El Lefty Malo looks ahead:
…. One question to ponder as you see all the trade and free-agent suggestions thrown around this winter — the Giants should sign this guy or trade for that guy — is not just whom to get, but how many runs do the Giants really need to score next year?
750 runs is a must. No way can the Giants expect to repeat their 2009 pitching performance, so just adding 50 runs will do nothing. The average NL team scored 718 runs, the Giants scored 657, so 50 runs added and we’re still below average. You cannot expect to compete for a championship if you’re not at least be average, and even that’s not really what contending teams are aiming for. Back to runs differential, the Dodgers scored (oops) 780 runs, and allowed 611. The Giants scored 657 runs, and allowed 611. Need I say more?
Trading Matt Cain is the best way to address the hole in the lineup, as he will never be worth more than he is right now.
The player to look for? How about Hanley Ramirez? Lots of stories this year about how players and coaches with the Marlins don’t like how he goes about his business. Maybe he’s tired of playing in front of empty seats, and is looking for a change of scenery. Maybe he wants to play for a contender that spends money, (even if they spend it poorly). Maybe he thinks the Marlins are small time:
…. Marlins manager Fredi Gonzalez recently forced all of his long-haired players, including Ramirez, into an impromptu date with the clubhouse hairdresser. He also banned any jewelry worn onfield by Ramirez or any of his teammates.
“We want to look professional,” Gonzalez told the Sun-Sentinel. “Nice and neat.”
Only problem was that Ramirez, ranked first overall in Yahoo!’s fantasy baseball game, didn’t take kindly to having his shortish dreads shorn off or his chain yanked off his neck. Once the media entered the Marlins’ clubhouse on Thursday, Ramirez made sure he was seen sporting a strong message — “I’m sick of this shit” — written in Sharpie across his chest.
“I’m angry,” he told reporters. “I want to be traded … It’s incredible. We’re big leaguers.”
And here’s another article, in which Ramirez is portrayed as strikingly similar to another superstar we Giants fans are familiar with:
…. Here is the dichotomy of Ramirez: a player with admirable work habits, yet an almost displeasing demeanor. Ramirez as a person can be dismissive and distant, yet as a player he’s dynamic and impossible to dislike.
Everything about Ramirez, 25, is big league — his game and his attitude. This season, he’s quarreled with teammates about the validity of an injury, argued with management about the team’s hair policy, and bickered with reporters over their criticism — something that would drive most fans, not to mention team executives, crazy.
Yet he may be baseball’s most complete player, a combination of power, speed and hitting acumen, all things that he could not have mastered without a tremendous work ethic. Teammates and coaches still consider him a kid — a well-liked but at times capricious one. But as he finishes his most productive season — an MVP-caliber year — and heads into his fifth full season in the majors in 2010, Ramirez is inching toward veteran status.
Ramirez is everything we don’t have. His career line of .316/.386/.531 .917 OPS is simply sensational. Over his last three full seasons, he’s averaged a .950 OPS, with 74 extra base hits, 38 steals (80% success rate). I mean, he does it all, and he’s only 25 years old. We could package Cain with Renteria — a reunion tour with the team he won a World Series with, nice story line there– and maybe a draft pick, if needed. All that trade would do is transform the face of the franchise in one fell swoop.
Sure Cain is good, young and under financial control for another year or two. But, he’s not that good. He’s not Lincecum good. He’s not Cliff Lee good. He’s not Chris Carpenter good. In other words, he’s not untradeable.
Baseball Reference has his ten most similar players:
Moe Drabowsky (977)
Clay Kirby (974)
Jack Fisher (967)
Jose Rijo (962)
Mike Witt (959)
Tom Gordon (958)
Dave Stieb (956)
Lefty Tyler (954)
Jim Kaat (953)
John Smoltz (953)
There’s some good pitchers there, plus Smoltz, who is legitimately great, but every one of those guys played for a bunch of different teams.
That’s not to say we should trade him for just anybody. Cain is 24 years old, and a 24 year old pitcher of his caliber is extremely valuable. But this Giants team is several players away from championship contention, and something’s gotta be done. If you can trade a 24 year old very good pitcher for a truly elite hitter of approximately the same age, you probably should do it.
Of course, maybe the Marlins fall in love with Mr. No-Hitter, and would part with their problem child for him and and some spare odds and ends. Yeah, right. Not to mention, does anyone really believe that Sabean could pull this off?
