Results tagged ‘ trade ’
A Book Recommendation for Mat Latos and an Address for Your Get Well Soon Cards
“Baseball works in funny ways. The only way I could honestly put it is, we could be like the Giants and go and change our whole lineup, put guys with ‘San Francisco Giants’ across their jerseys. We didn’t.”
In San Francisco Giants lore, Mat Latos will forever live on as That Guy who said the above quote near the end of the 2010 season. To say he garnered criticism would be a massive understatement. Livid hate would be more spot on.
And then there was me, giving far too much benefit of the doubt to him and repeating, “Legitimate point said by the wrong person in the wrong place at the wrong time,” so many times that my mind started filling it in, a la auto-correct. Just kidding. Sort of.
Point being, he then turned around that offseason and auctioned off three balls on which he wrote, “I Hate SF!”
I stopped defending him after that.
I still maintain he had a point originally, but the level of classlessness basically totally overshadows that.
I can’t say I was heartbroken to hear he was traded to the Reds today, although it does rob us the satisfaction of seeing our boys in orange and black take him into McCovey Cove every other week. (Every other week because the Giants play the Padres so. much.)
I do have one recommendation for him, though, before he departs the NL West:
In fact, I don’t know what kind of libraries they have in Cinci, but ‘round here the library has a whole big section on manners and etiquette. Might find that useful, Mat. Just might.
In other news, yes, this is totally me pretending to live in England and be 58 and crazy into football. Get Well Soon cards can be directed to Diamond Girl/AT&T Park/Cot in Center Field/San Francisco, California.
Diamond Girl
A Word for Billy Beane and Five Things About 2012 to Get Excited For
I admit it: I do not know quite what Billy Beane was thinking with yesterday’s trade, which sent Trevor Cahill and Craig Breslow to Arizona. (Strategically done, of course, after the Winter Meetings because Beane is a spoilsport and doesn’t like doing things at the most dramatic time of year. Excuse me, I’m in a bad mood with him right now.) Looking at it unbiased, I would say it’s a gamble on the A’s part, but maybe a gamble that could pay off.
But I do have that bias. Why, you ask? I am not much of an A’s fan and really, really not a Diamondbacks fan. But I am a Giants fan (duh, right there). And that trade probably just made Arizona, oh, a thousand times better for 2012. Really? No slack for your across-the-bay-buddies, Billy? I may have to renounce my Moneyball/Billy Beane love right now. Jon Daniels so just got the Best-Dressed GM Award back, without even wearing any fabulous clothes.
After reading up on that trade, I went to look at Rangers news, but that was basically depressing too.
I told you I was having post-Winter-Meetings depression.
I figure if I’m all baseball-depressed, then everyone else must be with me. So I’ve decided to list 5 things us Giants fan should be excited about for 2012! Because aside from facing Cahill tons, there really is a lot to get stoked for. Ready? Okay. You sure? Okay.
5. Vogelsong/Strong. Vogey’s amazing breakout year in 2011 was… for lack of a better word, rather amazing. Being the skeptic that I am, though, I want to see more of that before I go all ga-ga (not in the Lady sense). I think we’re all really curious to see what he’s going to follow it up with and I, for one, am getting excited already.
4. All the new wedding rings on the field. They’ll glint. In the stadium lights. I think.
3. Angel Pagan. Yes, I said it before, but I’ll say it again. He has a fabulous name.
2. Freddy Sanchez. Picture him playing ball. With just that image, are you not excited now?! I am beyond, beyond excited to have him back out for the Giants. Things are just sure to get better with him at second base.
1. [insert cheesy line here about the smell of freshly mowed grass and hot dogs and the crack of the bat]
0. This bonus one goes to The Dark Knight Rises. I liked Batman Begins much better than The Dark Knight, to be perfectly honest, and unfortunately, Liam Neeson does not appear to be reprising his role in the new one (I mean, he was in a massive train explosion, but I don’t assume he’s dead) but I’m stoked to go back to Gotham City all the same.
And, well, duh, The Hobbit. But that’s so near the end of 2012 that it might as well be 2013. Still, I am just about swooning over it already.
There we go. This post just went from “Completely Depressing” to “Basically Upbeat”. The movie talk and the cheesy line probably helped.
