Pablo Sandoval at third? Okay. I’ll pretend that I’m not worried about his defense and hope for the best. The Giants need to get his bat in the lineup, and if they aren’t trading Bengie Molina, third base is where the opening is.

Travis Ishikawa at first? Okay. I’ll pretend that I’m not worried about last year’s minor league performance being a total fluke. If he didn’t have 171 stellar at-bats in Fresno last season, he wouldn’t even be in the conversation for this year’s job. That isn’t to minimize the improvement he showed in Connecticut, but if he hit .289/.383/.461 for a full year in AA, the consensus would be that was just ducky, but that he needs to do it again in AAA. The glove is good, though, and you can’t just dismiss the AAA performance, so I’ll hope for the best. Josh Phelps is a pretty sweet backup plan.

Kevin Frandsen, Eugenio Velez, or Manny Burriss at second? Uh, okay. I guess. Burriss should start every game somewhere as a shortstop; the Giants don’t have any other in-house options above A-ball should Renteria implode, and Burriss could use the experience. Velez finished the season strong, but so did Dan Ortmeier in 2007; I don’t ever see Velez starting for a good major league team. I like Frandsen more than most, and I think he has a fair shot of becoming a Mark kind of second baseman (Grudzielanek, DeRosa, Loretta), but that half-hearted optimism should not stand in the way of any substantial upgrades.

But I’m hoping Frandsen would get the job, mostly because I didn’t want to see Madison Bumgarner traded in a Dan Uggla deal, nor did I want to see Orlando Hudson on a 4- or 5-year deal. So here’s to Kevin Frandsen, the startin…

Wait. Now I can’t stop thinking about Orlando Hudson. I wrote about him here, scoffing at the eventual contract he was going to receive. But that was before free agents started selling apples on street corners and registering with temp agencies. After the Pat Burrell deal, it’s clear that a lot of hitters aren’t as valuable on the market as they might have thought they were in October.

Orlando Hudson on a two-year deal? Yes, yes, a thousand times yes. It would put the Giants over their budget, which they might not want to break for a non-famous player. Hudson would be the best defensive player in the infield, though, and he’d also help the Giants score more runs than any of the alternatives. Three years? Ehh. I’m starting to lose interest, but I wouldn’t be upset.

I don’t know if Hudson’s price has dropped that much. That part is all wild speculation. But if so, I’d rather have Hudson than any of the other remaining free agents. Well, except for Manny Ramirez on a two-year deal, of course, but I don’t even know if the Giants are considering him. You think that someone would let us know how that’s going.

You have to love a lineup where the leadoff hitter, cleanup hitter, and eighth-place hitter are interchangeable in terms of power. But there aren’t too many question marks up there. You kind of know what to expect from everyone up there except for Sandoval and Phelpshikawa; three-quarters of the lineup would likely be league average hitters for their position -- no misplaced optimism needed -- and there is room for varying degrees of league-average optimism at the other two spots.

The Giants have been active on the free-agent market, and they’ve done a good job of making the 2009 team better while keeping their options for 2011 wide open. If they can do the same with Orlando Hudson, they should jump at the chance. Apologies to Kevin Frandsen, but there is suddenly a little more value in having a known quantity for the next two seasons.

My favorite thing to do while watching classing baseball is Baseball Reference surf. Start at the page for one of the teams you're watching, click on a player, and don't stop until your cuticles melt. I was watching the seventh game of the '91 World Series the other night -- Smoltz v. Morris -- so I started out on the '91 Twins, and clicked on Dan Gladden. Gladden to Bryan Hickerson to the '92 Giants to Kevin Bass (hey, he was pretty good when the Giants got him) to the '83 Astros to Joe Niekro to the '88 Twins to Kent Hrbek back to the '91 Twins to Brian Harper to...

And that's where I stopped. Harper was the catcher for the Twins for seven years, including the championship team in '91, and he had the weirdest career path that I can think of.

Note: Harper is currently a roving catching instructor for the Giants, and he's the father of Fresno Grizzlies slugger Brett Harper, so this is totally relevant to a Giants blog. It's not like I'm fishing for material on a slow January afternoon. C'mon, now.

