Nothing happened.
That was my first thought after refreshing Rotoworld and other trade sites like mad during the afternoon of the trading deadline. Nothing happened. No Rich Aurilia to the Twins trades, nobody wanted Taschner, no team was looking for a recently ‘showcased’ Jose Castillo. Nothing, nada, zip, zero.
Teams may have wanted a couple of parts, but either deals couldn’t be made or we wanted to hang onto our pieces for what was offered.
Trading Deadline Post-Thoughts
1. Andrew Baggarly, on his excellent blog, had a couple of points from Sabean on the trade deadline. Here’s the top two that stuck out to me:
–He’s going to meet with the staff tomorrow to talk about when to start playing the kids.
–He said it won’t be totally Bochy’s discretion on whom to play. His words: “I’ll be more active in that area to take some pressure off him and make sure we’re on the same page.”
Despite the fact that no one was moved over the deadline, this may be the best news. You could mark me down as “I’ll believe it when I see it”, after watching start after start of Rich Aurilia, Omar Vizquel, and Jose Castillo grace my TV, but it’s the right thing to say right now. Now, the question is, will the Giants be able to do it?
I think I once read an ancient Chinese proverb that said: The path to happiness starts with benching Omar Vizquel. Seriously, have you seen that guy swing a bat?
Let’s hope the Giants read the same proverb as I did and will give some playing time to the ‘Bench Ryders’ AKA Burriss, Denker (call him back, please), and hell, even Ivan Freaking Ochoa. None of the players just listed could turn out to be starters, or even bench players in the majors, but whatever small chance they might have, is gigantic compared to the chance that Omar and Jose Castillo has at this point.
2. Ken Griffey Jr. was traded to the Chicago White Sox for pitcher Nick Masset and infielder Danny Richar. In a “What’s defense, precious?” move, the White Sox are entertaining the idea of sticking Griffey back into center field. One of the reasons I love Ken Williams is for quotes like this:
“Center field is actually the easiest of the outfield positions to play from a health perspective. I know that doesn’t sound right because you’ve got to go a lot of left and right, but trust me, it’s a little easier to play center field.
A Quentin/Griffey/Dye outfield is going to be interesting. How many flyballs will that trio fail to get to? Did the White Sox forget that run prevention is important, too? From ’05 to ’07, the Fielding Bible had Junior at a -53 for center field. A negative fifty three. Meaning that he made 53 less plays in center than your average center fielder. That’s incredible and if you figure that at 38-years-old, Junior may have lost another step in the OF, he could be even worse. This year by RZR Griffey was ranked as the worst RF in the National League, converting 82.6% of balls in his zone into outs. He had more OOZ plays than right fielders Brad Hawpe and Ryan Ludwick, but that was it. Good lord, would you want Brad Hawpe or Ryan Ludwick playing center for your favorite team?
3. Are the Pirates becoming competent again? I love the haul that they got for Jason Bay in the Manny trade to L.A 3-way trade. Bay was having a great year and is very affordable in ’09, but getting a package of: Andy LaRoche, Brandon Moss, Craig Hansen, and Bryan Morris is a nice return. Now that LaRoche is on a team that will actually play him, I’ll be interested to see what he does. Agent Ned strikes again?
4. Going back for a second to point number one, the more I think about Sabean’s quote of “I’ll be more involved in who plays, and who doesn’t play” makes me wonder if Bochy can’t kick the habit of starting veterans? Much like the case in San Diego when Bochy would run out Vinny Castilla night after night when it was apparent his expiration date had come and gone, I wonder if Sabean will actually start some of the younger players? Historically, he’s been a GM that’s liked the veteraness of grizzled ballplayers. Will he start the younger players? Watch and find out.
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I would have LOVED to have seen the Giants move some of their parts, but I think it’s pretty clear that most other GMs didn’t like what the Giants were selling. And honestly, can you blame them? Can you imagine any team trading for Tyler Walker? Dave Roberts? Omar Vizquel? The Giants had a few pieces that had some mild-value, but in a new market that really values prospects — some can argue that they over-value them — I’m not sure I’d trade an A-ball player for Rich Aurilia.
I still think the team should have tried hard to move Randy Winn but it’s possible the market wasn’t there for him. Or, I think it’s just as equally as possible that Sabean overvalued Randy Winn.
Comment Starter: Happy with the deadline?
For those interested, Sabean was on Raplh’s show yesterday talking about some draft day and post-draft day stuff.
MP3 – http://media.knbr.com/knbr/sabean.mp3
Whether or not you like Ralph, it’s an interesting peak into the psyche of Sabes.
Some blurbs from the audio
~ The Giants may be making some internal roster moves soon. Pablo? Matt Downs? Ishi?
~ Sabes said he was “not very close” to making any trades.
