I often daydream about the Giants plowing an obscene amount of money into amateur talent. Say $10 million for draft bonuses and $5 million for international players. You could build a farm system pretty quickly for the price of one year of Rowand or Zito.

The Giants aren't going to win anything in the bigs this year, and their minor-league system is in the bottom third, according to Baseball America. My one hope for the off-season: bringing in high-ceiling talent at any level.

The Giants have been unable to trade for Edwin Encarnacion or Andy LaRoche or Lastings Milledge or any of the advanced players I dreamed of.

I've slowly turned my eyes to the international market. The Giants' most promising prospect from Latin America, Angel Joseph, was unable to sign because of a paperwork problem.

Now this make my heart go pitter-patter: Baseball American reports that Edward Salcedo, the top Dominican prospect available, has rejected the Giants' offer of $2.5 million. I hope negotiations aren't over.

Salcedo is a right-handed-hitting shortstop with first-round tools. He's represented by Boras. It's hard to know whether he'd be worth the money, but, damn, if any team needs to take risks and spend money on youngsters, it's our Giants.

Cleveland is supposedly in the lead for Salcedo, but I'm hoping the Giants push for the kid. Also, I've had four beers and my judgment is bad. Links:

http://www.perfectgame.org/players/playerprofile.aspx?ID=123749
http://www.baseballamerica.com/blog/prospects/?p=743
http://mvn.com/mlb-indians/2008/02/06/the-myth-of-edward-salcedo/