The Giants have signed 35-year-old RHP Ramon Ortiz to a Minor League contract with an invite to Spring Training. From SFGiants.com: Ortiz peaked between 2001-03, when he went 44-33 for Anaheim. He defeated the Giants in Game 3 of the 2002 World Series in San Francisco, allowing four runs in five innings in a 10-4 Angels triumph. That was his… Read more →
This past week the Houston Astros decided to non-tender Ty Wigginton rather than extend a contract to him and increase his salary through arbitration. The Chron article that I just linked to suggests that after arbitration, Wigginton would have been looking at a salary around $6M. He made $4.35M last year. Because the Astros did not tender Wigginton a contract,… Read more →
Baseball America has just posted the results for the Rule 5 Draft. Players Acquired: RHP Luis Perdomo (MLB Phase, drafted from Cardinals), LHP Matt Yourkin (AAA Phase, drafted from Marlins) Players Lost: OF Ben Copeland (MLB Phase, drafted by Athletics), C Elio Sarmiento (AAA Phase, drafted by Rangers), 2B Kyle Haines (AAA Phase, drafted by Phillies). The Giants picked up… Read more →
If you watched the Giants bullpen last year, well, I feel sorry for you. No person should be forced to watch the bullpen atrocities that were Tyler Walker, Jack Taschner, Vinnie Chulk, and Brad Hennessey pitching in relief*. The good news is that Walker, Chulk, and Hennessey are no longer on the team and there’s a good chance that Taschner… Read more →
Yesterday was the deadline for clubs to offer arbitration to their free agent players. This is interesting for a couple of reasons but the most important reason is that it might help us narrow the scope of free agents that the Giants intend to pursue. Brian Sabean said earlier in the offseason that the compensation status of free agents would… Read more →
Greetings, all. I hope everyone had a safe and happy holiday. My body is still drowsy from all the food I ate — I gained 5lbs in one day, awesome or gross, you decide — and I couldn’t think of any better way to mail in a post than by just sharing a few links of Giants-related news from around… Read more →
Some various Giants-related links this morning that might catch your eye: ~ Dan Szymborksi of BBTF has released his 2009 ZiPS projections for the Giants — do yourself a favor and avert your eyes from the Burriss projection. ZiPS is one of my favorite projection systems so I’ll definitely be going back over them later this week. I’m thinking of… Read more →
The Giants kicked off the free agent market this offseason by inking lefty reliever Jeremy Affeldt to a 2-year, $8M contract. The team, in sore need of bullpen help, made the first step among many in an effort to fix their battered bullpen. Affeldt definitely improves the bullpen but for fans that haven’t seen Affeldt pitch, what does he throw?… Read more →
Earlier last week I wrote about a few things that I thought the Giants should be doing for next year’s team. Among them were fixing the bullpen and finding free — or very cheap — talent to plug in to the team. Over the weekend the Giants made an early signing that could satisfy both of those requirements. The Giants… Read more →
Talkin’ bout Josh Phelps and the quest for a league average first baseman.