I don’t know. The Giants dumped Matt Morris, just as I said they would need to; but all they got was a 26-year old outfielder who just made the majors this season. Is that too old? Good question. For most of the last decade, that’s about how old Giants prospects have been by the time they make the bigs. He’s certainly not likely to be a Hall of Famer, but he actually knows how to get on base, he has speed, and, at 26, he immediately becomes one of the yongest players on the team.
I still think that we could have –and should have– gotten much more for him if we’d looked to move him about a month ago. Nonetheless, this is a step in the right direction.
UPDATE: A closer look at Rajai Davis is, well, not pretty. He’s the same age as Fred Lewis, and Lewis, as late as he’s come up, had completely out-performed him. Small sample size, to be sure, but we’re still talking about a couple of guys who’ve taken a long time to get out of the minors. If I had to take one over the other right now, Lewis is the guy, so much so that I can’t see this move as anything more than a salary dump. Davis better be a hell of an outfielder.
I’ll take a look at his minor league stats in the morning….
Mutual Funds and Market Research…
I couldn’t understand some parts of this article, but it sounds interesting…
I really get the sense that Sabean was holding out for more than salary, which was all anyone offered until the Pirates came along. Those of you who criticize him for not trading Morris earlier are assuming there were better offers. Yes, his stats were better, but teams also had less incentive to make a move because the trading deadline was too far away. I’m not sure your assumption of better offers is warranted.
I’m all for moving expensive veterans… but why is everyone down on Randy Winn? He’s not THAT old and he’s been doing a decent job since he came to SF… seems unfair to lump him in.
Anyway, the salary dump was a good one… I’d much rather use that 10 million plus next year to put towards a bat in free agency.
The biggest part of this trade is the salary dump. That we didn’t have to eat any of it is huge; any prospects thrown in there are just a bonus.
Exactly. There are plenty of reasons to be annoyed with Sabean. This isn’t one of them.
Off subject a bit… but tonight is the first time I’ve had a chance to watch Noah Lowry live this season. I can give you no good reason as to why he’s been able to get guys out. He has no fastball. He constantly hangs change-ups chest high, and his curve looks very flat at times. Through the first couple of innings I kept muttering, “this guy’s going to get tagged tonight.” Before I know it, it’s the 6th inning, Giants are up 3-1 and the guy has only given up four hits. Is he the next Kirk Reuter?
No. Shawn Estes. Barry Zito is the next Kirk Reuter. Actually Zito is pitching like the current Kirk Reuter 2 years after Reuter retired
noah’s change is decieving…he moves it around
same with his slow fast ball
its why he is succesful, and why they cannot trade him
as for this trade….it is beyond me why sabean was given an extension in order to complete a simple salary dump by the deadline
this will be a last place team for at least the next 2 sseasons
Don’t forget ridding ourselves of Linden, and Blowmetiz also. They need to keep going and rid themselves of Durham, Aurelia, Roberts, Winn, Feliz and Klesko. between now and next year. And shelve Zito on the 60 Day DL. There’s only 59 games left. Tell him to show up ready to go in 2008 or he will be spending the rest of his days in the Giants pen doing mop=up. A total and utter disgrace.
Morris, as much as we thought he was a bad contract even before he got here, told it like it is when he said this team had gotten comfortable with losing. Something that has been obvious since about half-way through Alou’s tenure when everybody finally just got tired of swimming upstream. Bochy has been a horrible replacement. A younger version of Felipe, not quite comatose, but definitely dozing away the summer. His droning monotone is enough to hypnotize even an amped up crack-head on Angel-Dust. A team of comfortable old time B players now playing D level ball collecting millions, wasting the summer months of thousands of Giants fans.
Pitooy!
Let’s hope this deal works out as well as the last one with the Pirates – Giants did OK with Jason Schmidt.
Realistically, Sabean should have dealt Morris a month ago — the haul likely would have been better You’d have to wonder why the Pirates made this deal unless they think they can flip Morris to someone else for a more useful player. Otherwise, it makes no sense, though Pittsburgh’s current GM seems to have a history of making deals like this. Giants missed an opportunity to really help themselves and have to hope that a 26-year-old rookie who couldn’t make an annual non-contender turns out to be useful (I’m betting that the PTBNL is useless).
Giants probably saved about $12-13M over next 1 1/3 seasons by getting rid of a guy who realistically was of no use. The test comes with how they use the money.
One wonders if the new acquisition is part of a plan to get rid of Roberts or Winn. Both would have value to a contender and are signed to what look increasingly like manageable contracts. Roberts is an excellent fourth OF/PR; Winn is a competent MLB regular, nothing special but useful (a surprisingly decent trade by Sabean – he got a decent player for a washout pitching prospect and a catcher they didn’t think could be a starter. But the Giants seem to have some outfield hopefuls, so they might as well find out if any of them can play.
[...] Original post by John [...]
Big money saving move. We have enough pitching to absorb the arm loss and what (?) $14 million as well? The lack of foresight by our Front Office is, unfortunately, what I expect.