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BREAKING: PABLO SANDOVAL INTENDS TO SIGN CONTRACT WITH BASEBALL TEAM. MORE ON THIS STORY AS IT DEVELOPS.
What's He Really Worth: Pablo Sandoval shouldn't get $100M
With all of yesterday's rush to be the first to panic over the report that Pablo is leaving, it was easy to forget to ask: What kind of contract should he even get? Purely based on projected performance, and an optimistic view of it, too, Jay Jaffe concludes that 5 years, $90 million is about as much as a team should give him. Though really, considering the Giants' lack of other options at third – counting on Marco Scutaro to come back healthy seems like a bad idea, though I can't put my finger on why, because Marco Scutaro broke it – a little bit of an overpay wouldn't be the worst thing. The worst thing would be starting Joaquin Arias at third as Plan A. So let's all not do that together.
Hot Stove: Breaking Butler
Who broke the story of Billy Butler signing with the A's? It was a 13-year-old and an 18-year-old, and Ken Rosenthal is here to talk about it, and the professional courtesy that goes along with being a reporter on Twitter. He then goes on to verbally subtweet "some others," and without his saying who he means, I'll assume he means Jeff Pearlman. A lack of evidence isn't stopping me, and it shouldn't stop you either.
With signing of Billy 'Country Breakfast' Butler, Athletics have a food-name monopoly
One of these years, Billy Beane is gonna build a team that actually wins the World Series, and people will wonder what the difference was, and maybe, just maybe, it'll be that he's assembled a team that likes food. Think about it: commentators always say you have to be hungry to win, championship announcer Mike Krukow constantly talks about meat, and the biggest Giants free agent over the last few years is known for being fat. Is this, at long last, Oakland's path to success? Probably.
The family legal fight over Ryan Howard's finances
Well, this will make it a little less fun to mock Ryan Howard's contract. I'll still power through, of course, bravely making jokes about Ruben Amaro having the brains of some unusually dumb driftwood, but I'll feel a little worse about it. Because any situation where money drives a family apart is sad, and Ryan Howard seems like a good person. I guess he'll have to console himself with his slightly less millions of dollars, which seems like ample compensation for not being able to trust your family, right? I think so.
Giants Logos
Look at how pretty they are. Who's a pretty logo? Who's a good set of triplets? You are!