Silence is a Bargaining Tool Also

Tim Kawakami of the SJ Mercury makes the argument that silence on the Giants part speaks volumes on their intent with regards to signing Bonds, namely that they are planning on a future without him. However, what he's missing is that silence can also be a bargaining tool as well, to get Bonds to lower his price if he wants to return.

Of course, this is all speculation. As I noted before, my gut tells me that the Giants would re-sign Bonds if agrees that this season is his final one and that they can celebrate his career all season-long, plus be reasonable in terms of contract size, something under $10M. The questions, to me, are how much below that the Giants would want, and how low is Barry willing to take. I would think somewhere in the high single digits will be the salary, perhaps half that of this season, with the understanding that Bonds would not be playing as many games, just the majority of home games, and one game minimum of each road series, so that the young players get more ABs. He would also get to DH.

Despite all the rhetoric by his agent about teams willing to sign him, I don't see how any team would be willing to sign him period, let alone how much it would cost them. There's so much baggage. Sosa, at least, his stigma is mainly he wasn't that good his last time around (though there are whispers that he has used before), but Rafael Palmeiro, who was still an effective hitter but caught as a steroids user, wasn't able to find work the past two seasons.

As a Giants fan, I know having him around would cost us development time, but I would like to see him reach 3,000 hits plus retire as a Giant, and at a reasonable salary. However, I would also be OK with the Giants not pursuing him, even if no one tries to sign him, if that was their decision, I've seen enough baseball that this sort of stuff don't always happen for Hall of Famers at the end of their career.

Either way on Bonds, I just want to:

A) See Schierholtz get a chance to play at least 300-400 AB in 2008, if not regularly start (which means Winn traded); and

B) See Davis and Lewis get regular play in the OF. Davis should as Roberts platoon buddy, plus when Bonds DH, and Lewis probably should as Barry's stand-in in LF when Bonds isn't playing. That's not ideal, as both would get around 200-300 AB, but should give them enough AB so that they Giants have a better feel for what they got when 2009 season starts.

C) See the Bonds saga end, either now or 2008, whatever works for the Giants.