31 Backtalkers
cain may not be timmy good, but who can he be replaced with
it took sabean 13 years of drafting to finally get a quality staff together…trade cain and the staff returns to below average
this is what happens when you have an unbalanced draft for 10 of your 12 years as gm
sabean has now painted himself in a corner
Well, that’s the kind of deal the Giants should make. I like Cain. But I’m not in love with him, and I think he is as good as he is ever going to get. He still can’t pitch from behind in the count either…just look at his OPS splits from last season. Guys are positively Bondsian against him once they get ahead in the count. So while he is still very good, he is not HOF bound either or even No. 1 starter material. I think the Giants made a mistake with him in their minor league system by not developing his power and velocity and sacrificed some of it the same way they sacrificed some of Bumgarner’s by compacting up his motion, but thats a whole nuther story for a whole nuther time.
But assuming the Marlins would pull that deal off with the Giants, Sabean would not for any number of reasons unrelated to trying to win a championship. This is a franchise that avoids risk like Bud Selig and Congress avoids lie detectors.
They know for a fact, that with a Matt Cain, they are competitive, girls and guys and media and season ticket holders find him popular and he is a face of the franchise behind Lincecum and Fat Oso. But mainly, they know he keeps them competitive and people will buy tickets to see him pitch. He’s non controversial and his chunk of payroll is affordable.
Hanley Ramirez on the other hand could or could not make them good or at least have somebody in the lineup besides Sandoval that is actually an above average MLB quality player. Thats a huge increase from one out of eight to two out of eight. You’ve now doubled the number of impact bats in your everyday lineup. From 12.5% of your lineup to 25% of your lineup. Add one more quality player who can OPS over 850 at least, hope to shit Buster Posey rakes and now you’re talking about genuinely competing against the Dodgers and Rockies for real.
But Ramirez will come here with the same lies, and exaggerations attached to him that Bonds did. And he’s a genuine superstar and another one of those uppity persons with dark skin who doesn’t look and sound like and dress like the people covering him for KNBR, SF Gate, Comcast, and the rest of the dogs in MSM.
The Giants demonstrated very clearly that even though Bonds was still the best hitter on their team by far in 2007, they were not willing to risk further controversy in 2008, because they knew their targeted niche market , the little yuppie cocksuckers who munch on shitty overpriced food and sip wine and brie cheese, and drool over themselves for luxury suites and face time with Giants celebrities, would come out anyway. And the others, the Pier 39 and Fisherman’s Wharf and Six Flags Crowd would come for the the ballpark experience and the illusion of “meaningful games in September” and “Timmy Time” and grit and savy and all the rest of the propaganda spun events like Braille books for Lobsters with claw fungus and feed the starving Venusians and Melmacians night and get your picture taken with Alf, and all the rest of the bullshit that goes on down there at 3rd and King.
The Giants are not going to risk another controversial player. Especially one of color. The risk/reward is not there for them. If trying to win a pennant was their priority, then it would be. But that’s not the way it is anymore. Its not the Microsloth way.
It would take alot more then Cain to get Hanley Ramirez. This is a trip to fantasyland.
The Dodgers did not score 820 Runs. They Scored 780. So, not just “fantasyland’ but “JustMakeItUpLand” as well.
7 of the 8 teams that scored 89 or more runs then their opponents made the playoffs this year. Only the Braves in this group (out scored their opponents by 90 runs) failed to make the playoffs. Almost every year some team that only marginally out scores their opponents (and every once in a while like the 97 Giants even a team that is out scored) manages to make the playoffs. This year that team was the Twins who scored 52 more runs then their opponents (just 6 mor ethen the Giants did.
If you look at baseball history since the introduction of four playoff teams in each league scoring 90 runs more then your opponent has been the magic number that has gotten your team to the postseason way more offten then not. Therefore, all the Giants have to do to get to this level for 2010 and beyond is to increase their run advantage over their opponents from 46 to 90 or more. Increasing scoring by 100 runs would be nice but it is hardly necessary as it would likely be foolish to attempt to do this all at once.
Typo above as the Braves scored 94 (noty 90) more runs then their opponents.
