selection of recent memory is Florida’s Dan Uggla who was a All-Star in 2006. Uggla was selected in the 2005 Rule 5 Draft and since then has spent two seasons as an above average second baseman for the Marlins, hitting 58 HR’s over that time.

With positions still up in the air at 1B and 3B, the Giants, who have 2 open spots currently on their 40-man roster, could decide to take a chance to fill one of those positions through the Rule 5 Draft. The basic premise is that anyone not on the 40-man after 3-4 years of their signing, can be drafted through the Rule 5 but they must be kept on the major league roster (if drafted in the major league phase) for a full year. If they are not kept for a full year, then they are sent back to the original team.

Here’s a good bit of information on the Rule 5 from Brewer Fan:

A player is eligible for the offseason Rule 5 draft if he is not on the 40-man Major League Roster if he was 18 or younger when he first signed a pro contract and this is the fourth Rule 5 draft since he signed or if he was 19 or older when he first signed a pro contract and this is the third Rule 5 draft since he signed. A player drafted in the Rule 5 draft must remain in the majors, be it on the 25-man roster or the disabled list, for all of the following season, or the club that drafted him must return him to his original club. Since a player to is returned must first be place on waivers, a third club can claim the player. The claiming club would then be responsible to the same rules placed upon the team that drafted him in the Rule 5 draft.

With some open space on the 40-man and a high draft slot, the Giants would be in good position to pick up whatever Rule 5 talent they could find. The risk is minimal because the team is in transition right now and they can afford to see if a Rule 5 player can handle a starting or backup position. Baseball America has a nice new article on some potential Rule 5 selections.

After looking over the list briefly and reading this thread on McCovey Chronicles, I’ve found what could be a intriguing match for the Giants at 1B or 3B. His name is Jamie D’Antona, he’s a 25 year old player in the Diamondbacks system, currently at the AAA level. He’s played both third and first and even caught a handful of games, he’s probably nothing more than a 3rd string emergency catcher but the versatility is nice.

For his minor league career, D’Antona is a (.290/.352/.472) hitter. He had troubles once he was promoted to AA in 2005 for a full season. In ‘05, he only hit (.249/.322/.385) losing batting average, patience, and power. He repeated the league in 2006 and bounced back, quoting from a BA article on D’Antona:

“He got a little less free-swinging and a little more selective, and his power played better,” Hinch said. “He got into a good routine and he adapted well to the league the second time through.”

That bounce back season of 2006 found him producing a line of (.312/.383/.487). He then was promoted to AAA in 2007 and hit (.308/.362/.499) better numbers than any current AA/AAA Giants 1B/3B prospect. He appears to be a flyball hitter, hitting most of his HR’s from CF-to-LF, checking out his batted ball chart confirms this.

Courtesy of First Inning

Being a RHH, AT&T shouldn’t hurt his power too much. I found it interesting that when D’Antona hit the ball into the air, it was heading to CF (28.8% of his batted balls) instead of straight pulling the ball into LF (8%), he actually hit the 2nd most flyballs the opposite way when hitting them in the air, hitting them to RF (15.2%). Trying to go the other way, unless he can constantly find “Triples Alley” at AT&T might hurt his numbers some. He’ll probably want to try to hit balls to LF and CF more than RF when hitting at AT&T.

A previous report on D’Antona when he was struggling noted that:

His swing gets too long and he gets too pull-conscious, and he’s going to have to make adjustments.

Is it possible that he’s made those adjustments? Focusing less on just pulling the ball and instead focusing on making solid contact?

I have no idea what kind of runner he is, but looking at his minor league numbers, I’d guess he isn’t a fast one. His extremely low average when he batted the balls on the ground combined with his career 12 SB’s lead me to assume that he isn’t very fast. It’s understandable why he did so well when hitting flyballs in ‘07, because he hit a lot of extra base hits (43 doubles, 5 triples, and 13 home runs). He also posted a strong line drive percentage of 21% in ‘07. D’Antona’s approach seems to center around swinging hard and knocking the ball into the air, as evident by his high LD% and fly ball numbers.

