SB Nation - Ryan Garko

Sunday a.m. Rangers stuff

Adam J. Morris — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 17:52:08 -0000

More photos » by Sharon Ellman - AP

3 months ago: Former Dallas Cowboys Troy Aikman, left, and Michael Irvin, right, laugh as they wait to participate in a halftime ceremony during the Cowboys' NFL football game against the New York Giants, Sunday, Sept. 20, 2009, in Arlington, Texas. (AP Photo/Sharon Ellman)

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Very impressive win last night for the Cowboys, who definitely showed up ready to play and quieted the doubters (which included me).

As we discussed last night, Mike Lowell's thumb needs surgery, and the Rangers won't be dealing for him now, which means they are back in the market for a free agent hitter to fill or share the DH role. Jeff Wilson says the Rangers have shown interest in Jermaine Dye, Vlad Guerrero and Jim Thome, among others.

T.R. Sullivan, though, says that Guerrero wants a two year deal, which the Rangers don't want to do, and Dye doesn't want to be a DH. Troy Glaus, Ryan Garko, Jonny Gomes, and Fernando Tatis are the names I'd like to see the Rangers in on at this point.

Richard Durrett talks to Clint Hurdle about the three areas he wants to focus on with Rangers hitters this year.

Monday Morning Post-Meetings Link Fest

davoag — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 13:00:24 -0000

More photos » by Billy Smith II - AP

New Brandon Lyon puts on a 15 million dollar jersey. Prices at the team store sure have gone up!

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Have we all recovered? That was a hectic week as the Astros wheeled and dealed in Indianapolis. Houston came away with two relievers and a shiny new third baseman, while losing two prospects in trade and two more in the Rule V draft. Kudos to every contributor on TCB for covering all those moves during the Winter Meetings with both timeliness and depth of analysis. We all certainly have much to discuss between now and February when pitchers and catchers report. Until then, here's all the links fit to print from the past few days:

I know lots of stuff happened, but does baseball need the winter meetings? Dejan Kovasevic doesn't think so.
If you missed clack's excellent breakdown on the newest Astro Pedro Feliz and what to expect from him offensively, here it is. Look for some more analysis about Brandon Lyon from a Pitch f/x perspective later this week.
One of the biggest announcements out of Indy was that Peter Gammons is leaving ESPN for MLB Network and MLB.com. This is good news for all of us since keeping one of the best in the business around has to be a top priority. Whenever I write a story/column like this (roundup-style), I think about how Gammons pretty much invented it. Now that's influence. His final column is definitely worth reading.
Saturday was the deadline to offer contracts to arbitration-eligible players. Houston offered contracts to all their eligible guys, but that was not the case with all the teams around the league. In fact, the Matt Capps-Pittsburgh saga turned out to be the most compelling storyline of the night. There was a long list of interesting guys that were released Saturday and Tim Dierkes over at MLBTradeRumors.com runs them down here.
Of course, the Astros have no need of a guy like Garrett Atkins anymore, but Ryan Church is available and needed on this roster. Another interesting guy is Ryan Garko, who is listed as a first baseman, but did play 12 games in the outfield last season and could be a good lefty matchup guy off the bench. Two of the guys on that list were re-signed by the Indians, so that list could dwindle quickly.
Here is an updated version of the 2010 Draft Order. Go ahead and bookmark this page, since it will be updated as more guys sign.
One bad sign for the Astros' 2010 draft hopes is this report from the Boston Globe implying that Jose Valverde may have priced himself out of the market. I am aghast that his agent thinks he can get 12-13 million for Valverde, or that Fernando Rodney asked for 30m over three years from the Astros. If you were incredulous after the Lyon signing, can you imagine the apoplectic shock if Rodney signed for that much? Sheesh.
FanGraphs' Dave Cameron on the marginal value of a win. The article is ostensibly about the Rays trading and paying Rafael Soriano, but Cameron name-drops the Astros to illustrate how silly it is to overpay for wins in their situation.
Another excellent read for anyone who is on this esteemed website. Print this out and refer to it every time you read an article on here. Especially mine, since I'm often wrong, as my wife always reminds me.
Did you ever want to ask Brad Mills five questions about the upcoming season? Well, hopefully they were these five questions. If not, you may or may not be out of luck.
The Harvard boys bring it again, breaking down the payroll efficiency of major league teams in 2009. Of course, the Astros fall into that bottom 15 category and really don't get a lot out of wins out of their large payroll. This isn't because they don't spend money, it's because they spend their money the wrong way (re: Lee, Carlos and Matsui, Kazuo).
Here's a roundup of the local bloggers and storymongers, as Brian McTaggart weighs in on what the 2010 roster could look like. Alyson Footer talks about many doings around the team, including Milo Hamilton winning yet another award. The picture Astros County had up the other day with Milo in a crown was priceless. Richie Justice likes the Feliz signing, but thinks the team will still give Chris Johnson a shot at the everyday job. I know the organization has high hopes for him, but I wish the local guys would stop touting Johnson. He's never shown good power, has a history of injuries and didn't hit much at Round Rock. Why should this guy get a shot at the starting job with the big league club? I'd rather see Mark Saccomanno there than Johnson.
Farmstros does a good job breaking down the Astros prospective Rule V selections next season. Jose Altuve is a really interesting addition to that list, since he had an excellent season in 2009, but hasn't played past Low A ball yet.
I wonder what Houston offers on the post-game buffet? Really, though, can these players be expected to give up full-sized candy bars? Where are we living, Communist Russia?
Finally, a little tidbit from Buster Olney's latest blog post sent me to this really neat website run by former MLB catcher Brent Mayne. The Art of Catching provides tips and tricks on playing one of the hardest to define defensive positions on the field. This is why I like being a baseball fan.

Non-tender roundup: Miller and Reyes signed to minor league deals

Jay — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 03:10:39 -0000

Vaporstarter Adam Miller and the oft-injured Anthony Reyes were not tendered contracts by the Indians yesterday, rendering them free agents, but both pitchers signed minor league deals with the Indians just hours later. These transactions remove both pitchers from the 40-man roster while retaining their services for at least one more year. In the (admittedly unlikely) event Miller's career gets back on track this season, this series of moves avoids using up one of his option years, and should the Indians choose in the next year to restore him to the 40-man roster, he will have at least one option year left and will remain under club control at least through 2016. Reyes remains optionless, of course, but still hypothetically could remain under club control through 2013.

The Indians also declined to offer a contract to reliever Jose Veras, who was arbitration eligible, rendering him a free agent, and there is no indication he will be re-signed. Cleveland's 40-man roster now stands at 37, with 18 pitchers and 19 position players.