I’m all for John’s idea. It’s disappointing, but I think that Cain may have hit his ceiling as well. The point about replacing him is a valid one, but, one also has to realize that in 2009 salary is a trading chip. Ramirez is, presumably, always going to be paid a great deal more than Cain will, and so while as ballplayers Cain does not equal Ramirez, Cain plus $10 million certainly does.
I can easily see Ramirez one day making the Hall. but +mia is right, the brass don’t like “uppity”. Which is heinous – Jeff Kent may have been the biggest horse’s ass in the game, but he wasn’t the one portrayed as the asshole. And you can’t tell me the team doesn’t have a lot of influence on whatever “spin” gets applied.
And it’s annoying-funny: San Francisco, home of being an individual, right? “Popular with the girls” – this is 2009 folks, and in any case, I hear there’s other than white people in the Bay Area. Just a rumor. What, do Bonds and Ramirez have leprosy, or might there be another factor?
In any case, I don’t see any minor league hitters ready to break down any doors. Clearly the Giants need more hitting, and it isn’t going to come in 2010 or 2011 all by itself. And I have more faith in the Marlins’ sense of decency and fairness in a trade than in Sabean’s ability to sign Free Agent X. Which is pathetic enough in itself.
Giants had all of three African Americans on the roster if you include Manny Burris this year. Which is pretty much a reflection of the decline of African American participation in Baseball in general.
The Giants lineup in 1958 at times sported a lineup mostly of players of color.
Leon “Daddy Wags” Wagner, LF
Willie Mays CF,
Willie Kirkland and Felipe Alou RF,
Valmy Thomas C
Ruben Gomez SP
Bill White/ Orlando Cepeda 1b
Andre Rogers SS
Maybe its just me. But I get really sick and fucking tired of hearing about talented and accomplished guys like Milton Bradley, Hanley Ramirez, Barry Bonds, Gary Sheffield, Alex Rodriguez, Manny Ramirez and even Fred Lewis being referred to as “difficult” or “presents his own set of problems” or “immature, any other dozens of ways of being pointed out for not being part of, or supportive of, the status quo.
Yet guys like Wilson and Zito can make asses of themselves on Twitter, reality TV, and call-in radio shows, display all kinds of tats and body decals, talk like fucking new age monkeys and they are referred to as gamers with gritty presence, and clubhouse leaders.
The front office of this franchise is a a fucking disgrace.
It’s a great thought, but I don’t know if Cain could actually land Hanley though. As tight-fisted as the Marlins are they just signed him to a 6 year contract (starting in 09)… so I’m pretty sure they are going to try to build the team around him as they move into their new stadium (which was finally approved if memory serves). If he demands a trade, then Cain could land him definately.
I think the Giants should trade Renteria for Bradley and I know he can be a malcontent and a distraction, but with the A’s and Rangers he really produced. Of course Thomas and Swisher were supposedly calming influences on him. So amongst all those gamers and players of the game righters and veterans someone could/should be able to help Bradley keep calm. There will be outbursts and probably an injury or two but he can still produce, a lot better than Renteria.
So how about a trade with the Rays, Cain for Crawford & Zobrist? Crawford’s final year of his contract is 2010 and I’m sure the Rays are not going to resign him. Zobrist is young and very good at short, but he’s been playing the OF because the Rays have Barlett at short. If that’s not enough of a return for Cain, their farm is stacked, get a prospect to sweeten the deal.
And because I have way to much time on my hands, by adding Bradley (RF), Crawford (LF) and Zobrist (SS) the Giants would be adding (based on 2009 wOBA) approximately 115 runs, over last season’s production at LF, RF and SS.
Aurilla, Ishikawa and Garko (again based on 2009 wOBA) contributed -18 runs over the year. Just add a slightly above replacement level first basemen and he would be adding another 18-20 runs. What’s even sadder is that Garko actually hurt the Giants, when he played he decreased the Giants chances of winning.
One more thing Molina was good for -9 runs over the year, so if Posey can just be about league average he should also add value in terms of runs.
The above numbers don’t include defense, but a quick look at UZR/150 and Crawford/Bradley/Zobrist would not be taking anything away from the Giants team defense.
Add a good to great first basemen, sign Hudson (hey you’d have 2/3 of the big 3
) to replace Johnson, Bumgardner replaces Cain and bam, the Giants are a force in the NL West. Okay maybe you don’t want or need Hudson, but since the A’s are going to suck it would be fun watching Tim-MAY. I’d actually like the A’s to resign Huddy, but it makes no sense; since the A’s really are in a rebuild.