I think D’Antona is a great example of a interesting potential Rule 5 buy . He’s young-ish at 25, has bounced back after struggles in 2005 to produce two solid seasons, and is versatile. He played 67 games at 3B and 47 games at 1B in ‘07. He even appeared at catcher in 21 games. The only buyer-beware that I can think of is that I’m always a little leery of hitting prospects from the PCL (see: Linden, Todd) and while he had a solid 2007, a OPS of .861 in the PCL isn’t mind blowing. For comparison, Justin Leone, who is no longer with the Giants, OPS’d .881 last year in the PCL and never even sniffed the majors.

But, if the Giants have any scouting info that’s even remotely positive about D’Antona, I’d probably pull the trigger. We’ve got two open spaces and he’ll most likely out-produce Rich Aurilia or Dan Ortmeier at their positions of 3B and 1B.

Getting back to the baseball world after a very-nice Thanksgiving has made me a little sluggish. No, it’s not just all that turkey I ate. The holiday break was fantastic and refreshing but there just isn’t much baseball news happening lately and the current dialog among Giants’ fans seems to hinge around the same conversations, over and over. I know that the offseason can be a dull time but this is getting ridiculous.

Here’s the format if you’re not a Giants fan yourself or you’ve been away on a spiritual journey for the last year and you’re just getting back to following baseball:

- Rumor surfaces detailing a trade involving one of the Giants young pitchers (Cain or Lincecum, take your pick)

- Much wailing and gnashing of teeth ensues from the sum of Giants fans

- Brian Sabean is a moron

- More wailing and gnashing of teeth

- How could you do this to us Brian?

- Weak attempt of rationalizing either side of the trade scenario

- Curling up into a ball, crying, and falling asleep holding your Matt Cain bobblehead.

There you have it. That, in itself, is basically the dialog among Giants’ fans that’s been going on for the last month or so. Depending on how you view the team, the current lack of activity from Brian Sabean either pleases you or infuriates you. Myself, I think this team is in a lot of trouble - offensively speaking, I like the pitching - and no amount of free agent pieces would make this team a contender in 2008. We know that Brian Sabean is oh-so-very-stealthy when he’s working the offseason but could he be standing pat and looking towards the future? Possibly looking for trades that mesh well with what the Giants need without giving up too much talent? Thats my dream for now, until we sign Andruw Jones for a million more years than he should get and for a million more dollars than he should receive.

There has to be a middle ground between the feelings of fear and happiness. I haven’t found that happy medium yet but I’m sure it’s there. Would trading Lincecum or Cain for Cabrera be the end of the world? Maybe not. I like Cabrera despite his overblown (no pun intended) weight issues but I’d only really feel comfortable trading away Lincecum or Cain for him if a contract extension was worked out. As much as it would stink to have to trade away either of them, the Giants don’t have much hitting in their system that could impact a roster the same way Cabrera could. I’ve found that fans of teams often over-value their own prospects and I hope I haven’t done that, or even worse, undervalued them but the Giants have more pitching depth in their system - maybe nothing that projects as well as Cain or Lincecum does right now - and dealing a pitcher would hurt less than dealing one of the few hitters we might have. Henry Sosa, Tim Alderson, Madison Bumgarner, Clayton Tanner, and Ben Synder all have upside to be good major league pitchers. Outside of John Bowker, Angel Villalona, and Nick Noonan - who like some of the pitchers listed above, are far away from the majors - the Giants just don’t have the hitters needed for a team under reconstruction.

Does it make sense to upgrade the team in the areas in needs while dealing from areas of strength? Yes. Is losing Cain or Lincecum going to be fun? No, it sure isn’t, but I think to solve the Giants problems, some tough decisions will have to be made. I can only hope they are made wisely and intelligently.

The 2008 bullpen takes form a little more with the 1-year deal to bring back Tyler Walker. Walker, who served as the Giants closer in 2005 after Armando Benitez went down with an injury, is back for ‘08 on a 1-year $750K deal. Walker was traded to the Devil Rays in 2006 but he went down with an arm injury which led to the eventual Tommy John surgery that sidelined him for most of 2007. Walker did some rehab work in A+ and AAA and made it back to the majors by the end of the year and was effective. He only pitched 14.1 innings but he looked good and I was impressed with how quickly he came back from TJ. Walker isn’t going to be a bullpen ace but he’s a decent middle relief option and the Giants might even use him as competition for Brian Wilson in battling for the closers position. Hopefully, the Giants are smart enough to not see Walker as a option at closer but you never know, I think his role will be defined the most by how healthy Chulk is next year, if he is still having health problems, Walker could move into his 6/7th inning role.

