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.

Return of the rally thong: Huff re-signs

I for one am thrilled to have Aubrey Huff returning to our WORLD CHAMPION SAN FRANCISCO GIANTS (I love saying that, so I did it in caps).

As you've probably already read, it is a 2 year deal for a guaranteed $22MM complete with a club option for a third year. There is a $2MM buyout for the 2013 year, so it is essentially a 2yr/$22MM deal that could be worth as much as $30MM (3yr/$30MM).

So, back to reality here... 11 mil, huh? Ooooh... I don't know about that.

Look, we all love Aubrey Huff to death. He's all that's right about the game of baseball and humanity. He doesn't bring a single negative to the table. He hits, he plays multiple positions well, his teammates love him, and his love for the game is infectious. His contributions to the 2010 World Series team will never be forgotten, and I hope one day his unwashed rally thong sits behind a plexiglass case in Cooperstown.

That being said, this contract is not a good one for the Giants. Despite the fact that they won it all, they cannot and will not have deep enough pockets to put a $120MM team on the field.

With an $8MM per year raise to Huff, this basically wipes out all the money freed up by the end of Edgar Renteria's deal. Which is fine and good, but don't you think it would be nice to maybe use a little bit of that to kick over to Juan Uribe, or another free agent?

With arbitration raises due to guys like Jonathan Sanchez, Andres Torres, Cody Ross, etc., Huff's contract essentially eats up much of the money available to possibly add an everyday hitter to play LF or 3B. Because... even if the Giants were able to swing some sort of trade for a player, most or all the players available in that situation would likely constitute a salary increase over whomever was traded.

Huff, was one of the only significant available 1B's on the market (Adam Dunn and Adam LaRoche being the other two), and had himself a fine season in 2010:

.290 AVG., .385 OBP%, .506 SLG%, 100 runs, 26 HR, 86 RBI, 35 2B, 5 3B. On top of that, he made only 3 errors all season! His 12.4 BB% and 16.0 K% were excellent.

I don't buy into a lot of what Fangraphs and Saberjerks have to say, but I always enjoy the little "Value" stat they put together to say what a player was worth monetarily in a given season. It makes no sense and it has no bearing on the real world, but for what it's worth, it put Huff's 2010 value at $22.8MM.

Interesting... haha.

And I still don't know what the hell WAR is, but Huff's stands at +5.7, good for 17th in all of baseball. FYI, Andres Torres's was +6.0, good enough for 14th overall.

The only reason I bring up these stats is because for once, there's a player out there that both nerds AND real fans can agree on as being valuable on the stat page, in the clubhouse, and on the field.

Glad to have Huff back, but I hope this contract doesn't restrict our ability to defend our World Series crown.