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.
I don't think the silence means anything. They were silent for a long time last year until the now famous letter that Magowan sent to the season ticket holders ("We are going to get younger & healthier"....yeah, right). Just look what they did after that.
ReplyDeleteIt's called a strategy because it is a long term plan. Sometimes you cannot execute on your plan when things don't go your way: a number of young free agents were bid on by the Giants but they ultimately decided on another team.
ReplyDeleteDo you rather the Giants just overpay for these players just so that they can say "we got younger and healthier"? I would think not. And Carlos Lee told the Giants not to bother bidding higher once he got what he wanted from the Astros.
Do you rather the Giants just not sign anyone at all and don't care about the results on the field, just play the best prospect in the system and see what happens, forget about the season? Then that's kind of wasteful to spend nearly $20M on Bonds.
They did the best in a bad situation: that happens in real life. Ortiz, Feliz and Klesko were signed to a one year contract, Kline, Durham and Aurilia to two year, and Roberts and Molina to three years. Plus they got Zito.
Oddly enough, Roberts and Molina are and were younger and healthier. So was Zito. Durham looked like a good deal at the time, nobody knew he would do so badly at the time. And one year contracts are no big deals today, we needed bodies, we got bodies.
Meanwhile, our pitching staff got younger during the season and was pretty healthy for the most part, except for the cheap oldie, Ortiz.
And Baseball reference stats show the Giants average age was 33.5 last season, but 32.8 this season (and the ages were weighted by performance/play). That is younger, though you probably wanted "young" period. It should be better next year with Lincecum and other youngsters in the rotation, plus hopefully Wilson as the closer, and hopefully some prospects getting significant ABs, like Schierholtz, Davis, Lewis, and Ortmeier.
I don't think that any level of silence will drive Bonds' asking price down. He knows there really isn't any other options other than him, if the Giants want a slugger (and ticket draw).
ReplyDeleteThe way I see it, unless someone can guarantee to me that the ownership doesn't just pocket the "profit" from their revenue, that they should re-sign Barry for whatever he wants. Another one year deal to him (as long as none of it is deferred) isn't going to hurt this team in the near future.
There's been the argument that not re-signing Bonds will allow for more of the youngsters to play. While I generally agree with that, I'd rather see Bonds out there at ~$23M ($16M + the $6.5M owed to Roberts) and releasing Roberts. Let Freddy and Davis play center, and Nate could play left or right when Bonds or Winn sit.
I understand that in good business, you'd want to get the most for your money, so it makes (somewhat) little sense to cut Roberts. However, when do you draw the line? Between Roberts and Winn, who would you rather have? If you can't trade either of them, what do you do?
Not long after posting the above comment, I find this on the web. I guess the Giants are really playing hardball this offseason.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the link sfgfan!!!
ReplyDeleteWow, that's very interesting news. Clearly the Giants are moving forward with their next era. I don't see the problem with the Giants waiting until now to tell Bonds because what could he have done differently, plead his case even louder with the fans? Would he have played more games? I don't see how knowing earlier would have allowed anything different to happen, people don't normally acknowledge anything until the end anyhow, that's why fan appreciation day is at the end of the season.
At least they told him now, in the last homestand, so that he CAN say goodbye to the fans who show up for those games.
WOW! BIG NEWS! Thanks again!