Sabean has said as much, in a recent San Jose Mercury News article he stated the club wasn’t planning on dipping into the free agent market for relievers because it’s going to be expensive. I really hate seeing GM’s overspend on relievers when they really aren’t worth it because they tend to bounce around so much between seasons, performance-wise, except for the elite relievers. After Sabean decreed that the bullpen was a concern to be upgraded, I was having nightmares of Scott Linebrink coming to SF (Bochy-connection, check) or an awful potential Benitez-redux in Francisco Cordero. My heart can’t take it anymore.

Here’s the other interesting quote from that article:

The Giants have scouted this year’s crop of relievers from the Japanese League, but they don’t expect to find many good values. The market for Japanese pitchers is expected to soar after the success of Boston’s Hideki Okajima and the Dodgers’ Takashi Saito.

I would really love to get an awesome Japanese reliever, it seems like they’re becoming more and more relevant in today’s baseball bullpen. Depending on price, I’d like to see the Giants pursue Yasuhiko Yabuta or Masahide Kobayashi.

Yasuhiko Yabuta has a career ERA of just 4.03 in his Japanese Baseball career which might seem blah-worthy until you consider that he was a mediocre-to-awful starter for most of his career. It wasn’t until he was turned into a reliever that he found great success. He made that transition 4 seasons ago and since then has been a consistent talent in the bullpen. He throws a fastball in the low-to-mid 90’s but his bread and butter is a devastating forkball that he can throw to either side of the plate.

Kobayashi is the closer for the Chiba Lotte Marines and has expressed interest in playing in the MLB. He throws a fastball in the upper-90’s and an excellent slider. His velocity and slider make him interesting to me. A team looking for closer or setup help could look to Kobayashi to fortify their bullpen.

I’d really like to get either Yabuta or Kobayashi but if I had to pick, I’d probably lean towards Kobayashi just because I like the power fastball + slider combo.

Not much to say, other than Barry Bonds has been indicted today on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice. I might write more on it later but to be honest, I’ve been watching way too much ESPN today and I already feel burnt out on the topic. Regardless of my opinion of Barry, I can tell you the amount of media soapboxing and grandstanding has made me feel ill to my stomach. I was never the biggest Bonds fan but the recent wave of media coverage has really made me want to turn off the TV for awhile. I knew it was a bizarre day when I was watching ESPN and the only guy making sense was Stephen A. Smith. Yes, that guy, the one that yells all the time.

Anyways, the next couple of days will probably shed more light on the situation and I might write on it once or twice but I’ll probably have to make myself do it. The saturation on this topic is going to be huge.

Until then, BP Unfiltered has a nice break-down of the events of today. Check it out if you’re interested in a slice of the legal side.

A quick blurb from GM Brian Sabean in a recent MLB.com article detailing the Omar Vizquel signing:

“Third base is what we’re presently going to work on,” Sabean said. “I think that definitely has to be the first thing we try to address.”

Sabean said that Feliz, who has averaged 21 home runs and 84 RBIs in the past four seasons, and is widely considered to have developed into a Gold Glove-caliber defender, has received “quite a bit of action” from teams seeking a third baseman. Sabean indicated that the Giants are reluctant to fulfill Feliz’s hopes for a multiyear contract — a request that could extend “closer to three years,” the GM noted.

“If that’s the case,” Sabean said, “it’s not going to be something that we’ll pursue, at least at this time.”

My initial reaction to this is one of joy and happiness. The fact that Omar Vizquel is getting (potentially) a multi-year deal from the Giants is enough, but to imagine the Giants signing the 32-year-old Feliz to a 2-3 year deal is enough to make the strongest fan question his personal religious beliefs. It’s a classic question that’s irked mankind for sometime now, if God truly exists, how can he let such terrible things happen to good people? Floods, Famine, Pedro Feliz. You’ll find weird pockets of Giants fans who absolutely love Feliz and his annual 20 HR power with excellent defense but in my estimation, Feliz just isn’t very good. He’s Tony Batista with a better glove and no one has ever clamored for Tony Batista.

