So I have been looking over the teams payroll for 2012 in an attempt to predict next years team, and came across a couple of roster spots Im unsure on. Im interested in what the masses on McC think.

For next year the Giants already have 73 million guaranteed on the books. Factoring in free agency by adding in only obvious re-signs of players from the 2011 team like Lopez and Mota and predicting they would combined make about 4 mil, while predicting that Affeldt's 5 mill option is picked up, we are brought to 82 mill. 

Guesstimating the salaries of the players who will obviously be offered arbitration, like Lincecum(16 mil), Romo (2 mil), Vogelsong(4 mil), Sandoval(5 mil), Ramirez(2 mil), Casilla(2 mil), Nate (2 mil), Keppinger (4 mil), and then adding in the salaries of the players that have not yet reached arbitration, whos pay is decided by the Giants (Posey, Bumgarner, Belt, Runzler), lets say they combined make about 2 million, you come to 122 million.

A 122 million dollar payroll in a team friendly scenario, in which Im also assuming we do not, for different reasons, resign players like Beltran, Tejada, DeRosa, Burrell, and Cabrera.

Its noted too that we still have no shortstop after the add up. Id love to dream of Jose Reyes but with the questions around his health, the way the league is going to trip over themselves in the bidding for him, and the already lofty payroll the team will be paying, I cant see it. I am going to go with a cheaper, short term, but still need filling, lets-hope-Joe-Panik-sticks-at-SS-hits-like-crazy-and-only-takes-2-years-in the-minors-before-hes-ready type player in Rafael Furcal. And with assuming that the Cardinals dont pick up his 12 million 2012 option, lets say we sign him for 1 year and 5 million, bringing the team to about 127 mill.

Now lets say we resign Cody Ross to play CF at the Freddy Sanchez/Mark DeRosa, 2 yr/ 12 mill deal, that is 6 more mil, and the lineup would then look like:

Furcal, Sanchez, Sandoval, Posey, Huff, Ross, Belt, Schierholtz

Pitching Staff: Lincecum, Cain, Bumgarner, Vogelsong, ?  - Wilson, Romo, Lopez, Casilla, Affeldt, Ramirez, Mota

Bench: Keppinger, Whiteside, Rowand, ?, ?

(at a team total of 133 million)

And here where Im really interested in what everything we should do. Those last 3 question marks. 

The players that come to mind to fill those question marks are Andres Torres, Mike Fontenot, and Zito/Sanchez/Surkamp. These players are question marks due to their poor performances and increasing salaries on a tight budgeted team.

- If Torres would be used largely as a 4th/5th outfielder/ defensive replacement/ pinch runner, should a team in some financial pinching go with a cheaper, possibly equal performance delivering option? Two players that would make less then the maybe 3 million Andres would make in arb, are Darren Ford and Tyler Graham(CF, 55 stolen bases .280 avg, .344 OBP, .355 slug in AAA)

- The question mark for the 5th starter spot will be filled by one of Sanchez, Zito, or hopefully Eric Surkamp. Before the season started I had Dirty down as making about 5 mil in arbitration. That was being favorable to the team too. I know alot of people when they even see Surkamp being discussed as a Sept call up this year, or being in a position to fight for a spot next year can simply retort with 'AA is Double A is x2 Aye', but Im personally on team Surkamp here. I really hope Bochy has as little confidence left in Zito and Sanchez as most of us do, and throws the final rotation spot up as a Spring Training competition, in which case the Giants would hopefully realize that Barry Zito will make 19 mill in 2012 whether he is giving up homeruns in a Giants uni or not, and would just eat the contract if Surkamp were to shine. Though if we were to save any money by choosing Surkamp over Dirty, it would come in the offseason when we could not tender Sanchez a contract.

- And as for Fontenot, I had him in the beginning of the season pegged for making 2 mil in 2012, after arb. Now though I dont know if the team will even want him back, and even less so now that we have Keppinger. I still like Mike, but there are players out there in free agency that could play a better back up SS, and would probably get less moeny. At this point Id rather have Cabrera back on another 1 mil deal, if hed be willing to back up until Furcal's bi-monthly injury occurs.

So I was at my local sports appearal store the other day and was looking through the surprising large amount of black alt jerseys from 00'-01' that the store had in stock. They had nearly as many as those 10 year old jerseys (now with 'Lincecum' '55' on the back, so you know they are new) that they did the orange friday jerseys. And I remember a while back reading somewhere about some mention that the black jerseys might be an alt this year (though I was pretty sure that was later said to be false).

So I asked the store owner if the reason the store now had so many of the black jerseys was because they were going to worn again in some capacity this year, as a 'new' alternate ( I remember before the season starting last year, the orange jerseys were in all the stores as well, so it wouldn't be surprising to me if that was why the black jerseys were again here). He said 'No', and that even though the black jerseys havent been worn in years, that the reason they are in stock is because they are still so popular, and people keep buying them.

