The Giants should be better than this year, but not much more.

Where is any power going to come from in your speculations?

Sure the outfield is set…in a mediocre sort of way. Lewis might be more of a run producer than he was this year, but that remains to be seen, and Winn and Rowand are nice players to have, but neither are much of an offensive force.

Are there any quick IF fixes that are likely to work (that is, seriously upgrade the lineup) and even close to being worth the contracts they are likely to get? Sure, there are some good and decent bats out there, but would you pay texeira what he is looking for ? Same for injury prone Furcal, and the more than injury prone Crede? Want to drop 10 mil a year for orlando hudson?

The bullpen is further away than you are thinking; seriously, have you been watching lately? Salder, Romo and Matos haven`t yet shown they can be of consistent help at the MLB level,, Hinshaw has, but he still has a lot of work to do. And the bullpen would have to be more than `competetive` for the giants to compete—they:d have to be good, given the offense.

Many of us, myself certainly included, think the wiser choice is to point to 2010 when the giants might be on to something again. Not only is this more likely, as the strong prospects in the system will be starting to be in the mix by then, but it wiser yet still: the system needs more than a strong 09 draft with elite talent, it will likely need that in 2010 as well—as it is extremely unlikely that every one of the major prospects pan out as anticipated.

At least 7 months, in my honest opinion.

so far.

But thank god for delicious rosterbation.

I agree that this team is two above average hitters from competing. One of my main concerns, which you pointed out, is that we aren’t going to have Cain and Lincecum forever. Once Big V, Noonan, Posey, Gillaspie, etc. make it to the bigs, there will be one, maybe two years left before Cain and Lincecum hit free agency (which, coincidently wouldn’t be as much of a problem had Zito not signed).

Other misc items: only add Beltre if he is the last piece of the puzzle. He cannot be the centerpiece of any offense. Also, NO TO FURCAL, it will be way too much money wasted on a guy constantly on the DL. If Posey could really take over SS like people say he could, that leaves C open for Pablo, which would work very nicely.

Long answer short: Unless they can somehow add Beltre & Texeira, or work out some crazy trade that brings in an elite slugger, I think they’re at least a year away from being good. If they do sign FA hitters, though, I think it’s important to not sign them for TOO many years, where there is no $$ left to resign Lincecum and Cain.

Personally, I’m shocked of how long it took the McCoven to forget about John Bowker. My Plan for ’09 would involve playing Ishikawa, Bowker and Schierholtz 2 starts each in a 3 game series between RF and 1B. Between those 3, there would be a significant power uptick over a full season, with one of the three able to claim more playing time if they prove themselves in a Lewis-like fashion. In my mind, the RF/1B positions have to be run producers in this lineup, possibly batting 3/4, because 3B is likely to be a black hole of Castillo-like suckitude until either Rohlinger develops in AAA, Franny shows the bat for 3B or Gillaspie is ready. The best way to do this is to push Bowker, Schierholtz and Ishikawa to develop around each other by having them compete for playing time. Winn is expendable purely because he is a 1/2 hole hitter in a lineup with too many. Winn should be packaged with some minor league pitching (and Cash) to see if the Giants could pry away Ben Zobrist from the Rays.

Third in the division seems like a realistic goal.

The Giants could be pretenders next year. If the Stars aligned properly.

To me its all about the inf. The Giants aren’t getting even average production on either side of the ball in 4 spots. That has to change to have any hope of Pretender status.

I am not a fan of spending Free Agent money on middle relief.

I think Tex with the Zito contract will severally cripple the Giants for at least 5 year so to me he is a last piece to add.

I am fine with Beltre. Cost less (presumably) then Tex but still fills 2 holes ( legit hart of order bat and third base) has been very durable and not that old for a veteran.

Pretty hard to do in one off-season without elite prospects down the pipeline.

This off-season needs to be about:
1) Dumping Randy Winn and Roberts
2) Trying to trade Molina for value
3) Exploring any and all trade possibilities that help the club’s longterm success, even if that means trading good young players (Sanchez, Lewis). The only untouchables are Cain and Lincecum.
4) Take high upside chances. Dallas McPherson might be guy who hits .222/.290/.400 with 175 strikeouts. Take the chance though, what have we got to lose? Even that putrid line is about what we got out of 3B this year anyway.
5) SIgn one year deals to intriguing veterans that we could either trade at the deadline or get comps picks for if they perform well. Mark Prior for example, he falls into category 4 and 5

If Zito’s contract wasn’t on the books, making a run at Teixera would be more feasible and realistic, but adding a guy like him would only make it more difficult to re-sign Cain after 2011 and Linc after 2013 as Tex will demand and probably get somewhere close to a 7-10 year contract at 18-20+ per year. The guy is 28 right now and will be past his prime by the time the contract is up.

Also, I think people underestimate the difficulty signing offensive free agents is for the Giants. They play in a rather extreme pitcher’s park (at least by reputation). I can’t imagine a big time free agent who’d want to come here, except maybe Burrell (due to his Bay Area roots). If they did, it’d take exorbitant amounts of cash. Plus, it’s way expensive to live here and that just takes away from salary.

As for the bullpen, I think the Giants should stick to rebuilding the starting pitching and offense before they invest heavily in a bullpen. Most bullpen guys are typically interchangeable and I wouldn’t want to spend too much money or prospects on it until were 1 LOOGY or 1-2 more arms away from a division title.

The Giants new owner, Duke Nukem, I believe, has stated that the team won’t be in on any big time free agents this winter, which I agree with. Based on recent drafts and international acquisitions, it appears that the team has opted for a strategy of rebuilding from within. Going after big free agents (who almost typically now get a lot more money for a lot more years than they’re worth) would certainly seem out of line with that strategy, so I don’t think the team will go down that road this winter.

Disagreeing with GRM = groupthink

Scoffing at improbable trade deals = undervaluing Giants players while simultaneously overvaluing other teams’ players

Spelling = irrelevant

did i miss anything?

I’m guessing that this post is going to start the long string of “What the Giants need to do to contend next season” threads…

So what I take from this post is that you are for giving big contracts to Burrell and Ellis while purging the system for Uggla and Crosby.

Short answer: No thanks.

Longer answer: That would be an improvement on the current lineup but not by much. Uggla and Burrell would bring some much needed pop to our lineup but they would also bring some pretty terrible defense. Also I don’t feel that being around a 85 win team will be enough to really win our division, let alone contend in the playoffs.

Just take a look around our division and you can see how the better teams got there. Arizona, LA and Colorado all grew their own talent and then used trades/FAs to fill in the holes. Going out and spending a bunch of money and prospects for an entire infield is just not a very sound move.

for the contention.

Putting aside the question of whether or not it’s possible to compete next year, do you think it’s prudent? That is, in the cost-benefit analysis, is it better/smarter/whatever to mortgage the farm to compete next year, or wait until 2010 (or even 2011) when more holes will be filled by players already in the system?

Let me use an extremely tiny sample size of last night’s game to give my honest and yet still smartass answer: FAR, FAR AWAY.

GRM, did you notice that the Marlins pitched their first complete game in nearly two years last night? Against the Giants? Against a lineup that is largely similar to what our 2009 lineups will probably look like? Oh, sure starting Fred Lewis might have helped, and they were tired from the flight across country, and numerous other mitigating factors, but not once did this Giants team offense produce anything resembling a rally. The Marlins NEVER warmed up their bullpen. Not once. That scenario doesn’t happen against a team that’s just one or two infield upgrades away from contending.

I’m hoping an expecting for a close-to or at-.500 Giants team next year if all goes well. But not a contending team. Just my two cents.