The Indians did tender a contract to pitcher Rafael Perez, who is eligible for arbitration (and to the other 28 players on the 40-man roster who are not yet eligible). The non-non-tender to Perez was non-unexpected, despite a disastrous season in which he was the fourth-worst reliever in the majors (min. 30 IP) per WXRL, which estimates a reliever's actual impact on the chance of his team winning or losing games. (That's "Win Expectation above Replacement, Lineup-adjusted," if you must know. BP rates Perez as merely the 10th-worst reliever at preventing runs from scoring, but because he blew more runs than his peers in high-leverage game situations, his negative impact on wins and losses was more substantial.)

Perez spent almost two months in the minors but still qualified for arbitration as a Super Two player with several weeks to spare. As a relief pitcher coming off a terrible season with barely enough service time to qualify, Perez is in line to be awarded perhaps the smallest salary of any player going to arbitration, probably less than $1 million. It's worth recalling, at this point, how outstanding Perez was in his truly super two-plus seasons prior to this one. He had a 2.89 ERA (and 152 ERA+) over 149.1 IP. He struck out 9.8 batters per nine innings, with 3.7 strikeouts for every walk. He held lefties to a .241 slugging percentage and allowed them only nine extra-base hits in 249 PA. As long as we keep tendering him contracts, he remains under club control through 2013, and there is a reasonable chance he will re-emerge as an impact reliever, or at the very least a useful one, at some point in that span.

Other notable non-tenders include former Indians Ryan Garko and Ryan Church. Garko of course was traded to the Giants only months ago for a decent enough pitching prospect. Just 115 abysmal AB later, Giants GM Brian Sabean is now saying he doesn't want to pay upwards of $3 million to a guy who isn't really an everyday player. I'm not saying he's wrong, but it's a pretty hilarious statement to make for a guy who will still owes $83 million to Barry Zito for the next four seasons. McCovey Chronicles has a pretty dead-on take on Sabean's curious sequence of decisions. My theory is that you just can't understand how slow this guy is on the basepaths until he's actually on your team, and maybe Wedge actually deked the Giants with respect to Garko's athleticism by playing him in the outfield.

Expect the cleveland.com crowd to clamor for Garko's return, oblivious to the fact that two teams have now deemed him unworthy of an everyday role in the space of just a few months. Despite high regard for his character, I would be surprised if Shapiro brought him back, even at a substantially reduced salary. I rather expect Garko will be signed by a GM who scouted him as a college player and was impressed with his stroke. As a lefty batter, Church doesn't really fit in with the Indians' plans. Other interesting non-tenders include Pirates closer Matt Capps, Yankees sinkerballer Chien-Ming Wang, and third baseman Garrett Atkins. Atkins is perhaps best remembered as the guy that the Indians never even considered trading Aaron Laffey to get. I wouldn't be surprised if the Indians took an interest in Mike MacDougal; they seem to like guys who used to be closers.

As for Miller, these moves were unusual, reflecting an unusual situation. The "non-tender" deadline traditionally involves only players who are arbitration-eligible, as there is little reason not to tender a contract to any player on the 40-man roster who isn't eligible, since the most the team can be compelled to pay such a player is the minimum salary, which will remain $400,000 for the 2010 season. Many such players will make less than half that much, if they don't spend much time in the majors.

The latest in Miller's deathless progression of rehab setbacks occurred after rosters were frozen for the Rule 5 draft. Otherwise, the Indians might have chosen to DFA Miller prior to that point, exposing him to waivers. That might have cost the Indians the rights to Chuck Lofgren — but then again, maybe not. The Indians might have protected some other on-the-bubble prospect like Yohan Pino, in which case, Miller's delayed setback actually saved the Indians from burning an option year on whoever-that-would-have-been. And even if Miller clears waivers (and later, presumably, also clears the Rule 5 draft), he would have been granted minor league free agency anyway, since he was originally signed more than six years ago.

In that sense, non-tendering Miller, while unusually, was actually a more straightforward path to the same destination. Either way, he ends up as a free agent, free to sign with any club, but this way, he doesn't have to pass through waivers first. Miller obviously felt some combination of organizational loyalty and faith in the club's ability to rehab him back into a prospect, assuming that's even possible. Reyes has spent far less time in the Indians organization, but he had the same options as Miller and made the same choice. If either player was actually worth something anymore, we might consider feeling good about that.

Non-Tendered Players Of Note

Sam Page — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 11:00:29 -0000

More photos » by Gregory Smith - AP

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Kelly Johnson--Since Mike Fontenot got a contract, Kelly Johnson is my new guy. He's got all the makings of a good bench-guy: left-handed and defensively versatile. As a secondbaseman, Johnson has the bat for the position, but a suspect glove, basically what you might expect from the Daniel Murphy 2B project that never was, and not my dream replacement for Castillo. Still, given his nice combination of discipline and power, "platooning" him with Castillo and using him to spell Francoeur versus the occasional righty would be effective. If the Mets sign KJ, I predict he takes Castillo's job no latter than June.

Matt Capps--Capps will never live up to the closer billing he inherited in Pittsburgh, but he has consistently posted xFIPs ~4.00 since making it to the majors. An inconsistent fastball lead to Capps getting tagged for a lot of homers last year, but I guarantee, with a more liberal budget, the Pirates held onto this guy. The Mets have some holes to fill in their pen, and they could do (and probably will do) a lot worse than Capps.

Jack Cust--I'm torn. If a team gets Jack Cust to accept a bench role, there won't be a better lefty pinch-hitter in the majors. That said, Cust will probably look for a DH job elsewhere, and the last-in-UZR Mets might want to look for another type of fourth "outfielder."

Ryan Garko--Mets fans are already clamoring for Ryan Garko as the perfect platoon-mate for Daniel Murphy. He has a .885 OPSvL and a reasonable 1.17 platoon ratio, so the ability to hit lefties is real. Garko, however, has no other attractive talents. He can't field, play anything but first, hit righties, or run. Keeping him on the bench just to relieve Murphy against lefties isn't a very productive use of a roster spot, especially since Manuel will end up pinch-hitting him against righties too often. If anyone wants to convince me Garko is more deserving of a roster spot than Nick Evans, who hits lefties nearly as well, with the added ability to play outfield and emergency catcher, good luck.

As an aside, I'm still perturbed at how easily Mets fans accept this Daniel Murphy-platoon garbage as a good plan at firstbase. What if the Bears are who we thought they were, and Daniel Murphy reprises his role as the worst offensive firstbaseman in the league? What if Ike Davis isn't the super-star of the future? As fans, we often don't realize just how possible these outcomes are. Here's a novel idea I threw out earlier: go get a real firstbaseman. Anyone? No? All I'm saying is, if the Phillies acquire Roy Halladay, I think the only reasonable--no, patriotic--thing to do is trade the farm for Adrian Gonzalez.

