Giants Holiday Wish-List, Post Beltran

Well, it's been a pretty dissappointing offseason in the whole scheme of things for the Giants so far, and things probably won't change too much with the free agent market pretty much picked over. But it's Christmas time and the New Year is around the corner, so I thought I'd try and be optimistic for our holiday post before we take a few off for a few days.

First off, there are still a few players out there that could help out the Giants right now. If they truly are going to go 100% pitching and try and just dominate teams 2-1, they should look into upgrading their 5th spot in their rotation. Paul Maholm is twice as effective a starter as Barry Zito and and as long as he passed his physical (shoulder strain). He's 29 and could give the Giants some insurance in-case (god forbid) Matt Cain refuses to stick around and pitch for a team in which he deals each night yet ends up with 8-14 seasons! Or maybe look into Edwin Jackson, but only if he got real and brought his demands way down from 4 years to 2 maybe with an option, 3 at most. Cetainly wouldn't pay him more than $7-9 mill annually either, but resembles Cain very much and never has thrown in a pitchers park, while posting very respectable career numbers. Now, of course I'd rather lock Cain up for 5 years, but it wouldn't be bad thinking to not only upgrade the 5th spot, but give yourself some bargaining space/insurance for Cain's pending 2012 free agency. But not only are there names like Roy Oswalt, Maholm and Jackson floating around, looking for homes as January approaches, there are a few national positional-playing stars that haven't found homes that I believe the Giants should now make their top priority!

My Christmas wishlist. With what's left, and the young, athletic team they're putting together, I say the Giants should go all out and roll the dice on Yeonis Cespedes. Check him out here in the Cuban Pro League, just tearing up, and showing his athleticism. Trust me, it's a pretty incredible showcase. I think he'd definitely be worth a gamble as long as it's not more than 3-4 years and 8 or so million. I'd give him 3 years/$27-30 million in a hearbeat, it'd take him until he's 29 and he's right in his prime so you see what he really has! He looks like a pretty good bet for at least 20+ homers, with a nice average, good defense and speed on the bases. The dude is no joke and he's serious about wanting to be good, you can tell in his training. At least a few of his tools will come out at the big league level, if not all, and I say do it! Id'd make everyone forget about the lose of Beltran and giving up Wheeler and get them excited to see the next Vlad Guerrero/Andruw Jones (early years) type of athlete. They wouldn't need to break the bank on him and there is a very high latin influence that leads the Giants team! I really do think he's worth a shot. Now, I'm sure they're worried about pulling another Zito, having Cespedes end up a 4th outfielder and them eating it when they're paying him $10M to ride the pine, but that's what you get when you pass one Beltran. You need right-handed power, and Cespedes is the man!


If not Cespedes, I say go after the Yanks for Nakajima, as long as he won't cost more than $3-4 million for 2 years or so. They don't need him and probably only got him as a bargaining chip. Again, I've talked about him here plenty before, and see him as a perfect challenge for Crawford at short/insurance for Sanchez at 2nd. That's my wishlist Santa, two players who haven ever played a single Major League game! How about it Santa? Cespedes in right and Edwin Jackson our fifth starter come February!

Merry Christmas all, and again, I can't thank you enough for visiting The Giants Baseball Blog. We wish you and your family the very best holiday season possible and we'll be back with you after December 27th, as we'll be out of town for Christmas. As always, will have laptop, but not planning on posting unless something big happens or something comes to mind. Talk to you guys after Christmas!