I don’t see a whole lot of clamoring to trade Fred.

And, just saying, Fred strikes out a lot too. That’s one of the concerns people have with him – that he strikes out too much to sustain a decent batting average.

I like Fred a lot and would like to see him remain a Giant. He’s definitely the best position player our system has developed since Bill Mueller (I think.)

Fred is a pretty average outfielder, and there is tremendous real value in that. He probably has more value to us as a player than as trade-bait, and if that is actually the case, we should keep him.

do you also like babies?

I think most of us like Fred Lewis and feel that he is a good player right now with the chance to get a bit better. I also find that most people around here like him on a personal level and are rooting pretty hard for him to succeed.

I think you might be surprised to learn that Lewis is a pretty good OF. He is ranked as the 2nd best LF in the game right now — between Carl Crawford and Johnny Damon - by Dewan’s +/. He’s also ranked well in RZR.

Do you write for a major newspaper?

On a team as starved for offense as the Giants, clamoring for his trade would be silly.

The other case is, in all probability Randy Winn isn’t coming back next year, if he makes it through August of this year.

There is a chance that Randy will get dealt, either soon or in the offseason. However, I’d say we’re talking about a 10-20% chance. He’s most likely to start in the OF for us next year.

Since Feddie is a fan fav around these parts, “The Case for Fred Lewis” is about as controversial as “The Case for Good Beer”

like others say, there isn’t a whole lotta arguing for trading Lewis, but as I mentioned during the past, if I were in the Giants front office, I wouldn’t rule it out if other teams came around.

Now, the point I made before and I’ll say it again here is that Lewis probably hasn’t reached his peak value yet. I think he will develop more power as he was basically a late bloomer when it came to baseball. He could turn into a (skinny) Chili Davis type of player, with just a tad more speed.

While I’m not advocating that the Giants shop him or sell low, I do think that he is one of the few chips the Giants have that is tradeable and if they can get good value for him (hopefully at his peak) they should. In a few years, there will be more guys coming thru the system that can play left field (like Bowker, Kieschnick or Fairley for example).

The overall point is that the Giants may not be a winner or contender while Fred is in his prime and if they can move him to maximize value and get prospects that will mature when the team is a contender, they should.

feel comfortable with lewis in the 3 hole even though you would want someone with more pop in that spot and if he were traded who could fill that spot, not Winn again. And say we were to trade lewis we wouldn’t get a 3 hitter or major leaguer back most likely, instead we would get a couple prospects who probably wouldn’t contribute significantly this year. And signing a big bat in the offseason doesn’t seem that likely because the big bats in the free agent market would be basically Dunn and Burrell who aren’t over 35 and Milton Bradley and Carl Crawford might be available but the’re not really big bats.
        I would as most of us want though to see Nate play regularly and see if he’s not a AAAA player and I actually thing Nate is ready to play in the majors.

On another note is else in iterested in the post in MLBTR about Micah Owings be claimed by the Giant’s of waivers along with a few other teams? I’d love to see him in our rotation and maybe hit clean up occasionally.

and yet another reason to shut him down and get him ready for 2009 ST

I’ll say I’d trade Lewis if the right deal came along, but after his season this year, I’m not in a hurry to do so.

The reason I’d trade him is because of a current glut of outfielders, with two names in particular: Bowker and Schierholtz. There could be legitimate reasons and complaints that one or both should be playing ahead of Lewis (less so for Bowker now, but maybe in the future), mostly because Lewis would be a great center fielder….if he could play there. Maybe even right field. But he’s taking up space in one of the few positions that the Giants could put a mediocre-fielding power hitter, and they need some power. The Giants are more in need of power, of which Lewis has provided a surprising amount of, but both Bowker and Schierholtz could probably provide more of.

But then, with especially Bowker, some could say Fred is more valuable. But then, if there’s another team that thinks that, all the better for a trade return.

I’m not going to make any proposals and seek out such a trade, though.

Metallica said it best

“Rebuild and destroy, ha ha ha ha ha!!!”