Garret Atkins--Although a incentive-laden deal would be tempting, I still have trouble finding where Atkins would fit on the bench. He's basically Ryan Garko with more upside, but also considerably larger and more likely downside.

Ryan Langerhans--The Mariners replaced Endy Chavez with Ryan Langerhans and the Mariners are smart, so let's do that too. Good BB% and decent power make for a league-average hitter with tremendous defensive ability.

Request any I skipped, and I might add them.

Ryan Garko not tendered a contract

Grant — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 06:22:56 -0000

Help me out. Pick the most reasonable option. Did the Giants...

a. judge a player on 100 at-bats. Like, they honestly, truthfully thought that 100 at-bats were enough to change their minds about a player, or

b. not really scout a player they acquired in a trade for the third-best pitching prospect in their system

Because it can't be both. The Giants might have been excited to acquire Garko, only to watch 100 at-bats -- which included a lot of hard-hit outs, mind you -- and think, oh, this guy isn't a major leaguer at all! Never mind the previous 1500 at-bats; I don't know what pimply faced intern recorded those in-game events, but they shouldn't be trusted.

Or they traded for a guy because he was one of the only players available, and they were horrified when he showed up with a looping, pop-up machine of a swing. "I thought you said this guy was good!" "I didn't say that, you said that!"

According to Extra Baggs, the Giants have a contract offer out to Adam LaRoche. That's swell. All things being equal, I'd rather have LaRoche over Garko. That's not the choice, though. The choice is between LaRoche and Garko carrying a suitcase filled with $15M to $25M, which is probably going to be the difference between the two players for the next two years.

This, combined with the idea that Eugenio Velez might start in left field, means that Brian Sabean and Bruce Bochy really believe that it's a good idea to form lasting opinions based on random stretches of at-bats. I suspected as much, but the confirmation stings. Garko's slump happened to come when he was first acquired. Failure! Horrible specimen of a player! Velez's hot streak came when he was recalled from Fresno. Rapture! He's figured it out!

Once again, I have to look around to see if Rod Serling is narrating my life as I type this. I don't mind the non-tendering if it means the Giants will improve the team. I'd rather have Nick Johnson, even if he'd cost a lot more extra scratch. But what I mind is that nothing should have changed between acquisition and non-tendering. Nothing. If the Giants thought Garko was good enough to give up a top-ten prospect in July, they sure as hell should have thought he was worth $1M or $2M in December. A handful of at-bats shouldn't have changed anyone's mind.

(Non-)Tender is the Night

Jim McLennan — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 01:00:18 -0000

10pm Arizona time today marks the non-tender deadline: the last chance for teams to offer contracts to unsigned players on their 40-man roster. If they opt not to do so, players become free agents, and can sign with any club. It looks like the Diamondbacks will offer deals to all their players in this category, such as Conor Jackson, but might there be a chance for the team to pick someone up, released by another club? There are usually some useful pieces that get cut loose, and it can be a chance to pick someone up for a relative song.

Tim Dierkes has put up a list of potential non-tenders at MLBTradeRumors.com. Some of these will certainly be given contracts (his list contains Jackson, and you can take it to the bank that the team will not let him walk away from Arizona), and others we might not want to touch with someone else's ten-foot bargepole. However, after the jump, we'll take a look at some interesting names in the positions the D-backs need help, on on whom we may want to kick the tires if they become available.

Jeremy Accardo. Over the past three seasons, Accardo has an ERA+ of 160 for the Blue Jays, though admittedly, he only threw 37 major-league innings in 2008 and 2009 combined, and spent most of last year in Triple-A [posting an ERA of 3.00 in 27 appearances]. A local boy - born in Mesa - he could be a useful arm to add to the Diamondbacks bullpen.
Garrett Atkins. Purple Row says he has been officially non-tendered by the Rockies. Last year was a disaster for him - OPS+ of just 66 - but his career numbers are still solid. He's only 30, is a career .289 hitter, averaging 20 homers per season, and even adjusting for Coors, has a career OPS+ of 102. Of particular interest to Arizona because he murders LHP, so could be a nice platoon-mate for Allen at first-base.
Taylor Buchholz. While we're pillaging Coors Field, maybe they'll let Buchholz slip through. This may seem unlikely, since he was lights-out in the Rockies bullpen last season, posting an ERA of 2.17 over 63 games. Normally, there'd be little chance of that kind of performance being non-tendered, but the Rockies have to find an awful lof of arbitration money for 2010.
Jack Cust. A former Diamondbacks' top-draft pick, I should stress there's absolutely no chance of us taking on Mr. Hands of Stone. But I just think it would be amusing to have the 2008 and 2009 K leaders from both leagues playing on the Diamondbacks next year...
Ryan Garko. While he flopped badly with the Giants down the stretch, he has produced four straight season of 100+ OPS+. He's another who kills southpaws - Garko's career line vs. LHP is .313/.392/.495, though he's never going to win any Gold Gloves at first. Will probably still be in SF: Grant from McCC reckons, "If the Giants start 2010 with Garko as the starting first baseman, that's just fine."
Kelly Johnson. Like Atkins, a poor 2009 derailed what was looking like a decent career - an OPS+ of 108 prior to last season is excellent for a second-baseman, and he has a good defensive reputation as wel;. Ken Rosenthal reports that the Braves are trying to trade Johnson, but will non-tender him if a deal can not be worked out before the deadline.
John Maine. 28-years old, ERA+ of 106 in his four seasons with the Mets. Should be a no-brainer to keep that guy in the Big Apple, right? Apparently not. New York have been dangling him in trade talks, such as with the Brewers for outfielder Corey Hart. Still, even if that falls through, you'd have to be stupid to let him walk away. However, we are talking about the Mets...
Brandon Medders. A tale of two Brandons, both former D-backs who'll be aged 30 next Opening Day. B. Lyon, career ERA+ of 111, gets a three-year, $15m deal from the Astros. B. Medders, career ERA+ 136, is a possible non-tender candidate from the Giants. Seems fairly certain he will be offered a contract though, and the Giants would be mental not to do so.
Chien-Ming Wang. Perhaps the most intriguing name on the list, this would have seemed unthinkable last year, with career numbers of 54-20 and an ERA+ of 117. However, Wang imploded - his first three starts led to 23 earned runs in just six IP, and he had season-ending shoulder surgery on July 30. Some team will offer the sinkerballer an incentive-laden contract: 50/50 whether its a bargain or a bust.

