El Lefty Malo is AWESOME: Rowand and Tejada DFAed

El Lefty Malo is AWESOME!  Read his post on what he thought the Giants need to do.

And the Giants appeared to listen to him, though not to the letter (sub Tejada for Cabrera) by DFAing Rowand and Tejada.  Arguably, this is a bigger message sent since Tejada is paid a lot more than Cabrera.  But I think his open pouting and discussion of such regarding the bunt helped Giants management push the button easier on that one.

Rowand's lack of production made his release an easy one, $14M or not, as Baggarly reported that he was openly campaigning for getting out of SF, a circumstance that probably made the decision for Giants management that much more obvious as well.  He has reached the true point of "sunk costs":  at least last season he was a viable talent off the bench, producing some value as a player, and for the first half of this season, but for a number of months now he has been even worse than replacement value.

They were clearly "addition by subtraction" type of moves.  That's nearly $20M wrote off, so Zito could be gone sometime next season as well if he's not producing or even if he's not in the starting rotation, since the Giants could go with Lincecum, Cain, Bumgarner, Sanchez, Vogelsong in the rotation.

Sabean says that he will try to trade both of them today so that they can hook on with a playoff contending team; Rowand is hoping to rejoin the Phillies, but I don't see the Giants doing that one, I don't think that they want to see him haunting them in any way.  I also don't see any team wanting to even give up a low level prospect for either of them, much cleaner to wait for the end of the 10-day period and sign them then.  Nobody will be crying that they didn't pick these players up in time to make the playoff roster, as defiant as Tejada's statement was the other day about contributing to somebody's playoff efforts.  But if Renteria can get a job somewhere, I'm sure Tejada will as well.

Meanwhile, the Giants activated Pat Burrell and purchased the contract of Brett Pill, rewarding his great season so far in AAA, plus his willingness to play a number of different positions.  As much as I would hope that Pill mashes, the history of players his age who hit well but not that great in AAA is not encouraging, they normally don't come up here and do much of anything.  But I wish him all the success he can get, and who knows, he could be the exception to prove the rule.  I certainly would not have thought that Crawford could keep his strikeout rate so low in the majors, or his walk rate so high, so there's always that.

I assume part of this move was to enable Burrell to be available for the playoffs should we be able to fight our way in.  And at this point, you roll the dice and see what you got with Pill, there is really no one else high in the system worth that shot.

Baggarly also noted that there is still an open 40-man spot with this move.  That opens up the possibility of bringing up another player, such as Bill Hall or Marc Kroon.  Sentimentally, I would go with Kroon, but objectively, Hall is probably the more logical move because he can play multiple positions and has been hitting OK in the minors, though not great, at least if he were still a major league caliber hitter.  If he were, he should have been killing the ball.  Still, he's been a major leaguer, and it wasn't that long ago that he was hitting OK (last season), so you might want to take a chance on that.  But at this point, I would go with Kroon, would make great story, might juice the clubhouse by his inspirational story, which Hall would not provide.

Nice offense today, just what this team needs, 4 runs, that is all we ask for, daily, and our pitching can win with that.  Appears that the shock of the move got some of the hitters moving, though really, Jeff Keppinger and Mark DeRosa has been hitting lately, and of course, Pablo Sandoval has usually been hitting.  Fontenot had a nice game too, as did Chris Stewart, whom I've liked since he came up to the majors for us.

However, neither Carlos Beltran or Cody Ross did much of anything to help, though perhaps Ross is now afraid that Burrell will take his ABs away.  Sigh: he should realize that it is his poor hitting that is taking away his ABs, not the OF situation, Bochy would start him a lot if he were hitting as well as he was for most of this season, and not the sad numbers he has put up since Beltran was traded for.   Beltran has been hot for the most part lately, but have been coming up small when we needed him, like in yesterday's game, he could have tied the game with a base-hit and got us back in the game with a timely hit.

And, of course, Madison Bumgarner gave us a great game.  Hopefully it is a start for the rotation, seems like a statement game by him:  try and top this, ladies.

