I found it odd that Kinzer said he hadn’t talked to the Giants in two days, when the previous day the agent for Furcal had been quoted as saying he had talked to the Giants “within the past hour.”

Yesterday I thought Furcal was going to sign with the Giants. Now it’s looking much more like they do indeed have a deal with Renteria.

And I guess buying two years of respectability at short while still giving players such as Burriss, Frandsen, Velez, Noonan, Crawford and Adrianza two more years to develop at various levels might be a prudent move.

But is Renteria really worth $8.5 milion more per season than Burriss? Perhaps the Giants believe Emmanuel would benefit from more seasoning in the minors. Otherwise I can’t see the reasoning for signing Renteria (assuming that is what they have indeed done).

I guess the Giants must be thinking that another two seasons spent developing in the minors and as a second baseman or utility player in the majors would most benefit Burriss. And if Manny is truly ready a year from now, I would assume Renteria would be tradeable barring a bad 2009 season.

Still, if they have indeed signed Renteria, the Giants will be on the hook for over $60 million per season to Edgar, Barry Zito, Dave Roberts, Randy Winn and Aaron Rowand. For a non-contender, that’s a lot of dough to have baking in the oven for just five players — none of whom might arguably be placed in the top three players on the team. One might even describe all that dough as empty calories.

And even with Renteria, the Giants could well have the worst defensive infield in the league. Probably the worst offensive infield, as well. Ouch!

At least the Giants’ left side of the infield is so porous that they won’t have to worry about drainage. One has to find that silver lining where he can. Thank goodness silver doesn’t rust.

Kinzer has now said that he wants to narrow the field to only two remaining teams by Monday, yet the A’s haven’t even made an offer yet. I wouldn’t be surprised if the Giants have made the lone offer for 3/$39 million.

The problem Kinzer now faces is that he’s admitted that there are two other teams in play, yet according to him both of them have either salary or roster constraints to deal with before they can plug his client into a roster spot. Neither one of those teams is likely to address those problems over the weekend unless there are surprise trades about to happen. So those teams would have to jump in now to be considered without the certainty of having dealt with their constraints. And what team is willing to do that without knowing for sure that they’ll land Furcal, if Kinzer wants this narrowed down now?

Kinzer may have been too clever here and forced things too quickly, especially if it’s possible that he really only has one offer in hand right now.

I suspect that the Giants have already offered the 3/$39 million package in another one of Sabean’s “quick strike” efforts, and Kinzer is trying to use the A’s to get his client that fourth year that Sabean doesn’t want to give him. Again, no offer has yet been made by the A’s as of today, according to Kinzer, and he’s also talking about 2 “mystery” teams who haven’t yet made the moves for Furcal to land on their rosters. Yet he wants to narrow it to 2 teams by Monday. This explains why the Renteria 2/$18 million story suddenly popped up from nowhere earlier this week.