Offseason Priorities for the Giants, Part II: First Base

Grant — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 20:44:06 -0000

Supposedly, the easiest position at which to find a hitter is first base. Alas, we are Giants fans. It's a little disingenuous to say there's a post-Will curse on the organization -- J.T. Snow did provide a couple of fantastic years to bookend the meh -- but there hasn't been a lot of offense from first base since Will Clark left. The Sabean-led Giants are the kind of organization that can look at Shea Hillenbrand and Ryan Garko, and say, man, now those guys are clearly better than what we have on the roster.

And while Garko was a small sample size disaster after coming over, he still represents the best first baseman on the roster. As a right-handed guy with limited defensive skills, it'd be nice to have a lefty-swinging slick fielding complement to Garko. Like, oh, Travis Ishikawa. So there it is: the Giants are totally set at first base. Yet it feels like it should be a priority to find a new, shiny first baseman. This feeling is explained by the When You Have Aaron Rowand, Edgar Renteria, Nate Schierholtz, and Eugenio Velez Penciled in for a Lot of At-Bats Theorem, which posits:

When you have Aaron Rowand, Edgar Renteria, Nate Schierholtz, and Eugenio Velez penciled in for a lot of at-bats, you really, really, really want to find some more offense wherever you can.

Third? We're cool. Catcher? Should be fine if we keep our expectations fairly low. Second? Better than last year, at least. The rest of the the positions are filled by the goofs who give the theorem its name...except first base. By default, first base is the Giants' best chance to upgrade a sorry offense, even though it's one of the positions with the best incumbent hitter. Well, the best chance is to find any non-Velez to play left, but then that kind of glib talk just ignores Velez's 100 at-bats of mid summer greatness last year, which are 100 at-bats that mean more than the other 3000 in his professional career. Come on, now. Let's focus.

Nick Johnson provides on-base gettin'. Carlos Delgado or Troy Glaus might provide home run hittin' if they're healthy. Russell Branyan might be one of the offseason's best bargains, or he could be Damon Minor with a bigger house. There are options -- all risky, often appealing. They'd require that the Giants non-tender Ryan Garko, most likely. Here's a Scott Barnes, Indians. We're now even for '54.

It just seems like a shame, though, that the Giants have the best first base option since J.T. Snow smoked some of Wade Boggs's nail clippings during the 2004 All-Star break, and that's where we have to hope for an offensive upgrade. Not to say that Garko is anything special -- he's likely to be overpaid for what he produces, which isn't a whole lot for a first baseman. The overall offense would probably be better served by finding an improvement at short or in the outfield, but unless the Giants want to dish out a Zito-sized deal to Matt Holliday, it makes more sense to focus on the myriad of reasonable improvements at first base.

If the Giants start 2010 with Garko as the starting first baseman, that's just fine. But only if there are newly acquired productive hitters around him.

Dodger (and Trade Deadline) Hate

Grant — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 17:29:55 -0000

Back at the trade deadline, I wrote the following:

Forget Freddy Sanchez. I don't have a problem with average-dependent players, per se, but this one is hurt. We'll give up a top prospect, but we'll only get 107 at-bats of nothingness.
Forget Ryan Garko. He'll slump, and then he'll be buried by a manager who manages like he's the lead in Memento. If Garko doesn't make Bochy tattoo his name within 100 at-bats, forget it.

Tattoo #1: Start Randy Winn. He hit home runs in 2005.

Polaroid #1: Buster Posey. (other side) Don't believe his lies.

Forget Matt Holliday. He'll go absolutely nuts for the team that acquires him, hitting like a latter-day Frank Robinson, but then he'll try to catch a ball with his crotch in the playoffs. That will cost his team the game and, most likely, the series.

No, the answer is Ronnie Belliard. Forget that he's only hitting .246/.296/.374 for Washington. He's going to get crazy-hot. And then he'll get clutch hits in the playoffs. And he's cheap. Seeing as we're going to give up Tim Alderson no matter what, I suggest we give him up for Belliard and Nick Johnson, who will stay healthy for the last two months and put up a .477 on-base percentage.

And everyone here freaked out. You all screamed up and down that we couldn't give up Alderson for Belliard and Johnson. Well, well, well. Now who looks like a genius? ME. So cram it, jerks.

I'd provide a link to that post, but I'm late on my copy-and-paste bill, so that's not working, and I've got this other thing going on, and work, so yeah.

One silver lining is that maybe the Giants will only offer a $125M contract to Matt Holliday instead of a $126M contract now. So we have that going for us. Which is nice.

I think that one reason teams like the Indians and Blue Jays are entertaining offers for players like Cliff Lee and Roy Halladay a year before free agency is that teams are terrified of trading for a rental who flops in the two months after the deadline. If Lee got lit up in a lot of his starts, the Phillies could say, well, at least there's next year. Sanchez was a total dud, but it sounds like the Giants are committed to him next season, even if that means exercising his frabjillion-dollar option.

I also think that this season will completely break me of deadline rosterbation. The answer was Ronnie Belliard. The Dodgers traded for Ronnie Belliard, and that's why they won the division. That's why they get to host the Cardinals. That's why the Dodgers are a win away from the NLCS. Ronnie Belliard.

Dammit. Just, dammit.

Get it together, Cardinals.

Fire Everyone! - Mark Shapiro

Jay — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 05:53:11 -0000

More photos » by Tony Dejak - AP

Is just developing a good process enough?

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This is the final installment in a 12-part series.

"A Hit Is A Hit" — The Sopranos, season one.

Christopher has been bankrolling a band called "Visiting Day", who are managed by his girlfriend Adriana. He plays the band's demo to his associate Hesh, an old-timer in the music business.

CHRISTOPHER: So?

HESH: I think it's ... not good.

CHRISTOPHER: Wanna be a little more specific?

HESH: There's good. And there's not good. This is not good.

CHRISTOPHER: Okay, maybe it's not your era — no offense, but ...

HESH: Kid, music is music, talent is talent. I don't care who you are. I seen it all. I seen heavy metal invented by Hendrix at the Bottom Line, he just got out of the army. I told him, "Kid, I don't know what you call it — talent, charisma, magic — whatever it is, you got it." These guys ... [gestures to the cassette] ... I'm sorry, they don't.

CHRISTOPHER: That Vito is a great guitar player, Hesh.

HESH: Good, fine, he's a great guitar player. However, there's one constant in the music business: A hit is a hit. And this, my friend, is not a hit.

CHRISTOPHER: But why?

