Giants, Sabean Leaning Towards Adding

The Giants got the second half started the way fans were hoping, as Chad Gaudin shut down the first place Arizona Diamondbacks and moved the Giants to within 5.5 games of first place. Now, as I expected, Brian Sabean is hinting that this team will be looking to add with eleven days before the trade deadline.

I've mentioned here recently that I still think it would make more sense for this team to try and deal away some of their pending free agents, and if they could get a nice package in return for Tim Lincecum, I'd even be open to dealing him. However, I just never really expected the team to go that route being within striking distance in the West and trying their best to defend a World Series tittle. Sabean said Friday that this team's top priority is still rotation help, and with Matt Garza (the one real difference making arm in this years market) likely ticketed for Texas or Oakland, the Giants have placed focus elsewhere. The latest name that Henry Schulman has been tossing out on Twitter all day has been Kansas City's Ervin Santana. The hard throwing righty is in his contract year, and has pitched beautifully for KC, rocking a 6-6 record, 3.18 ERA with 104 K's and a 1.07 WHIP in 19 starts. When comparing him to Garza, they both have similar track records, are a year apart in age and have each been throwing the ball well this year. I can definitely see the intrigue in Santana, under the right circumstances. Still, it's not even certain the Royals will deal him seeing that they're actually in a better position, standings wise, than the Giants.

The only problem with trading away prospects for Santana is that he's a pending free agent, and one thing the Giants shouldn't be doing this summer is adding players with the sole intention of making a run this year. If they make a deal, it should be for a guy who will stick around a few seasons. With that in mind, another guy who they've shown interest in, and one of the first guys I mentioned here two months ago when it was clear the Giants needed rotation help, is Bud Norris. Now Norris doesn't have the track record of Santana, but he's still got another year of arbitration which means he'd be around for 2014. With the Giants potentially losing Tim Lincecum and Barry Zito after this year, and without any starters who have shown they're ML-ready down in the minors, they're going to have some rotation spots to fill this winter. Norris is solid and dependable, but he's not what you'd consider an impact arm, more like a number 3-4 starter on a good team. Again, it's not like the Giants just need a small boost to help right this ship, they'll need two impact guys, in my opinion, and I'm just not sure there are two guys out there that make sense and are attainable. Santana would be a nice addition to the rotation, and I think Alex Rios could be had for relatively cheap and would look much out in left than the mess of guys Bochy has been using. Would it be worth it to take a gamble on a pair like that if you didn't need to part with many of your top prospects but knowing you'd take on a bunch of money and may only marginally improve? I still say no unless the price is absolutely right.

If the Giants do add a starter though, it's going to certainly make things interesting. I mean, it's not like you can replace Chad Gaudin right now, and there's no way Timmy's going to the pen after his latest outing. I guess they could try and stash Zito like they did at the end of 2010, but then they'll have Ryan Vogelsong set to return in early August as well, and he's not going into the bullpen either. With Jeremy Affeldt sidelined for the next 6 weeks though, moving Zito to the pen may make some sense anyway.

All that said, my money is still on the team standing pat and doing absolutely nothing.