Harper's bizarre career:

• 4th-round pick of the Angels in '77 as a 17-year-old
• Drafted as a catcher
• Moved off catcher when he was 21
• Put up a .350/.389/.617 line in AAA in his age-21 season, though it was in Salt Lake City
• Traded to the Pirates for Tim Foli
• Had a couple hundred at-bats for the Pirates spread over three years
• Kicked around for three other teams, usually spending most of his time in the minors as an outfielder
• Moved back to catcher by the Twins when he's 28
• One of the league's better catchers for several years in his early '30s

Harper went from a AAAA outfield journeyman to starting catcher on a contender in two years. That's insane. So this thread is filled for reminiscing about players with weird career paths. Here's another one:

• 6th-round pick in '95 as a 22-year old
• Drafted as a shortstop
• Asked to convert to pitcher, retired instead
• Reconsidered, came back as a pitcher
• Rocketed up through the system as a starting pitcher
• Got hurt
• Came back. Sucked
• No, seriously. Dude was awful in AAA for two straight years. One, I can understand because he was rehabbing from a serious injury. But two? He was done
• Wasn't done. Did well as a reliever in the majors
• Eventually he was the closer on the '04 Giants team that won the NL West and the World Series, and he is still racking up the saves today

See? That career path is almost too hard to believe. Open Random Career Path Thread.

1:01 a.m. – According to a high-ranking source, the Giants are out on Manny Ramirez.

2:35 a.m. – According to a high-ranking official, the Giants are in on Manny Ramirez.

4:45 a.m. – According to a high-ranking source, the Giants are in on Manny Ramirez, but only for the major league minimum.

5:22 a.m. – According to a high-ranking official, the Giants are in on Manny Ramirez. They’ve offered him a five-year deal.

5:23 a.m. – According to a high-ranking official, the previously reported five-year-deal is only partially accurate. Of the five years, all of them are option years, including the first year. The Giants will have the ability to void the entire contract on May 1st.

5:24 a.m. – The previously reported five-year options-only deal has been denied by Scott Boras, who notes that Manny is hoping for five consecutive player options for five years, at $25M per year.

5:54 a.m. – According to the El Telégrafo del Pollo newspaper in Dominican City, Manny Ramirez signed with the Dodgers for 4 years, $85M.

6:15 a.m. – According to my source, neither El Telégrafo del Pollo nor Dominican City are real. Manny is still on the open market.

6:16 a.m. – According to a high-ranking source, the Giants are out, citing a commitment to their youth movement.

6:54 a.m. – According to a high-ranking official, the Giants are in, citing a need for a power hitter.

7:39 a.m. – According to a high-ranking source, the Giants are out, citing budget concerns.

9:32 p.m. – According to a high-ranking official, the Giants are in, citing a moving oration from "Chet in Gilroy", who called into KNBR with reasoning that was so airtight, so passionate, that the organization had no choice but to reconsider.

10:35 p.m. – According to a high-ranking official, the Giants are neither in nor out on Manny Ramirez according to a high-ranking source. Instead, the team is in antarabhāva, which is Sanskrit for "intermediate state." The source described the state as "all, yet none, with the dissolution and transmutation of the free agent market still in front of us, yet also behind."

11:33 p.m. – Larry Baer was on KNBR this morning, and described the efforts to sign Manny Ramirez as "in the first inning."

12:10 a.m. – Henry Schulman reported that the Manny Ramirez talks were "in the third or fourth inning."

12:15 a.m. – Jayson Stark reported that the Manny Ramirez-to-the-Giants were "in the second inning, but a shirtless, drunk fan just jumped down from the stands, and security is chasing him around the field, which has caused substantial delays."

12:28 a.m. – According to a high-ranking official, the Giants are "definitely not interested in Manny Ramirez. No way. What a stupid thing to say. The person who told you that was either stupid or trying to manipulate you. In fact, no one could be that stupid. They’d have to be evil. What evil, manipulative moron told you that? Point out the person who started the rumor, and I’ll cut him; I’ll cut him good."

1:35 a.m. – According to a high-ranking official, the Giants are "definitely interested in Manny Ramirez. Why wouldn’t they be?"