Options to replace Feliz aren’t very exciting but even with the weak options, I think the Giants should end their relationship with Feliz, unless it was on another 1-year deal. Rotoworld speculated that if the Giants don’t sign Feliz, they could turn to such options of Mike Lamb or Mark Loretta. Either player wouldn’t realy be an upgrade when compared to Feliz. Both Lamb and Loretta are poor defenders and their hitting isn’t good enough to make up for the difference. Both have been worth about 1-3 wins over the past three years, while Feliz has been about a 3 win player on the strength of his defense.

Between the two, Lamb would probably be the best option but I wouldn’t want to spend more than a year on him and he’ll probably get a few multi-year offers. His defense at third base isn’t nearly as strong as Feliz’s but it’s near replacement-level. I was hoping the Giants might consider Fresno AAA’er Justin Leone this past year to work at third base but he never made it out of the minors. Leone showed both good pop and patience in the minors, hitting 20 HR’s, 30 2B’s, and posting an OBP of .383. He also stole 26 bags to only 1 caught-stealing. Sadly, the Giants most likely have a poor view of Leone - who throughout his minor league career has been a decent player, career line of (.260/.363/.480) - because he was never once called up to the big team. He’s now a minor league free agent and it’s very possible that he’ll join on with another team to get a crack at major league playing time.

The Giants could enter the trade market to try and find a third baseman. Sabean has recently calmed some fears and stated that Lincecum isn’t actively being shopped but they’ve had a lot of requests for him from opposing teams. They’ve listened but that doesn’t mean they’re going to trade him. If the team is looking for established star third basemen, then they will be very interested in Miguel Cabrera. In interacting with a lot of Giants fans, I’ve found that the average Giants fan seems to be wary of Cabrera because of his “weight and personality issues” which to me, seem grossly overblown.

What Cabrera has done in his first 5 seasons before the age of 24 is historic.

Cnt Player           **HR**
+----+-----------------+---
1 Eddie Mathews       190
2 Frank Robinson      165
3 Albert Pujols       160
4 Orlando Cepeda      157
5 Hank Aaron          140
6 Miguel Cabrera      138
7 Bob Horner          138
8 Joe DiMaggio        137
9 Vladimir Guerrero   136
10 Hal Trosky         136

How many people can say that they’ve hit more HR’s before the age of 24 than DiMaggio did? The Giants might not have the prospects to trade for Cabrera (I think they should hold onto Cain and Lincecum but everyone else could be expendable) but he’s one of the few players in the MLB that comes close to being able to replace the production of Bonds. He’s not that good yet, about 3-4 wins from replacing Bonds in his prime, but he’s a fantastic talent who’s weight issues in my opinion, have been way overblown.

I liked the way Bill James described Cabrera in a recent article he penned for SI.com:

He’s fat and he looks lazy, but he hits .320 and drives in 115 runs every year. As a hitter, he’s in a class with Albert Pujols, Manny Ramirez and Albert Belle, just crushes the ball about 200 times a year. As a third baseman he’s in a class with guys who really need to work on playing third base.

Cabrera isn’t a strong fielding third baseman, but he was almost in the middle of the pack last year. He was 8th out of 12 qualifying NL 3B’s in 2007 when ranking by revised zone rating. The Fielding Bible liked him even less, only Garret Atkins and Ryan Bruan were worse at defending third base last year. He’s eventually destined for LF or 1B but the Giants could probably squeeze a couple of years out of him from third base if they needed to. Thankfully, they’ve got major openings at both positions, so if they didn’t feel comfortable with Cabrera at third, they could push him to first instantly. If Angel Villalona could stick at third base (that’s still up for debate but at least the Giants aren’t moving him off the position just yet) a infield that contained both would look awfully nice.

The biggest hurdle to getting Cabrera might be his contract. He’ll be a free agent in 2010 and any team that trades for him would prefer that he’d sign a contract extension with them. If the Giants could bowl Cabrera over with a contract extension and not give up the big two (Cain and Lincecum) in the process, I would love to see Cabrera in San Francisco. It all fits together like a best case scenario but it’s my best case scenario, dang it!

