who is going where, and who is coming in............
how are they goin to effect your bettiin patterns......
bottom line ***+3 or +8 units......more to upside
San Francisco Giants
* Oh, What A Friend We Have In Jesus' Nephew: No, that's not a rest home opening up on the pasture of SBC Park just beyond the infield, that's just a geriatric outfield whose 2005 ages total 116 years. To accompany Barry Bonds (40) and Marquis Grissom (38), GM Brian Sabean signed Moises Alou (38) to a two-year deal worth $13.25, including a player option and some minor incentives for things like eating all of his applesauce at the 4:00 PM team dinners.
Alou, who spent the last three seasons with the Cubs, enjoyed a nice resurgence last year, hitting .293/.361/.557 (a .299 EQA) with 39 homers, two more than he'd managed in the previous two seasons combined. He was a picture of health (at least until the season's final week, when he went un poco loco) playing in 155 games, his best total since 1998. Giants fans should hope that's not an omen; so exhausted was he from that season's 159 games that just before camp opened he slipped on a treadmill and tore his left ACL, missing the entire 1999 season.
Aside from the desire to help Sabean complete his collection of ancient outfielders, Alou's main incentive for joining the Giants is that his father, Felipe, is the team's manager. This isn't the first time the two have teamed up before, of course. Moises spent 1992-1996 playing for dad in Montreal, his first stint as a big-league regular. His best year, by far, was the bittersweet 1994 campaign, when he hit .339/.397/.592 with 22 homers for the Team With the Best Record in Baseball When the Strike Hit. That 1994 team, of course, boasted some good players who went on to even greater fame elsewhere (Pedro Martinez, John Wetteland, Larry Walker) and a lot more pretty good ones who just went on (Jeff Fassero, Cliff Floyd, the aforementioned Marquis of Grissom, Ken Hill, Mel Rojas, Kirk Rueter, Jeff Shaw, Rondell White). And no, Jonah Keri, I'm not trying to break your heart.
Alou will certainly provide support for Bonds in the lineup, the variety that Bonds hasn't had since Jeff Kent departed, that of a bonafide everyday power threat. No Giant besides Bonds has hit more than 22 homers since 2002, Kent's final year with the club. One would suspect that the real problem of a Bonds/Grissom/Alou trio would be defense, but those fears might be overblown, even given that SBC ranked as the hardest park to defend according to James Click's study of Park Adjusted Defensive Efficiency. Alou was just four runs below average as the Cubs' left fielder; he hasn't seen much rightfield since Houston in 2001. Bonds was just one run below average, and Grissom four below. While adding a year to each of their ages won't help, they're still within hailing distance of average, and two of the three are already familiar with that hostile terrain.
* Feliz Navidad: As the Giants' crazy offseason goes, at least the Alou contract was steeped in logic. The two-year, $6.1-million deal handed to Pedro Feliz? Not so much. On the surface, that might seem like a bargain for a 28-year-old multipositional player who posted a .485 SLG last year while socking 22 homers. Said assistant GM Ned Colletti of the deal, "It shows you what we think of Pedro by signing him to a two-year deal. We have a great deal of confidence in him and wanted to reward him for his success and his patience."
That last line should have Giants fans reaching for the beer mop; Feliz's undoing is his lack of patience. His .305 OBP last year included only 23 walks in 531 PA; Barry Bonds gets that many walks every two weeks. Feliz's career OBP is a meager .288, though his power (a .495 SLG over the past two years, .448 overall) does mitigate that somewhat.
Feliz isn't a total loss with the glove. He was +2 in 51 games at third base, -1 in 70 games at first base, and average in 20 games at shortstop. That's a useful combo, just not $6.1 million worth of useful, or the kind of player you want beat writers referring to as "a key element for their return to the playoffs" (as MLB.com's Rich Draper said of him, conveniently placing words in the Giants' mouths). It is worth pointing out that PECOTA isn't too crazy about him (.260/.300/.450), either. The bottom line is that the Giants are overpaying a bit here for a player who might have already shown them the best he's got.
* Tool of Ignorance: Last month, the term "clubhouse cancer" was tossed around in this space in conjunction with departed Giants catcher A.J. Pierzynski. A recent San Francisco Chronicle report shed new light on some of the hard work Pierzynski did to earn that ignominious distinction. According to several teammates, the catcher kneed highly-regarded Giants trainer Stan Conte in the groin intentionally while being treated for an injury to his own nether-regions. Just one more reason the team said "nuts to you" and released him prior to the nontender deadline. White Sox GM Kenny Williams might want to consider ordering his new catcher a copy of How To Win Friends and Influence People, and warning the team's training staff of their new acquisition's below-the-belt tactics.
how are they goin to effect your bettiin patterns......
bottom line ***+3 or +8 units......more to upside
San Francisco Giants
* Oh, What A Friend We Have In Jesus' Nephew: No, that's not a rest home opening up on the pasture of SBC Park just beyond the infield, that's just a geriatric outfield whose 2005 ages total 116 years. To accompany Barry Bonds (40) and Marquis Grissom (38), GM Brian Sabean signed Moises Alou (38) to a two-year deal worth $13.25, including a player option and some minor incentives for things like eating all of his applesauce at the 4:00 PM team dinners.
