The Giants don't hit so good. But they pitch real nice-like. I'd like them to hit more better.
Quick jottings after the jump:
- I strongly feel that the Giants have the right to take whomever they want from the Pirates' roster. Brian Sabean should have a lawyer look into this.
- Bucs Dugout dropped a rich man's Randall Simon comp on Pablo Sandoval, which offended me until I realized it made a little sense. The main differences are that a) Sandoval's three homers away from Simon's career high, b) Sandoval's already eclipsed Simon's career high in walks, and c) Sandoval's the greatest player ever. But as a low-walk/high-contact, what-if-Pablo-doesn't-improve comp, it beats the snot out of the Jeff Francouer comparisons that won't die.
- Matt Cain is good.
- If the Giants and Pirates do consummate a Freddy Sanchez trade, the Pirates would do well to demand Kevin Frandsen as a throw-in. If Frandsen came up with the Red Sox, he would have been Freddy Sanchez. That is, Frandsen would have been hyped enough to be a significant trade chip in his own right. Sanchez was 25 when he was the main piece in a deal that sent Jeff Suppan to the Red Sox, and his career minor league line was .318/.381/.440. Frandsen is 27 and his career minor league line is .322/.385/.457. Without league and park context, those numbers aren't perfect matches, of course, but it isn't hard to see Sanchez/Frandsen parallels.
I guess my point is this: Kevin Frandsen will hit .344 with 53 doubles in two years, just like Sanchez did in 2006. It's just science. My other point is this: Even though I'm obviously kidding about the first point, it probably wouldn't be a bad idea for another team to see how cheaply the Giants would part with Frandsen. Maybe there's a 20% chance he turns into a Sanchez-type player, and I don't think the Giants are going to give him that chance.
It's hard to call a game in July a "must-win" game, but I worried that a sweep would have made a farm-for-rentaplayer trade inevitable. It would have been desperate times, and the desperate measures wouldn't have been that far behind.