1:55 a.m. – According to a high-ranking source, if the Giants miss out on Manny Ramirez, look for them to sign C.C. Sabathia to a hometown discount.

2:33 a.m. – The Giants are in "the final stages" of a trade that would swap Jonathan Sanchez for Manny Ramirez, according to a source with knowledge of the negotiations.

3:10 a.m. – According to a high-ranking source with knowlege of the negotiations, who also went to school with the sister of a high-ranking official, the Giants have "given up" trying to acquire Manny Ramirez, and have turned their attention to Toronto's Alex Rios.

More updates as events warrant. If you have any updates to add, please post them in the comments section, as I am in no way sick of this story.

The Yankees have five DH/OF types for four lineup openings. As such, Nick Swisher and Xavier Nady have been linked to every team with an opening at first base or in the outfield. Like, oh, the Giants. A quick look at both...

Xavier Nady

Pro:

Hits for power
Can play first (third base in an emergency, too)
Cheap

Con:

Free agent after 2009
He'll never get on base a whole bunch
Free agent after 2009
His defense is below average, at best
Free agent after 2009

 

Nick Swisher

Pro:

If he's hitting .260, he's a pretty danged good hitter
Under contract until 2011, with an option for 2012
Can play first

Con:

If he's hitting .219, he's a pretty miserable hitter
Under contract until 2011, which is a "con" if his 2008 performance level is more of a new standard than a fluke

The Yankees received Swisher in exchange for a couple of Entertainment coupon books, but they'll surely want more in return for him. Before 2008, an Ishikawa/Swisher debate would have been absurd, but considering the seasons both players put up last year, you have to wonder how much cost certainty Swisher provides over Ishikawa for the $22M + prospects commitment it would take. It's possible that Swisher was one of the unluckiest players in baseball last year. Is it worth $22M and a couple of prospects to test that theory? I don't know, but I err on the side of "absolutely not."

Nady is a one-year rental, which seems to rule him out. So it looks like the Yankees wouldn't be a good trade partner.

...unless...

Randy Winn is also a one-year rental, and he's a better fielder in center than any of the options the Yankees have. Winn was a much better player than Nady last year once defense is taken into account. FanGraphs said Winn was worth 18 runs in the field last year, which is an absurd amount. Too absurd, even. That total is equal to his previous six years combined; expecting Winn to have that kind of fielding value again is kind of like expecting Pablo Sandoval to hit .345 again. Considering that Winn will have aged a year, I don't think it's too crazy to think that he'll regress back to his 2007 value. He would still be a good player, but he wouldn't be a defensive superstar. In 2007, Winn was worth 3.4 wins. In 2008, Xavier Nady was worth 3.6 wins, though it should be noted that was Nady's best season.

With a straight one-for-one swap, perhaps with the Giants sending the difference in salaries (about $3M or $4M after Nady goes to arbitration), the Yankees get a true center fielder, and the Giants get a hitter who is better suited to hit in the middle of the order. Nady's ability to play first might mean more at-bats for Nate Schierholtz. Oh, and Nady hit 25 homers with 95 RBI last year, which would sate some of the dingerz-n-ribbies partisans who have been very vocal this offseason.

How the deal could kill the Giants: if Winn really is as good as he was in 2008 and Nady isn't. And this trade doesn't really address the Yankees' glut of outfielders, but getting a real CF would allow the Yankees to be more creative with whom they do give up, as they wouldn't have to rely wholly on one of Melky Cabrera or Swisher to play center.

Usually my fake trades are just comment starters that I'm only half sold on. This one, though, makes a ton of sense to me. I really like Winn, but I think Xavier Nady would be a better fit for the roster.

One of my first memories: I was six, and my sister and a friend were babysitting me. I had huge, unorganized boxes of baseball cards, and my sister’s friend asked me if I had a Tom O’Malley card. I knew that I did, but I didn’t know where it was. That started a two-hour search through my boxes. Apparently, in 1983, Tom O’Malley was considered cute, and my ’83 Fleer Tom O’Malley card was evidence of this. One teenage girl can’t just describe a guy as "cute" and not provide evidence to support her claim, so the eventual archeological dig was justified. We found the card, and my sister’s reaction was "meh." I have no idea why I remember this, and it truly is one of my earliest memories.