Alou, who spent the last three seasons with the Cubs, enjoyed a nice resurgence last year, hitting .293/.361/.557 (a .299 EQA) with 39 homers, two more than he'd managed in the previous two seasons combined. He was a picture of health (at least until the season's final week, when he went un poco loco) playing in 155 games, his best total since 1998. Giants fans should hope that's not an omen; so exhausted was he from that season's 159 games that just before camp opened he slipped on a treadmill and tore his left ACL, missing the entire 1999 season.
Aside from the desire to help Sabean complete his collection of ancient outfielders, Alou's main incentive for joining the Giants is that his father, Felipe, is the team's manager. This isn't the first time the two have teamed up before, of course. Moises spent 1992-1996 playing for dad in Montreal, his first stint as a big-league regular. His best year, by far, was the bittersweet 1994 campaign, when he hit .339/.397/.592 with 22 homers for the Team With the Best Record in Baseball When the Strike Hit. That 1994 team, of course, boasted some good players who went on to even greater fame elsewhere (Pedro Martinez, John Wetteland, Larry Walker) and a lot more pretty good ones who just went on (Jeff Fassero, Cliff Floyd, the aforementioned Marquis of Grissom, Ken Hill, Mel Rojas, Kirk Rueter, Jeff Shaw, Rondell White). And no, Jonah Keri, I'm not trying to break your heart.
Alou will certainly provide support for Bonds in the lineup, the variety that Bonds hasn't had since Jeff Kent departed, that of a bonafide everyday power threat. No Giant besides Bonds has hit more than 22 homers since 2002, Kent's final year with the club. One would suspect that the real problem of a Bonds/Grissom/Alou trio would be defense, but those fears might be overblown, even given that SBC ranked as the hardest park to defend according to James Click's study of Park Adjusted Defensive Efficiency. Alou was just four runs below average as the Cubs' left fielder; he hasn't seen much rightfield since Houston in 2001. Bonds was just one run below average, and Grissom four below. While adding a year to each of their ages won't help, they're still within hailing distance of average, and two of the three are already familiar with that hostile terrain.
* Feliz Navidad: As the Giants' crazy offseason goes, at least the Alou contract was steeped in logic. The two-year, $6.1-million deal handed to Pedro Feliz? Not so much. On the surface, that might seem like a bargain for a 28-year-old multipositional player who posted a .485 SLG last year while socking 22 homers. Said assistant GM Ned Colletti of the deal, "It shows you what we think of Pedro by signing him to a two-year deal. We have a great deal of confidence in him and wanted to reward him for his success and his patience."
That last line should have Giants fans reaching for the beer mop; Feliz's undoing is his lack of patience. His .305 OBP last year included only 23 walks in 531 PA; Barry Bonds gets that many walks every two weeks. Feliz's career OBP is a meager .288, though his power (a .495 SLG over the past two years, .448 overall) does mitigate that somewhat.
Feliz isn't a total loss with the glove. He was +2 in 51 games at third base, -1 in 70 games at first base, and average in 20 games at shortstop. That's a useful combo, just not $6.1 million worth of useful, or the kind of player you want beat writers referring to as "a key element for their return to the playoffs" (as MLB.com's Rich Draper said of him, conveniently placing words in the Giants' mouths). It is worth pointing out that PECOTA isn't too crazy about him (.260/.300/.450), either. The bottom line is that the Giants are overpaying a bit here for a player who might have already shown them the best he's got.
* Tool of Ignorance: Last month, the term "clubhouse cancer" was tossed around in this space in conjunction with departed Giants catcher A.J. Pierzynski. A recent San Francisco Chronicle report shed new light on some of the hard work Pierzynski did to earn that ignominious distinction. According to several teammates, the catcher kneed highly-regarded Giants trainer Stan Conte in the groin intentionally while being treated for an injury to his own nether-regions. Just one more reason the team said "nuts to you" and released him prior to the nontender deadline. White Sox GM Kenny Williams might want to consider ordering his new catcher a copy of How To Win Friends and Influence People, and warning the team's training staff of their new acquisition's below-the-belt tactics.
