The Giants Baseball Blog

The Giants were definetely persistant in their pursuit of the top starting pitcher on the market, and there persistance paid off. The Giants signed Barry Zito to a 7 year, 126 million dollar deal on Thursday in a move that officialy has turned around what had been an uneventful offseason on the Giants front. Zito is getting big money, but I think he will be worth it. He is only 28 years old, and has never missed a start in his career. As I've said many times here, you don't worry as much about giving that type of pitcher a long term deal as you would with a power pitcher such as Schmidt. Zito has a good chance to be just as good or better than he is now 7 years down the line. This move gives the Giants a potential roation of: Zito, Matt Cain, Noah Lowry, Matt Morris, Jonathon Sanchez. A rotation which consists of 1 pitcher over the age of 28. Whether or not the rotation alone can carry this team into the playoffs remains to be seel, as they still have a terrible bullpen that ha...

After the 2004 season, when the Giants had Matt Herges and Dustin Hermanson closing out games, it was apparant that the Giants needed a bullpen makeover. Sabean went out and signed Armondo Benitez after that season, and hasn't touched the bullpen since. Benitez has obviously been a bust, and the Giants bullpen gradually got worse in '05-'06. Here we are, entering the final month and a half of the offseason, and once again, the Giants bullpen has been untouched. The only move they've made so far has been resigning Steve Kline while most late relief options have already been plucked off the market. With Keith Foulke set to sign with the Cleveland Indians, it leaves nobody on the free agent market with succesful closing experience. It isn't just a coincedence that the Giants have missed the playoffs the last 3 seasons while their bullpen has ranked near the bottom of the league. It's amazing that most Giants' fans can recognize this, and Sabean hasn't. He...

The Giants have added a 4th (and counting) former Padre to their 2007 roster signing Ryan Klesko on Tuesday. The Giants had been dead quiet since announcing their re-signing of Barry Bonds about two weeks ago. Klesko now joins Dave Roberts, Rich Aurilia and Bruce Bochy as former Padre's now employed by the Giants and they may add another one. The Giants are still on the short list of potential suitors for David Wells who will likely choose between the Padres or Giants before the new year. I don't have much of a problem with the Klesko deal itself, a one year, 1.75 million dollar contract plus incentives, but I think the Giants could have used that money plus the money they gave Pedro Feliz and gotten a legit 1st basemen in Aubrey Huff. Entering the off-season, I had Huff high on the free-agency board, and I can't believe he is still hanging around. Huff, a guy who is entering his prime and a player who could make a difference for the Giants, is just sitting there waiting to...

Once the Giants unofficially announced that they have agreed to a new deal with Barry Bonds, most people thought it would mark the end of any significant moves Brian Sabean would make the rest of the offseason. However, Sabean said the team did still have financial room for another starting pitcher, thanks to deffered money in Bonds' contract. On top of that, there has been whispers that Peter Magowan may allow the Giants payroll to excede 100 million dollars for the first time in franchise history. Last season, the Giants' payroll was around the 85 million dollar range. They are doing all this in hopes to possibly accomidate the huge salary that Barry Zito will command. Latest word on the free agency front has the Giants in hot pursuit of Zito, and there where even rumors they'd offer him 20 million dollars a year over 6 years. A very simalar deal in which they offered to Carlos Lee. The Giants real competition for Zito appears to be the Texas Rangers and the New York Mets...

Well, the Giants are adding players at a very quick rate, and there isn't going to be too many wild guesses in this mock line-up, but I will through one possibility out there that hasn't been discussed. CF. Dave Roberts (The signing would look ok, if the Giants can deal Randy Winn) SS. Omar Vizquel 2B Ray Durham (Best giants signing of the winter so far) LF. Barry Bonds (Even though they don't appear too close, the Giants will re-sign him) RF. Geoff Jenkins (A longshot, but he is available, the Giants have inquired about him, and the Brewers want a leadoff hitting center fielder (Winn) since they got burned by Roberts. Could make sense for both teams) 1B Rich Aurilia (Nice, economical signing overshadowed by the Feliz nightmare) C. Bengie Molina (His defense has slipped a bit, but there aren't many cathers as consistant with the bat) 3B. Pedro Feliz (This guy should give his agent 1/2 of his '07 salaray for talking the Giants into taking him back as the starting 3rd...