Could that be the most useless paragraph I’ve ever written for this site? It’s up against stiff competition, but I think it comes out on top. But, heck, how else was I supposed to introduce O’Malley?

Tom O’Malley was a young third baseman who came up for the Giants when he was 21. He posted a .275/.350/.364 in 92 games, which was good enough to win the starting job in 1983. He followed up his age-21 season with a .259/.345/.339. No power, but a promising on-base percentage for a 22-year-old, and his low strikeout rate indicated that he had solid bat control. With the Giants needing to rebuild, surely the Giants could have some patience and hope for some doubles power to emerge, right?

No. He was sent down to AAA, where he hit .346/.434/.447 for the Phoenix Giants. Then he was traded to the White Sox for Mike Trujillo, who never pitched an inning for the Giants, though I think he laid down some sweet bass lines for Suicidal Tendencies and Infectious Grooves. The White Sox gave O’Malley 16 at-bats before releasing him in the offseason. The Orioles, Rangers, Expos, and Mets all gave him cups of coffee in the majors after that, but the bulk of his American career was spent in AAA as a perennial minor league all-star.

O’Malley probably tired of riding buses, and he went to Japan, where he was a gaijin beast. Over six seasons, O’Malley hit .315/.422/.519 for the Hansin Tigers and Yakult Swallows, and won a Central League MVP and a Japan Series MVP.

His defense was probably pretty bad; he made a healthy amount of errors, and he was never really tried at second base, which is where his lack of power would have played better. But I can’t help but think that O’Malley was just a product of the wrong era. A 22-year-old with a league-average OBP would be sought after today, especially if teams were willing to give him away for free. Before the era of statistical awareness, teams looked at him and noticed his batting average, lack of power, and iffy defense. As such, he was labeled a AAAA-player, and he could never overcome the poor performances he gave in limited samples.

So here’s to Tom O’Malley, member of that legendary ’83-’84 Giants organization. Some of you have probably never heard of him. A lot of you probably weren’t even born yet. And a few of you stubbornly insist that he was not a baseball player, but rather 1,241  different turn-of-the-century New York City police officers. But he’s always stuck out to me – partly because he hit .265 for the Giants, and partly because he hit .500 among teenage girls. If he were a prospect today, he would probably have had a much longer MLB career.

If you don’t have anything to write about O’Malley, you can use this as a comment starter: What Giants player from the past do you think got a raw deal? Maybe it was someone who was used improperly, or maybe it was someone who just never got enough at-bats or innings.

• Pablo Sandoval had the second highest batting average ever for a rookie switch-hitter with at least 150 plate appearances. Sure, I greased the parameters to make sure Sandoval came up, and batting average is pretty useless on its own, but I thought it was pretty cool. The third best was Bill Mueller. Emmanuel Burriss was 22nd. The top player was, uh, Bret Barberie.
• Bruce Bochy is the all-time home run leader among players born in France. He was 18 triples behind Steve Jeltz, though.
• Last season, the Giants had eight home runs in July. Wait, that isn't a fun fact.

Open Fun Fact Thread. If you've been sitting on a Jayson Stark-like tidbit for a while, this slow-timey weekend thread is your chance.

Okay. I’ll bite.

No, they didn’t.

The Giants already had an offensively gifted, defensively challenged left fielder with baggage. They had the option to retain this mystery slugger (I’ll reveal his identity at the end of this post!), but chose not to. The production, they figured, was counterproductive to their new direction. The new direction had something to do with youth and building from within. We can argue about the merits of the choice and whether or not Mystery Slugger would have helped the 2008 Giants, but there was no ambiguity in the decision. The Giants chose to start Fred Lewis, even though Lewis was likely to be less productive with the bat. Age, baggage, and defense were all factors in the decision.

Now the Giants are supposedly chasing a defensive abomination with a Neptune-orbiting brain, and the proposed commitment would keep him on the Giants until he’s 40.

No, they aren’t.