FWIW (and I know not much) but I was reading a roundtable discussion during one of the playoff games on BP, somebody asked Joe Sheehan what team he would like to be the GM for… and he immediately said (well as immediately as you can tell in a roundtable discussion on the interwebs) the Giants. Inferred he would have them winning 100 games in no time.
“No way can the Giants expect to repeat their 2009 pitching performance”
Why?
Seems to me that they can get even better by replacing the starts Johnson, Sadowski, and
Martinez made with say a full year of Brad Penny or even John Lackey. If you are afraid the bullpen will regress (I am not by the way) dollars can be spent here too replacing Bob Howry and maybe Justin Miller too.
It’s simple regression to the mean. When a team posts an extraordinary performance, as I’m sure we can all agree the Giatns pitching staff did this season – the simple fact is they’re more likely to be less good the next year. Things have a funny habit of moving closer to the mean, as opposed to farther…
If you want actual specifics, you could point to injuries (none of our best performing pitchers had any real injury issues, which is unlikely. That is something that cannot be improved upon, but can get worse next year. Zito is unlikely to get any better, but could definitely become Zito of old. Cain + Lincecum are more likely to perform worse next season than better. Sanchez is a wild card – dude has the stuff to be one of the best starters in baseball, but could just as easily pitch himself out of the league. Bullpens tend to fluctuate significantly from year to year, considering our bullpen was one of the best in baseball, again, they’re much more likely to be worse than better next season.
The problem I see with your analysis is the asumption that what the Giants pitching and defense did in 2009 was extraordinary relative to their true talent level. To my way of thinking what they did was actually ordinary relative to their true talent level and therefore I think it is a big mistake to expect regression.
Well, what you say is certainly true, the problem with thinking about it in the way you frame it is we don’t know, and can’t ever really know, a players (or teams) true talent level. We can make guesses, sure, and you could very well be right – there’s even a chance they underperformed their talent level…but considering we don’t know where their talent level is, more times than not we’re going to be right if we simply assume teams at the extremes will perform closer to the mean next year, relative to what they did this year.
uh guys….not one of you has said who cain can be replaced with
surely not madbaum…who is at least a half year away from being ready
everyone else in the minors is at least 1-2 years away
and what was cain’s run support this year?
It’d be nice to Get Hanley, but the Marlins only trade for young, long term cost controlled players.
And they have a pretty good, cheap young staff already.
Agreed: Josh Johnson is a beast, and Ricky Nolasco is right behind him. With Andrew Miller, Chris Volstad, Anibal Sanchez, and Sean West, the Marlins have a lot of young arms and don’t need to pursue a guy like Cain. But I covet Hanley Ramirez as well!
I would think you could get Bradley for a song. An incentive-laden contract, and there you go.
I’ve never quite understood what exactly is supposed to be “wrong” with Bradley, outside of throwing a chair once. He doesn’t keep his mouth shut, sometimes to his detriment, but I’m not sure that as a man keeping his mouth shut equals any kind of integrity. God knows we’ve seen how MLB covers up things (everything he says is ignored in the media as far as any kind of response – he implies the Cubs organization is racist, while all one hears is “no we’re not”), and anyone who thinks prejudice is a thing of the past is delusional.
Sheffield too. The Giants could have done the same as I suggest about Bradley. And Ramirez is just a dork, that’s all. I agree that Zito and Wilson are wingnuts, but it’s considered charming. There is a difference there.
Always reminds me of Jim Bouton – “colorful in baseball is wearing your hat at a jaunty angle”. Makes one wonder if things have changed at all in 40(!) years.
More Material for the Compost Pile
I’m sick of this lunatic fringe shit. More front office shit spewed by the brain-vacuumed peter pumpers who carry their water. But we’re not alone. Here’s Baseball Prospectus take on the Giants looking forward and pretty much confirms what John has been saying since before the 2009 season even got started. That everything would have to be perfect. Zito would have to rebound somewhat, Wilson would have to be stellar, Cain would get run support, Sandoval would have to play out of his mind, a no-hitter wouldn’t hurt, the Padres and D-Backs would both collapse, go tits up, gut their rosters through injuries and salary dumping and Lincecum would have to pitch the same if not better than his Cy Young year in 2008. All of that came to pass, and the Giants managed to surface from the cesspool ooze of last place and mark up the season 7 games over .500.
