I Read the News Today, Oh Boy: Vizquel Injury

It has been revealed today - here is the sfgiants.com version - that Omar Vizquel injured his knee last week and when he had an MRI, they discovered that he needs surgery to fix the damage now and get him back on the field quickly for most of 2008, instead of risking that the surgery happens sometime during the season and losing a large chunk of the season. He will be out 4-6 weeks and most probably will miss some of the start of the season.

The immediate solution noted right now is for Frandsen to man Shortstop in Omar's absense, which means Aurilia at 3B and Durham at 2B, though once Omar is back, Durham might have a battle for playing time at 2B, depending on how well Aurilia hits as well, because the Giants could field Aurilia at 3B and Frandsen at 2B.

Frandsen is jazzed by the opportunity, though he took pains to note that the position is Omar's and he regrets it is an injury that gave him the opportunity. He knows that he still has to win a starting position once Omar is back. But he appreciates the Giants confidence in him and hopes to earn a starting position somewhere for 2008.

This also opens up an opportunity for Eugenio Velez to win the utility middle infielder role at the start of the season. He is still prepping for an uber-utility role - he is playing every position except for pitcher, catcher, and 1B, and I'll bet he'd be willing to catch if it got him into the majors. But he's only keeping the seat warm until Omar comes back and forces one of the starters at 2B, 3B, or SS to the bench, depending on how well Durham, Frandsen, and Aurilia hits.

Clearly, the Giants have been leaning towards Durham at 2B and Frandsen at 3B, given the little public comment on Aurilia's role. I have to assume that the only reason the Giants haven't pulled the trigger on a trade for a 3B is because they want to see how Durham and Frandsen does. If both can hit well enough, the man 2B and 3B, respectively, with Durham providing some power, and there is no need for a trade. If either struggles, then they will probably trade for Crede as oft-rumored to play 3B with the better hiter starting at 2B.

It's Official: Vizquel Giant Again

The Giants website, though oddly enough, not Giants management, announced that Omar resigned for $5.5M in 2008 plus a $5.2M option in 2009 that vests if he reaches 140 games played. Hopefully it will be a manager's decision to get him to 139 games. :^)

I still don't understand exactly why spend all this money on Omar when Ivan Ochoa probably would have been his equivalent in fielding - not as much flash, but Ochoa's forte has been defense - and would have been an experiment on offense.

However, he had a breakthrough year last year in AAA, plus always had a nice contact rate (i.e. lower strikeout rate) and improved on taking walks over the prior couple of seasons. According to his MLEs for 2005 and 2006, he is capable of hitting about what Vizquel hit last April - high 500 OPS - but for $5.1M less. His MLE for 2007 was probably much higher, into at least the mid 600 OPS, which is where Vizquel was in 2007 after the ASG.

But, it won't kill the Giants either, so that's something. However, signing Feliz would. Hopefully Feliz pisses off the Giants in some way, much like how Aurilia did when he first left the Giants as a free agent (Baker too), and the Giants don't bother negotiating with him.

First Bad Step: Vizquel for $5.5M

The Giants are reportedly close to signing Vizquel for $5.5M, as reported by Fox Sports on Tuesday, and regurgitated by the Chron here.

I don't understand this: Vizquel has the worse offensive season he has had since probably his rookie season, and having it in his age 40 season suggests more of the same, if not worse, in 2008, his defense, while still good, is not gold glove anymore, the Giants have an all-glove, previously no-hit (he hit nicely in AAA this season) SS prospect in Ivan Ochoa in the system (though he is a free agent) who we could pay a rookie's salary.

Now, the SS free agent pool is pretty crappy, so that might suggest that we rather re-sign Vizquel than dip into that toxic pool, where Royce Clayton, former Giant, seem to get tossed into every year, and yet, every year, someone picks him up. But $5.5M seems totally outrageous, particularly considering it's a $1.5M raise over what they paid him on his first contract. Even accounting for salary inflation, which runs at around 10% per year, that would have put Vizquel at just under $5M, so even with that, he gets a raise.

For what? 2007 was his first year without a Gold Glove win for us. Most state of the art fielding stats have Vizquel as a middle of the crowd infielder now, perhaps slightly above average.

And his offense was offensive this season. Part of it was a horrible April, but the other months were pretty bad too. The better thing is that he was close to his career normal in the second half:

Pre-ASG: .235/.284/.295/.579
Post-ASG: .259/.329/.342/.672
Career: .274/.341/.357/.697

However, the SS position has become an offensive position over the past few years and he is woefully below average there. Last season's league average for NL SS (www.baseball-reference.com):

Average SS: .273/.342/.436/.778

I was expecting him to sign a deal similar to JT Snow in his last season, somewhere in the low to mid $1M range. If this rumor is correct, and he is signed to a $5.5M contract, then I can see why the Giants did not want to sign on for a two year contract, that would only compound the problem.

Now, if Vizquel continues to bat 8th, then we can carry his bat in the lineup, as his relative high OBP would have some value down there as the secondary leadoff hitter (some teams like to put a higher OBP, leadoff type hitter down there to start rallies ahead of our best hitters 1-4). Still, that's a huge chunk of change for average defense and below average offense.

Then again, in the crazy market that is the MLB free agent market, average hitting players today are getting $10M per season, so $5.5M seems like a bargain then. I like that teams want to be competitive, but the Giants need a lot more before they can be competitive, and giving $5.5M to Vizquel is not one of them. Still, I don't think this move would kill them, though it probably kills any chance of them signing A-Rod, unless there is more money in the vault than they have been saying.

Hopefully this is the last and worse of the bad news. I do not want to see any Pedro Feliz signing, and if he holds true to his word that he's pissed off (when asked about his children, who he used as an excuse to return to the Giants last off-season, he snarled that there are schools everywhere) and wants a multi-year contract, then we should not have to worry much about him coming back here, particularly at a high price, his free agency will drag on and on until he and his agent realizes that there is not much demand for a 3B who hits in the low 700 OPS range, no matter how good his defense is (ACTA, which is associated with Bill James, recently announced that Feliz was the best defensive 3B).

I can swallow signing Feliz for $2-3M, but would rather see Frandsen get the start there with Durham at 2B, with the goal of enticing a team to accept Durham in trade for a good prospect or two, then shifting Frandsen to 2B and Aurilia to 3B.