The Giants Baseball Blog

It looks like the last guy that I wanted the Giants to sign this winter will actually be coming to San Francisco after all. According to Ken Rosenthal, the Giants and Mark DeRosa are in the final stages of completing a 2-year deal that would pay him around $6 million per year. If you've been following us here over the last couple weeks, you know my stance on DeRosa, but since it looks like he really is going to be a Giant, it's time to face reality. Sabean has had his eye on this guy over the last few trade deadlines, so once DeRosa dropped his demand from a 3 year deal to 2, I began to get the feeling that Sabean would grab him. I've pointed out how DeRosa's horrible second half of 2009 shows signs of decline, and outside of his last two seasons, he really hasn't ever been consid ered a power. He has been a late bloomer, as he didn't get an everyday job until 2006 when he was 31 years old, and in his first two seasons as a starter, he averaged just 11 home run...

First off, I wanted to wish all our readers here at The Giants Baseball Blog a merry Christmas, and a happy holiday season. I truly appreciate all of you that contribute to the site by adding comments and sending e-mails, and we hope to be even bigger and better here in 2010! Now, back to baseball, the Giants are nearing a deal that would bring back their utility infielder that did so well for them in 2009, Juan Uribe. The exact terms of the deal haven't been reported yet, but apparently, the deal is a 1-year pact with an option for 2011. Uribe had a big 2009 season for the Giants, and especially thrived in the second half of the year when he worked his way into the everyday lineup. Uribe was among the team leaders in the major offensive categories and didn't even receive 400 at-bats. He hit .289 (2nd) with 16 hr (3rd), 55 RBI (4th) and an .824 OPS (2nd). And he really turned it on down the stretch for the Giants though hitting .347 in September with 7 bombs and 21 RBI. At that...

With all the rumors flying around, and the Giants still waiting to make their first move the of the 2009-'10 offseason, I wanted to go ahead and take a wild guess at what the Giants 25-man roster could look like come opening day 2010 in Houston. This is more so what I'd like to see than what I think Sabean has in mind, but the moves I'm suggesting here are very possible and realistically could happen if Sabean decided to constuct the team like this. Signings: LF Kelly Johnson (2-year, $8.5 million + team option for 3rd year at $5.5 million), RF Xavier Nady (1-year, $8 million + mutual option for $9 million), 1B Adam LaRoche (3-year, $28.5 million), C Rod Barajas (1-year, $3 million), UT Jerry Hairston Jr. (1-year, $2 million), P Russ Springer (1-year, $750K) Lineup- LF Kelly Johnson ( Will return to pre-2009 form and hit .280+ with .800+ OPS ) 2B Freddy Sanchez ( Full, healthy year should yield .300+ avg, 40+ doubles) 1B Adam LaRoche ( Should be Giants #1 target for 1st ...

According to Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald, and MLB Trade Rumors , the Giants and the Marlins appear to be getting more serious in their discussions about Dan Uggla. There have been some names exchanged by each team and things could be getting closer to being completed. What makes me think that trade talks are actually making progress is that someone from Miami is reporting it, rather then just speculation from baseball writers on the Internet. Still, it doesn't mean that the Giants are going to end up with Dan Uggl a, but it does mean that it's becoming more of a possibility. Apparently the Marlins and Giants have discussed Jonathan Sanchez, Clayton Tanner and one other mid-level pitching prospect, but I have a hard time seeing the Giants part with Jonathan Sanchez, who's still under team control for 3 more years and is only getting better each season (4.24 era, 177 k's, 1.37 WHIP, .221 BAA in 163 IP). Sanchez really came into his own last year after throwing his n...