The Giant front office tried to sell us on the idea that their success was a manifestation somewhat, of doing things the Giants Way. The local three stooges of Bay Area MSM (KNBR, Comcast, and the print/electronic paid media) and their echoes referred to it as the overachieving result of grit, and steady management with a plan.
I saw it more as a season of squandered opportunities by Sabean and Bochy. Which everybody kind of expects around here anyway, having been through countless seasons of Sabean’s mullet-skulled old ideas fail with monotonous regularity. But perhaps the biggest and most egregious wasted opportunity was squandered by the bow tied popcorn robot from Microsloth who when presented with a chance to let expire the contracts of the two numbskull architects of the Giants unbalanced rosters, disastrous free-agent signings, punitive and archaic lineup management, afforded him by everything going perfect in 2009, the powdered hair one, saw the season as a sign of good things to come and immediately re-upped Dumb and Dumber to idiotic renewals which did nothing more than reconfirm what many suspected all along.
This is a Giants team that wants a full park more than it wants a world series win and does not realize that the two are not mutually inclusive.
Hey, I thought you weren’t writing about the Giants anymore. Glad to see you changed your mind.
I absolutely agree with you that now is the time to shop Cain, John. Hanley’s a little wishful thinking. Cain + Bumgarner (a package I would offer for Hanley in a second) is just the starting point. The Marlins would probably hang up on anything that didn’t include Lincecum (or some package of Cain + Sandoval + more). We need offense, and we have the pitching to trade for some of it. The only problem is I’m not sure how much it helps – if we’re trading someone like Cain we’re trading him for a big leaguer, and theoretically we should get fair value for Cain…meaning the trade is really just horizontal. That said, looking at the FA’s this year, I think we can fill the gap in our rotation easier on the market than we can fill the gap in hitting – unless we go after Holliday, there’s nobody out there that can add the 50 runs or so a big name we trade someone like Cain for could.
Just to give some info on just how much Hanley’s worth in a trade:
http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/index.php/2009-mlb-trade-value-recap
Fangraphs did this a little before the trade deadline this year. It uses their valuation methodology (WAR, which takes position/hitting/fielding into account), and also takes players contracts into account.
Hanley isn’t just a superstar. He’s one of the top 5 players in all of baseball (Pujols, Mauer, Arod and Utley are the other 4 I’d put in the top 5). Dude is one hell of a baseball player.
it took sabean 12 years to come up with the current rotation
yet you are willing to trade cain and madbaum for one bat
tell me….even with ramirez,will this team score 7 runs per game? cuz when you break up this rotation…that is what it will take to win
there is no ez fix for this team
Trade Cain for one of the 3-5 best players in all of baseball? Absolutely, no hesitation whatsoever. Sandoval + Ramirez + Posey is a fantastic foundation for the future, especially since that fills C + SS – the two hardest postiions to fill in baseball, leaving us with the easy task of surrounding them with decent players at the other positions (where decent players are abundant). Throw in a prospect (remember, prospects, especially pitching ones, don’t become impact players more often than they do) who’s at least 1-2 years away from being a major league starter, lost a significant amount of velocity on his fastball, had fringy breaking stuff to begin with and saw no improvement in that area, and posted a 5.8 K/9 in AA last year? Yep, I’d throw him in there too without hesitation.
There’s a reason we have to include a top prospect with Cain (and we still probably need to include more) – because Hanley IS that much better than Cain. Don’t get fooled by Cain’s ERA this past season – he’s been the exact same pitcher the last 4 years – that is, a very good pitcher, but one who’s helped out by our defense and especially our ballpark (flyball pitcher in a ballpark that suppresses HR’s = good). 3.96, 3.78, 3.91, 3.89 – those are his FIP’s for the last 4 years. Talk about consistent. 190.2, 200.0, 217.2, 217.2 – IP over that time. Very good player, yes. Close to Hanley? No. Close to Lincecum? No. Also – Hanley has a 6 year/$70M contract that started this season (5 years $64.5M left). That’s a pretty amazing contract seeing how he’s 25 and on the career path reserved for first ballot HoF players (and by all accounts has a work ethic that matches anyone else in baseball). Cain’s contract is nice, but he’s only under team control for 2 more years.
