So, your favorite team just signed Aubrey Huff for 1-year, $3M to play first base. What happens next?
#diamondbacks deal with adam laroche will pay him between $4 mil and $5 mil, sources tell si.com. good job by dejan getting scoop on AZ.
Oh, right. A division rival will sign a much better player to a better deal. Reports surfaced last week that LaRoche turned down a 2-year, $17.5M deal from the Giants because he wanted 3-years. He ends up signing for 1-year and $4-5M. When it comes down to it, LaRoche is probably 1.5-2 whole wins better than Huff over a full season at first base. That smarts for the Giants. Either LaRoche has the worst agent in the history of baseball or he has an irrational fear of garlic fries.
According to Baggs, the Opening Day lineup for the G’s should look something like this:
1. Rowand CF
2. Sanchez 2B
3. Sandoval 3B
4. Huff 1B
5. DeRosa LF
6. Winner of RF job
7. Renteria SS
8. Catcher
Update: KNBR reporting that the Giants have just placed fastball-fastball-fastball on waivers to make room for Huff.
You know, that lineup doesn’t look that bad to me. Huff is obviously a lot less likely to hit his upside than LaRoche, but his upside is arguably as high or higher.
I know that the argument is that our lineup could be SO MUCH better, without really spending any further resources, and I agree to a large extent, but we’re looking better than we were last year, which means that we should have a fun season, at least.
The lineup is looking better than last year, that is true. It’s going to be hard to match our pitching and defense from last year though.
This deal really bugs me. I’m not sure who’s to blame: the Giants, LaRoche, his agent, or no one (because sometimes shit happens), all I know is that the Giants got fucked here.
The lineup does look a little better — but that shouldn’t be hard to do for one of the worst offensive teams in baseball. I worry about Sanchez for some reason. He seems pretty volatile to me.
The lineup by CHONE and wRC+
1. Rowand (96)
2. Sanchez (93)
3. Sandoval (136)
4. Huff (103)
5. DeRosa (105)
6. Schierholtz (107)
7. Renteria (92)
8. Posey (100) / Torrealba (73)*
*Adding Yorvit because it looks like he’ll sign with us most likely.
Kinda of reminds me of the Bonds days a little in that you’ve got 1 really good hitter surrounded by a few average-ish guys. Nate always does well by projection system and if he hit his projected wRC+ of 107 he would be a pretty valuable player. I’m not sold on him though.
I would also probably take the under on Rent’s projection, too.
I really agree with you Marcello when it comes to matching last year’s pitching and defense. To expect the pitching to not regress seems overly optimistic. The infield defense will take a hit with Huff at 1B. Hopefully Pablo can play -5 run defense at 3B and Sanchez can stay healthy enough to play to his career averages at 2B. Renteria seems like a wild card, even though his defense has been better over the years than people give him credit for.
Chris, as I’ve noted in a fanshot at McC, the LaRoche deal turns out to have been either 1yr/6mil, or 2yrs12mil, depending on the 2nd year option. The 6 mil is guaranteed. Not saying it should make everyone happy, but it does change things a bit.