If yesterday’s post was too safe, too cynical, then I’ll make up for it with a premature declaration. They have pills for that now, but I don’t care. Here goes:
I think that the Giants should trade away the farm to get Pablo Sandoval and Buster Posey some help in the lineup. This, because Sandoval is clearly back to being the hitter he was last year, and because Posey is clearly an offensive force.
Too soon? Probably. Tough. I don’t like it when people pretend they’re qualified to psychoanalyze athletes. This player is confident, that player is too distracted...that kind of stuff is usually for people looking for evidence to support a conclusion, not for people looking for data points to develop a conclusion. But danged if Pablo doesn’t look like an entirely different, confident player. His at-bat against Francisco Rodriguez -- a calm, measured at-bat in which Pablo actively tried to earn a walk so the tying run could get to the plate -- was not only magnificent, but it was unthinkable just a couple of weeks ago. Pablo’s back. I don’t care if you vultures think I’m going to jinx him.
So Sandoval will be better, if only because I say so, and while Posey probably isn’t going to hit .350 for the rest of the season, he’s also not going to drag the offense down with a sub-.300 OBP like his predecessor. The offense is instantly better than what we had to watch in May. But they need help. Maybe another outfielder. Probably another reliever. And I’m willing to trade everyone in the minor leagues right now.
Well, there are some caveats. I’m willing to trade Brandon Belt only in a package for an All Star-type under contract for 2011. The same probably goes for Thomas Neal. Note that both of those players probably aren’t going to be enough for that kind of player, so I’m sort of implying that I wouldn’t trade them. But if the right package came along, no minor leaguer is off-limits.
Another caveat is that I’d like a smart trade. Breaking news! Replacing whomever the Giants have been using as a third outfielder -- Burrell, Rowand, Schierholtz -- with a minor upgrade isn’t worth the farm. That seems obvious, but it’s worth writing. Getting someone just to get someone isn’t a good idea.
A smart team would do well to trade for John Bowker. While I think he has as much of a chance to help the Giants right now as Corey Hart -- if Bowker drives you nuts swinging at bad balls, you’ll love Hart -- I’m also resigned to the fact that the Giants aren’t willing to play him now, and they probably aren’t willing to do it next year. He’ll be another team’s Jayson Werth, and then we can try to trade for him after he’s making millions in arbitration, right before he reaches free agency. That’s the Giants Way. So right now, the Giants should try to leverage Bowker as much as possible and get some value out of him.
I don’t have any great ideas right now -- I’m not ready to write some fawning, bleating post about David DeJesus or Lance Berkman yet -- but the last two weeks have filled me with the kind of irrational confidence that forces people to make bad decisions. It feels good. But I don’t want to wait for Barry Zito to have another good season. I don’t want to wait another decade for the Giants to find a good first baseman. I don't want to assume that Andres Torres is going to do another vintage Carlos Beltran impression next year. I don’t want to assume that Cain and Lincecum are going to stay good and healthy. I don’t want to assume that Posey isn’t going to turn into pure energy and ascend to the heavens.This is probably as good a chance as the Giants are going to have for a while.
All in. Kind of.