Also, playing the prospect lottery. Winn/Durham/Molina will play no role on the next winning SFG team, so you might as well move em now and get SOMEthing back for em, and you may just get lucky in the prospect lottery. Someone could break out, and you can’t win if you don’t play!

And they brought him up late season, and he lit up the MLB. And still is.

His name is Albert Pujols. Just saying, a questionable kid is better than the dude who’s gone before you can make it to the top of your division, let alone the league.

Silly boy!

Prospects aren’t as static as major leaguers. Just because someone is a B or C level prospect doesn’t mean that they will end up being a B or C level prospect. And conversely a lot of B or C level prospects don’t pan out. Out of all of the prospects you listed, I’d bet that three of them will end up being regular contributers at the MLB level. Maybe. or you can look at the Dodgers. They entered the season with Andy Laroche as the #1 prospect in the organization. Now it appears that Blake Dewitt (a B-level prospect) has surpassed him on the 3B depth chart. There is even talk of moving LaRoche to 2B.

As for the Winn/Durham/Molina situation. I agree with you on Bengie. There’s no adequate replacement there which is why I don’t think he will be traded. It would be like the Vizquel situation all over again, with no adequate filler at the upper minors to take over. Winn, however, needs to be traded. You listed Schierholtz, but Bowker is also an OF. Durham is similarly redundant. You listed all of the 2B options, all of which are not terrible. If the Giants traded Winn and Durham for a B/C level prospect at first base or third base, I would be a happy camper.

I’d trade Winn for a player to be named later just to get Schierholtz in the majors. We need to find out about Schierholtz. It will take 500-1000 at-bats to find out if he is or isn’t going to be a productive hitter, and that process needs to start soon.

I’d trade Molina for a pretty good prospect. Another team’s Schierholtz, for example. I wouldn’t just give him up for peanuts, as he still has value and he isn’t blocking anyone.

The folks who are proposing to trade vets are starting from the belief that the Giants are not going to the playoffs in 2008. There can’t be much meaningful debate between them and those who believe otherwise. You might as well have the Pope and a high priest of Odin discuss the afterlife. No matter what, you’re not gonna get His Holiness to believe it’s all valkyries and mead.

But even starting from that, the reasons for trading the vets varies:

Winn – blocking Schierholtz. Winn is a very average outfielder and will probably continue to be so. But we believe we have an average, yet cheaper, outfielder to replace him.

Durham – after his awful 2007, and turning 37 after this season, nobody’s sure how much Durham has left. He may have value now that won’t be there in the offseason. This is a classic sell-high case.

Molina – another sell-high case, although less urgent because he doesn’t look as close to the cliff as Durham, and because we don’t have an obvious replacement.

I would also add Aurilia in the same category as Durham (potentially on his last legs but doing well at the moment) and also Roberts, who is as replaceable as Winn without being as good.

I’d be perfectly happy if Molina remains a Giant. I won’t be nearly as happy if more than two of Durham, Winn, Roberts, and Aurilia are still on the roster by the end of the season.

http://blogs.nypost.com/sports/st/archives/2008/06/five_yankee_tra.html

I would rather keep Sanchez.