Comment Starter: What’s your best case scenario for the Giants this off-season? Try to keep it a little realistic.

—

Update

Not being able to sleep can have it’s advantages. I just noticed an SI.com article by Jon Heyman on the subject of Miguel Cabrera and the Marlins’ asking price:

The price is so prohibitive and includes multiple top-tier prospects — the kind of young players that are hardly ever traded anymore — that executives believe the Marlins will have to drop their price significantly to deal Cabrera. Because the requests have been jaw-dropping, teams say they don’t see anything happening until the winter meetings next month.

For Cabrera, 24, the Marlins are requesting a package of four top young players,

The Marlins are officially asking for a “buttload” of talent. Yes thats a word. That’s a huge amount of talent to give up, even for Miguel Cabrera. 4 top-tiered prospects? That’s madness. That would be like sending Cain, Lincecum, Henry Sosa, and whoever else the Giants could lump in as a top-tiered prospect to Florida. That’s just way too much talent to give up. I guess it does make sense for the Marlins and as a negotiating tactic, it’s a good one. Ask for the world because someone might give it to you, but if they don’t you can always adjust the conversations. Better to start too high than too low.

Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports has announced that the Giants and Omar Vizquel are close to signing a 1 year $5.5M dollar deal. Under the rumored new deal, Omar would earn about $1.5M more from his 2007 salary after posting the worst OPS in the National League in ‘07 (when sorting by 450 plate appearances, Omar and Marcus Giles are tied for the worst OPS in the NL, both with .621). To get an idea of how bad the 41-year-old Vizquel was at the plate last year, here is a small list of players who hit better than him.

- Juan Pierre (the black hole of offense himself)
- Pedro Feliz and Ray Durham (ouch, even Ray’s worst season in his pro career was better than Omar’s season, not by much but still…)
- David Eckstein (scrap, grit, heart, etc.)
- Stephen Drew (had a terrible season .238/.313/.370, but was still better offensively than Omar, should rebound in ‘08 some and has the advantage of not being 40+)
- Craig Biggio (future HOF, is going to retire)

The list isn’t pretty and my picks aren’t in any special order but it goes to show, Omar stunk at the dish this year. If you’re into more of the new-fangled stats, Omar’s EqA of .221 was about 40 points below league average.

Let’s compare Omar’s ‘07 stats to his career numbers to try and find out what went wrong

YEAR	BB%	K%	OPS	ISO	BABIP	GB/FB	LD%
2007   7.9%    9.4%    .621    .070     .265     1.03   18.3%
 -     9.0%   10.0%    .697    .083     .298     1.09   21.6%

Surprisingly, his underlying performance is close with what he’s done in previous years. He struck out about the same and walked a little less. His power, which has always been minuscule dropped a little. His line drive percentage dropped by 3% and his BABIP was down 23 points from his career. His GB/FB ratio is still right around 1.0. The drop in power and his BABIP make me think that Omar’s bat has slowed down. A player like Omar, who has never been a strong hitter, is really going to start to look ugly if he loses even more of his hitting skill. It’s not surprising that a 40 year old baseball player would see some slip in his hitting skills.

If you look at Omar’s batted ball chart from First Inning, you can see that he’s hitting a lot of balls into the air. Most of them going to CF but he’s also hitting a lot of balls on the ground.

I would hazard a guess that the reason that his average is so high on flyballs is that defenders are playing him really shallow because of his lack of power and he’s occasionally poking them over their heads, especially in center field. What’s really hurting Omar is when he hits the ball on the ground. He hit 21.9% of his batted balls to the right side of the infield, on these balls he’s only hitting .200. He’s also hitting 19.2% of his batted balls on the ground to the left side of the infield, on these batted balls he’s hitting a little better at .261, probably because the throw is longer from the left side of the diamond to first base and he can use his speed a little better. For his age Omar still runs pretty well, not great but well.

Looking at how well Omar faired against the different types of pitchers (power vs finesse) might be able to clue us in on his hitting problems. I’m using Baseball Reference’s definitions of power and finesse pitchers, qualified as:

Power pitchers strike out or walk more than 28% of batters faced, Finesse pitchers strike out or walks less than 24% of batters faced. Stats are based on the three years before and after (when available), and the season for when the split is computed. A split in 1994 would consider years 1991-1997.