HESH: Christ. Reasons we can never comprehend or codify, you pitiful schlepper.

Of all the installments in this series, this is the one where it's most tempting to beg off and admit, this might just above my pay grade. I'll be honest, I can't say with much confidence whether Mark Shapiro should be fired. What I can say is that there are definitely good reasons to fire him.

Before we get to that, better face up to some hard facts. If you're going to fire Shapiro, you have to believe that a better option is available. Chris Antonetti is the heir apparent, but you fire Shapiro and keep Antonetti only if you think that in keeping Antonetti, you preserve the best parts of Shapiro while rooting out his shortcomings. Heck, maybe that's actually the case, but I personally couldn't say. It doesn't seem likely. And if Antonetti was the instant front-runner for most any GM opening, what would that make Shapiro if he were available?

Shapiro's calling card is turning walk-year veterans into prospects who become multi-year contributors to the team — a truly staggering haul, including Grady Sizemore, Cliff Lee, Coco Crisp, Shin-Soo Choo, Travis Hafner, Milton Bradley, Franklin Gutierrez, Asdrubal Cabrera, Josh Bard and Kelly Shoppach. Add to that list, potentially, over the next several years, Matt LaPorta, Carlos Santana, Luis Valbuena, Michael Brantley, Lou Marson, plus a half-dozen significant pitching prospects, plus Mark DeRosa, Arthur Rhodes, Justin Masterson and Chris Perez. Even his least successful trade acquisitions — Alex Escobar, Jason Michaels, Brandon Phillips, Billy Traber, Andy Marte, Josh Barfield — have not been entirely bereft of big-league talent.

We've chanted that litany before, but it bears recalling because horse trading is one of the most important jobs of a GM, and it's notably one of the only jobs where success or failure is directly traced to his decision. Shapiro also has had an impressive run with third-tier free agent starting pitchers — Pavano made 33 starts and netted a decent prospect, Byrd completed three serviceable seasons, Millwood won the freakin' ERA title, and even Brian Anderson did okay for a couple of years. And while fans rightly bemoan the dead weight of Hafner's contract, Shapiro has not really made the big, crippling mistakes that befall most GMs — on the balance sheet, Hafner-Westbrook-Dellucci pale before Wells-Rios-Ryan.

If you're going to get rid of Shapiro and his like-minded colleagues, then you have to be willing to live without those exemplary skills — without his leadership, class, and intelligence, his deftness with trades and contracts, the respect he commands within the industry, and especially — especially — his willingness to take the public body blows when tough decisions need to be made. You can't assume that the next guy will excel in all of those areas. I am certain we'd miss those qualities.

Having said that, I can tell you why Shapiro should be fired in one word: Talent.

Baseball is never simple. As a rule, the world's most elite natural athletes cannot succeed as major leaguers. Hitting and pitching are simply too hard. Hitting at this level requires a knack that may be the hardest thing to quantify or characterize in all of sports, and if you don't have it, then all the talk or mechanics and approaches in the world can't save you, even if you have several NBA championships and MVP awards on your résumé. Pitching at this level requires a freakish combination of precise muscle control, huge arm-generated torque, resistance to elbow and shoulder injury under extreme stress, and intelligence.

Running a baseball club may be just as hard and just as unquantifiable; after all, more than a few titans of industry have tried and failed. A brilliant executive can't necessarily run a ballclub any better than a world-class athlete can hit a curveball. The brilliant executive can be an inspiring leader, managing and empowering his charges. He can define what kind of people he wants working in the organization, hire them, set expectations, evaluate them, act on them. He can fire people. He can order case studies and surveys of best practices. He can analyze statistics and devise processes, enact them, evaluate them, refine them, start over from scratch if need be. He can maintain outstanding communication with his staff, with his bosses, with the public. He can do all these things reliably, even predictably, because he simply has the tools and the skills.

For all that, however, the brilliant executive can't necessarily tell you whether it's better to overspend on Raul Ibañez or Kerry Wood. He can't necessarily devise a process to tell you that, and he can't necessarily hire the right person to tell you that, either. Nor can he devise a process to hire the right person to tell you that. It doesn't always come down to objective analysis or having a good process. Sometimes it comes down to talent: the talent to play, the talent to evaluate talent, the talent to develop talent, and the judgment to make decisions about talent.

Sometimes — often, maybe — it comes down to reasons we can never comprehend or codify, pitiful schleppers that we are.

Evaluating talent is a special skill, and here I can speak with some experience. Most of my professional life is centered around my ability to identify genuine talent — musical talent, IT talent, and even writing talent — people who reliably will perform at a high or exceptionally high level, just about 100 percent of the time. I have, on occasion, identified individuals with weak paper qualifications who later went on to excel in their field. In some cases, they thrived in part because I gave them an opportunity and aided their development. In other cases, their success was inevitable, and I just saw it earlier than some others.

I am not suggesting, by any stretch of the imagination, that I have the ability to judge baseball talent. Maybe, if I'd spent 20 years working as a baseball professional, learning from thousands of discussions with scouts and making and testing my own observations — maybe then, but perhaps not even then. For whatever it's worth, though, I can tell you that my ability to assess a person's talents is entirely intuitive. I have no ability to explain it, or to teach anyone else how to do it. I can be highly analytical in my assessments of people, breaking down facts and metrics, making rules and devising grading systems to create rankings — and I can teach these things by rote and by example. However, none of that has anything to do with being able to differentiate reliably between a high ceiling and a low ceiling.

I can't tell you for sure that it's the same for baseball, but I worry that it is. Most of the people reading this could be trained in the rudiments of being a low-level scout — doing your homework and measuring some kid's raw tools on the field. Skills are another thing entirely — evaluating footwork and positioning on defense, observing quality of command across a variety of pitches, intuiting the difference between a bad day and a chronic problem. Beyond these, another level, the crucial, game-changing question: Will this ballplayer develop skills beyond what he's showing today? How does he project to a different level at a different age, or even just to a different ballpark in a different league?

I have no doubt that great baseball scouts learned a lot from the great scouts who came before them, and I have no doubt that a gifted executive can learn immensely from a great scout, purely by his ability to listen and communicate and absorb. At the same time, I am quite sure that the greatest talent evaluators in the game are possessed of something that is innate and ineffable. And I am genuinely concerned that the Indians don't employ any of those people — and that, in fact, Shapiro may have favored others in the organization to the point where the best evaluators left.

Take a look at the AP report of Neal Huntington being hired away by the Pirates:

Huntington formerly was the assistant general manager to the Indians' Mark Shapiro, but dropped behind vice president of baseball operations Chris Antonetti and assistant general manager John Mirabelli on the front office depth chart two years ago.

