BJ Upton made 4.83M last year and should be headed for a fairly significant raise after his best year since his rookie year. The Rays have an in-house cheap replacement in Desmond Jennings to take over and were rumored to have been shopping Upton at the deadline last year. 

The Giants could trade Hector Sanchez and Nate Schierholtz for Upton. Schierholtz is the type of cheap, versatile, solid defender the Rays covet. With Jennings in CF, Schierholtz can be a part of a platoon in their LF and RF spots. The Rays only organizational weakness is Catcher, and Hector Sanchez would become their best prospect at the position and one close to taking over in the next two years. The Nationals are also known to like Upton, and they too have a good extra catching prospect in Derek Norris (Wilson Ramos has been rescued). They also have a much deeper farm system than the Giants if it got to a bidding war.

This move pushes Melky Cabrera to RF, and upgrades two spots. It gives the Giants a dynamic RF/CF defensive combo, along with two very talented, motivated 27 year old outfielders heading into free agency. Not for nothing, 27 is generally considered a baseball players peak year. Upton in particular is a dynamic talent who has always seemed on the verge of more. Between his contract year/change of scenery/playing in the same division as his younger brother, there is the potential for an All-Star season from the young CF. Slating in Belt at LF, the Giants could also retain Torres as a do-all 4th OF. Financially this move would only be the difference in salary between Schierholtz and Upton, maybe $4-7M? Cost-wise we lose the value of versatility of Schierholtz and an excellent young Catcher prospect, but that is at least trading from our one organizational strength. 

Potential downside? In basketball it's often not good to have too many people on a contract year, because the players gun for their own stats. This doesn't exactly translate perfectly to baseball, but neither Melky or BJ necessarily count "great team player" as one of their strengths. So there's potential that two new firebrands coming to to a recent championship team could upset the clubhouse if the team goals are not first on their mind.

Projected Lineup:

Upton CF

Sanchez 2B

Pablo 3B

Buster C

Huff 1B

Melky RF

Belt LF

Crawford/Free Agent SS

The general theme of the BP write-up on the Giants was that in 2010 they showed the value of marginal improvements at different positions throughout the lineup. The pitching continued to be dominant, and by removing some sinkhole offensive players with solid bats they went from an 88 win team in 2009 to 92 win team in 2010. The improvement was enough to win the West, and obviously, the World freaking Series. 

The hope in 2011 is that full years of Posey and Bumgarner along with a bounceback season from Pablo Sandoval will cover up any possible regression from vets like Burrell, Huff and Torres. The difficulty is that this year, there don't appear to be sinkhole players that can just be replaced by an average player that will amount to an extra win or two. The one bullet we have left in the chamber is wunderkind prospect Brandon Belt. However his projected positions are LF and 1B, which are likely to be filled by two of our three best offensive players from last year, in Burrell and Huff. So unless they completely crap the bed, and Belt comes up on fire, its hard to project he'll make much of a difference.

Unllleesssssss, they bring Belt up to play in RF. I love the Boss, but looking at a likely <.320 OBP in a corner spot and wonder if we can't do better. BP has Belt projected to hit .278/.372/481. By all accounts he's a fluid athlete with a great arm, if maybe lacking in speed. Can't he play a RF like a Jermaine Dye or David Justice? Or will the vast RF stetches at Mays Field be better off with Cody's quasi-CF ability? 

Even with the trade for Anquan Boldin the Ravens are reportedly still in the market for a young receiver. If Dez Byant slips to 13 the 49ers could trade the 13th pick to the Ravens for Gaither and the 25th pick. According to the trade value chart the value of moving up from 25 to 13 is equivalent to the 47th pick. Potentially we could sweeten the deal with a 4th or 5th rounder. Alternatively if the Ravens are NOT looking for a receiver their targets at the 13 spot could include Rolando McClain, Joe Haden, Earl Thomas, Dan Williams or any of the top edge rusher prospects.

We would fill the OT gap with a talented young veteran and have the 17, 25 and 49 to land thre potential upgrades in the deepest draft in years. Win, win WIN!

From Peter Gammons' Weblog on espn.com.

"One of the tough things in the Tigers' camp is that it appears Carlos Pena will get released so the club will have to pay him only a sixth of his $2.8 million salary. Pena still has great power, and when he finds his way to another team and makes some adjustments, he can still be a big offensive player."

Interesting to know. Although I think the Giants are committed to giving Niekro a shot.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2006/writers/john_donovan/01/27/team.needs/index.html .

It says here that the Champs need a centerfielder. How about Finley and Schmidt for Contreras and Brandon McCarthy? I'm not sure that Sox would give up a starter and there best prospect for an arguably better starter and an old OF, but they might just be running all crazy on a Championship defense binge and be willing to do anything.