Even without Cain, we still have Lincecum, who’s arguably the best pitcher in baseball. We have Sanchez, who truth be told is about as good as Cain per inning, though he’s never shown Cain’s ability to go 200+ IP, and doesn’t have the same consistency (but also has as much potential as any other pitcher in baseball). We have Zito, who was actually useful this year. We can offer someone like Penny the 4th spot. With good D, that’s still a very solid rotation.
You’re right though, there’s no easy fix – like I said I am concerned that any trade we make will simply be a horizontal trade in that we give up as much in run prevention as we gain in run scoring, but hey, there are times to take risks, and with Cain’s ERA inflating his value this past year more than at any other time in the past (as I pointed out, he’s been the exact same pitcher for 4 seasons now), I think now’s the time to take a risk.
Because I like evidence – a link to illustrate just how good Hanley is:
http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/index.php/hanley-and-potential-history#
John, this is a pipe dream. Only an idiot would trade one of the top players in the league for a guy who’s not even a top-10 pitcher most years. And unlike Sabean, Larry Beinfest is no idiot; he can actually get pretty good value in most of his trades.
I agree with the principle of trading Cain now when he has most value although am wary of Sabean being able to pull off a decent trade. Obviously there is pretty much no chance that the Giants get Hanley. He would have to force the issue himself (ask for a trade) in which case every team becomes interested and the likes of the Yankees and Red Sox become favourites to get him. Still the thought process behind the initial idea is pretty much spot-on.
Milton Bradley’s name has come up a couple of times in the comments and I think he would be an interesting option for the Giants. Dream scenario though for me would be us engineering a three team trade where Aaron Rowand and his contract end up at the Cubs (I think he’d be a great fit there), Milton Bradley ends up as DH for an AL team and we get either one established star or a few promising prospects.
Also bad news on the Holliday front as it has been reported that he apparently favours playing in pinstripes next season.
Milton Bradley? Really? That’s the alternative to Hanley Ramirez?
You guys have to be kidding somebody.
Milton Bradley’s career line, ..277/.371/.450 .821 OPS is nice, but, I mean, come on.
WE NEED HOME RUNS AND WALKS!!!!!!! WE NEED SPEED AND YOUTH!!!!
Milton Bradley is a 5% better than league average head case, he’ll be 32 years old when the 2010 season starts, his career high in runs scored is 78, his career high in home runs is 22, his career high in walks is 80…..
ARE YOU PEOPLE OUT OF YOUR FUCKING MINDS!?!?!?!
Lot of Milton Bradley bashing there, John. Milton Bradley isn’t the answer, I think we’re all on board with that. He does help, though – a .371 OBP is something we could desperately use, as you’ve pointed out often. If we could somehow swap Rowand for Bradley that’d be great. Again, not the answer, but a step in the right direction.
I think you mistook my Milton Bradley comment. I wasn’t mentioning him as THE alternative to Hanley Ramirez because that is obviously insane as you mention but merely expressing my opinion on him as he had been mentioned in previous comments. Why do I consider him to be an interesting option? Because he could be acquired cheaply with a large amount of salary relief, or we might be able to dump one of our own bad contracts such as Aaron Rowand on the Cubs. In those circumstances Bradley becomes an avenue worth exploring at least.
Bradley is only good for one year then he’ll explode and take half the team with him. That’s his pattern. If he’s the remaining piece to a championship caliber team he’s worth pursuing. But not as one of the cornerstones. He’s never been that player though other franchises have tried.
The good news is he only has 2 years left on his deal. Even in his down years he’s still a decent player, I think we could put up with two years of Bradley to get out of the Rowand contract earlier and actually get some production…
As much as I’d like to get Hanley Ramirez, I think it is impossble. We’d probably have to give up Buster Posey (in addition to Cain and/or Sanchez)!
How about Adrian Gonzalez? San Diego is shaking things up–maybe they’d part with their star for the right package. They already cut ties with Jake Peavy, for example.
That list:
http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/index.php/2009-mlb-trade-value-recap,
leaves off Sandoval. He sould be about fifth there, ahead of Wieters.
Cain for Ramirez, for many of the reasons above, is probably undoable. But Cain for Ryan Zimmerman? That would make sense for the Nationals and the Giants. Then the Giants get a 400 OBP first baseman, move Sandoval to catcher and ba-da-bing, you’ve got a middle of the lineup.
See how easy that is?