Peavy, Uggla are low risk

Firstly, if you haven't read my piece about Mike Krukow. Please do so here. 

Now onto other stuff.

I wasn't very happy about the Dan Uggla addition. I felt like it reeked of desperation and that he wasn't much of an upgrade over Brandon Hicks or Adrianza. Maybe it's true. Maybe he won't find any semblance of his long lost stroke, and he'll strike his way out of his minor league deal. Who the hell knows? It's worth a shot, as Adrianza and the sadly broken Marco Scutaro have shuffled their way onto the DL, leaving a black vortex vacuum tornado thing at second base.

As Bochy told Kuip during the KNBR pregame show on Friday, "We're a little desperate, to be honest."

Well, I appreciate honesty. It's the same kind of honesty we've been getting from Brian Sabean during interviews. The ones where he essentially says, "Look our prospects aren't very good. We don't have a lot to trade. If we do try to get a Zobrist or a Price, or an Utley, we'll gut our system that sucked to begin with. Plus I've got an assload of money committed next year to guys like Cain, and I still have to figure out what to do with Panda, Morse, and Vogelsong's spot in the rotation. So just chill out and let me work."

I like when Sabean is honest.

For all of our trials and tribulations this season, it's still not that bad. The Blue Bastards aren't going away, but even after Friday's loss, the Giants are still in 1st place. Pretty remarkable for how bad they've been. That is simply a testament to A) How underachieving the Doyers are and B) How good this team was while firing on all cylinders.

Those cylinders may not ever be fully repaired this season, because labor costs are a bitch. So let's just rent a decent car in the meantime, alright?

Once you get to the Hertz counter though, you're like, "God renting a Chrysler 300 is expensive. That's like $300 a day! WTF? I could lease one for $300 a month! Okay, fine, I'll settle for the non-premium full-sized model. Those new Impalas are pretty handsome..."

Jake Peavy is an expensive rental, but he's a veteran, a former Cy Young winner, and an experienced NL West arm. Maybe something will click and he'll feel reborn. His 1-9 record doesn't look good at all, but his team sucked this year, and looking at his peripherals, it looks like he's had some bad luck. He also had to pitch in the AL East. Which is littered with hitters' parks and big time sluggers.

I'm not going to pore over stats here, but I'll say that yes, he's lost a lot off his fastball. It's the same issue Lincecum and Cain are learning to pitch with. It doesn't have the same effectiveness that it once did, forcing him to work with more offspeed stuff, which inevitably leads to more walks and hanging pitches that get clubbed.

But look, it's Peavy or Petit... or Kickham while Cain is out. The truth is unfortunately, we don't know what we can expect from Cain the rest of this season. It's a no brainer to me.

Hembree during his callup last year.

The other side of this is the prospects that we had to give up, Heath Hembree and Edwin Escobar.

I won't sit here and claim to be an expert on what these minor leaguers project as. I'm not a scout. I don't go and watch these guys pitch. All I can do is regurgitate what the experts say.

What the experts say is that Hembree projects to be a decent reliever. His ceiling is a decent closer or setup man, and his floor is an average right handed reliever.

We've heard about Hembree for years, and yet he's not a big leaguer. He has an ERA near 4.00 this year, and I think it's about damn time that he figured this stuff out, because he's apparently had the ability and arsenal to be successful this whole time.

Secondly, Edwin Escobar, a southpaw starter in AA who is related to Kelvim and Alcides Escobar is rated as the Giants' #2 prospect overall, went to Boston in the Peavy deal.

Seems steep.

Well it is and it isn't.

Baseball America seems to think the guy's ceiling is as a 4th starter. That's nothing to scoff at, but it's also pretty indicative of how absolutely piss poor this farm system is. Just as an example, our second best prospect projects as a 4th starter, and our best prospect, Kyle Crick, has some scouts wondering if he's a back of the bullpen reliever, and possibly not even a starter.

Recently the A's traded shortstop Addison Russell to the Cubs for Jeff Samardzija. He was their top prospect. Billy Beane says he's the next Barry Larkin.

Who does Kyle Crick project to be?  Escobar?

Certainly nowhere near the breadth of a Barry Larkin-type comparison.

That's why prospect rankings are so relative. This top prospect is Barry Larkin and the other one is Chad Qualls.

So yes, we gave up some solid prospects for Peavy, but as we know, starting pitching doesn't grow on trees and you have to give up something to get something. The Cardinals were also in on Peavy, and undoubtedly drove the price up. In addition, this team just doesn't have the pieces to make a huge Samardzija or Price move work. It's simply not possible.

So look, the team has plugged a couple of former all-stars into the dike's holes for now, and it's not very sexy, but it's going to have to do, because Zobrist and Price ain't walking through that door unless the Rays are in town.

What's really going on out there?

I apologize for the lack of posts recently, especially while the winter meetings were going on in Indy. Guess it didn't really matter in the long run because nothing really happened. It seems like the Scott Borasization of the Meetings mean that nothing gets done. Of course this results in no one even considering the first offer they receive, fair or not. Then there's a lot of subtle and not-so-subtle rumor spreading and denials. It's all just smoke and mirrors-- a veritable pissing contest as to who can look the busiest without accomplishing jack while trying to be the only one not to pop open a tube of Rolaids after hitting the hotel buffet 4 days in a row.