Diamond Girl
Eugenio Bitterness, Name Battles and a Little Joey News
I didn’t like Andres Torres, at first.
I saw him- perhaps a little irrationally- as Eugenio Velez’s rival and nothing more. Every game that Torres played was I game I wanted to see Velez in. After Rowand was hit by Padilla in Los Angeles (yes, I was there but no, I did not hear the cracking of his skull from where I was sitting) and Velez was slumping pretty impressively in his place, Torres got some more playing time and gradually, I started to fall in love with his game.
I still had a bit of lingering Eugenio-bitterness, but then things heated up and Andres became one of the big faces on the World Series winnin’ franchise and I basically forgot about the rest.
Just about every media source has said this, since the news of his trade last night: it’s hard not to fall in love with him and his game. He’s fun, magnetic and, sometimes, awfully good as well.
Then there’s Ramon Ramirez. Any buzz he might have created after his trade to the Giants from Sox Who Wear Red at the 2010 trade deadline was basically extinguished by SF’s other bullpen acquisition at the same time, Javi Lopez. Even though Ramirez ended that year with a- wait for it- .067 ERA and this year, his ERA was a respectable 2.62, he’s been largely anonymous to Giants fans. Partially, probably, because his hat sits low on his head so we can never see his face and partially because he’s just not a spotlight player. He threw me a ball at batting practice one day and struck out somebody I can’t stand, but that’s pretty much the extent of my distinct memories about him.
So that, to make a pretty long story pretty short, is why I met last night’s trade with mixed feelings. I don’t think Torres or Ramirez are extremely valuable to the Giants organization nor are they irreplaceable, but I’m not convinced Ángel Pagan is anything different. It seems ever so slightly pointless, a bit like Alderson and Sabes were either both played or both just going straight up, because I don’t think either side really got a whole lot. Except, of course, that New York filched a reliever along with a center fielder.
Then again, these are the mystical Winter Meetings where GMs are ninjas with secret superpowers, so maybe I have just missed the larger plan/magic at play here. Maybe it isn’t the moving-right-along-deal it appears to be.
I do have to say, though, that Pagan’s name probably tips out the scales in the Giants favor, as to who got the better end of the deal. It’ll be much more fun to say, “Ángel Pagan” in center field than “Andres Torres”. Sorry, Torres. I love you, just… Pagan has you beat in the name department.
Also! I have an admission to make: I have been sadly negligent in the whole monitoring-Joey-Martinez’s-career thing. I searched him last night and discovered that not only was he the MVP of the AAA championship this season, but he also signed a one year deal with the Diamondbacks yesterday.
The first part is very good news, the second part not so much. He now has joined the list of Pitchers I Like In Arizona, also including Armando Galarraga (last year- he’s a free agent now). This means he will be playing against the Giants far too much. Come on. Hands off my guys, Kevin Towers.
Diamond Girl
Jeremy’s On the Chopping Block?
He quite possibly has the second-worst-facial-hair in the Giants bullpen and there was some measureable amount of eyebrow raising and tsking at Sabes when San Francisco picked up his $5 million contract option for 2012 at the beginning of this offseason.
And yet despite all of that (that facial hair being the biggest thing I had to get past), he’s one of my favorite guys wearing the orange and black right now.
That’s right, I’m talking about Jeremy Affeldt.
Aside from the fact that he’s hilarious and a huge Not For Sale Campaign guy, I also believe in him as a pitcher. When he isn’t slicing his hand open over frozen hamburger patties, that is. He’s far from perfect, but I personally like having him and his curve out in the bullpen.
But the rumor from Ken Rosenthal is now that he’s on the chopping block.
Er, trading block, that is.
However you feel about Jeremy, doesn’t this seem like toying with our emotions? Whether positive or negative?
Maybe the front office was planning this all along- it was a nefarious scheme to (yay!) get hitting- or maybe they are just perfectly, completely indecisive and only now decided that they didn’t want Affeldt after all. Either way, I am not happy about it one bit. I think Jeremy should be here to stay for the coming season.
Then again, maybe it’s just a rumor that some other GM has put out there to try and actually do something totally different and everyone is working on their own nefarious schemes. Ah! That’s it, I bet! I know all about that sort of thing from the very realistic Moneyball movie.
I feel a lot better now.
