Meh.
What happens when your favorite team makes a trade and you’re ambivalent about it? Do you just shrug your shoulders and move on? Spend countless hours analyzing it to try and make yourself feel either good or bad about it? Make a sandwich? Let me tell you, I did all of those things today.
Jonathan Sanchez is gone, Melky Cabrera is here, and I’m not sure how I feel about it.
Cabrera is coming off of a year in which he set career highs in virtually every offensive category. His .305/.339/.470 line would’ve made him a God in the Giants’ lineup and he managed to add 18 HRs and 20 SBs for good measure. After a horrific 2010 season, he dedicated himself to getting in shape last offseason (hmm…sounds familiar) and responded with the best year of his career. The Giants are getting him at the right time (he’s still only 27), on the cusp of his first free agent season with plenty to prove in order to get a big contract in 2013. In the short term, it seems like a nice move for the Giants. They’re getting a young outfielder who could be hitting his career peak.
On the other hand, I can’t shake the feeling that this is Melky Cabrera. I could be mistaken, but I think the Spanish translation of “Melky” is “nondescript outfielder.” Before last season he was the very definition of a reserve outfielder, not excelling in any one area but good enough to keep a Major League job. I’m naturally suspicious of a player who has a career year after six plus seasons in the league, and the chances of him regressing to his norm are far higher than him having a repeat of 2011. The Giants may try to shoehorn him into the leadoff spot despite of the fact that he’s not a leadoff hitter, and his range in the outfield is awful. His negatives almost cancel out his positives.
As for Sanchez, it’s not at all surprising to see him go. The Giants would’ve owed him somewhere around $6 million in arbitration, and with Barry Zito still in the fold the Giants would’ve been paying two guys a total of $25 million to fight for the 5th starter’s job. It is a bit surprising that Sanchez’s stock has fallen so low that he wasn’t enough to get Cabrera on his own, since the Giants had to throw in a minor league pitcher to get the deal done. If you’d told me two years ago that all the Giants would get for Jonathan Sanchez in a trade was Melky Cabrera, I’d have called you crazy. They simply waited a year too long to trade him.
So in the end the Giants get a serviceable outfielder coming up on his walk year, lose a talented but erratic pitcher who’s likely peaked, and save a few million in the process. So, good? I guess? I’m still ambivalent. If Cabrera truly has turned a corner and can repeat his success from last year, it’s a very good trade. If he turns back into Melky Cabrera, it’s probably a wash since Sanchez is unlikely to get much better than he was last year.
Melky Cabrera, your opening day Giants center fielder. Meh.
I think it's reasonable to assume that for Cabrera to secure for himself a lucrative contract in the near future, it is in his best interests to maintain peak physical and mental condition during his time in SF. My primary concern is actually that he performs quite well and is rewarded with a 3-5 year deal that permits a return to the Melky the Braves so very much loved.
ReplyDeleteI also agree, in re: having to concede a minor leaguer -- especially a pitcher. While none of them are spectacular per their 2011 numbers, the Giants did have a full diet of outfielders on the 40-man already, and I think a majority of the people I speak with were calling for an infield upgrade, not an addition to the already crowded, pedestrian outfield corps.
But, like you, I am just meh in the end. We'll see how it shakes up. It frees up money, that will most likely be saved for a rainy day. Or something.
I don't buy that this is a way to fill CF for a year on the cheap until Gary Brown is ready, for a couple reasons:
ReplyDelete1. Melk Steak is a terrible CF, which is fine if he's a 4th OF on a team that scores a ton of runs. Not so much for a team that has a huge OF and is built around pitching, pitching, and some guys who can pitch really well.
2. Is there any doubt that if Melk Steak puts up even a half decent year that the Giants will sign him to a long term deal, blame his decline on playing at AT&T, and pat themselves on the back for getting an up and coming CF for the future?
3. Does anyone really believe Bochy would hand Brown the every day leadoff/CF spot without having seen him go 4-for-5 with 2 HR, 1 2B, and 4 runs scored in his first game? Me thinks not. Bochy will always look for any excuse to avoid playing young players, whether it's Aaron Rowand and Aubrey Huff instead of Belt, Bengie Molina instead of Posey, or Melk Steak/2012 Justin Christian instead of Brown.
On the whole I'm with you, sort of "meh" on the deal if Melk Steak is coming in as a 4th OF/platoon guy who can challenge for a starting spot in the corners but I fear the Giants believe they've gotten their starting CF/leadoff guy and that's just not who Melky is, was, or ever will be. I was under no delusions about Jonathan Sanchez or his present value, I just don't see how giving Bochy another player he can pencil into the lineup instead of Belt and putting Zito back into the rotation (since without any depth in the rotation they can't/won't DFA him) makes this team better.
The way I see it there are 2 ways to build consistent contenders; spend a boatload of money (including money to get out of mistakes), or develop players and trade them before they hit FA for more prospects to keep a steady stream of young talent coming through the organization. What is so frustrating about the Giants is that they don't go full bore in either direction and instead try to straddle the middle by spending just enough to feel superior to the Tampas, Miamis, and Pittsburghs of the world. That leaves them bloated, inefficient, and permanently good-but-not-great.
Yo Aaron the Giants won the WS a year ago as a bloated, inefficient, and good-but-not-great team. I'll take that any day, and also being a top 10 spender in the league, With regards to payroll, is not straddling the middle. Our payroll is more than 3 times that of Miami and TB, so I'm hard pressed to consider us a team that does "just enough to feel superior" to those teams. The Giants have a budget, albeit not the size of the Yankees, but nonetheless a large budget, and they try to get the best talent they can within the parameters of that budget. They also know that in the near future their stud pitchers are going to want a boatload of cash, so they can't over extend themselves now with bad contracts or else our future is screwed. I like the Cabrera deal. i agree that we were a year too late in dealing JS, but Melky is better than Torres and might be a better option than Ross. A 5th starter for a potential .300 guy??? All day, any day. We need hitting and this guy comes cheap and if he hits similarly to 2010, we're in good shape.
ReplyDeleteJared, if you think the Giants planned on winning it all in 2010 I've got an orange bridge for sale. It's an antique and everything. Really sweet and I'll give you a great deal.
ReplyDeleteI'm not saying they weren't the best team in 2010 because clearly they were, but a lot of things went right that really weren't predictable or projectable. The Giants could always win another ring but they will also always need everything to break their way like that to do it because they do straddle the middle ground. They might be top 10 in payroll but how much are they ahead of the middle of the pack? Just enough to say to fans "we're ahead of the middle of the pack." All throughout the Bonds era the team was 1, maybe 2 players away from winning it all and ALWAYS chose saving money instead of winning. Always. That's the type of team they are comfortable being because they can fill the park and sell the panda hats and the beards and get good TV ratings so why spend the extra $10 million when that could go into their pockets?
Can't say I disagree that we were a hitter or two away in the Bonds era, and I wish we would have spent on Vlad or whoever else just like the rest of the Giants fans out there, but I wouldn't consider us a bloated and inefficient team based on our lack of spending. I think we had a payroll of about $120 mil last year and Sabes said they'll be right around that again this year. That's far better than the middle ground. Middle ground is around $80 mil, so we're about 50% above that...just sayin'
ReplyDeleteAccording to my translator, Melky Cabrera translates as "Frequent Headaches", but then, this is the same translation tool that used to translate "Candy Maldonado" as "He let the ball get past him and it rolls to the wall!".
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