Huntington accepted a different role in 2005, Shapiro said, because Antonetti's skills were in the management and administrative side, while Huntington's were in evaluation and scouting.

"My skill set and passion were more that of an evaluator, but they never technically took me out of the front office," Huntington said. "I was exposed to some incredible things -- rebuilding an organization and being involved in every decision, every tough decision, that was made."

And from the MLB.com report:

As an adviser to Shapiro and vice president of baseball operations Chris Antonetti, Huntington was involved in nearly all personnel and staffing decisions, as well as trade acquisition discussions. He also spent the majority of his time evaluating talent on both the Minor and Major League level.

When asked about Huntington, Shapiro responded: "[Huntington is] one of our chief evaluators and one of our strongest voices on every level," Shapiro said.

Here's a guy who was the highest-ranking evaluator in the organization and possibly the best, a guy with a master's degree in sports management from UMass, and essentially, he was passed over — well treated, perhaps, but pointedly not in line for a future role as GM. So too, perhaps, was John Farrell, who upon leaving Cleveland — quite amicably, as Huntington did — was quoted to say that he was looking to have a larger voice in an organization. Farrell had been a major league pitcher and a college pitching coach, and with the Indians he served stints as Farm Director and Director of Player Development. Despite his experience and impeccable reputation, Farrell too was not viewed as the future leader of the organization.

Years earlier, there was Tony LaCava, whom the Indians hired in 2002 as national cross-checker, essentially rescuing him from the sinking-ship Montreal Expos. As the Expos very recent Farm Director, LaCava naturally was instrumental in selecting the prospects to be received in the Colon deal, which is not only Shapiro's signature trade, but arguably the most successful trade of a veteran for prospects by any GM, ever. LaCava, too, was not retained in the Indians organization, moving on to the Blue Jays as Assistant GM in 2003, just one year later, while John Mirabelli continued his string of generally disastrous drafts.

Like Huntington, LaCava is going to be a GM sooner or later, yet he wasn't good enough to be Assistant GM in Cleveland. None of these guys were given large enough roles in the organization to keep them around, and no doubt the Indians were possessed of too much executive talent to keep in-house — a nice problem to have. Still, given how things have gone since, it's telling that the prince-in-waiting anointment, and present-day "co-GM" status, went not to an ace evaluator, but instead to Antonetti, a man whose background and skill set are more or less identical to Shapiro's.

For all the talk about being open to all ideas and all viewpoints, the major player-evaluation talent in the Indians organization was basically told that being a solid administrator was more important, and that their path to bigger jobs would have to be in some other, presumably less enlightened organization — and never mind that it doesn't matter how well administered your organization is if you don't know who the best talent is. (Is it any wonder, then, that when Shapiro hires a former catcher for a manager, he then populates his coaching staff almost entirely with other former catchers? All leaders lead by example, first and foremost.)

This is not to say that an executive without a scouting background cannot be an outstanding GM, but it's noteworthy that other organizations that have gone with the "Ivy League whiz kid" GM model tend to have a "wise old baseball man" figure hanging close by, advising the gifted non-scout executive. The Red Sox had Bill Lajoie attached to Theo Epstein; Allard Baird is in that role now, while Lajoie is now advising Huntington in Pittsburgh. The Rays put Gerry Hunsicker with Andrew Friedman, and down in Texas, Jon Daniels has access to no less than John Hart and Nolan Ryan. But when non-scout-gifted-executives Shapiro and Antonetti huddle to make the big decisions, who are the wise old evaluators in the room — Charles Nagy and Jason Bere?

Later that night, at home, Adriana and Christopher discuss Visiting Day's potential. Hip-hop mogul "Massive Genius" has told Adriana that the band's demos are promising.

CHRISTOPHER: You know how I use the technique of positive visualization?

ADRIANA: I know you talk about it. You're fairly negative a lot of the time.

CHRISTOPHER: I think you should mentally prepare for the possibility that Visiting Day sucks.

ADRIANA: What?

CHRISTOPHER: I think that ... the only reason you've gotten this far with Massive is ... he wants to be in your pants.

ADRIANA: Boy, oh, boy.

CHRISTOPHER: Look, I had some experts listen to the demo ... they crapped all over it. Sorry.

ADRIANA: Who, Hesh? That old synagogue cantor?

CHRISTOPHER: Silvio. Hey, he owned rock clubs in Asbury. You heard what Squid said. A professional engineer.

ADRIANA: What about my opinion? That it's good. That it's special. This is just a way for you to keep me down.

CHRISTOPHER: That ain't fair.

ADRIANA: What's wrong with it, huh? What's wrong with Visiting Day?

CHRISTOPHER: I don't know ... but it's a problem that you don't know.

This series of articles perhaps has only demonstrated the obvious, that a club this bad — which decides in June that it must not only tank the current season but the next season at the same time — has suffered multiple failures in more than one part of the organization. In any one area, we can talk about how much control that one group of people — coaches, scouts, trainers — really had, compared to the influence of the other groups and the whims of the fates. But a systemic failure points ultimately to Shapiro, who hired and is accountable for all of those groups, and the harsh truth is that every club must contend with the whims of the fates — or fail to contend with them, as the Indians have.

Amateur scouting has been a disaster since Shapiro took over; maybe time will reveal that it was fixed two or three years ago, but maybe not. Big-league scouting has been a mixed bag, with veteran acquisitions missing a lot more often than they hit — in Barfield's case, about four times more often. The training staff has won high praise from some in the industry, but they haven't stopped the Indians from being undercut severely by injuries to a half-dozen key players in just two years — in some cases, multiple injuries and disappointing rehab processes have afflicted a single player like Jake Westbrook over and over again. The farm system has been another mixed bag, producing too many players who dominate at Triple-A but can barely perform at replacement level in the majors. If all clubs were like the Indians in this regard, those MLE formulas might look a lot different.

We had a manager whose playing-time decisions often defied any imaginable logic or reason, who thought it was important to have Ramon Vazquez on his bench rather than future 30-30 man Brandon Phillips, and who thought it was a good idea to put Ryan Garko in the outfield, with a rookie flyball pitcher on the mound — scratch that, ever — and we had a GM who let him do these things. It's true that Shapiro fired Wedge, and he may be sincere in saying that bringing in a new manager is an exciting opportunity. Even so, Shapiro made it abundantly clear that he didn't think there was any real, qualitative reason why Wedge shouldn't continue to be the manager — his exact words were, "it's a cop-out."

