The Giants Baseball Blog

No, it's not earth-shattering news, in fact it's a move that doesn't really make much sense or significantly impact the team, but there is finally some movement on the Giants front to talk about. The Giants broke their month-long stretch of inactivity by signing infielder Juan Uribe to a minor league deal, according to SI.com. The Giants had been linked to Uribe earlier in the off-season as a possible fall-back option at shortstop, but after the signing of Edgar Renteria , it appeared the Uribe interest would go out the window. However, the Giants have been scouring the free-agent market for another utility player and apparently have settled on Uribe as an option. Now, Uribe isn't getting a major league deal, which means he's going to have to show up in Scottsdale and earn himself a roster spot. The 29 year-old brings the versatility to play 2 nd and 3rd base in addition to shortstop. He's not a gold-glove caliber defender, but he's very serviceable a...

Rather than beat the Manny Ramirez rumors to death and continue to speculate as to who else the Giants will add between now and the time pitchers and catchers report to spring training, which is now just 3 weeks away, I was going to take a closer look at a few of the roster hopefuls. The Giants are bringing 16 non-roster players to camp and a few of them actually have a legit shot at making the team. I'm not going to go through every single one of the 16, but I have composed a list of the top-5 most likely invitees to make the opening day roster with a little blurb on what they could bring to the team if they make it. Keep in mind that Buster Posey and Connor Gillaspie are among the group of 16 going to Scottsdale, but in all reality, they don't really have a chance at making the squad out of spring, so I have not included them in the list. 3B Jesus Guzman : The 24 year-old has gotten a lot of attention from this blog over the winter as he is a pretty sound hitting prospect w...

Ever since the Giants swooped up Jesus Guzman on a minor league deal at the beginning of the off-season, he's really been getting some attention. The 24 year-old third-basemen set records in the Venezuela Winter League this year and was just named the MVP of the 2008 VWL . This couldn't have come at a better time for Guzman who's employer is looking to find a long-term solution at third base. There are thoughts that Pablo Sandoval is best suited for third base and that's where he'll be come opening day, but the Giants have shown interest in guys like Joe Crede and Ty Wigginton which tells me they may have ideas for Sandoval at first. Guzman, however, is the dark horse in the situation and could make this all a non-issue if he shows up to camp and starts tearing the cover off of the ball like he did all winter long, and like he's done over his past 2 minor league campaigns. The youngster has really come into his own over the last couple of years and appears to...

Three Giants will have the honor of playing in the WBC for their respective countries. Both Bengie Molina and Jonathon Sanchez will be battery mates for the Puerto Rican squad, and young Pablo Sandoval will be behind the plate for the Venezuelan squad. NL Cy Young award winner Tim Lincecum was asked to play for the USA, but apparently has declined and will train with the Giants all spring. The WBC has gotten a lot of mixed reactions, but I am actually looking forward to it this time around. I am anxious to see what kind of talent is surfacing around the world. The big prize that came out of the WBC in '06 was Japan's former ace, Daisuke Matsuzaka and every team in baseball has a glimmer of hope at finding the next international sensation. To me, I see the WBC as a chance for the different parts of the world to display their talents and for this reason I have no problem with the tourney. Sure, It would make some more sense if it were held later on in the spring, but I think it...

Things have been extremely quiet for the Giants since the calender turned to 2009 and without anything excitingly new to talk about, I figured I would go ahead and project out how the Giants roster will look come opening day with a little bit of player analysis in there. Instead of continuing to beat the rumor mill and the things that might happen, I wanted to go ahead and show what the Giants realistically should look like to start 2009. I am not planning on anything too earth shattering happening between now and opening day, but I do expect the Giants to add at least one more infielder and maybe another reliever to the mix. They have shown interest in Joe Crede and with Rich Aurilia now focusing on the Cubs, Crede or someone like Ty Wigginton could be picked up at any moment now. Lineup 1. Randy Winn RF (Back in the lead-off role, the steady Winn is likely in his final year in SF) 2. Edgar Renteria SS (Giants hope he's got another couple of '06-'07 seasons left in ...

We are roughly a month away from the start of spring training and normally at this time, every free agent that is worth anything has been signed by a team and is planning their trip for either Florida or Arizona for the spring. This winter has been different, due largely in part to the depressed economy. However, the Giants have been amongst the most active and discussed teams out there. The Manny Ramirez rumors refuse to die, as the latest one has the Giants offering him a 1 year deal with 3 option years that could ultimately end up being a 4 year, 100 million dollar deal. If they could swing a deal like that it would actually make a lot of sense. It would give Manny the incentive to go %100 year in and year out in order to pick up his 25 million dollar option while giving the team freedom to let him go at any time. That being said, I still don't see Manny in San Francisco, and unless it's the absolute perfect deal, and they are able to unload Aaron Rowand in the process, the...

There was an article published on both the Giants and Dodgers team pages that said both teams could back off their pursuit of Manny Ramirez. The Giants were more so following the market and haven't presented a formal offer for Manny. The Dodgers are most likely bidding against themselves at this point for his services as I highly doubt that Brian Sabean is going to continue monitoring this situation while there is other work to be done before Spring Training. The Giants still must add another infielder to the mix and hopefully that doesn't end up being Rich Aurilia. I still like the possibility of Ty Wigginton, as I have kind of pushed to sign the guy all winter long. He is a lot more productive at this point that Rich Aurilia is and he actually could force Bruce Bochy to play him eveyday when he gets on his hot streaks. Joe Crede has also been mentioned as a possibility for the Giants, but apparently his back is too much of a concern to warrant much of a contract and unfortuna...

Amidst all the talk and rumors, I don't think the Giants will end up with Manny. However, seeing that Sabean is looking into other options via free agency, maybe he settles on an Adam Dunn or Pat Burrell. Though I do hope I'm wrong, as neither of those guys are near the difference maker Manny is and both would want longer-term contracts than what ManRam will get. It obviously appears as if the Giants wouldn't mind adding another outfielder and they may have something up their sleeve (trade wise) if they do. I guess Dunn wouldn't be so bad if he came on a 2-3 year deal do to the depressed market, but I just don't see him wanting to come here as this park isn't the most attractive to left-handed power hitters. Burrell though, would be nothing more than a slower, more powerful but a less batting average version of Aaron Rowand. No thanks! At least Dunn will probably somehow manage to still pull off 35-40 home run seasons, even playing for SF. Barry Bonds did it, a...

First off, I wanted to wish everyone visiting a Happy New Year, as we say goodbye to 2008 and hello to 2009. Now, since the holidays are all over with, I would expect to see Sabean start putting some final touches on the team as they get ready to break for Arizona in the middle of next month. One thing that I highly doubt seeing happen between now and then though is to see the Giants sign Manny Ramirez. ManRam has kind of been under the radar this offseason as most of the attention has gone to the younger players, Mark Texeira and C.C. Sabathia. However, now that those two players are off limits, Ramirez now becomes the new jewel of the free agent class and some people (or at least some people in Denver at the Post where this story broke) now predict that the Giants have just as good a shot, if not better, than anyone at landing the mercurial left fielder. Now, I'm not saying I doubt it would happen because I don't want to see it. Manny would be just what the doctor ordered for...