Probably the most interesting thing to happen was Chone-nee Figgins leaving Anaheim to a division rival for a below-market 4yr./$36MM. My question is why didn't Sabean go after him? We were never linked to him, and it makes very little sense. I understand the preference to keep Panda at 3rd and everything, but Figgins's OBP, speed, and versatility would have been huge. And at $9MM a year, that put's him squarely between Renteria's $8MM and Rowand's $12MM contract disasters. A complete bargain when you think about it...

Anyway, for those of you reading who don't regularly feast your eyes on MLBTradeRumors.com or read the good folks over at El Lefty Malo or McCovey Chronicles, I'm going to do a quick rundown here of what's going on here. Obviously I'm no insider, but when you hear the same things over and over again, it becomes real.

No chance/no interest: Matt Holliday, Jason Bay, Johnny Damon

Interest but: slim chance/too expensive/too old/too useless: Jermaine Dye, Adrian Beltre, Scott Podsednik, Kevin Kouzmanoff (via Trade), Xavier Nady, Mike Cameron, Dioner Navarro, Gerald Laird (via Trade)

In pursuit/mutual interest: Mark DeRosa, Dan Uggla (via Trade), Juan Uribe, Miguel Olivo, Yorvit Torrealba, Nick Johnson

One thing to take from recent happenings is that the Gyros like Mark DeRosa a lot (Although Andrew Baggarly has suggested that it's posturing to lower Uggla's price). He's solid with the glove, versatile and has significant pop. He's basically the perfect baseball player... I only wish he was a few years younger. Unfortunately deep-pocketed teams recognize DeRosa's value-- teams like Boston and the Yankees. A DeRosa signing would mean any number of combinations could occur in the infield as he can play everywhere but short, catcher, and center.

The Jermaine Dye idea appears to be dead in the water, but there are some absurd Scott Podsednik rumors floating around if you're into White Sox OF's on the decline.

As for Dan Uggla, the issue is this. Florida would prefer to pocket a fat revenue check than pay its good players in arbitration. Therefore, the powerful second baseman is available. The problem of course is that the Fish want Bumgarner.

Yeaahhhhh... no... we're not going to that. Uggla is horrendous in the field, posting a UZR/150 of -9.6 with 16 errors. And despite his Bondsian (compared to what we have now) power numbers in a cavernous ballpark, his .243 average scares me. He does, however chalk up a ton of free passes, as he walked 92 times in 668 plate appearances.

Basically Uggla is a smaller Kentuckian version of Adam Dunn.

Fair enough you say. We could use Adam Dunn. And by this virtue, we could use Dan Uggla.

And here's a fun fact that should make you slam you fist down on the desk. Uggla hit 31 dongers last year. You know who hit 31 dongs on the Giants last year?

Give up?

Travis Ishikawa (9), Aaron Rowand (15), Edgar Renteria (5), and Randy Winn (2).

Let the vomit flow through you!

Once Florida's asking price comes down, I believe the Gyros will pull the trigger on a lesser trade. Grant likes this idea...

Much of it has to do with how desperate the Fish are to rid themselves of yet another quality player that it deems to pricey to keep around. It's estimated that Uggla will make about $7-8MM via arbitration. The Marlins will be stuck with whatever the arbitrator decides as they will not "non-tender" him (like Ryan Garko will be). The more the egghead arbitrator gives him, the more desperate the situation for this joke of a franchise in South Florida.

Another question is what, exactly, the Giants will have to give up for such a hitter. As they will not trade Bumgarner, the next position player on the list is Thomas Neal, now ranked 4th on the Giants top 10 prospect list preceded by the 3rd ranked Zack Wheeler. The truth is, you gotta give up something to get something. Sucks, but as we all know, 30 HR hitting infielders don't grow on trees... or in Fresno. Hopefully Sabean can throw together something less...

A quick thought on the "rich get richer" Curtis Granderson trade that went down this week.

We couldn't get in on this? Phil Coke, Ian Kennedy and Austin Jackson, huh? That's it? That's like us trading Roger Kieschnick, Dan Runzler, and Sergio Romo for Curtis Granderson... if that. Ian Kennedy won't turn into anything, Austin Jackson is a poor man's Cameron Maybin, and hit 4 dongs versus 123 strikeouts in AAA last year, and Phil Coke is a decent 8th inning reliever. In return you get a guy in his prime, signed reasonably, and he hit 30 bombs last year.

Dammit.

Non-Tender Deadline Time!

A bunch of quality players are going to be without contracts tomorrow, and we'll be able to sign them for free (and a contract)!

Name like Garrett Atkins, Rick Ankiel, Jack Cust, and Ryan Garko will be out there. Oh wait... we have Garko? I'd hardly noticed.

If you're not already annoyed, try this on for size... From MLBTR:

"Peter Gammons said that Jason Bay "does not want to play in San Francisco, pure and simple," in spite of the fact that the Giants would be willing to offer Bay the five-year contract that he is apparently seeking."

What a dickhead! Man that makes me mad!