Sure, this could be the front-page post that’s up when Manny Ramirez signs with the Giants for a 4-year, $80M deal, and it will make me look like a total jackass. More so than usual, even. But I’ll take that chance. The parallels between Ramirez and Bonds are just too great, and that’s the best frame of reference we have. And the constant, emphatic denials from the Giants front office, including a team spokesperson quoted in the rumor-laden article linked to above, have been constant and emphatic since the offseason began.

The appearance of the Giants’ involvement would benefit the Giants, Manny Ramirez, and Scott Boras. I’m not saying Brian Sabean and Boras are smoking a cigar somewhere, cackling about their devious plan. But Boras might know that a rumor like this would make it seem like the Giants aren’t being cheap, and it might tie up the Dodgers’ payroll for an extra year, which would also benefit the Giants. As such, Boras might guess that there would be advantages for the Giants if they were to not dismiss the rumor outright. Maybe he guessed right.

Or maybe the Giants plan on signing Manny, and then trading Fred Lewis, Nick Noonan, and Jonathan Sanchez to the Marlins for Dan Uggla! And then the Giants would trade Henry Sosa and Travis Ishikawa to the Pirates for Adam LaRoche! Then the lineup would be all:

Winn
Renteria
Manny
Uggla
LaRoche
Sandoval
Molina
Rowand

OMG 900 RUNS LOL.

Or maybe the Giants will steer clear of Manny Ramirez. Just a guess. And if it takes more than a two-year deal, they should. I don't want that guy clomping around the outfield and making $20M when he's 40. Dude can hit, but players in their late-30s don't need excuses to stop hitting. Just to be safe, Ramirez has several excuses lined up.

If I were convined that the .396/.489/.743 Manny were a good bet going forward, I'd be all for the signing. It's more likely that the .296/.388/.493 Manny from 2007 would be the player that shows up for the duration of the contract. Combine that with his defense, and you have an overpaid and immovable player who plays one of the only positions of depth on the team (corner outfield), and who doesn't fix a broken offense by himself.

Though that mockery mock lineup kind of appeals to me. It tantalizes me, as if it were a cool pitcher of offensive lemonade in a desert of sub-.400 slugging percentages. Cool, refreshing, offensive lemonade. Who needs the future, right? We have other outfielders and pitchers coming through the minors…

Spring training needs to start, dang it. We’re not hitchhiking anymore; we’re riding.

After the strike-shortened season of 2002 – in which the Giants had a really good shot at postseason success if the season continued, dang it – Brian Sabean pounced on the free agent market like a big ol’ ocelot. Jeff Kent was unlikely to return, and Bill Mueller was a mediocre player with an injury history and on the wrong side of 30, so the Giants signed:

• A 28-year-old third baseman with good defense who was usually good for a few MVP votes every year.
• One of the more consistently productive second basemen in the game with a fantastic record of health.

Wow. Just wow. It was the free agent bonanza Giants fans had waited for. Jeff Kent was going to be 35; there was no sense signing him to a long-term deal. Mueller couldn’t stay healthy, and his offense was already slipping. It wasn’t as if he was ever going to lead the league in batting average and pull home run power out of his rump. So the Giants were able to fill the holes at second and third with a young semi-star and a veteran semi-star. What an offseason! And then they had to ruin it by signing this guy for two years:

• A 36-year-old center fielder coming off of a fluky good season, his first halfway decent season in six years.

Ugh. Just ugh. Marquis Grissom was one of the most overrated offensive players in baseball in his prime, and he was usually good for an on-base percentage below .300 in his 30s. He was getting older, his defense was declining, and he wasn’t going to hit for enough power or average to make up for his free-swingin’ ways. Terrible, terrible move, and the worst th…

Shows what I know. It turned out to be a fantastic and cheap acquisition. Grissom’s defense was quite good, and he provided 20-homer power from a premium defensive position. He was likable, charming, and a clubhouse favorite. Grissom was a big part of the 2003 team that finished with 100 wins before the playoffs were cancelled, and he was a key component of the last contending Giants team of 2004.