In 2007 versus power pitchers, Omar hit (.221/.273/.275) in 165 PA’s. Against Finesse pitchers, he hit (.291/.360/.381) in 257 PA’s. Omar just didn’t have the same luck against the hard-throwers as he did against the soft-tossers. This information supports the argument for his decline in hitting ability. Simply put, it’s easier to hit an 85mph fastball than it is a 95mph fastball. In his career Omar has hit both power pitchers and finesse pitchers about the same, so his 2007 is out of whack for what he’s done historically. In his 2 previous years with the Giants, he hit (.302/.366/.356) in ‘06 and (.292/.349/.350) in ‘05 against power pitchers. Omar has been playing with a certain fountain of youth essence for his whole career, but at age 40 it looks like his hitting ability has slipped. He’s human after all.

Defensively, Omar is still an elite defender by most metrics. The 2007 fielding bible rates him as the 3rd best short stop in the game with a score of +20 only behind Troy Tulowitzki (+35) and John McDonald (+26). If the fielding bible isn’t your thing, he rated as the best shortstop in the NL by The Hardball Times’ revised zone rating and was 10th in OOZ, or outs made outside of a defenders zone. Omar’s OOZ score makes me think that while he doesn’t have the same range of his earlier days, his positioning and ability to field the ball are still fantastic. He wont’ be a liability with the glove.

A couple of months ago I wrote about the impending shortstop issue that the Giants would have to deal with. My conclusion was lukewarm and filled to the brim with “meh”, there wasn’t going to be anything on the free agent market (unless you’ve got some weird infatuation with David Eckstein, and if so, eww) and the Giants in-house options were a bare cupboard, cobwebs and all. Barring any trades (I feel like this is the slogan of the ‘07/’08 offseason) there just wasn’t any real options that the Giants could take outside of Omar. He’s reliable, old, and declining with the bat but he can still play great defense. With Brian Sabean’s new motto firmly ingrained into all of our brains (Speed and Defense, Speed and Defense, if you say it three times fast while looking into a mirror Johnnie LeMaster will appear) Omar Vizquel seemed like a certainty.

I’m not crazy about the $1.5M raise for a player who was the worst hitter in the National League last year but on the bright side Sabes didn’t ink Vizquel for more than 1-year. Vizquel will most likely continue to not hit the ball and play good to amazing defense on occasion for the ‘08 Giants. There’s a chance that he could bounce back some (maybe add 20 points back to his BABIP) but to expect a 41 year old man to slam the brakes on the aging process is a bit much to ask, even if it is the youthful Vizquel.

Conclusion? Meh.

—

Update:

From Rotoworld

Omar Vizquel’s soon-to-be-finalized contract with the Giants will be worth $5.5 million and include a vesting option for 2009.

The option, which becomes guaranteed if he plays in 140 games, is worth $5.2 million. The 40-year-old Vizquel will be getting a raise from the $4 million he made last season even though he was as bad of a hitter as there was in the NL. When the Giants say they don’t have the money to pursue Alex Rodriguez, it’s because of decisions like this.

…

A vesting option for $5.2M? Very funny Brian, now let’s see the real contract… Vizquel has remained healthy for his career and can almost certainly play 140 games next year.

Seriously, what are you doing? I didn’t mind the deal when it was based on 1-year but a potential 2-years for Vizquel seems like a poor choice. Old habits are hard to break.

Welcome to the new look for Bay City Ball, this is essentially the third design that I’ve used for the website. I decided to switch over to a different design because the old design was starting to feel a little old and stale. I also like the way this design presents the content and I think it just looks better overall. Other than the design, everything else is essentially the same, user accounts all still work and the archives are still up and functioning.

New Stuff and Things-to-do

• The site will now be using tags as well as categories. This should help to narrow down searches for those who browse the site.
• I need to work on the CSS file some more, mostly just basic stuff - changing link colors, shaping up the comments section some, etc. - and it should hopefully be done in a day or two. The links are kinda hard to see in the posts right now but I’ll work on that.
• You can also search the archives, like in the last version, the same way. Just use the search bar in the top right hand corner, type in your terms, and hit enter.

