Lincecum photo book
Jeff Fletcher | November 30, 2010
A new photo book on Tim Lincecum’s season will be coming out sometime in December. Check out the website for more info.
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Adrian Beltre talk from Orlando
Jeff Fletcher | November 17, 2010
One of the big rumors circulating here at the GM Meetings in Orlando is that the A’s have offered Adrian Beltre a five-year, $64-million deal. I wasn’t able to confirm that, but I do believe it. The numbers may not be exactly right — I’m guessing they aren’t — but I do believe the A’s have made a significant offer to Beltre.
Here is my little FanHouse video discussing the idea. I talk in the video about why I believe the A’s are actually after Beltre pretty hard. That said, It’s still going to be tough for them to sign him. Scott Boras is going to ask for a lot.
The one thing that may help the A’s is that Beltre supposedly wants to be on the West Coast. He apparently still lives in LA. If that’s the case, the A’s may be his best bet. The Angels also would seem to have a fit for Beltre, but they are apparently focused on Carl Crawford first. (I asked Angels GM Tony Reagins about this, and he refused to confirm that he’s the Angels GM.)
The Giants sure could use Beltre too, but I don’t think they can afford him. Brian Sabean also seems to be more interested in left-handed hitters.
By the way, don’t know if you saw my tweet yesterday, but the Giants are “cautiously optimistic” that they’ll be able to re-sign Juan Uribe and Aubrey Huff. Sabean said the team is talking daily to the agents for both of those players.
Are the A’s the next Giants?
Jeff Fletcher | November 12, 2010
My story at FanHouse today takes a look at what the A’s have done this week, including the waiver acquisition of Edwin Encarnacion, and looks at how their offseason plans are shaping up, in the big picture.
The headline on my story (“Aggressive A’s Following Giants Blueprint”) seems to imply that Billy Beane watched the Giants and then decided, “Boy, if we could just score a few more runs, with our pitching, we could be as good as them!” Really, it’s sort of silly to imply that the A’s got any ideas from the Giants, and nowhere does my story do that. I simply say that the A’s are trying to do what the Giants did, not that it was an original idea.
If you have good pitching, and you can improve your offense, you will be better.
Revolutionary thinking it isn’t.
Hot Stove talk on FanHouse TV
Jeff Fletcher | November 12, 2010
Did a little Hot Stove edition of the MLB Hour the other day. We’ve got lots of Giants talk sprinkled throughout, so watch the whole show. I can’t embed it for some reason, you can click the link to watch it.
Reaction to DeJesus-Mazzaro trade
Jeff Fletcher | November 10, 2010
The A’s got David DeJesus for Vin Mazzaro and minor league pitcher Justin Marks. What follows are my thoughts on the deal prior to listening to Billy Beane at 5:30 pm. I’m just going to go ahead and post them now, so you can see if Billy changes my mind on any of this…
My first thought is that it’s an OK trade because I was never really much of a Vin Mazzaro fan. I just didn’t see why people raved about him so much. Just talked to a scout who told me that Mazzaro has really good “stuff,” but he was a little short in terms of makeup. So it’s a little risky on the A’s part, getting rid of a 24-year-old big league starting pitcher who has potential, for a one-year rental of a DeJesus.
How good is DeJesus? He can hit, and he can get on base. He can also play defense. He’s quite similar to Coco Crisp actually, so now the A’s have two of the same guy, making $6 million apiece, and taking up two-thirds of their outfield.
Edgar Renteria wants to play again
Jeff Fletcher | November 6, 2010
It’s too bad that Edgar Renteria has apparently decided not to retire. Would have been such a nice story to go out on top, with the last swing of his career being the homer to push the Giants toward a long-awaited World Series championship.
Instead, Renteria has apparently decided that his five good games in the World Series are more indicative of his talent than the other 72 games he played in the regular season. Remember, this is a guy who wasn’t even good enough to crack the Giants starting lineup in six of their first eight games this postseason.
So Renteria is going to sign with someone. (It won’t be the Giants, I don’t think. Brian Sabean went out of his way to be noncommital when asked about Renteria on Friday, not even saying if the Giants wanted him.) I’m guessing someone will give him a modest big league deal for $1 million or so, and he’ll show up in camp either to be a backup or to be a short-term plugger till some young hotshot shortstop is ready. Remember when the Rangers signed Omar Vizquel to be Elvis Andrus’ mentor? That sort of thing.
Renteria will be good at that job, I think. The Giants loved him, and one of the reasons was the way he handled his shrinking role. He was still a good clubhouse guy, helping out the young guys, and he didn’t complain.
I guess if Renteria wants to play, that’s his right. It’s just a better story when his last swing is a World Series homer.
Minor League Panda
Jeff Fletcher | November 5, 2010
Today I wrote about one of the Giants biggest offseason questions: What’s going to happen with Pablo Sandoval? The money quote, from Brian Sabean, is this one:
“I guess the worst-case is if he doesn’t pull off what he needs to do in the offseason … he could end up in the minor leagues to start the year to get his act right.”
So, yeah, the Giants are putting the spurs to Pablo this winter to shape up or ship out. My story contains some details on the other problems he had, aside from his weight. Personally I think his weight was maybe only half of his problem, because he was pretty fat last year too. I mean they felt strongly enough about his weight after he hit .330 to start Operation Panda I, so it’s not like he was thin in 2009.
Also, I asked a scout about his deteriorating defense, and his feeling was that Sandoval’s defense didn’t deteriorate as much as you’d think. It’s just that people noticed it more when he wasn’t hitting. Statistically (UZR and all that), Sandoval really wasn’t any different in 2010 than in 2009. Still seemed worse to me, but what do I know?