He then mentioned to me though that there was going to be one new alternate for this year that he was made aware of, and that was a home jersey the team was going to wear for one game, the day of home opener and the ring ceremony. He said the jerseys had more gold on them then the normal home jerseys, specifically around the lettering. He then mentioned that the jerseys would be for sale in store soon too, likely explaining his reason for telling me this.

An alt jerseys for one games use seems a little strange, but I have already seen new hats with the same golden rim around the orange SF, so Ive seen at least some physical proof that might confirm this. 

This might seem pretty random but I just wanted to take a moment to pay some respect to Mr. Goodguy McClassyson who began the year with the Yankees and was almost guarenteed to end his absence from a payoff series once and for all, until he was cut. St. Louis then signed him mid season and at the time I thought he was still destined to finally get to play in Rocktober until the Cardinals slowly started to fall off the map.

Tonight Cincinnati clinched the NL central guaranteeing that Winn will have to wait another year until he can hopefully get some post season at bats before he has to call it a career. I always liked Winn when he was on the Giants but Im not some huge fan or anything, I just feel a little bad that such good guy may not get the opportunity to play in the post season ever in a 13 year major league career, when other players like Derek Jeter get to go for like his 12th time and Chipper Jones might still get to go for his 28th or whatever time.

 Well Winn atleast was always classy and atleast we always took notice.

This is more of a rant about something that i have just discovered that is annoying me, that I think will also ignore some of you..

So in MLB the Show every player in the game is given a grade (A, B, C, D or F) for the potential of how they will perform through the next years. This is important as there are alot of features in the game that can easily span over serveral season. Road to the Show allows you to have a 20 years career in the majors, and as you evolve over the years, so does the league, with players getting better, getting worse, and retiring.  Also, Franchise mode allows you to control the MLB club of your choice, as well as its AAA and AA team, over a span of several seasons. Players evolve here aswell, again based on their 'Player Potential' grade that was given to them by the game creators. 

Now for the first time, I have been going through and looking at these grades as I am about to start a Road to the Show player, and I wanted to see if everything made sense, for how someone with common sense would predict players to evolve, from as soon as 2011 and beyond.

Well looking through the Giants, I instantly disagreed with most grades given out. 

Cain was given a C, apparently set to drop in performance dramatically

Zito given a B, apparently set to be better then Cain in a few years

Wilson given a C

Pablo given a B

Posey was given an A, which was one of the few in the game I agree with

J.Sanchez a D

Runzler an F(!)

Bowker a D

Bengie a B

And Lincecum a B

It kind of annoys me that the best pitcher in the game, who is quite young, is graded to drop off as soon as this year, while he has given zero reason for one to think so. Also, to compare to other players throughout the league, and how the games creators feel their performances will improve or decrease as the years go on..  Jorge Posada A, Mariano River A, Omar Vizquel A(!), Hideki Matsui A, Josh Beckett A, Alfonso Soriano A(only getting better, am i right), Ichiro A,

(Also, Ryan Zimmerman D, Felix Hernandez C, Ian Kinsler D, David Wright F, Evan Longoria C)

How is it possible that Ichiro, is predictted to remain consistently a star into his 40, and Tim and Cain are not, into their late 20's? This annoys me because their grade is unalterable. So when I wish to play then game, in a few seasons time, every time, Tim has an ERA of 4. While Soriano, WHO SUCKS NOW, is doing fine.

I was going through and deleting the pile up of old emails in my account and found this one from the Giants that some of you might enjoy

It has been known since Spring Training that Todd Linden would occupy a significant role this season. Wednesday, Giants manager Bruce Bochy hinted that Linden might play more than many observers previously anticipated. Aware of the unexpected events every season brings, Bochy didn't want to commit to the number of at-bats that Linden could receive. But Bochy did reveal what he had in mind as an acceptable number. "I'd be surprised if he's not looking at close to 400, if not more, when it's all said and done," said Bochy, who started Linden in right field for the Giants' series finale Wednesday against the San Diego Padres. "But, you know, things change."

400. For those of you that dont remember, Linden ended with 60 ABs, before being designated that year.

Now I dont think the real issue here has so much to do with Linden as it does the Giants, Sabean and Bochy and their inability to play young players. I cant believe this team has been rebuilding for the whole time Bochy has been manager and we still dealing with this issue. But im sure F. Sanchez is going to be the shit this year.

Now with Mike Cameron gone, who alot of people were hoping was going to be the added outfielder (myself included), and other teams like the Angels getting Matsui, the White sox getting Pierre and the Cardinals almost re-adding Holliday, destinations for Jason Bay are dwindling.

I have been full heartedly against signing Bay since the offseason began, but I find myself as each day passes willing to accept it more and more if it were to happen.

