Where I’ve Been, Where I’m Going, and What The H#!LL Are The Giants Doing?

It’s been awhile since I’ve been able to sit down at my PC and find the time (and energy) to write something about the Giants. Me and my wife have decided to take the plunge and enter the world of home ownership (also known colloquially as “debt”). This will be our first time buying a house and the process has been quite interesting. I’ve done a lot of strange things in my life but walking through other people’s houses while home shopping is a weird experience. You see some weird things.

I’m talking about you weird panther statuette collection on the mantle in some guy’s house.

After weeks of searching, we found something, made a bid, got a contract, and we’re rolling towards a closing date sometime in November or December. These things seem to move fast. Of course, after putting a lot of time and effort into house hunting, we can now put a lot of time and effort into shoving every possession we have into boxes. Then taking those boxes, putting them into an unsafe U-Haul, and unpacking them one-by-one.

I really hate moving.

But, here we are. It’s actually been a fun transition for the most part. Unfortunately, my time for baseball nerdery has been depleted. I apologize to my 5 readers for the lack of recent updates. I can’t promise daily updates in the coming future, but I’m shooting for at least a couple of posts a week until we get settled into our new place. Now that the World Series has ended we are entering Hot Stove season for baseball. Trades and roster moves abounds! Since I’m a little behind, I’ll catch up by touching briefly on a couple of Giants happenings over the past 14 days.

Moderately big news item: Freddy Sanchez has signed a two-year contract with the Giants valued at $12M. After trading RHP Tim Alderson for Sanchez at the deadline, Freddy never really hit for the Giants. Or played much, either. Sanchez appeared in just 25 games with the Giants and hit a disappointing slash-line of: .284/.295/.324 with an OPS+ of 62 during his time with the G’s. He wrapped up the 2009 season with a wOBA of .322 — which isn’t far off his career average of .326. I wasn’t thrilled with the Sanchez acquisition when it happened and this 2-year extension hasn’t done much to soothe my apprehensions. That’s not to say there isn’t some good things about the deal. Mostly it’s length. It’s short, which for 2B entering their early 30′s is a good thing. The price is pretty fair as well. Sanchez is getting paid per season like a 1.5 win player — a win total he’s beat every season as a player outside of his really bad 2008 season. Sanchez is what he is: a contact-styled hitter without much power (career ISO of .118) that’s not going to walk (career BB% of 4.7) and plays good defense (career UZR/150 of +5.8 runs at 2B). The deal length is nice and he’s got a decent chance to outproduce the contract pending on good health. But I still don’t like the price we paid.

Uribe Testing Market: According to ExtraBaggs, Juan Uribe is going to test the FA market. Uribe was a major surprise for the Giants. After signing a minor league deal and working his way onto the roster as 25th man, he eventually became a starter and accumulated 398 plate appearances. Uribe’s ’08 wOBA of .351 was his best offensive season ever. Even slightly eclipsing his ’04 season with the White Sox. Uribe hit and played solid defense (+3.4 runs above average overall) for the Giants. When you tabulate everything he was worth 2.9 wins to the ’09 Giants. That’s quite the bargain for the $1M the Giants paid him. Uribe should be able to find a 2-year deal on the FA market. He’s a good defender at 2B and can fake SS enough to help a team out. I’d like him back, but I worry about the price he would cost.

How High?: Also, apparently Tim Lincecum has been cited for marijuana possession in his home state of Washington. Weird. But I bet not that uncommon in the MLB. I wonder what’s the percentage of MLB’ers that have tested positive for marijuana use in the past year? The past 5 years? Not exactly the kind of thing you want happening to the face of your franchise. I expect some Lincecum anti-drug PSAs in 2010. This marks the first time I’ve been able to use the tag ‘weed’ on BCB.