The Giants Baseball Blog

Sometime before the end of the weekend, the Giants are expected to announce the signing of their first two free agents of the winter. They have been extremely quiet up until now, but expect the 2007 Giants roster to start shaping up over the next 2 weeks, wheter it be good or bad. The Giants will likely announce the signings of Dave Roberts and Rich Aurilia on Friday. The signing of Roberts will move Randy Winn to right field, and down in the batting order. The Giants still are uncertain where Aurilia will play, but it will likely be either 3rd or 1st base. I'm looking at these signings in two ways. First of all, the Giants are adding a pair of 35 year-olds to a team that they vowed was going to get younger and healthier. But looking at the market and seeing what average to above average free-agents are raking in this winter, these aren't bad monetary moves. Roberts is expected to get between 15-16 million dollars over 3 years. Compare that with Juan Pierre's 5 year, 44 mil...

We are about a week into the free agent signing period, and it's looking more and more likely every day that Barry Bonds will be back in the Bay Area for the 2007 season. The only question may be, is will it be as an Oakland Athletic or as a Giant. The A's have been the most public team to express their interest in Barry Bonds, as he fits their moneyball philosophy to a T. The A's however, declined to match the Blue Jays offer for Frank Thomas which was paying him about 18 million dollars over two years, and it is highly unlikely Bonds will play for anything less than 12 million dollars this season. It would seem like his most likely destination is San Francisco, but the Sabean and Scott Boras don't seem to be talking to often, and it appears as if the Giants aren't making it a priority to sign Bonds. Regardless, all signs still point to Bonds returning to San Francisco. It is starting to seem like a more logical move for the Giants as well. There aren't that ma...

As I said in my last post, I will be composing various mock lineups throughout the winter every couple of weeks or so. With it being so early in the off-season, it's very likely none of the additions I add to my list will be part of the team in '07, but you have to start somewhere. Lineup: 1. CF Gary Mathews Jr.-( The Giants love Mathews and may overpay to get him in their outfield) 2. SS Omar Vizquel 3. 2B Ray Durham 4. LF Barry Bonds ( I can't picture him anywhere else now that Detroit and the Angels are out) 5. 3B Aubrey Huff ( 30 years old with 5 straight 20+ hr seasons, not much talk about Huff early) 6. 1B Wes Helms/Pat Burrell ( Burrell only if the Giants unload Benitez and even out the $) 7. RF Randy Winn 8. C Elizier Alfonzo (Sabean is not looking for starting catchers in the free agent market) Rotation: 1. RHP Matt Cain 2. RHP Woody Williams (Bochy gets his "big game" pitcher to move north with him for a year) 3. RHP Matt Morris 4. LHP Noah Lowry 5. LHP...

Mike Matheny still hasn't recovered from the multiple concussions he suffered early this season from multiple foul balls off his face mask. There where reports a few weeks ago that he is still having problems with dizziness at certain times and hasn't even begun to think about starting his off-season workouts. Unfortunately, it is looking more and more likely that Mike Matheny (who once took a fastball to the face, and returned to the line-up the next day) will have to end his playing career. I hope I'm wrong, but Matheny isn't young and catcher isn't a position to play around with if your having cognitive problems. Plus, I've never heard of anyone having problems with a concussion almost half a year after it happened. This will leave yet another hole to be filled on a Giants team that has only 2 starting position players from last year under contract. The Giants showed confidence in Elizier Alfonzo, and he did more than anyone expected filling in for Matheny la...