Friday links

Published by on November 4, 2011 | 4 Responses

I have some links. You have some time, let’s share.

Quick links, bullet-style:

  • The Hardball Times: Chris Jaffe highlights some of Matty Alou’s greatest career moments. Lots of great facts in that link.
  • SBN Baseball Nation: Grant Brisbee has a brief write-up on Matty Alou.
  • MLB.com: Hungry for baseball? You can watch highlights of the MLB All-Stars playing in the Taiwan All-Star Series at MLB.com.
  • FanGraphs: Dave Cameron makes the case for trading Lincecum. Hold back your urge to scream, there’s some good points to be made for trading Lincecum. Though, I’m highly doubtful it will ever happen.
  • Baseball America: Joe Panik made the ‘AFL Rising Stars’ roster.

Also, last but not least, a video of Andres Torres making a sweet sliding catch from last night’s MLB / Taiwan All-Star game.

Please, Giants, bring back Torres.

As usual: if you’ve got a good link, please share it in the comments.

Article written by

4 comments
  Livefyre
Newest | Oldest
Squire
Squire

The sad truth with this "budget crunch," is that it didn't need to be this way. If you take the Giants' two worst contracts off the books (Zito and Rowand), they have around $30 million dollars to play with. That would be more than enough for the Giants to sign Beltran AND Reyes, while keeping their pitching staff intact. The Rowand and Zito deals NEVER should have been made. First, I believe a team should only make major FA acquisitions when they are pieces needed to make them championship-caliber. In 2007 (when both deals were made), the Giants were FAR from becoming championship-caliber. The Zito and Rowand deals just bloated the budget at a time when money needed to be saved. Second, Zito and Rowand were not WORTH their contracts, even at the time they were made. You pay big-name money to ACTUAL big-name performers. Back in 2007, Zito was not a $17-$20 million a year player; Rowand was not a $12 million a year player. If Sabean and Co. were forward-thinking in their player-acquisition decisions, the Giants would be primed to add pieces like Reyes and Beltran, which would fill major holes and bring the Giants that much closer to being a "powerhouse." Instead, the Zito and Rowand contracts were made, and the Giants look like a team trying to fill major holes in their roster with pebbles too small to do the job. In short, because of past mistakes, we are seriously discussing trading Lincecum at a time when we shouldn't have to.

rog61
rog61

There's good points to be made in the trade Lincecum camp, but I still don't want to do it. It would harm my emotional connection to the team in a way I don't like. I also think it's a lot harder to get back impact for impact than people want to make out. I've seen more teams destroy themselves trying to get that extra piece to put them over the hump (think Don Nelson looking for a big man, or Tampa Bay trying to find offense) than have actually made themselves stronger. Between the PR hit and the genuinely large chance that it won't work well from a baseball perspective (do Jesus Montero and Ed Nunez really make us a better team than Lincecum and Crawford? Also, if you take that package, you've sort of blocked yourself at the two best FA positions, so where do you spend the savings? And who's the pitcher in this market that we pick up to replace Timmy, or should we be satisfied with a Surkamp, Sanchez, Zito 60% of the rotation?), it seems like an idea that can get real bad real fast. Faster than Zito, even.

Liem
Liem

I agree with your points, rog61. At first the idea of "trading from strength" as Dave put it, seemed compelling, but as you mentioned, the downside to this deal could be disastrous for Giants. The other problem with dealing Lincecum is that there are not many teams that able to absorb Lincecum's upcoming FA contract and also trade legitimate hitting prospects--even though elite pitching is on short supply. That would mean that the Giants wouldn't get the optimal return on a deal for Timmy anyway. As I've mentioned before, the Giants are going to have to bite the bullet over the next two years until the Rowand/Zito conracts come off the books. The plan for now should be just to hang on to the pitching staff as best they can, bring up the kids on the farm, and hope to win big on bargain FAs. After spending $9 million on Lopez and Affeldt, thjavascript: postComment(1);e Giants still have about $25 million to spend (if they keep a similar pay-roll figure to last year's). That should be enough to arbitrate Lincecum and Sandoval. I'm not sure where that leaves Romo, much less Torres, though.

Sarah
Sarah

Nunez could at least platoon with Crawford, and he's not afraid to take a walk or steal a base. That being said, I don't think a Montero +Nunez package is a good deal for the Giants. Nunez + a few other pieces maybe...