And if it’s really a decoy, then I hope the reality of the Giants-trying-to-trade-a-bullpen-guy is that they’re trying to trade Wilson. Closers are… yeah, you know what I’m going to say. Overrated. Moneyball talk again.
Diamond Girl
Tiene Leche? or 10 Facts About Melky Cabrera
I was a bit surprised. Of all the pitchers, Sanchez was the obvious one to trade for A Bat and this deal was a darn good one for him, but I was still surprised. I liked Sanchez, personally, when he was sitting in the dugout or doing interviews or something, but when he was on the mound, it was nothing short of maddening. The no-hitter was fun, but Sanchez? Not so much.
Knowing that Kansas City is actually in Missouri makes me feel a little better about it, too.
If I can just disassociate Melky from Miguel in my twisted brain, then all will be well. He can bat leadoff/play center/bring balance for the Force and I am (almost, kindasorta) stoked.
Let’s get to know the newest Giant, shall we?!
10. His full name is Melky Astacio Cabrera, which kind of sounds like an almond dessert to me. Which is, yeah, good.
9. He’s not as old as you would think. (No, really.)
8. His nickname, though, is, “Leche” as in milk (think dulce de) and the Yankees had a “Tiene Leche?”, “Got Milk” scoreboard graphic for whenever he did something impressive. Do you think that’s copyrighted? Or could we rip it off? Because if the Giants use it, I promise to brave the crowds and go to a million games next year.
7. He’s not as old as you would think. (No, really.)
6. He’s best friends with Robbie Cano. So maybe that means the Giants now have a chance at Cano or something…? I kid, I kid.
5. He’s not as old as you would think. (No, really.)
4. His birthday is August 11th. We could start planning a surprise for him now, actually. The sun is shining, the team is in first place, I repeat, the team is in first place… and there’d be cake and ice cream and piñatas and all that. But the important part is, ahem, first place.
3. He’s not as old as you would think. (No, really.)
2. He loves cupcakes and Star Wars. Okay, I completely made that up. But I’m trying to make this guy more likable, can you blame me for that?
1. He’s not as old as you would think. The kid’s 27. Sabean traded for someone who’s 27! I mean, do you understand the magnitude of this? The implications?
Diamond Girl
Phone Conversation Between Jon Daniels and Michael Young à la Confessions of a Shopaholic
It’s a rainout day (at last Arizona gets treated to the weather we’ve had here in the Bay Area for days and days and days), so we’re going to be flies on the wall for a phone conversation between Michael Young and Jon Daniels.
Watch this clip from 1:26 and then proceed to reading blog post.
***
Michael Young: Hello? Mr. Daniels? It’s Michael Young. At last we speak.
Jon Daniels: Uh.
MY: How’s your leg? Still broken?
JD: Uh… it’s, um. It’s much better.
MY: Good. Then kindly limp, stagger, or crawl to a General Manager on my trade list and trade me.
JD: Um, absolutely, I would love to.
MY: Good.
JD: Except… Oh, my God.
MY: What?
JD: My aunt has just fallen from the sky in a freak skydiving accident!
MY: Enough! Unless I am traded by first thing 9:00 on Wednesday morning…
JD: Mr. Young, uh…
MY: …the next step will be… personal contact. Which we haven’t had since the start of Spring Training.
JD: Absolutely, 9:00 on Wednesday morning. I have to go. I’m so sorry. I’ve got to go.
Gets off phone.
You are getting your own ringtone.
Starts recording:
“Do not answer this call, it’s Michael Young. Do not answer this call it’s Michael Young.”
***
And such is the lovely relationship of Michael Young and Jon Daniels (and, you know, Rebecca Bloomwood and Derek Smeath).
Diamond Girl
Michael Young and Jon Daniels Channel Their Inner Teen Girl
For lack of a better phrase: What the hell? No way can the Desperate Ballplayers of San Fran live up to this.
You know how teenage girls do this thing where they have a fight and then start relaying cryptic, snide messages to each other via a willing mutual friend? Yeah. I have a little experience with this.
Anyway, if you squint, then it would seem like Michael Young and Jon Daniels are getting in touch with their inner teen girl. And relaying their cryptic, snide messages through a willing mutual friend; the press.