Bad Idea I Heard: DFA Rowand and Start Torres

I heard this idea on the radio the other day and I won't embarrass this host but wanted to address this idea that I've seen fans put out there before, which is to eat Aaron Rowand's contract and start Torres instead.  It is a pretty dumb idea.

The usual supporting arguments typically involve pointing out Arizona's eatting of Eric Byrnes' contract and before that, of Russ Ortiz's contract.  They ate around $10M or so in each case.  So they point to Rowand's $12M contract for this season and say that the Giants should DFA him and play Torres instead.

First, they are forgetting that the Giants have another 2 years on the contract after this season.  So they are not dropping a $12M contract, they are basically dropping $30M+.   That's not going to happen.  Maybe in Rowand's 5th season, if he's doing really poorly and there's someone better, but that's not going to happen this season.

Second, that is the other thing missed by these people, that there has to be somebody better.  Torres is better right now, but over the past 8 seasons, Rowand has been much better overall.  Maybe Torres is figuring things out at a late age, that is always possible, for the reasons the newspapers give, that he was a runner learning baseball for the first time in college.  But at age 32, that's still 14 years already and he's finally figuring out how to hit?

Color me skeptical.  I need more than a little over a month's worth (basically April 18th to current) of good play this season to feel comfortable saying that, as his nice batting line last season was accompanied by a horrid strikeout rate that most hitters cannot support.  This season is much better, much improved in both walks and strikeouts this season, but he's still striking out a little too much, and that's really one month of performance, hitters can do that in short streaks.  Plus, his BABIP was very high last season, higher than what most hitters can support, though there are some hitters that can do that, typically fast guys like Torres.

Nothing in his past suggests that he can do this over a full season.  Basically people are taking a leap of faith that he can do this regularly as a starter.  That is no way to run a team.  At least not a good way.

There is nothing wrong with starting him while he's hot, though.  I believe in playing the hot hitter.  But that does not mean that you DFA a player who can still play MLB level baseball while keeping this currently hot journeyman.  That is no way to manage either.

That brings me to my third reason:  DFAing Rowand, even if you think that Torres is demonstrably better makes no sense at all from an asset management viewpoint.   What if Torres gets injured?  What if his hot hitting ends (like it did for Rowand) and he's sudden the cold hitter?  Then who would you play in CF?  There is no one in the minors hitting well and playing CF right now.  It would be Bocock Part II.

In addition, Rowand, while not currently hitting as well as the average CF in the NL, isn't exactly a replacement level player either.  He would be a good player on any bench, he plays good defense in the OF, can hit a homer now and again, can go on nice hitting sprees when his body is up for it, particularly if he's sitting on the bench.  Yes, his contract is a sunk cost, but if he's still better than who you can put on the bench, you may as well carry him on the bench in case you need him.

And it is not just CF, there is still LF and RF, and DeRosa is no guarantee to return AND be good, plus neither Bowker or Schierholtz have hit consistently enough to keep a starting OF job yet, though good enough to get frequent chances at it.  Rowand could be a better alternative than one of those OFs, and move around like Randy Winn did, though since the defense stats show him to be good in CF this season, I would move Torres around since he's been doing that anyway.

So no, DFAing Rowand and starting Torres is not a smart thing to do.  I'm surprised the host said that, he seems smarter than that generally.  I will chalk it up to having a mic in your hand:  sometimes you just say something in the spur of the moment that looks bad later on.  No excuse for the posters who proffer up this idea on-line though, they have plenty of time to put some thought into it.

This is just like the love Uribe has been seeing both last season and this season, but nobody realizes that since May 1st he has only been hitting .224/.325/.358/.683.  He and Torres are good coming in and providing some pep to the offense when somebody is out, but there is a reason why neither one was a starter when the Giants signed them.  They will cool off and then you need to have other bodies on the bench who can step in.

