Thursday, July 21, 2011

Trade Rumors and Acquisitions

The Giants need offense.

Its the same story since the first week of the season, and back then we had a healthy Freddy Sanchez and Buster Posey.

These days we have a resurgent Pablo Sandoval, a surprising Nate Schierholtz and that's about it.

and Nate is hitting CLEANUP

Not that I'm that surprised since for a week or two Bochy had Fontenot hitting 3rd with Posey out. ALl the while, the Giants are 10-6 in July and the only thing we can point to is the pitching. As both Sabean and Bochy have pointed out, there comes a time when you can't rely that heavily on your pitching and you need to score some runs.

Here's where a trade comes in.

Giants have already acquired Jeff Keppinger a second baseman who could help shore up the lineup after injuries to Freddy Sanchez and Bill Hall. He also can play Shortstop which would help a slumping Brandon Crawford and Miguel Tejada. Keppinger's numbers also solid aren't game changing. He's hitting .305 this year with 4 homers. Similar to Freddy Sanchez he's a contact hitter and hits for average, not for power. He looks to fill that hole in the 2 spot of the lineup where Freddy did so well for us.

But Sabean isn't done, and another deal may be in the works. And I don't think the guy's name is Beltran.

Carlos Beltran of the Mets has been the topic of trade discussions since before the all star break, and still nothing has been done. With the potential suitors lining up, including the Phillies, Braves, Brewers, Red Sox and Yankees. The Giants may not have what it takes to compete with their bids, and honestly I'd rather they didn't.

Acquiring another outfielder like Carlos Beltran would give you the problem of what outfielder you want to get rid of? Currently the Giants have Cody Ross, Andres Torres, Nate Schierholtz, Pat Burrell and Aaron Rowand.

No one wants to trade the Boss, Torres is your offensive spark plug, Schierholtz is our hottest hitter, and Burrell is a cheap, but powerful bat. Rowand you might want to move, but with his albatross contract, there's nothing you can really do there.

The other trade possibility is to add First Baseman Michael Cuddyer of the Minnesota Twins. However the same problem arises, who do you get rid of? We just signed Aubrey Huff to a 20 million dollar contract, and Brandon Belt was called up a few days ago and "Belted" a solo homer and a 2 run double in his first game back.

When you look at the current Giants lineup, the only real holes you find are in the middle infield positions. Keppinger will help at Second Base, but at shortstop, there is no cure. Either Tejada or Crawford will have to pick it up, because the only other option is to give up a couple top prospects for Jose Reyes and Sabean has already put Zach Wheeler and Brandon Belt off limits.

Everyone is in agreement that the Giants need more hitting, but seeing as there are no quick fixes, The Giants can simply treat Brandon Belt as an "acquisition" and see if that will plug up the hole in the lineup.

Also if we don't face Kershaw for the rest of the season that might be helpful.

Laws of the Day

Brian Wilson is a Cyborg.

Stay delicious my friends...

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