That’s basically it for now. I’ve tested the site in IE and Firefox and both look satisfactory. If you run into any issues or would like to make a suggestion to make the site better, just send me an email.

Baseball America has a list up of all the available minor league free agents. A minor league free agent is able to sign with any team he likes.

The Giants have a total of 20 minor league free agents. Here’s what the list looks like:

San Francisco Giants (20)
Righthanders: Jesse Foppert, Dan Giese, Carlos Hines, Sun Woo Kim, Matt Kinney
Lefthanders: Ricardo Rincon, Jason Waddell
Catchers: Stephen Holm, Justin Knoedler
First basemen: Lance Niekro, Randy Ruiz, Tyler Von Schell
Second basemen: William Bergolla, Derin McMains, Lorenzo Mercado
Third basemen: Julio Cordido, Justin Leone
Shortstops: Tomas de la Rosa, Ivan Ochoa
Outfielder: Carlos Sosa

Not really much there. I’d hate to lose Knoedler but other than him, I can’t imagine getting upset over losing any of these guys.

Who should the Giants look to sign from the minor league free agent list? I wouldn’t mind taking a chance on Erubiel Durazo but my favorite minor league free agent is Tagg Bozied. Why should the Giants be interested in Tagg?

1. We need more players with cool names like ‘Tagg Bozied’. Losing Boof Bonser a few years ago really hurt the cool name depth that the Giants had. Tagg has an awesome name that just sounds like it was born for baseball.

2. On a more serious note, Tagg is a first baseman that can hit for power. He’s always had huge power potential - he once hit 12 HR’s in the AFL in 2005 - and the Giants don’t have any legit prospects in AAA that can play first base. His career minor league line of (.275/.345/.484) doesn’t look so bad. He’s been compared to Russell Branyan before by scouts. He has hit for a better batting average, but Branyan’s career minor league OBP and SLG surpass Bozied.

3. Bozied has had trouble staying healthy over the last few years. In 2004 he ruptured a knee tendon while celebrating a walk-off grand slam. He played 26 games in 2005 and in 2006 he played 60 games. I assume that his recovery from his knee injury was slow. But, he seems to be healthy again and hitting well. In 2007 he played in 130 games for the Cardinals AAA affiliate while hitting (.264/.349/.490) with 24 HR’s, 26 2B’s, and 2 3B’s. The fact that Bozied played in 130 games this year bodes well for his health.

4. He’s only 27 years old. He should be entering his prime as a baseball player and because of his age it makes him a much more attractive option than someone like a Durazo. AT&T Park shouldn’t hurt Bozied that much either, being as he’s a RHH with good power.

5. Maybe one of the most important points, is that the Giants have a big hole to fill at first base with Klesko most likely not coming back and Aurilia no longer an option to start at first base. The Giants should be appealing to a player like Tagg Bozied, a team where he could get a chance to start in the majors. The Giants could invite Bozied to Spring Training with the promise to compete for the first base position. He’s a good potential buy low, high reward type player.

Tagg Bozied is a perfect candidate for the Giants. Low cost? Check. Could potentially fill a need? Check. And most importantly of all, has a cool name? Double-check.

Carney, meet the Giants. Giants, this is Carney.

The Giants have hired Carney Lansford as the new hitting instructor, effectively replacing Joe Lefebvre. Lansford was the 1981 batting champ in the AL when he hit (.336/.389/.439). He also had a cool mustache. And he hit more career home runs than Lefebvre (151 vs 31). He’s got to be a better coach, right? In 2006 Lansford was the AAA hitting coach for the Rockies minor league affiliate. I’m not huge on coaches but Lansford does have the credentials as a good hitter, hopefully he’s a good coach as well. If he puts a mustache mandate into motion I’ll like him even more. Imagine Omar Vizquel with a mustache? That’s a Giants team I’d pay to watch.

From the SFGiants.com article on the Lansford signing, some of the quotes aren’t exactly my cup-o-tea.

Example:

“He’s been on my radar for a while,” Bochy said. “I think he’s going to bring an energy to us and a presence to our club and help our hitters play the type of ball we want to play. That’s unselfish ball.”