~ Omar, Castillo, and Aurilia will see reduced playing time /taken with grain of salt
~ On the topic of Dave Roberts: He’ll spell Fred now and then. Schierholtz is not available because he’s in the Olympics. Roberts is a “spot starter, pinch runner, pinch hitter”
~ On Posey signing: Sabes, at this juncture, is at “where he expected to be” and could go down to the last week in negotiations. Most other teams are still trying to sign their picks. He hopes that he could get some of the other picks sign and “that may be on it’s way to happening”.
~ Discussions of if they should move Lewis down in the batting order. Maybe use Burriss at the top spot?
Standard stuff. I get the impression that the front office and coaching staff wants Fred to be more aggressive by moving him down in the lineup (ie: taking less pitches) and I’m not sure how much I like that idea.
I’m slightly less pissed now that I was when the deadline rolled around and I realized the Giants just stood pat. I find it hard to believe that Sabean couldn’t move Winn, and impossible to believe that no one wanted Aurilia. Taschner, whatever, he’s cheap and reasonable effective, no harm in hanging on to him.
Re. the “kids are actually gonna play now” announcement, I’ll believe it when I see it. (See the “Omar is willing to accept less playing time” announcement.) Maybe the best possible thing that could happen is that Boulderskull will continue trotting the vets out there every day, creating a ton of friction b/t him and the front office, and Bochy gets canned?
I could see TI coming up, but I don’t think Pablo is ready by any stretch.
I’d love to see Lewis moved down further in the order where he could actually come up with guys on base, but he’s about the only guy on the whole f’ing team who can coax a walk once in a while.
All in all, I’m still pissed, but less so.
best comment ever?
Haha, whoa, that guy was on fire.
It was almost like something out of ‘The Dugout’.
Also,
I know what you mean. I think Sabean overvalues Randy Winn and Molina a good bit, that’s why they weren’t traded. I also think that Sabean thinks we can contend in ’09, so that’s why he wants to hang on to Randy and Bengie.
Taschner should have been moved. He’s 30-something years old and has been up-and-down in his career. I’ve got a feeling that this year is going to be his career year.
I was also really hoping to trade Aurilia for Boof -_-
He did not alter the ships coarse to ram an iceberg. So there is that.
Personally I think he way over valued the whole lot. I can understand it a bit in the case of Molinia and Tashner. He also way under valued the use of an open roster space. In gardening its called “thinning”. You have to remove some runty plants so you can have space to grow bigger healthier plants. Perhaps the front office can Google it and print it up for him some time.
Aurelia ( or dare I hope Castle?) for Boof. I think we will regret that real soon. Like this month soon. The Giants will need someone ( maybe more like some two) to soak up innings in August and I rather it not be Tim, Cain and Sanchez. This is were the melt down and injuries to Lowry, Hennessy and Corriea will really hurt. Before the season figured 250-300 innings of decent MLB pitching from those 3. We may not even get 100 innings.
Dave dropping the good plant knowledge, +1 to you.
Made me laugh, and you’re partially right. Anytime I think about Sabean wheeling ‘n’ dealing, I’m happy if at the end, everything isn’t on fire and in flames.
Good point about inning concerns for the younger pitchers, I’m not sure who is going to get those innings. Hammond pitched last night in AAA and didn’t do very well.
Who the Giants call up to pitch will be real interesting and instructive. It not like the club can tap a right hander and say you fill the middle innings on Sanchez & Zito starts because it ignores Corriea’s limitations. Might we see Misch as a 3rd lefty starter again? And how the front office opens up that roster space(s) will be important as well. Do they actually cut Omar? D.L. Lewis ( I half think the bunions are a P.R. angle to delay the mob)? D.L. Roberts again?
How sad is this – I actually almost want the vet heavy line up the next 3 games. I should give S.D. a better record then us then we only have to the M’s and the Nat’s between us and a #1 pick. Still I can’t watch to many more of these games were they are building as close to nothing has they can get away with.
Here is my take, 1) No one wanted Aurilia, Omar, Walker or Roberts. No. One. Would you? My lasting impression of Aurilia the past year and this is his charming way of swinging and missing at two strikes by a foot and a half and then glaring at the ump on a called third; 2) Players with some value, such as Molina and Winn did not attract offers, or did not attract sufficient value in Mr. Sabean’s mind. That said, there were some big names moved, but not a great number of moves on the transaction wire. That suggests that there may still be some movement, as gms quit messing around with what they want and think about what might be a modest circumstantial improvement for their club. Sabean said as much in his expression of disappointment at not being able to deal, and finally; 3) Sabean may not be enamored with Mr. Bochy’s line-ups. I mean, how often does a gm say that he is going to dictate line-ups? Radical.
A few other thoughts – anyone who ever thought “WTF?” when they heard about the signings of Aurilia, Roberts, etc, can feel vindicated. Sabean MAY be now trying to move the team in a directionally correct manner. Unfortunately, it involves digging the Giants out of a hole of his own making. I wish him luck for all our sakes.