First post of 2012, and already a tad on the bitter side about this Carlos Quentin trade. Heading into the 2011/12 offseason, the Giants had really one main goal, improve the offense. What was lacking from that offense the most was a right-handed power bat who could strike fear in opposing pitchers, someone exactly like Carlos Quentin.
After getting beat by the Cardinals offer to Carlos Beltran, the Giants again missed a shot at getting themselves the outfielder they really need. Now, I was thinking Kenny Williams was bluffing on offering up Quentin earlier this winter, and was under the assumption he'd only be let go for a sure thing prospect and/or an already proven young player with big league experience. Because the Giants j
ust traded away some of their better young talent and young trading chips in the last couple of months (Thomas Neal, Zach Wheeler, Jonathan Sanchez etc...) I figured a match between the two would be highly unlikely. "The Giants just don't have enough proven prospects or young players they are willing to deal in order to get Quentin" was my exact thinking. Then, after seeing the package the Padres had to give up to get him, two minor league pitchers with track records less-inspiring than Eric Surkamp's, I can't seem to figure why Sabean didn't want to or couldn't come up with a better package than the two arms Kevin Towers gave up. The supposed prize of the deal was Simon Castro, a BA top-100'er before 2011, but at 23 just posted an era just south of 6 in AA ball this year. The other prospect they got was lefty Pedro Hernandez, who probably projects out to be a MLB reliever, though the 22 year-old could end up a back-end starter if he ever makes it to the big leagues. For Quentin, I would have given them Surkamp and Peguero, or someone similar, (a better package in my eyes) in a heartbeat, but would have asked Quentin for an extension.
I don't know though, I don't know a whole ton about Quentin, I know he's a good hitter, but I'm not sure what kind of clubhouse guy he is, and I know ChiSox fans have bickered about his nagging injury problems, but he seems to produce year-after-year and is 29 years old. In just 421 at-bats last year he put up a .254/24/77 line and that was an off-year. Plus, you stretch that
out over 600 at-bats and you have .254/34/112. Watch him hit 30 bombs for SD this season as those two prospects they sent Chicago shuffle between AA and AAA and never make a big league impact. A deal the Padres definitely won, and a deal that actually puts them on the radar heading into 2012. After getting Edison Volquez and Yonder Alonso, this team is going youth/power movement and they have some good young pitching. An outfield of Guzman-Maybin-Quentin with Venable as the 4th guy, and in an infield of Headley-Bartlett-Hudson-Alonso-Hundley is a very nice building block they have going on there in San Diego. Kudos to Josh Byrnes for not weighing his team down with huge contracts to aging (sports-wise) vets coming off career years. He's molding this Padre team exactly the way he did that D-Back squad that won the West in 2011 with the team he put together over the previous few seasons! I really like what they've done in San Diego and even though Kevin Towers stole Trevor Cahill from the A's, I still think San Diego, after the Quentin trade, has improved themselves the most!
The Giants were outbid/careless with their pursuit, or lack there of, and then went after guys like Pagan when they already had a similar player on the roster in Torres. I still like the Cabrera trade. I think he's a good ballplayer who's just finding his game, and I think Pagan is a nice player too, but instead of pursuing the power bat this team needed, like Quentin or Upton, or re-signing Beltran to the reasonable deal he got, they added two leadoff hitting-types with similar game. They lost what little pop they had in Beltran and Ross and now are expecting this team to score more runs!? This has been one of the toughest offseasons to be a Giants fan in recent memory. Very tough to get excited about this current bunch when there were options out there to improve!
Anyway, happy 2012 all, hope everyone was safe and had a great time! This will be year 6 here at GBB, hard to believe, but I'm glad it's flowing as well as ever and should be even better with new additions coming this year!
After getting beat by the Cardinals offer to Carlos Beltran, the Giants again missed a shot at getting themselves the outfielder they really need. Now, I was thinking Kenny Williams was bluffing on offering up Quentin earlier this winter, and was under the assumption he'd only be let go for a sure thing prospect and/or an already proven young player with big league experience. Because the Giants j
ust traded away some of their better young talent and young trading chips in the last couple of months (Thomas Neal, Zach Wheeler, Jonathan Sanchez etc...) I figured a match between the two would be highly unlikely. "The Giants just don't have enough proven prospects or young players they are willing to deal in order to get Quentin" was my exact thinking. Then, after seeing the package the Padres had to give up to get him, two minor league pitchers with track records less-inspiring than Eric Surkamp's, I can't seem to figure why Sabean didn't want to or couldn't come up with a better package than the two arms Kevin Towers gave up. The supposed prize of the deal was Simon Castro, a BA top-100'er before 2011, but at 23 just posted an era just south of 6 in AA ball this year. The other prospect they got was lefty Pedro Hernandez, who probably projects out to be a MLB reliever, though the 22 year-old could end up a back-end starter if he ever makes it to the big leagues. For Quentin, I would have given them Surkamp and Peguero, or someone similar, (a better package in my eyes) in a heartbeat, but would have asked Quentin for an extension.I don't know though, I don't know a whole ton about Quentin, I know he's a good hitter, but I'm not sure what kind of clubhouse guy he is, and I know ChiSox fans have bickered about his nagging injury problems, but he seems to produce year-after-year and is 29 years old. In just 421 at-bats last year he put up a .254/24/77 line and that was an off-year. Plus, you stretch that
out over 600 at-bats and you have .254/34/112. Watch him hit 30 bombs for SD this season as those two prospects they sent Chicago shuffle between AA and AAA and never make a big league impact. A deal the Padres definitely won, and a deal that actually puts them on the radar heading into 2012. After getting Edison Volquez and Yonder Alonso, this team is going youth/power movement and they have some good young pitching. An outfield of Guzman-Maybin-Quentin with Venable as the 4th guy, and in an infield of Headley-Bartlett-Hudson-Alonso-Hundley is a very nice building block they have going on there in San Diego. Kudos to Josh Byrnes for not weighing his team down with huge contracts to aging (sports-wise) vets coming off career years. He's molding this Padre team exactly the way he did that D-Back squad that won the West in 2011 with the team he put together over the previous few seasons! I really like what they've done in San Diego and even though Kevin Towers stole Trevor Cahill from the A's, I still think San Diego, after the Quentin trade, has improved themselves the most!The Giants were outbid/careless with their pursuit, or lack there of, and then went after guys like Pagan when they already had a similar player on the roster in Torres. I still like the Cabrera trade. I think he's a good ballplayer who's just finding his game, and I think Pagan is a nice player too, but instead of pursuing the power bat this team needed, like Quentin or Upton, or re-signing Beltran to the reasonable deal he got, they added two leadoff hitting-types with similar game. They lost what little pop they had in Beltran and Ross and now are expecting this team to score more runs!? This has been one of the toughest offseasons to be a Giants fan in recent memory. Very tough to get excited about this current bunch when there were options out there to improve!
Anyway, happy 2012 all, hope everyone was safe and had a great time! This will be year 6 here at GBB, hard to believe, but I'm glad it's flowing as well as ever and should be even better with new additions coming this year!
Comments
I agree though, SD won that trade like they won the Latos trade too.
If they were really trying to get better, they had the money to re-sign Beltran and like you were saying all offseason brotha, he made the most sense for the Giants on that short contract.