So I am curious as to what all of McCoven's opinion is. There are obvious pros and cons with it:

Cons:  Alot of the Giants big hitting prospects are outfielders, (Thomas Neal, Roger Kieschnick, Rafael Rodriguez, John Bowker, Nate Schierholtz, Francisco Peguero) who would be blocked for years by big contracts from Bay and Rowand.

We would have less money to sign those listed players long term, along with Linceucm, Cain, Posey, Sandoval, Bumgarner etc.

We would lose our 1st round draft pick.

Pros: Its an obvious offensive upgrade.

Im really wary with going with the 'fuck it all, lets just get a bat already' attitude. Or 'its not my money', because Im not 12 years old, and I know how having your payroll clogged up can hinder building your roster.

But if we were to go out and get Bay this year, and ALSO get Nick Johnson so we then really have a legitimate offense, I think I would try and squint away the other concerns and sit back and enjoy watching a good hitting team for the first time in 6 years. What about you guys and girls?

After reading Grants post on first base, I was curious as to what player everyone would bet on to break our post-JT Snow trend of having a new first basemen every year.

Lance Niekro, Dan Ortmeier, Ryan Klesko, Mark Sweeney, Shea Hillenbrand, and Rich Aurilia have all wasted playing time at first base for us.

What homegrown player comes in to play first base and sticks there for many years?

Can Ishikawa become a major league starter if Muelens can somehow help him find his swing this year?

Bowker? He had a .986 fielding % at first base last year at Fresno.

Guzman played very well in AAA this year, but didn't get a real chance to show if he could hit in the majors after a couple call ups.

Thomas Neal played 38 games at first in 08, and has been playing a lot at first in the Arizona Fall league.

If Villalona's legal issues get worked will he be our guy in 2 or 3 years?

Or will we have to wait for someone way down in the minors like Tommy Joesph or Chirs Dominguez before we have a real homegrown major league first baseman?

Is it possible that Sabean will be basing some of his offseason decisions on the performances players have in the Winter Leagues? Alot of guys who could potentially have big roles on the team next year are playing November baseball right now. 

This is Buster Poseys 9th straight month of being on the field i believe. What other reason besides seeing if he can be the starter next year would you push a player like that? I understand guys like Joe Martinez who missed alot of the year with an injury being there, and Nate Schierholtz who didnt have all that much playing time last year, but guys like Bowker Frandsen and Velez just played a full year.

Sabean has also said that unlike when they signed Affeldt one year ago tomorrow, they wont be going after players as quickly or aggressively and 'waiting to see how the market develops'. I think partially he might wait for that reason, but i also think it may have a part to do with seeing what you already have.

Possible questions inside Sabeans head as he may be be putting alot of weight into Winter League performances:

Can Velez be the teams leadoff hitter for 2010 or should we look elsewhere?

Can Henry Sosa, or Waldis Joaquin make it into the bullpen on opening day or should we look to sign another arm?

Can Kevin Frandsen be a Utility player for the Giants in 2010 or do we look into someone like Craig Counsell?

Are Bokwer or Schierholtz good enough to have a starting OF spot next year, or should we look to sign a corner outfielder in Free Agency?

Can Joe Martinez be the teams 5th starter or do we need to look into resigning Brad Penny?

Can Brett Pill or Jesus Guzman solve the 1B vacancy this year or do we need to look outside the organization at FAs?

Is Buster Posey ready for the starting catchers job Opening day next season?

It would annoy me a little bit if some of these were even really questions. 

Bowker deserves a shot a playing regularly already and Im afraid that if he doesnt hit good in Puerto Rico that the Giants will have doubt in feeling that same way. Velez shouldnt have a starting job next year, BUT he's hitting .328! Buster hasnt had results in the Fall league, put Id like to see him starting next year. 

Really I think the organization should know enough about most of these players to be able to already determine what they figure their roles to be on the 2010 team without putting alot of weight into November performances.

I fear that Sabean and the gang may just go with the outfield that we currently have for 2010. Rowand wont be going anywhere, Nate/Bowker would seemingly have a corner spot, which leaves left to the super awesome, non-flawed Velez/Torres vrooom platoon that Bochy has spoken fondly of, for our leadoff spot.

I just cant see Sabean signing Chone Figgins or Johnny Damon, or going after Carl Crawford to be our leadoff hitter when he has it in his mind that because Velez is also fast, that he could do the same job those players could, for less money.

So... I think this means our only place left to add a starting bat would be the infield.

As of right now I struggle with a WISH LIST of what one infield bat I want to slip in to this sadly seemingly almost complete 2010 starting roster. So who would you guys/girls want? What one infielder would you like to add via FA or realistic trade? Theres no all around all-star Mark Teixeira type 1B out there in free agency, so what do you like about a certain player that hes your guy? What dont you like about another player that eliminates him? (Cost? Age? Bad defense? Injury prone? Kicks babies?) And so on..

