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The Giants have officially entered themselves into the A-Rod race, which is not too much of a surprise. On a conference call Thursday, Brian Sabean admitted that while The Giants are in contention for the services of Alex Rodriguez, they are somewhat of a long shot. A-Rod might be the only thing that gives The Giants 2008 offense any chance of mediocrity. I know Ann Killion from The San Jose Mercury news wrote an article about how A-Rod would be just another Bonds. I think Giants fans seem to forget that Barry was sorta kinda the savior of The Giants. Barry's final years as a Giant might have blurred memories of complete dominance of the game, but Giants fans need to remember that a roster COMPLETELY built around him should have won the world series. In fact, A-Rod might be another Bonds except without the attitude problem.
Regardless of personalities, think of the possibilities of eliminating Pedro Feliz's lackluster hitting with the guy who will soon be named AL MVP. He might not be on Pedro's level defensively, but there comes a point where you kind of have to throw in the towel (AKA .708 OPS). A-Rod's slugging percentage alone is only .068 less than Peter Happy's OPS!!! That's insane!
To sort of rap things up, A-Rod is not going to instantly going to make The Giants a contender, but even down the road, having him as your steady number 4 hitter will be of great benefit to The Giants. At least until 2010, there are no majors hitters that will be on the free agent market. There will be a few people like Carl Crawford who have team options for a mere 7 figures which barring the apocalypse, will be picked up. The Giants best shot at winning in the future will be teams built around stellar pitching and adequate offense, something that is feasibly possibly with Alex Rodriguez. His financial burden won't be as steep as some might think. The Giants are already losing the salaries of Barry Bonds (about 16 million) and I guess Pedro Feliz (little over 5 million) which means the total team salary will only have to go up around 9 million give or take a few million.
