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Onseason offseason talk

By Grant Brisbee

Roster-building speculation: something that's normally reserved for the offseason.

The 2007 Giants: not really worth talking about.during the onseason.

About a week ago, Rotoworld put up their initial guesses about free agent destinations. If they're correct, here's your 2008 San Francisco Giants lineup:

CF - Dave Roberts
SS - David Eckstein (3 years/$18M)
LF - Kosuke Fukudome (3 years/$36M)
3B - Mike Lowell (3 years/$33M)
RF - Randy Winn
C - Bengie Molina
2B - Ray Durham
1B - Rich Aurilia

This is assuming that there wouldn't be any trades, which isn't likely. A nice thing about the Rotoworld article is that they also listed possible non-tender candidates and trade possibilities. Other players in whom the Giants might be interested, according to the wild speculation of Rotoworld:

Sean Casey
Hank Blalock (trade)
Tomohiro Nioka (Japanese free agent shortstop) (don't get excited; he isn't that good)
Torii Hunter (Other team: "We're here for the game!" Giants: "We have three centerfielders! Shazam!" Other team: "WE FORFEIT!!!!1")
Milton Bradley
Carlos Quentin (trade)

So, yeah. Ker-barf, for the most part. That lineup would hit a combined seven homeruns. If that lineup added a power-hitting right fielder and a power-hitting first baseman, it could contend. And if Noah Lowry is traded for Ryan Braun and Prince Fielder, that'd be just swell. And if a frog had wings, it would really add some spice to the Allentown Community Theater Players' performance of Magnolia in the Park.

Fukudome is very interesting, until you realize that:

  1. He has 30-homer power in Japan, which doesn't necessarily translate to 30-homer power in MLB. Akinori Iwamura's 30-homer power became 10-homer power when he went to the Devil Rays. Hideki Matsui's 50-homer power became 16-homer power in his first season with the Yankees, though he's settled in as a 20- or 30-homer hitter.
  2. He's left-handed, which wouldn't be a great fit for Mays Field. It wouldn't be surprising if he put up a .290/.390/.400 line in San Francisco. Randy Winn with some more walks. Sign me up.
But the article was pretty thorough, at least with respect to consolidating the options a team might have, and it beats talking about a series loss to the Nationals.

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