Sorry guys... I know this can get old, but im bored right now waiting for Angels Yankees.

Dont normally post things like this, but I think this lineup is alright. It would require Sabean to not resign F Sanchez, which makes it automatically not happenning buuut....

C Posey

1B Sandoval

2B Velez

SS Renteria

3B DeRosa

LF Bowker

CF Rowand

RF Abreu

C Whiteside

IF Uribe

1B Ishikawa

OF Schierholtz

OF Torres

SP Lincecum

SP Cain

SP Zito

SP Sanchez

SP Joey Martinez

CL Wilson

SU Affeldt

RP Romo

RP Miller

RP Runzler

RP Medders

RP Joaquin

ALSO.. not saying I want DeRosa just something Im throwing out there.

1. Velez

2. Abreu

3. Sandoval

4. DeRosa

5. Bowker

6. Posey

7. Rowand

8. Renteria

I really dont hate it to be honest.

So if we resign Uribe for something like 4.00 mil, Torres for 1, Tim makes 10 mill in arb, Dirty get 2.00 and Wilson gets 4.00.. plus DeRosa gets 7.00, and Abreu gets 9.00 that puts our payroll at..... 89.95

Also dont know where the hell Fred is, but I dont know what Sabean sees his role as on this team so I left him off. Replace him with Torres if u wish.. we'd actually save $600,000.

I have been looking through the Giants roster, their payroll and lists of free agents to determine what moves the Giants could actually make when seriously taking into regard payroll (trade for A-rod!!1!) 

So I wanted to see what some of you estimate that the following possible free agents, that the Giants MIGHT be after, might make next season if they were to sign in SF.

Again this is just a list of possible FAs that the Giants might go after in. This is in no way my wish list, so dont curse me out because someone like Dye is on here. Just curious what some of your estimations are for their salaries next year, if they were to sign with us. 

Chone Figgins
Bobby Abreu
Hank Blalock
Mark DeRosa
Tim Hudson
Justin Duchscherer
Adam LaRoche
Victor Martinez
Johnny Damon
Jermaine Dye
Xavier Nady
Russell Branyan
Carlos Delgado
Jason Marquis
Joel Pineiro
Jon Garland
Rod Barajas
Rafael Betancourt
LaTroy Hawkins
J.J. Putz
Takashi Sato
Ben Sheets
Norichika Aoki
Nick Johnson

Need a little help. I wanted to watch the game again to see the highlights (mainly Martin's reaction after Velez table topped him) and I have comcast and ondemand, but im not sure where to go to watch the game. 

They are suppose to have the game ondemand up until the start of the next days game or something right? Or for 24 hours? I dont know.

But I go On Demand -> Sports and Fitness -> Comcast SportNet -> Giants , and the only thing on there is Life of Brian, and even though watching Wilson play Rock band is entertaining, it doesnt quit equal Suck It getting thrown to the ground.

So can anyone help me out? Am I going to the wrong place On demand?

Thanks for any help.

Hey , a little off day/ no game boredom...

Does anyone know of a way to download videos from mlb.com or the giants web site? Theres alot of videos that Id like to keep for a little collection of favorite moments and games. 

Ive heard of stuff that can download videos from youtube and other sites too, but has anyone used anything that works? Or has heard of anything that is suppose to be pretty good?

Thanks for any help

I know this is kinda jumping to judgment after just one series into the season, but I am not a fan of that Matt Morrison guy doing the Acme Chophouse post game show. Yesterday was pretty bad as he made it really apparent that he isnt someone who knows baseball or the giants as much as he is someone who knows how to talk. That is after all why he was hired.

Yesterday his blunders included calling Sandoval 'Pedro Sandoval' (which he later corrected himself on), refering to Rafeal Soriano as the Braves closer which he is not, and speaking of how Shawn Hill (fridays San Diego starter) last year played for the Washington Senators (not Nationals). The last two of which he never did correct himself on.

Now I know these are not massive things but it is a little annoying listening to people speak when you come to realize that you know more about what they are getting payed to talk about. Especially when it comes to a guy like morrison who is one of the Joe Buck, all sports talk guys who dont know enough about one sport because they do them all.

I know greg papa does the Raiders and now that Comcast Sports net show Chronical Live that talks about all Bay Area sports but at least he knew his Baseball shit when he talked last season. 

I never thought I would miss his commentary with Bip.

Speaking of Bip though, now that comcast has him and Dave Roberts, two baseball guys who can identify all 30 teams correctly, why do they need a sort of play by playguy  to counter the 2 'color' guys. (not talking about race, talking about color announcers). I mean its just a post game show. Does you really have to go out and hire a professional talker for it? Give me F.P. and the Roberts' and im fine. Maybe im the only one, I dont know.

Go Sens'