It’s an interesting argument that would really come down to what we could get for him. It’s a good point that he probably won’t be any more valuable than he is now, but is there really a team out there just dying to add an aging catcher who’s better than advertised? Dying to do so to the point where they’d part with a talented youngster who would make the increased agony of watching Giants baseball in near future worthwhile? I’d doubt it.

Fact is, no matter how “clutch” Molina becomes, no one’s going to trade the farm for him. Heck, no one’s going to trade us a couple of acres for him, let alone the whole damn farm. On top of that, I like the idea of a seasoned vet working with our younger pitchers, and it’s not like we’ve got any catchers banging on the doors in AAA. So yeah, unless I’m wrong and somebody really wants Bengie, I’d keep him.

Probably not exactly now considering that G-Rod and Notgardo are both not playing, so we don’t have a backup for Steve Holm ready.

You don’t trade away your cleanup hitter in the midst of a pennant race!

Back to reality, then… It’s not a bad idea. But trade him to who, trade him for who, and replace him with who?

Getting a spare part catcher with better D is part of the equation because there’s no evidence Holm is an every day type. His numbers even through the minors scream journeyman but to his credit he has produced when called on this year even while seeing regular duty while B-Mole’s legs were sore. That’s IF pitcher development is really the priority.

If it’s not, you could just suffer through 2008 with some combination of Holm plus Knoedler, and Alfonzo when he’s back from suspension.

If you’re giving up just Molina, what you’d probably get back is a #2 catcher plus a non-prospect minor leaguer, or get back a quasi-prospect who is a few years away.

If you’d want to do something more featuring Molina in a package with someone from the pen (Threets?) plus a dump such as Hennessey, you might get a league-average infield starter.

The trade partner would have to be a club in a “win now” mode with a logjam at one infield position (2B or 3B) or a quality utility player who can’t quite crack that team’s lineup. Molina will revert or break down sometime, so your trade partner needs to be someone willing to roll the dice.

It’s probably too early to count on that. But in a month or so it might be a deal you could do, especially if Molina puts up a streak of .400 and 6 or 7 RBIs in 10 games.

I think Molina’s trade value would be higher if his legs were healthy.

Which, to be fair, might not happen.

But I think when you’re looking at trade value you can’t just look at how well a guy is playing at the time, you also have to look at the time. Regardless of what value Bengie is imbuing himself with by playing well, what team is looking to make the kind of trade that Bengie could be a part of a month into the season?

It just doesn’t seem to me that trades involving starting position players really happen a week into May (as long as memory doesn’t = fail), just because nobody is really looking very hard at this point. Molina’s value is determined as much by his performance as by demand, and I think this is a period of pretty low demand.

That’s just my thoughts.

...has the weirdest / funniest sponsor quote ever.

Your pitching staff is in good hands with a Molina behind the plate. May the lords of baseball bless Barry Zito and the beautiful people of San Francisco.

“there are plenty of vet catchers to be had in some kind of Molina deal who can bat 8th for us…”

Just what we need! Another 8th place hitter! Hooray!

Are we really three years from the “next good giants team”? As has been discussed previously, if you add Frandsen, Furcal and Texiera to the current team, you’d have something good enough to be “good” without giving up any pitching.

If the giants have those kind of plans, I’m for keeping B-money. If not, I’d be ok with moving him if the right deal came along. (Or the Wright deal, but that ain’t happenin’)

What kind of return would we get for Molina right now, though?

is determined by his being a battery mate to the ground floor of the Giants rebuiling process: the pitching staff. This makes Molina “untocuhable” trade wise.