We had extraordinarily bad — and sometimes historically bad — bullpens in 2004, 2006, 2008 and 2009. Those volcanic fiascos were, at least, largely Shapiro's direct creations, and at most, entirely the fault of Shapiro and people who were hired by Shapiro, and who generally have not been fired by Shapiro. They have turned too many contenders into also-rans, too many decent squads into train-wrecks, and too many season ticket holders into non-customers.

The sum of these observations is this one, frightening, inescapable conclusion: Shapiro has not given us any concrete reason to believe that he knows how to put people into critical positions who are capable of evaluating, developing and coaching real talent — the kind that can thrive at the major league level. Without people in key roles who are possessed of that kind of judgment and talent, it doesn't make any difference how good your organizational processes are or how much class-acting you do. We cannot contend on a diet of trade-acquired minor leaguers and recycled starting pitchers alone. If these things weren't clear five years ago, or even one year ago, they ought to be crystal clear now.

I am just a scribe, neither scout nor coach, not a baseball executive and certainly not a former major leaguer. So I don't really know what's wrong with the Cleveland Indians. But it's a problem if Mark Shapiro doesn't know either. And as much respect for him as I have, I'm not at all convinced that he does.

NL West Report: Division closes strong season, Kevin Towers axed

Poseidon's Fist — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 18:00:21 -0000

The season officially concluded yesterday, at least for everyone outside the AL Central, and the National League West had a very formidable showing this year.

Two divisions are sending two teams to the postseason. Two divisions can boast each of their teams reached at least 70 wins. Only one division fits in both categories. Care to guess?

NL West Standings

	W	L	PCT	GB	STRK
Los Angeles	95	67	.586	0	Won 2
Colorado	92	70	.567	3	Lost 2
San Francisco	88	74	.543	7	Won 1
San Diego	75	87	.462	20	Lost 1
Arizona	70	92	.432	25	Won 1

(updated 10.4.2009 at 6:19 PM MDT)

The NL West checked into the W column 420 times, just two times less than the AL East. The AL West did have a slightly higher win percentage, but come on...they only have four teams.

The final seasonal team capsules are included after the jump.

NL West Report

Arizona (70-92, 5th, W1, 24.5 GB)

Last Week: 3-3. 0-3 @ Giants. 2-1 @ Cubs. Arizona's win yesterday helped the club avoid finishing with under 70 losses.

Divisional Change: Gained 0.5 games on LAD.

News: Try to remember a year ago, when several baseball pundits pointed to Stephen Drew's strong second half, suggesting he was better than Troy Tulowitzki. Can't remember? I don't blame you. But Drew's disappointint 2009 campaign has led some, like Bob Nightengale, to suggest the D-Backs trade Drew. Nightengale actually goes as far as to say Arizona is planning to shop him.

Stephen Drew

#6 / Short Stop / Arizona Diamondbacks

Height: 6-0

Weight: 185

Bats: L

Throws: R

Born: Mar 16, 1983

	G	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	K	SB	CS	AVG	OBP	SLG
2009 - Stephen Drew	135	533	71	139	29	12	12	65	49	87	5	1	.261	.320	.428

The trusted source Nick Piecoro claims that is false currently, though, and that sticking with Drew makes sense. He raises good points, that his defense has improved, that he's still an above average offensive shortstop in spite of not reaching projections, and that he'll be as cheap as Cesar Izturis.

MLBTradeRumors hosted a chat about Drew and his future.

Fire Brand, a blog covering the Red Sox, suggest Drew would look great turning double plays with Dustin Pedroia. The writer suggests Clay Buchholz would get the deal done, but Rob Neyer states obviously that such a deal makes no sense for Boston.

Transactions: None.

Injuries: None.

Arizona Diamondbacks Injuries

15-Day

Player	Injury Type	Injury Date
Chris Snyder	lower-back	08/23/2009

60 Day DL / Out for the season

Player	Injury Type	Injury Date
Chad Qualls	knee	08/31/2009
Conor Jackson	pneumonia	05/12/2009
Brandon Webb	shoulder	04/07/2009

Los Angeles (95-67, 1st, W2)

Last Week: 2-4. 0-1 @ Pirates, 0-2 @ Padres, 2-1 vs. Rockies. It took six games to do it, but the Dodgers finally clinched the NL West Saturday. By taking that meaningless game from Colorado yesterday, Los Angeles officially won all six series against the Rockies.

Divisional Change: Lost 2.0 games to Colorado.

This Week: Game 1 of the Dodgers NLDS series will start Wednesday at 8:37 MDT at Dodger Stadium against the St. Louis Cardinals. Game 2 will take place Thursday, and Games 3 and 4 are scheduled for Saturday and Sunday at Busch Stadium.

News: The LA Times report that they are in talks with GM Ned Colletti on a contract extension. Jon Heyman from SI claims negotiations point to a 3-year extension. Heyman's article also highlights areas of concern from all eight playoff teams, including the Rockies, who got a "worry meter rating" of a four, lower than any playoff team sans the Yankees. Of course, his reasoning - that the Rockies struggle on the road - is fairly ill-informed. The Rockies were over .500 away from Coors Field. Oh yeah, this is about the Dodgers. Woops. Even though the Dodgers' rotation is in flux, they got a four as well.

Back to Colletti. MLBTradeRumors.com has a solid breakdown of Colletti's key moves, positive and negative.

Clayton Kershaw

#22 / Pitcher / Los Angeles Dodgers

Height: 6-3

Weight: 220

Bats: L

Throws: L

Born: Mar 19, 1988

	W-L	G	GS	CG	SHO	SV	BS	IP	H	R	ER	HR	BB	K	ERA	WHIP
2009 - Clayton Kershaw	8-8	31	30	0	0	0	0	171.0	119	55	53	7	91	185	2.79	1.23

Randy Wolf and Clayton Kershaw will start the NLDS for Games 1 and 2. The lefties are a bit of a surprise at the front of Joe Torre's playoff rotation, at least relative to March. At that point, Wolf was an above average journeyman pitcher and Kershaw was an unknown at 20 years old.

The perceived ace coming was Chad Billingsley, whose struggles relegate him to an unknown role.

An 18-year-old left-handed pitcher named Yusei Kikuchi is a lock for the No. 1 overall pick in Japan's amateur draft this month. However, reports are he is considering being the first Japanese high school ever to bypass the draft and sign with an MLB club. If he does the Dodgers are one of his suitors, as are the Giants.

Transactions: None.

Injuries: Hiroki Kuroda will miss the NLDS with a bulging desc in his neck. Will Ohman underwent surgery on his left throwing shoulder, ending his bid to rejoin LA in the playoffs. He will be ready by 2010.

