Torres and Ramirez for Pagan?

So the Giants yesterday decided to pull the trigger on a deal that would send Andres Torres and Ramon Ramirez for the Mets' Angel Pagan.

First of all, anyone who says in a baseball sense that they'd rather have Andres Torres on the bench than have Angel Pagan in the lineup has been smoking too much of Timmy's stuff. Pagan is younger (30) had better numbers last year and over his career than Andres Torres has and even his apparent defensive liability (10 errors last year) is more of an anomaly than a true representation of his defensive prowess.

That being said, I'm not a huge fan of this trade mostly because of what it took to get him. Ramon Ramirez, while most Giants fans would agree would be one of the more expendable bullpen arms the Giants have, in addition to being in his last year of arbitration was a great candidate for a trade. But to have to include him on this deal where the Mets are getting a very defensive capable center fielder in Torres seems like too large of a difference.

Both Pagan and Torres are also in their last years of arbitration, and both were candidates to be non-tendered this month. So the Mets got rid of someone they didn't want in return for someone the Giants didn't want and a very stable right handed reliever.

In any trade you try to look for the hidden equalizer. Here the equalizer is 2-3 million saved in arbitration for both Torres and Ramirez. As Sabes put it earlier this week, the Giants don't have much room to be spending any more money north of the $130 million payroll they currently were looking at. By saving some money by trading Torres and Ramirez they have given themselves space to make another move that might shore up the infield. Preferably shortstop in a trade involving Jeff Keppinger.

So the pieces are there where I'm hoping the Giants aren't done and still have another trade up their sleeve that can finish up this lineup. As of now we can move Melky Cabrera to left field and put Angel Pagan in center field. This leaves the new lineup like this:

Angel Pagan CF
Freddy Sanchez 2B
Melky Cabrera LF
Pablo Sandoval 3B
Buster Posey C
Aubrey Huff 1B
Nate Schierholtz RF
Brandon Crawford SS

Worst thing about this? Where can you see Brandon Belt or Brett Pill?

Day 3 of Winter Meetings today... stay tuned

Laws of the Day

Angel Pagan and Melky Cabrera combined for 52 steals last year. The Giants as a team was 24th in the league in stolen bases with a grand total of 85.