His biggest contribution might be two game-winning hits in this game from 2003. It wasn’t that important of a game, but without Grissom, we would never know the beauty of Jon Miller’s "worst baserunning in the history of the game"-call. We would never know the beauty of a play-by-play account that reads, "Rivera out at Hm/RF-3B-SS-C/Adv on E4 (throw to 3B)." And we would never know the beauty of the worst baserunning of the history of the game (video file).

So hooray for Marquis Grissom, a grizzled piece of found money who gave his best for the Giants. Well, with the exception of 137 miserable at-bats in 2005, but you couldn’t blame Sabean for trying Grissom out one last time.

It’s been pointed out before, but Pablo Sandoval and Travis Ishikawa need a right-handed complement who can play first and third. Really, that’s the only move I expect, nay, demand that the Giants make. It isn’t a very exciting demand. It’s kind of like demanding homemade cakey bread with a bunch of crappy nuts and/or dried fruit around the holidays. Doable – likely, even – but unexciting. You can see why other people are clamoring for an Xbox 360 or a Wii (Prince Fielder and Dan Uggla, respectively), but you’re sacrificing excitement for realistic expectations. Good for you.

With that out of the way, it should be noted that I fell asleep five times while writing this. Here’s what’s left:

***

Rich Aurilia

Pro:

Laugh if you must, but he can still hit lefties. He’s a familiar and likable player, and I wouldn’t have to put his bobblehead in storage with Moises Alou.

Con:

His defense at third is abysmal; he’s a third baseman because he was a third baseman, not because he deserves to be now. The biggest con is that Bruce Bochy would keep penciling Aurilia’s name into the lineup. Tough lefty? Aurilia at first. Tough righty? Aurilia at third. Bases loaded in the fourth inning? Sit down, Travis, because Aurilia’s going up to pinch hit.

Holiday gift equivalent:

A DVD of X-Men 3, which isn’t the worst movie in the world. But you just returned a copy to Blockbuster, dang it. You don’t want to watch that thing again.

***

Ty Wigginton

Pro:

He can play every position except for catcher, short, and center. He’s hit 20 home runs or more for three straight years.

Con:

Wigginton isn’t a good defensive player, and he’d probably want a two-year, if not a three-year, deal. Other teams are interested, and in a weak free-agent market for corner infielders, his price might get high enough to affect the 2010 budget. The biggest con is that Bruce Bochy wouldn’t realize that Wigginton shouldn’t hit much against right-handed pitching. He’d get 500 at-bats, easy.

Holiday gift equivalent:

A shiny new mobile phone! It kind of handles your e-mail, it kind of replaces your organizer, and it only drops every other call. You just need to sign up for a two-year contract. Also, the "6" key doesn’t work. And Bochy keeps racking up overage charges.

***

Josh Phelps (1B)/Kevin Frandsen (3B)

Pro:

They’re already here, and they’re cheap. Phelps would be the best power hitter on the roster.

Con:

They’d take up two roster spots, and Frandsen really isn’t much of a third baseman. And if you’re counting on Frandsen starting several games at third, that means the Giants would need to keep Burriss or Velez to start at second. That was probably going to happen anyways, but it is a little constricting to commit to that before spring training.

Holiday gift equivalent:

Not receiving any banana bread, which forces you to make Special K with packets of creamer you found in your car. Hey, it beats going to the store.

***

Joe Crede

Pro:

He might be cheap. Bay City Ball makes a pretty good case for Crede.

Con:

If healthy, he’d be the Starting Third Baseman, which would mean that Sandoval and Ishikawa would split at-bats at first. Sandoval at first is kind of a waste, but Sandoval getting a bulk of his at-bats at first when lefties pitch is a total waste. And even when he was healthy, Crede was never anything special. He’s like Pedro Feliz with five extra walks per season. That isn’t worth the at-bats he’d take from Sandoval.

Holiday gift equivalent:

A Nintendo 64, with a copy of Quake, one controller, and an instruction manual for Super Mario 64 to fuel your dreams.

***

I’m not loving any of those, but if I had to choose, I’d go with Wigginton on a two-year deal for less than $6M per. If that isn’t enough money, I’d stick with Frandsen and Phelps.