Giants Trade Deadline To Do List

Just nine days left until the Trade deadline ends on July 31st, but what do the Giants actually need?

Offense is certainly a trade target that General Manager Brian Sabean is searching for, but it has to be for the right price. Rookie Brandon Belt is untouchable because of his relaxed, natural hitting at first base. Top prospects Zach Wheeler and Gary Brown are not going to be traded as well.

Sabean knows he has a tough task ahead of him. The Giants offense is one of the worst in the league, and yet they sit in first place by four games. The Giants have been lucky.

So let's take a look at what the Giants should improve on:

A #3/4 Hitter-
The Giants former cleanup hitter was Aubrey Huff. He is the worst cleanup hitter on earth, in my opinion. Ok, then we have Buster Po... oh yeah, he only has one leg. Ok, well then the Next Best is Pablo Sandoval. No, he's a better hitting third. So who takes over as the Giants slugger? here are some already popular options the Giants are related to:

• Carlos Beltran (Most recent rumors found here)- Beltran, 34, is a former Rookie of the Year, a six-time All-Star, a three-time gold glove winner in center field and a two-time silver slugger winner. He has come off of two straight injury plagued seasons for the Mets and has an expensive contract that ends after this season. I'd love to have him on the Giants but only if we can resign him to an extension (by the way, career OPS of .826... yes please).

• Michael Cuddyer (rumor)- Cuddyer, 32, has spent his entire 11-season career with the Minnesota Twins, reaching the All-Star game once (this season) but still has put up respectable numbers throughout his career. He has played first base, third base and right field which would allow Bruce Bochy to move pieces around each game. He is a career .272/.345/.453 hitter with an OPS of .798. This season he has 14 home runs with 47 RBIs, easily making him the Giants best slugger if acquired.

A Second Baseman-
Well, The Giants have already gone out and found a second baseman from the Astros- Jeff Keppinger. I think Sabean gave up the perfect amount of prospects (Henrey Sosa and Jason Stoffel) for a guy that would automatically improve a position. Keppinger walks more than he strikes out(147 walks vs. 125 strikeouts), that stat alone will put runners on base. He doesn't hit for power, so sure, he will fit right in here in San Francisco. Good for him. I like this trade and welcome to San Fran Kepp'.

A Shortstop-
This is a last resort. Brandon Crawford is a super defensive player with a weak bat, and somehow, if we get a 3/4 hitter mentioned above, I'd be perfectly content with Crawford starting. And because there is a shortage of offensively powerful shortstops in the world, trading for one will come with a high price. Names like Jose Reyes and J.J. Hardy come to mind, but they look like they are both staying put because they are too valuable to their respectable teams.

I think that is all the Giants need to repeat. If they find enough prospects to give up for a rejuvenated Beltran or perhaps a solid Cuddyer, I'd welcome them with open arms.

Go Giants.

Giants of 2011 Versus the Giants of 2010- Second Base

Second base for the past few years has always been an inconsistent position for the Giants.

Since the reliable Jeff Kent and Ray Durham eras', the Giants have yet to find a long term solution.Since 2009, the Giants have seen guys like Emmanuel Burriss, Matt Downs, Kevin Frandsen, Eugenio Velez, Juan Uribe, Mike Fontenot, Bill Hall, Miguel Tejada and Freddy Sanchez in the second base position.

Since the Giants traded for Sanchez from Pittsburgh at the trade deadline in 2009, he has only played 192 games. That's a mere 60% of the games played since his acquisition.

He has been a decent player when he's is healthy, but unfortunately, the Giants prefer him to play 85-90% of the games.

Now that he is injured once again (just 58 games into the season), Burriss and Hall look to fill the void at second base.

Let's see how they have fared:

2010 Team Record (through July 11th): 47-41
2011 Team Record (through July 11th): 52-40

Second Base

	2010	2011
Batting Average	.277	.268
On-Base %	.342	.321
Home runs	4	4
RBIs	46	30
Stolen Bases	1	5
Hits	91	101
Runs	43	37
Walks	32	23
Strikeouts	62	52

So this year's production from second base has been a step worse from the Giant's World Series season last year, but has it been much worse? I don't believe so.

Sanchez played in 109 games last year. This year he has played in 58, and is probably out for the remainder of the season. 

