Tuesday, January 5, 2010

Hot Stove Update: Uribe Signs, RJ Retires

Jose Uribe officially re-signed with the Giants today. Nice job of waiting him out by Brian Sabean, 1 year, $3.5 M, no option.

Some of the speculation/information from Giants beat writers is not adding up. "Uribe could play primarily at 3B, moving DeRosa to LF." "The Giants are still seeking a lefthanded bat, either a first baseman or OF." It would seem almost certain that either DeRosa or Uribe is going to be the starting 3B, which means that Pablo has to move to first base, which means that the lefthanded bat the Giants are seeking isn't going to be playing first base. The most logical placements would seem to be Uribe at 3B, DeRosa in LF and Panda at 1B. Rowand is a lock for CF, so that leaves RF as the only place to put a lefthanded bat, which means that Nate Schierholtz is getting thrown under the bus.

I haven't always been a Randy Johnson fan. He was big, ugly and scary, and he didn't play for the Giants. I just didn't like the guy, especially when he pitched for the D'Backs! RJ is one of those guys who you hate when he is on the other team, and love when he is on your team. He was a shadow of his HOF self during his brief tenure with the Giants, but he did win 8 games, which is 3 more than the Giants #5 starters won in all of 2008. I am also convinced that he had a huge impact on the Giants young pitchers, giving them a confidence and tenacity that they might have lacked just a bit before his arrival. He was a good Giant. I am glad he got win #300 during his time here. He's a lock for the HOF and deservedly so.

3 comments:

  1. I think Nate, Ishikawa, and Bowker are all being thrown under the bus.

    The thing that really annoys me about the Giants is the existance of a "dog house". I'm sure the Giants will deny its existance, but the evidence sure points to otherwise. I think Ishikawa was the first to go in last year, then Fransen, then Garko, and now, Bowker. Nate got into it somewhere along the line. I don't know of any PROFESSIONAL organization, in sports or whatever, that operates so childishly.

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  2. Garko, for sure, pretty much went straight to the doghouse, and it certainly seems that the organization, for some reason other than on-field performance has never been in love with Nate.

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  3. The Giants found themselves in a bit of a situation where no matter what they did this offseason, someone would criticize them. If they stood by their younger players like Travis and Nate, some would complain that they were wasting their great young pitching. If they try to sign upgrades for the present, then prospect fans, like me, would be upset that they were throwing the "kids" under the bus.

    Unfortunately, the end result may be that the veteran "upgrades" are not enough to put them over the top, and the "kids" are dumped for naught.

    Either way, I still like the future of this team, because we have better "kids" coming along in the near future.

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