I was inclined to take Michael Young’s side on all this, even though I like Jon Daniels a lot, but after seeing his list of the eight teams he could be traded to I changed my mind. Three NL West teams. Rockies, Dodgers and Padres. But not the Giants. If Young is that intent on avoiding my two favorite teams, I have a hard time siding with him on this. San Francisco is a beautiful city with a good team, nice(ish) management with a minimal history of pushing 6″1 guys into corners (big corners, huh?) and we harbor no hard feelings about him helping us win the World Series.
So I am wearing my Team Jon shirt, eating popcorn and enjoying the show.
Just kidding.
It seems inevitable at this point that Young will indeed leave Texas and that’s probably for the best with how much bad blood there is. I hope the Rangers are able to fill that hole, because I think it could make or break the team in 2011. It’s sad, Michael was a quintessential Ranger, but I hope it works out as amicably as possible in the end and Young is happier where he ends up.
Baseball is a business. Rinse and repeat. 3.0.
Diamond Girl
Olives, Life, Baseball and Sunglasses, Feat. Jon Daniels in D&G Sunglasses (Yes, I Edited It)
My little brother was trying to wake me up this morning and having a bit of a difficult time. So he said, “Emily, Matt Holliday was traded!” “Mmm… to who?” (It should have been “to whom”, but I was half-asleep so my grasp of the English grammatical system was slightly impaired.) “The Mets! For Johan Santana!” I sat up straight. “No way!” Yeah, no way. He wasn’t traded. But I am awake now.
So then I was eating olives and thinking about life. And baseball. And sunglasses. And I realized that although Jon Daniels is obviously a good GM (Executive of the Year, people!) he has some style issues. Namely, the sunglasses.
They are atrocious, in my humble opinion. Too small, too tight, too wannabe sporty. So I decided to find some better ones. These D&G frames are a little larger and have a hint of aviator, which is flattering to some face shapes. Since he might not want to fork down the money for D&G sunglasses, there’s this guy in the Westfield Shopping Center in San Fran who sells fake designer stuff, who I’d like to recommend. He tries to sell me a different designer every time I go there.
I was going to give Jayson Werth some sunglasses advice, in honor of his, you know, huge and basically endless contract until I remembered that no matter how good the sunglasses are you have to look good underneath. So step 1 is to cut his hair and shave off the beard. After that, I can give some advice. I’m thinking Versace.
The. Winter. Meetings. Begin. Tomorrow. Be excited. Be very excited.
Diamond Girl
Baseball is a Business. Rinse and Repeat.
Repeat it one hundred times and you may start to feel a little better about Uribe signing with the Dodgers. As lovely as it would be if he had looked at $21 million over three years to wear Dodger blue and said no, it’s not reality. Rinse and repeat. This is therapeutic for me.
As I get my therapeutic shampoo, I chant one last Oooo-ribe in my head. I’ll never forget doing that with 40,000 other people. Magical.
The question this all brings, of course, is, Who now? I vote for Ryan Braun at shortstop. Kidding! The Wall Street Journal reported that the Giants and Jeter’s agent have been in contact but I think that’s an atrocious idea. For starters, no one really knows how he’d react out of the beautiful place that is NYC and additionally he’s not, um, extremely young. He’s also looking for a lot of money which the Giants might be able to give, but you know, just because one has money doesn’t mean one should spend it. Then there’s Miguel Tejada who batted .269 with 15 homers last year. Not exactly a tremendous amount of pop at shortstop.
I’m honestly not totally sure what Sabean’s plan is for 2011. It’s very early in the offseason, of course, but the odd way the team meshed was, well, odd. And magical. It’s hard to repeat magic and even if Sabean re-signed everyone, it wouldn’t be the same. Perhaps he’s planning to start the year like he did in 2010, with a mediocre set of fielders and bullpen and hunt down some new mis-fits during the year. If so, it’s a gamble at best. If he’s trying to form a solid team with some big names, then the large contract Huff got is just the beginning. What do you think Sabean’s 2011 plan is?
If I were Sabean, I think I’d be looking ahead towards 2012 when several prospects are projected to be ready for the majors. While I understand baseball is business (rinse and repeat) and the win-now mindset is prevalent, I think signing older players into multi-year deals isn’t a good idea. The Giants may contend in 2011, but I think 2012 is the year they will be contenders again and the long-term success of the team is more important, in my opinion, than the win-now thing. But baseball is a business (okay, I won’t say it) and I think the Giants will be trying to defend the title it 2011. We shall see.
