Will the Giants Pursue a Big Name Free Agent?

I do agree with you that when Sabes speaks out publicly he rarely tries to confuse or lay down smoke. I also agree that Sabes isn’t the only possible source of info on the Giants dealings, as I noted in my OP, but that Sabes has probably had the oldest and tightest-lipped core group in baseball for many years now. They are fiercely loyal to Sabes and none of them are attention- or media-whores. As an aside, I think that’s going to be sorely tested now that Larry Baer is the Managing GP – he seems to me like a guy that likes for the media to like him and write him up.
 
I disagree with your assertion that we knew all about the Beltran deal so far in advance this past summer, and I certainly don’t beleive that what we did hear was coming from Sabes & Co. I followed that trade deadline period very closely, and IMHO the rumors were almost entirely coming from Boras and sources inside the Mets (for the purpose of drumming up more suitors and better compensation). I also strongly disagee that we knew that the Gaints had decided on sending either Wheeler or Brown in a Beltran deal anytime before the day that the trade was finalized. There were several other names that were being whispered well ahead of Wheelers – incuding Surkamp, Hembree and Culberson. In fact, up until the final hour of the trade being finalized, nobody knew who the Giants were sending to the Mets – with several places printing that Gary Brown and not Wheeler was the main prize. If Sabes & Co. were the source of the rumors then they wouldn’t have gotten that key piece of info so wrong.
 
As for the 1B search during the winter of 2009.2010, I never heard that the Giants were targetting Huff until 24 hours before the deal was announced and the reason that we knew the Giants had been in on Nick Johnson and Adam Laroche wasn’t because somebody from the Giants leaked info, it came from the fact that both guys signed with other teams and their camps told the media about the Giants interest.
 
Finally, I don’t remember any leaks from the Giants side before the final 24 hours of the Franchez deal. From my recollection, the leaks were coming from the Pirates in an attenpt to gin up a trade war. I wasn’t paying attention during the Zito fiasco, but the OCab and PTB deals were first whispered about less than a few days before the deals went down, and anybody with half a brain could have predicted the Giants interest in those 2 guys at the time of the deals. They Giants were desperate for a power-hitting OF and a SS, and the pickings were slim.

Interesting views on Sabey Sabes. I lean towards Fla’s interpretations.

Sabean is kind of a monk. He is also plain spoken and generally doesn’t BS reporters too much. His press conferences are interesting because even though he gives clipped answers, he generally is pretty truthful and it offers insight. I thought he was pretty restrained with the Posey-Cousins-Ralph/Tom segment. You could tell he was beyond furious about losing Buster. But generally he avoids the press and GMs as much as possible. Agent Ned took on more and more of the roll, the way Bobby Evans is getting quoted a bit more each year.

Roger – I don’t think we knew that Wheeler or Brown were going to be involved in the Beltran trade. Sabean was cagey, saying they had 3-4 untouchables. People were pretty shocked about Wheeler, as I remember. The twitter went crazy – its Brown! oh no! Its Wheeler! on no! I wouldn’t say it was expected. Because of Sabean’s announcing there might be “beltran money” I think that’s a good indication we are in on Beltran, and I suspect it could switch to Rollins given the right circumstances of Beltran going elsewhere and Amaro/Rollins spatting.