A-Rod

Sportscenter has been running a short series about where A-Rod might end up next season. As you all know, with Scott Boras as his agent, he is going to demand something around 10 years/$300 million for his services. He might not be quite worth all that money, but the fact remains that he is a difference maker in any lineup. He also might be a good centerpiece for The Giants starting 9 at May Field, where left handed hitter come to die. There only seem to be a few contenders for A-Rod (not really surprising seeing that he is demanding .3 billion), The Yankees, The Red Sox (oh my!), The Angels, The Cubs, and The Giants. It seems very unlikely that A-Rod will stay in New York. After being the goat of the town, and being taunted like he was, A-Rod wants to stick it to the fans who gave him so much stress. At times, it didn't seem like he was well adapted for the New York media. The Red Sox are very much contenders in this race. They will be looking for a 3rd baseman because Mike Lowell is likely to depart, and A-Rod is as good as they come. However, with their payroll already stretched to the limit with recent signings of J.D. Drew, and Dice-K, I'm not too sure that The Red Sox can afford such a slugger. If they did sign him, they would easily have the most scary offense in all of baseball, but I really don't see it happening. The Angels seem like the most likely candidate for A-Rod. They certainly have the money, and their current third baseman Chone Figgins, can easily be moved to the outfield where he has lots of experience. They could then move Vlad permanently to DH and have a FIERCE lineup. The Cubs to me seem impossible. Their organization is in the process of being sold, so I don't think the Wrigley Company (their current owners) are going to really have much interest in making the team better this offseason.

And last but definately not least..The Giants. They definately will have a hole at 3rd base with Pedro Feliz and his sub .300 OBP. And they really are in need of some power, and generally offensive production. Besides Barry Bonds who will obviously be elsewhere, their leader in Slugging Percentage was Randy Winn! Randy Winn!!! When your best power hitter had 14 bombs you know you are bound for a lot of 1-0 losses. A-Rod's Slugging Percentage on the other hand is .645, and he has average 47 home runs over the past 7 seasons. In fact, he has 14 home runs before the calender turned to May. He seems like a perfect fit for The Giants expect for the whole .3 billion thing. We are talking about a team where half its payroll goes to 2 players (A-Rod and Zito). I don't think a team has ever won a championship that way, but in a year or two with the 1-2-3-4 punch of Cain, Lincecum, Lowry, Zito and an offense carried by A-Rod, I think they would have a chance.

Project Prospect Giant's Top 5

Project Prospect recently released their Giants Top 5 Prospect list. I generally agreed with their assessment of The Giant's farm system. They wrote that it might take another 2+ years for Angel Villalona to become a major leaguer (I think it might be more like 3+) but the sooner the better. They also wrote nice things about The Giants number one pick from the 2007 draft, Madison Bumgarner. I don't know how you can write him off as not having any good breaking pitches when his dad would not let him start throwing a curveball until he was 16. Most young pitchers start to mess around with a curveball when they are as young as 11 or 12 and seriously start using it at 13 or 14 so he is a little bit behind the curve (lol) but he definately has time to improve. Tim Alderson was ranked number 3 and they mentioned that he would be best suited as a reliever because of his awkward out of the stretch motion, but that he should remain a starter until it is more clear on what he is best suited for. I also heard my first words about Clayton Tanner (De La Salle grad) by any mainstream publication. They project him as a soft throwing 3rd-5th starter or a solid bullpen arm.

Minor League Baseball's Organization Review

I was very disappointed by MinorLeagueBaseball.com's Giant's Organizational Review. It was blatantly obvious that the author Lisa Winston, really does not know much about The Giants. She listed John Bowker and Sergio Romo as the organizational players of the year. I will admit that he put up very good numbers for AA Connecticut; .307/.363/.523 with 22 HR's and 90 RBI's. He also lead the entire Eastern League in LD%( Line Drive Percentage, the proportion of batted balls that are classified as line drives), which is a somewhat effective tool for predicting success at the next level. However, he played AA as a 24 year old and did not receive a September call-up like Eugenio Velez who also played with him on The Defenders, which shows that The Giant's don't consider him a huge part of their future. Sergio Romo has a dominant year in High-A for The San Jose Giants, posting a line of 66.1 IP/ 1.36 ERA, 106 K's. He is 24, and just like Bowker, his age is a concern for me. He likely won't reach the majors until he is at least 26 years old so he will likely end up a middle reliever and nothing more. Romo is going to pitch for the Scottsdale Scorpians in The Arizona Fall League this year so he will definately have an opportunity to prove himself. The rest of the article was kind of fluff, giving short 3 sentence descriptions of the organization's top players.

Villalona To 1st?

On The Giant's official website, there was an article about the strong possibility of Angel Villalona moving to 1st base. Here's the link. Apparently The Giants are having the almighty J.T. Snow show him the ropes in fear that he won't be able to stay at 3rd because of his suspect fielding ability. Villalona has an excellent arm, but plain and simple struggles with fielding groundballs. This has big implications for this years draft. I am a strong believer that drafting by need is something that you have to do. This means that Smoak and Wallace aren't the guys to draft this year. It looks like The Giants should look at Shortstop (Tim Beckham, Brandon Crawford), or maybe an outfielder (Jordan Danks, James Darnell, Isaac Galloway, Aaron Hicks etc.). As of right now it is too early to tell who is the best at what position but there are definately great possibilities at those positions.