With Burriss and Hall picking up the pieces, finishing the season with them will damper the second base offense. Hall has only played in 10 games, while Burriss has contributed in only 25 but they both have averages under .215 with only four collective RBIs.

To compare with Sanchez this season, the Hall/Burriss platoon is putting up an OPS about .200 less than Freddy has. 

Hopefully Burriss or Hall can improve because the way they are hitting just not enough.  

Giants of 2011 Versus the Giants of 2010- First Base

*I will be creating these 2010 v. 2011 position comparisons throughout the month of July. Starting with catcher, I will make my way through all nine position as well as relievers and closers.

Sigh... we need that thong again.

The greatest first basmen in Giants history is easily Willie McCovey. The greatest since him?


J.T. Snow? Will Clark?


The point I'm trying to make is that the Giants have had few great first basemen. Last year, the Giants had the most productive player at that position since J.T. Snow hit 24 home runs with 98 RBIs in 1999. 


But how good has he been since last season? About as good as Shea Hillenbrand (yeah, remember him?). 


Let us compare the entire position from last season(opening to July 7th) to this years productivity:


2010 Team Record (through July 7th): 44-40
2011 Team Record (through July 7th): 50-39


First Base

	2010	2011
Batting Average	.290	.242
On Base %	.362	.303
Home runs	10	9
RBIs	49	38
Stolen Bases	1	4
Hits	121	84
Runs	46	34
Walks	34	36
Strikeouts	50	65

Well it appears that last seasons production at first base was much better than this year's so far. When the Giants started Brandon Belt at the position at the start of the season, we fans had high hopes for the kid to preform much like Buster Posey did as a rookie in 2010. 

Instead, Belt batted .192 with one home run and four RBIs in 16 games.

"That's fine!" said the Giants. "We have Aubrey Huff, he will hit like he did last year." Sure, a first baseman who hit .293 with 12 home runs and 45 RBIs in the 100 games he played at first last season would do just fine.

Instead, we get a .241 hitter with seven home runs and 32 RBIs in the 69 games he has played at first this year. Huff is not the same. 

The other first basemen to play for the Giants last year were Posey and Travis Ishikawa. Both played pretty well, but never held the main job at first. Aubrey Huff just had a career year and he is not having one this year. Big surprise. 

I guess bottom line is: the Giants first base position is a lot weaker than it should be, and all we can hope for is Aubrey Huff can succeed once again, or we hope Belt can be Posey 2.0 sometime soon. 

Giants of 2011 Versus the Giants of 2010- Catcher

*I will be creating these 2010 v. 2011 position comparisons throughout the month of July. Starting with catcher, I will make my way through all nine position as well as relievers and closers.

   
By this time last year, the San Francisco Giants began their rapid tear to win the West. Rookie phenom Buster Posey had been brought up to eventually replace the later-traded Bengie Molina, and the Giants offense, defense and pitching began to display some great baseball.

So, for fun, let us compare the Giants of 2010 and the Giants of today:

	2010	2011
Record (through July 6th)	43-40	48-39

Now let's take a deeper look into the stats by the catcher position:

Catcher

	2010	2011
Batting Average	.243	.246
On-Base %	.386	.330
Home runs	6	6
RBIs	28	35
Stolen Bases	0	3
Hits	66	74
Runs	28	31
Walks	37	45
Strikeouts	42	59

The collapse of Buster Posey has been a big frustrating affect for the Giants. However, when calculating only the games played at catcher early last season, his impact this season is far greater. Last season, Posey only started seven times as catcher though July 6th. Today, injury included, Posey has started in 41. 

In essence, the Bengie Molina Era early last season is being compared to this year's Posey/Eli Whiteside/ Chris Stewart tandem and they both come out surprisingly similar. 

This season the Giants have played four more games than last season to this date and yet the only stats that are widely different accounting for those lost games are OBP, RBIs, walks and strikeouts. Everything else is roughly the exact same production from the catcher position.

So, my conclusion from these results: meh... it's about the same. I can't assume Whiteside and Stewart can produce as well as Molina did for the remainder of the season without Posey. And I know for a fact that they wont produce numbers like Posey did in the second half of the season. 

All I know is that so far, the catcher production has not changed from the production of last year. Somehow, I'm okay with that. For now.