In Texas news, the Rangers signed Torrealba to a two year deal. I was thrilled to see that. While everyone’s been saying Lee is really important for the Rangers- and I don’t discount that he is- I’ve been saying, Catcher, catcher, catcher. It seems to me that the toehold of Wilson and Lewis is still a little wobbly and a veteran catcher who can handle that staff is a top priority. Good news down south. Now I’m hoping Lee will, out of the goodness of his heart, sign with Texas. And mostly that the Rangers keep that core strong and I think they will contend in 2011.
Those’re my wish lists for my teams. What are yours? Just remember: Baseball is a business. Rinse and repeat. Be realistic. And give it to Santa in time for Christmas.
Hugs to all and enjoy the end of your Thanksgiving leftovers, if you still have any. I think I’m all through. I miss cranberries already.
Diamond Girl
10 Things I Love About the Offseason
Not a slow news day! Huff was resigned to a two year deal, with option for 2013 and Josh Hamilton won the AL MVP Award. Huge congratulations to him. I am totally wearing my antlers around town today.
The (sort of) eternal optimist that I am, I decided to come up with 10 Things I Love About the Offseason. It was actually surprisingly easy. I’ve discovered there are plenty of things to love about the offseason. Optimism is good. And the offseason isn’t too bad either.
10. The promise of the coming season. I mean, the Pirates could go to the World Series next year. Even just a few weeks into season, some hopes start to disappear. Obviously for Giants fans, we didn’t really want that season to end, but if your team finished anything short of a championship win, the promise of the new season is beautiful.
9. I don’t go through gum as fast, because I’m less on edge. Being a gum addict for half the year, but it’s nice to have a little respite.
8. I’m a bit of a player transaction geek, so I love reading about the GM meetings and the Winter Meetings. I also love to “oogle the player in his new jersey!” press conferences.
7. I get to slip into the glazed-over-eyes-I-don’t-get-sports-give-me-a-Gucci-handbag-please mode when people are talking about football, basketball or worst, boxing. I do not get boxing at all. I would rather shop at The Gap than hear about boxing and I really hate The Gap. I started hated them even more after the new logo thing. Graphic designer nightmare.
6. Bandwagon fans start to disappear a few weeks into the offseason. Which is a relief for hardcore people.
5. I also come across as a semi (believe me, only semi) normal person when I wear my antlers. It’s almost Christmas time, so I can pass as a Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer enthusiast. Do those even exist?
4. A new Giants calendar comes out. The one I currently have has Fred Lewis and other so-pre-Championship-era people on it and I’ve been waiting for the updated, 2011 one to come out. The old one does, however, feature Wilson sans beard which is a lovely thing. You win some, you lose some.
3. All the award announcements rule. As lamely as they’re announced, it’s still a fun and interesting time of year. We do really need a red carpet award show for MLB, though, as I’ve discussed previously. I think Bumgarner should go after a Taylor Lautner look- traditional with some hip flair.
And Jon Daniels should rock a tough look, like Justin Timberlake at the VMA’s.
And when I open the show, I would, of course, be wearing Carey-Mulligan-similar Prada (2010 Oscars). Or something vintage, like Penelope Cruz (2009 Oscars).
Would I lose all my blog readers if I did a whole post on what baseball players should wear to a potential MLB red carpet event?
2. Anyway! Onwards from clothes! Well, actually… another good thing about the offseason is that I can go back to wearing colors that compliment my complexion more. A.K.A., not orange. I show my pride more subtly in black this time of year.
1. And last but not least, I love how it makes me appreciate the season. The season wouldn’t be special without the offseason. So I’m relishing this for all the reasons above and catching snowflakes on my tongue. (Well, I would be if it snowed in the Bay Area. More like catching raindrops on my tongue which is not a superior experience to drinking water, so…)
So what am I missing on this list? What do you love about the offseason?
Wishing everyone in the MLBlogs community a lovely Thanksgiving. No, I will not be hitting the shops on Black Friday. As much as I love to shop, I hate crowds and can never find anything that fits me even when the stores are totally stocked. Cyber Monday is more my style. I’m a Gen Z-er through and through!
Diamond Girl
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