Now Playing 3B for the Giants: Miguel Cabrera?

I know it's a pipe dream but what's not a pipe dream is that Cabrera and the Marlins are having a very public hissy-fit over their arbitration hearing - the news is on Ben Maller's rumor website.

According to his sources - and the info was reported in a newspaper - Cabrera is unhappy that the Marlins are taking him to arbitration over $700,000. Doesn't mention if he wants the whole $700,000 or just want the Marlins to meet him half way, but it reminds me of that quote from a senator, which I'll paraphrase here: "$100,00 here, $100,000, there: pretty soon you're talking about a lot of money." (I think the senator used the term $1 trillion). So purportedly he didn't show up for a team function - one that he skipped two years ago but didn't get chastised for it so very publicly except he wasn't the big star then - because of this.

Samson One Haircut Short of a Full Load

David Samson, President of the Marlins (and more importantly, the owner's step-son), has been criticized for not being the sharpest pencil in previous accounts that I have read about him, but I always try to keep an open mind about how people are portrayed in print. However, this newspaper article pretty much sealed the deal with me that he's not that smart and, in fact, is pretty dumb.

Here Miguel Cabrera is one of the premier players in the league (though I've read recent complaints about his conditioning coming into camp) and he's not happy (rightly or wrongly) about the Marlins taking him to arbitration over the $700,000 difference (his $7.4M vs. their $6.7M). So Samson publicly criticizes Cabrera for not showing up and publicly states that he will mention their displeasure in the arbitration hearing.

However, "Samson said he didn't think it will cause hard feelings that could linger into the season. 'We're all adults here and we all have responsibilities...' ". What an idiot! Of course this will cause hard feelings that could linger into the season! Even if he wasn't a great baseball player, and just an average joe like us, he would have hard feelings that could and will linger into the season.

But not the way Samson is thinking. Samson is probably thinking about performance on the field. There, sure, no hard feelings, but Cabrera should know that he has to perform to get his next new payday, he's not that dumb (not even Livan was that dumb). So he will play well most probably.

But if the Marlins are hoping to keep him long term, there will definitely be hard feelings as long as Samson is around, they can forget about getting an extension of any sort now plus they can forget about Cabrera showing up for any future "mandatory" pre-season promotional events. I know that money can talk sometimes, but for a superstar ego to take that type of criticism publicly from the team's ownership/management, he's probably thinking that he can make great money anywhere anyhow, so why bother negotiating with the Marlins? Samson just blew it big time if he wanted to keep Cabrera.

Giants and Cabrera?

Here's where hopefully the Giants come into the picture. They have obviously been talking with the Marlins about trading Benitez for a prospect. So why not expand the trade to include other players in order to try to get Cabrera? I'm not sure what it would take, but it would probably start with either Noah Lowry or Jonathan Sanchez, then I'm not sure where it would go.

I'm sure they wouldn't want Pedro Feliz though, but I also know that the Giants wouldn't trade Angel Villalona either. It would just kill their image with Latin American prospects for them to jettison him like that before he plays one game for them - I'll also add that I don't know the rules, perhaps they can't trade him for a year, much like the Giants cannot trade Lincecum, from what I read, for a year, but even if they could, it would be a serious blow to their reputation in the region. We don't have many other good 3B prospects, Pablo Sandoval was a hot prospect before the 2006 season but his poor season dropped his stock tremedously.

Another possibility would Eddy Martinez-Esteve, who was a big college star in Florida before the Giants drafted him. But he's probably either a LF, more probably a 1B, and best suited for DH, but the Marlins are in the NL, so no DH there. I think Marcus Sanders played for a Floridian community college, who that the Giants could do a draft-and-follow, so he could also be a local attraction as well. And Merkin Valdez is from the Dominican. Those are all players who might be interesting to the Marlins for both potential and local attraction.

In any case, I hope the Giants at least kicks the tires and see if the Marlins might be willing to part with their star player after their public bickering. Lets see: Lowry, EME, Valdez, and another good prospect (or maybe even Hennessey?) plus Benitez for Cabrera?