By “unselfish ball,” Bochy meant moving runners along, taking a pitch or swinging and missing at one to help a teammate steal a base and bunting when necessary. Lansford made a habit of this, particularly while batting behind stolen-base king Rickey Henderson when both played for the A’s.

Unselfish ball is the same as can’t-hit-for-squat-ball. Early indications from the offseason are that the Giants are going to be doing a whole lot of bunting, hitting and running, and playing out all the other ideals of small ball. I don’t mind that sort of strategy but only when it’s kept to a minimum. Studies have shown that managers tend to do more harm than good when they employ such strategies because they overuse them. The fact that the Giants are willfully going to dive head first into an Ozzie Guillen-style of play for 2008 really concerns me. How many times do I need to see a failed hit and run or Rajai Davis getting thrown out because Bochy is trying to make something happen? I’m guessing about 4-5 times and then I’ll get sick of it.

From the same article:

“We’re not looking to become a Punch-and-Judy team,” Sabean said. “Nor is Carney going to be a Punch-and-Judy hitting coach.”

Good, but being a Punch-and-Judy team assumes that we have any punch at all. Randy Winn is our punch. And maybe Bengie Molina. That’s more of a “light hand-slap” than it is punch. Lansford’s biggest goal should be teaching patience to the hitters. It would be nice if Bengie Molina could walk more than 15 times a year.

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The very-fast Eugenio Velez recently got some love from Baseball America. The source of the article is an unnamed NL scout who seems to like what he’s seen in Velez. Talking about his speed (sub 4.0 times to first base) and his defense, which confused me the most because Velez’s D has been criticized often. He was moved off of second base into the OF earlier but he’s getting more playing time at second now. The scout praises his hands, throwing arm, and range. Maybe he caught Velez on a good day? Because I didn’t get the impression that he was a defensive player during his short time with the Giants this year. Or, maybe, Velez has improved defensively? Either way, it’s nice to see some praise for Velez. I’m still not very high on him but he’s having a pretty good AFL showing so far (.303/.329/.461) with a league leading 14 stolen bases in 15 attempts. I would really love to see him get on base more, he’s only walked 3 times in 76 at-bats, to take advantage of his tremendous speed.

Speaking of the AFL, Nate Schierholtz is having a good showing, too. He just recently hit 2 HR’s in one game and has been making a lot of contact as usual. He’s hitting (.351/.373/.632) in 57 AB’s. But like Velez, Schierholtz isn’t walking much, he’s only walked once so far in the season. Nate has always been good about getting the bat on the ball but I think he’s going to have to walk more to really have success in the majors. Major league pitchers are going to be more likely to take advantage of a free-swinger than minor league pitchers. On a recent AFL video on SFGiants.com, Nate was interviewed and he stated that he’s trying to work on his plate approach in the AFL. At least he understands that he needs to be more selective and patient, now just for the results to roll in. I think Pedro Feliz still believes that he can swing at every pitch.

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The 2007 NL Elias player rankings are out. Depending on how well the player has performed, they are rated either an A or B type player. A-type players, if offered arbitration, that sign with another team earn their original team 2 draft picks. One in the first round and a supplemental pick. The same goes for B-type players, but they only earn their original team a supplemental pick.

Here’s how the following free agent Giants ranked:

Barry Bonds - A
Pedro Feliz - B
Omar Vizquel - B

Ryan Klesko and Russ Ortiz did not receive a ranking, thus any team that signs them will not have to compensate the Giants via draft picks. It’s extremely doubtful that the Giants will offer Bonds arbitration because there is a chance he would accept and make a nice chunk of money in the process. Feliz is a interesting question to ponder. It’s been reported that he is looking for a multi-year deal, should the Giants offer him arbitration and hope that he rejects it? In such a scenario, they would earn a supplemental draft pick from wherever Feliz would sign. Vizquel will probably be offered a 1-year deal with a vesting option for ‘09. I think the Giants will bring him back, even though he was one of the worst hitting players in the entire majors last year.

I don’t mind bringing back Omar so much, because it’ll probably (hopefully) be a 1-year commitment. But Feliz want’s a multi-year deal and I just won’t be able to stomach that. Like Grant posted today, carrying over 2 huge offensive black holes from last years team to the ‘08 team is and would be a mistake.