Los Angeles Dodgers Injuries

Questionable

Player	Injury Type	Injury Date
Ronnie Belliard	groin	10/04/2009
Charlie Haeger	knee	10/04/2009

15-Day

Player	Injury Type	Injury Date
Will Ohman	shoulder	05/28/2009

60 Day DL / Out for the season

Player	Injury Type	Injury Date
Xavier Paul	ankle	05/21/2009
Jason Schmidt	shoulder	08/06/2009
Eric Milton	lower-back	06/28/2009

San Diego (75-87, 4th, L1, 21.5 GB)

Last Week: 3-2. 2-0 vs. Dodgers. 1-2 vs. Giants. In spite of losing the final series of the season, San Diego finished the season 23-13.

Divisonal change: Gained 1.5 game on LAD.

News: The biggest story in the division this week outside of LA and Denver absolutely was the firing of San Diego GM Kevin Towers, who had spent 27 years in the Padres organization since being drafted by San Diego in 1982. Looking at Towers' 14-year GM career, this is a very strange time to be given a pink slip. He scoured the scrap heap - from Mexican Leagues, to the Rule 5 draft, to divisional rivals' bullpens, to minor league free agents - to fill a roster with players no one respected, yet San Diego was one of the hottest teams in the majors by year's end.

The team clearly has rushed through the infancy of their rebuilding plan and is firmly pushing towards middle school. Towers has led them in the right direction in arguably his best year on the job. Ken Rosenthal agrees, saying Towers is better off without the Padres and their internal drama anyway.

Kevin Towers

#0 / General Manager / San Diego Padres

Height:6-1

Weight: 190

Bats:R

Throws: R

Born: Nov 11, 1961

Photo of Kevin Towers courtesy of espn.com/mlb

GasLamp Ball has the Padres' press conference on the firing, if you're interested. Tim Sullivan at the San Diego Union Tribune remembers how Towers could command an entire room.

Towers absolutely did not deserve to be fired, but the wild card in everything is new ownership. Jeff Moorad swooped in and decided quickly he wanted his own guy. So, who's next? Jerry DiPoto, the former Rockies closer who currently works in Arizona's front office, was initially reported to be a candidate, though we learned Saturday that there are no internal or Arizona candidates for the job.

Moorad said he has already interviewed three candidates, though their names are undisclosed at this point. At least we can be sure Dan O'Dowd isn't one of them. As for Towers, his prematurely ended career obviously leaves a competitive fire. He wants to and likely will GM again. Mets GM Omar Minaya apparently contacted Towers and is interested in giving him a "job in the organization." That would be interesting. Towers: "How'd Ben Johnson and Jon Adkins treat you? Thanks for Heath Bell."

As for other news, Jeff Moorad hints the Padres' payroll will likely begin with a 4, which would seem to indicate they plan on holding onto Heath Bell and Adrian Gonzalez.

Most rebuilding teams point to the future with optimism as they see divisional foes head to the post-season. Surprisingly though, the Padres have a right to be optimistic after their finishing kick.

Transactions: None.

Injuries: Kyle Blanks and Brian Giles failed to return to the lineup by season's end, though Edgar Gonzalez returned in a pinch-hit role over the weekend.

San Diego Padres Injuries

15-Day

Player	Injury Type	Injury Date
Brian Giles	knee	06/19/2009
Kyle Blanks	foot	08/29/2009

60 Day DL / Out for the season

Player	Injury Type	Injury Date
Chris Young	shoulder	06/15/2009
Shawn Hill	elbow	04/26/2009
Cliff Floyd	shoulder	06/18/2009
Cha Seung Baek	forearm	03/30/2009
Mark Worrell	elbow	03/27/2009

San Francisco (88-74, 3rd, W1, 7.0 GB in Div, 4.0 GB in WC)

Last Week: 5-1. 3-0 vs Diamondbacks. 2-1 @ Padres. The Giants finished the season with their best week of the year, helping them to end with 88 wins, 12 more than their season high of the past five seasons.

Divisional Change: Gained 3.0 games in NL West (LAD), Gained 1.0 games in WC (COL) but was eliminated Wednesday.

News: It is no secret that San Francisco is still lacking in the offensive department, and on the shopping list this offseason ought to be an impact bat. No, not like Ryan Garko. WEEI.com's Alex Speier points out that Boston free agent Jason Bay could be a fit for the Giants given their potential salary relief from free agents, sore need for a bat and current contending status int he NL West.

Second most important for GM Brian Sabean is deciding how to handle the catcher situation. As Andrew Baggarly writes, it will be a tricky offseason for Molina and the Giants. Molina finished the year as one of the worst cleanup hitters in the past half-century yet will enter free agency as a Type A free agent. The opinions are quite mixed on bringing back Bengie:

Bengie Molina

#1 / Catcher / Free Agent

Height: 5-11

Weight: 225

Bats: R

Throws: R

Born: Jul 20, 1974

	G	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	K	SB	CS	AVG	OBP	SLG
2009 - Bengie Molina	132	491	52	130	25	1	20	80	13	68	0	0	.265	.285	.442

Keith Law says pass, given that Buster Posey is ready to take over the reins offensively - he just needs help with game-calling, which would only come with experience. Not only that, the $6million coming off the books could help in bringing offensive help.

Ray Ratto at the San Francisco Chronicle insists that Molina and the Giants need each other, and John Shea at the Chronicle goes so far as to call Molina the best catcher in San Francisco history.

Baggarly also wonders if Brian Sabean be retained next season. Sabean swung and missed completely this trade deadline and signed lucrative deals (Barry Zito and Aaron Rowand) that were questioned even at the time of signing. Despite that, the team is absolutely on a clear upswing, and Peter Gammons doesn't understand why bringing Sabean back is even in question.

He was there for only four starts, but Brad Penny enjoyed short stint with Giants. San Francisco figures to be a fit for next season, as he seemingly wants to stay on the West Coast for an NL team.

Without a doubt, the Giants exceeded expectations in 2009. Personally, I never bought them as a playoff team at any point in the season, but they gave me doubts as late as September. That's an incredible accomplishment, and congratulations to San Francisco.

Transactions: None.

Injuries: Sergio Romo's knee locked up Saturday during his follow through. Justin Miller played catch last week. Both will be fine for 2010.

San Francisco Giants Injuries

60 Day DL / Out for the season

Player	Injury Type	Injury Date
Justin Miller	elbow	09/13/2009
Noah Lowry	ribs	03/27/2009
Kelvin Pichardo	shoulder	06/28/2009
Emmanuel Burriss	foot	09/01/2009
Henry Sosa	shoulder	08/05/2009