Tejada to the Giants: Let's get weird...

This is completely unexpected. Miguel Tejada will be a San Francisco Giant... perhaps coming full circle across the bay from where he began his impressive career.

I didn't see this one coming. I said it yesterday. I thought Bartlett was the guy, especially with Ryan Theriot being dealt to the Cards and taking them out of the running. What does this mean?

Well, it's another $6.5MM alotted to another old guy with limited range to play SS. It really shows how desperate the SS market is when Tejada is being penciled in to play out there. That's $17.5 committed to Huff & Tejada thus far (for 2011) this offseason, with questions remaining about Panda, left field, and raises due via arbitration to Jon Sanchez, Cody Ross, Mike Fontenot, and Andres Torres.

We'll get into that later. Let's talk Tejada.

Assuming he will play the majority of his games at short, which he did last year after being traded to San Diego, we could certainly do worse. However, the man is damn near 40 and if the hot corner is manned by the Tai Chi Sloth (formerly Kung Fu Panda) or Mark DeRosa, I could see a lot of balls hit to the left side of the infield escaping into left.

Certainly Tejada can play 3rd, and has done so recently, but that would likely mean Tai Chi Sloth's days as a Giant would be numbered. Obviously then, a Jason Bartlett would still be necessary. Let's assume that doesn't happen.

It's a short-term fix for the SS position, and also a motivational tool in management's ongoing effort to get Sandoval's ass into gear. DeRosa's return to the active roster means theoretically, we wouldn't need Sandoval... something that better get his juices going-- hopefully not too much fruit juice though because of all the high fructose corn syrup added to them.

All accounts have Tejada as the Giants new SS, a role he played better than 3B last year interestingly... Here's how Tejada & Uribe compared in 2010.



It's really not a huge dropoff, save for HRs and 3B defense... but as I've pointed out, 3B really doesn't matter too much.

I'm not crazy about Tejada as our starting SS, but with limited options available, the move at least keeps us around the same level of production out of the position as 2010.

Annnnddddd... our dream of a "big bat" is one more veteran contract further away.