Molina Teleconference and Sanchez Shoulder Surgery

Molina has been officially signed by the Giants and there was a press conference earlier today. Reports from Baggarly's blog (and his news account) and John Shea of the Chronicle. Here are key points covered, including the surprising news that came out of a KNBR interview last night with Bruce Bochy, where he casually noted that Freddy Sanchez had shoulder surgery about a month ago and is on the bubble for making the start of the season.

• Molina is officially a Giant, signing a $4.5M contract. Bengie noted that the Mets never offered a multi-year contract, else he probably would have took it, and only offered him a $5.0M contract (my note: most reports had it at $5.5M), so he decided that he would rather be where he was comfortable than get $500K more (my note: but apparently did not mention the $1.5M option that he could earn that most sources reported). He also said that he expects the Giants to be making the playoffs, unlike the Mets. He believes the Giants are "very, very close" to making something special happen.
• Nice quote: "The plan is to move him down in the lineup, possibly sixth. "I never considered myself a fourth hitter. I thought I was doing them a favor," said Molina, adding he'll bat wherever manager Bruce Bochy wants him. "I can hit behind the pitcher if he wants me there."
• Molina said he texted Posey and assured him that he wasn't there to take his job (though probably he did, unless the Giants signed another starting catcher) and offered to be there for him for anything. Posey then called back and they chatted. Sabean reiterated that Posey needed more seasoning in the minors, though he didn't rule out Posey starting the season as the backup catcher. Bu the expectation is that he'll get to start everyday in AAA and continue his learning with Steve Decker (former Giants catcher) who is now Fresno's manager (moving up the farm system). Baggarly noted that it's possible he will receive a promotion at some point this season. Molina said, "I said I'm happy to help out with whatever he needs. If they want to bring him up and do their thing, hey, I understand."
• Sanchez had left shoulder surgery on December 23rd. The Giants Dr. Akizuki, who is on their staff, repaired a torn labrum and cleaned up an arthritic AC joint arthroscopically. Apparently the Giants did 4 MRIs on him before signing him, but like the medical shows, missed the torn labrum, which went unnoticed until Sanchez started swinging a bat again. He is expected to be out 10-12 weeks, meaning that Opening Day is in doubt, but the expectation is that he'll be 100% once he does take the field. I can understand the mistake, but when so many of them are being made, it makes you wonder what is going on with our training staff. The good news is that Sanchez is working his butt off to make opening day and it is encouraging thus far.
• Juan Uribe is our starting 2B until Sanchez gets back. That's why we signed him, insurance in case some regular is unable to start or needs a rest. I was hoping the Giants might play DeRosa there instead and let two young players start in the OF, but I can see the merits of keeping DeRosa out in LF since he doesn't have the most experience out there (though over a season's worth of games in the OF).
• They reported that both Burriss and Renteria were doing well. Renteria told the Giants that he's excited about where he's at. Hopefully that will translate to his hitting like he did when he was a plus hitter, that would be a boon to our offense.
• The Giants DFAed Jesus Guzman to clear space for Molina. Sabean noted that any other acquisitions would come on minor league contracts with invitations to spring training, including additional right-handed relievers.

Giants Thoughts

Unlike many others, I have no problem with the signing, particularly since it would give Posey more time to get more experience in the minors. It should also give us one more year of control over him, plus the learning he would have done in 2010 would have costed us one year of control, while now he will get some of that learning in AAA before hopefully getting called up in July or August (or even September), and getting to play a little backing up Bengie plus learning from Molina.

I'm upset about Sanchez but I'll get over it (unlike others). He should only be out for two weeks, and that should not kill our chances of winning while he is out, because Uribe is a good enough replacement. Hey, one year Schmidt was out until May, and we came back and started winning and had a good year. As long as we don't fall too far behind while he is out, we should be OK.

Still, something has got to be done about the training staff, we seem to have all these unknown medical conditions that creep up on us, starting around when Bonds knee that was suppose to keep him out for a little while instead kept him out almost all season.

Guzman: hey, thanks for the excitement you gave us for a little while, good luck.