Saturday marked the deadline for teams to offer players eligible for arbitration a contract for 2010, and a couple big names became free agents after their clubs declined to do so. The top two names that immediately jumped out at me when looking at the non-tender list were Kelly Johnson and Garrett Atkins. If I were running the Giants, Kelly Johnson would now become my target for left-field and I'd feel just fine giving him a 2-year deal. He was injured in 2009 and it shortened his season and hurt his production, but prior to 2009, he was quietly becoming one of the better, more consistent leadoff hitters in the NL . In his two full seasons at the big league level in '07 and '08, Johnson hit .282, while averaging 14 bombs, 69 RBI, 10 steals, 88 runs and an OPS of .818. All those numbers, besides maybe the stolen base number, are very good numbers for a leadoff guy. Plus Johnson has played the majority of his games in the spacious Turner Field, which favors pitchers, jus...

The Giants entered the Winter Meetings in search of a corner infielder, but apparently Brian Sabean has narrowed that search down to just first basemen, leaving two likely candidates. Those two candidates are former Nationals first basemen and %OBP extraordinaire, Nick Johnson , as well as former Pirate and Brave, Adam LaRoche . I've mentioned both of these guys here in recent days as the top two candidates to play first next year for the Giants, and it looks like that could come to fruition by the end of the meetings Thursday. In fact, Sabean said Wednesday afternoon that he expects things to pick up by Wednesday night, possibly hinting that we could see some movement before the day's done in Indy. Of the two players, I like LaRoche, because of his power numbers, his consistency and his athleticism. Johnson is overweight and injury prone, and I really think his best days are behind him. It's true that age doesn't necessarily effect OBP, but if Johnson can only play in ...

With day two of the MLB winter meetings winding up, there really isn't much new to talk about on the Giants front. The new name of the day Tuesday was Kevin Kouzmanoff, as apparently the Giants and Padres have discussed a possible deal that could land the third-basemen in San Francisco. The names being discussed on the Giants end have been Fred Lewis and Kevin Frandsen, neither of whom appear to be much in the Giants plans heading into 2010. That said, Bruce Bochy did shoot down the Kouzmanoff rumor during his media session, saying any deal of any kind, not just the Kouzmanoff rumor, is not immanent. Bochy also said Tuesday that he expects both Andres Torres and Eugenio Velez to play big roles with this team in 2010, and adding more outfielders to the mix is not necessarily a sure thing. Since there isn't much new talk to discuss today, I figured I'd take a little bit closer look at the top-4 free agent candidates to be the Giants opening day catcher next April. Miguel Oliv...

Baseball's annual winter meetings got started on Monday in Indianapolis, and the Giants have been talked about just as much as any other teams as they search for ways to improve their meager offense. The Giants enter the meetings in need of a couple corner outfielders, a corner infielder and a catcher who can bridge the gap from Bengie Molina to Buster Posey. Brian Sabean stated before he left for the meetings that the Giants would not get involved in the bidding for the top dogs on the free agent market, Jason Bay and Matt Holliday. Not only would those guys cost the Giants their top pick in next Junes amateur draft, they're also both seeking deals in the neighborhood of the 100 million dollar range. Instead, Sabean is likely focusing on outfielders such as Jermaine Dye, Xavier Nady and Johnny Damon. I was a little surprised at the interest in Damon at first, but after looking at it a little longer, I've begin to see some logic in adding Damon. The Giants need a leadoff hi...

After a few weeks of silence, their is finally some real Giants news to talk about. Earlier this week, Brian Sabean and the Giants front office decided not to offer arbitration to the teams' free agents, meaning the Giants cannot receive any compensation for their players signing elsewhere. Now, there aren't many free agents coming off of this team that I would have liked to see offered arbitration anyway. The only guy who did make some sense though, was Bengie Molina. Molina's agent has supposedly been in serious contract talks with the New York Mets , discussing a 2 year contract for the 35 year-old backstop. I think that it's pretty safe to say, that in this free agent market (extremely thin in the catching department) Molina's a commodity, and I think it would have been smart on the Giants' part to have offered it to him. If worse came to worst, then you have Bengie Molina back for another year to help Buster Posey along in his development, and I don...