Giants trade for Freddy Sanchez

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/giants/detail?&entry_id=44521

I pray to god this isn't true. Sanchez is good and I know Alderson doesn't have GREAT potential but this is a crappy deal for us.

 

Re: Giants trade for Freddy Sanchez?

Looks like its official, here's two more links saying the same thing:

http://www.rotoworld.com/content/HeadLines.aspx?sport=MLB&hl=271106

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news;_y...slug=ap-pirates-giantstrade&prov=ap&type=lgns

Dunno what to think of this. Its a one-for-one swap, Alderson for Sanchez. Sanchez is a 3 time all-star so its kinda weird saying I wouldn't have traded a pretty darn good but not great pitching prospect for him. Hes a consistent .300 hitter and one of the better hitters among second basemen. Sanchez isn't a power hitter though. Anyone know how his defense is?

 

Re: Giants trade for Freddy Sanchez?

Haha that's awesome.

I'm glad the Giants are making a real push for the wildcard. Garko & Freddy should be able to help the team manufacture more runs.

 

Re: Giants trade for Freddy Sanchez?

Doubt it. Nats probably want Sanchez + more for Willingham I suspect. Who else is available? Sabes has given us a clear upgrade at 1B and 2B over the last few days, a big bat at a corner OF position is the next remaining need. What do you guys think our new lineup should be. Here's what I would run out there assuming everyone is healthy.

C-Rowand
RF-Winn
3B-Pablo
1B-Garko
2B-Sanchez
LF-Schierholtz
C-Molina
SS-Renteria
P

Maybe it makes more sense to put Sanchez or Schierholts up at the two spot though. I like Winn's speed and switch hitting toward the top of the order though and I like Schierholtz and Sanchez as RBI guys in the middle of the lineup. Maybe we even go with Sanchez at 3 and Pablo at 4? Sadly, Bochy said he won't put Garko in as the cleanup hitter so we'll still have Molina's horrible speed bogging down our RBI totals. Don't get me wrong, Garko isn't the ideal cleanup power guy you want but he can knock in runs, give some pop and hes not going to destroy any chances of our 5/6/7 hitters to knock in runs because it takes him 12 seconds to run from one base to the next.

Anywho I guess its hard to complain about adding a 3 time all-star and former batting champ. I guess his knees checked out fine. We got Wheeler in the draft this year and he's supposed to be better than Alderson plus Alderson apparently has really bad mechanics that make many think he'll be very injury prone and won't hold up. Our lineup does look a hell of a lot better even though we didn't add any really big bats. It'd be awesome if we could move more of our bubble big leaguers (Lewis, Velez, Bowker, Guzman, Frandsen, etc.) for another bat though. Ideally a corner OF with good power but I'd also like to get another utility infielder who can pinch hit. I guess we have Uribe to move into that role though... Come to think of it we could even use another serviceable starting pitcher too unless we're really going to rely on Zito, Sanchez, and Sadowski three days a week from here on out.

 

Here's a good take from fanhouse:

http://www.mccoveychronicles.com/2009/7/29/968391/reaction-freddy-sanchez-trade
This is basically how I feel about the trade. We did get better in the short term, but couldn't Sabean have done better with Alderson? Like this guy says, Sanchez is a .300 hitter but is he really the guy we need? He doesn't have much power (though he seems like a double machine in his own right), doesn't draw that many walks, doesn't have great speed, isn't a great RBI hitter. Upgrade? Absolutely. But you'd think with Alderson you could land a bigger impact hitter- like this guy says a Victor Martinez type. Also makes a good point in saying that the Alderson/Barnes combo could have brought in a damn good hitter, perhaps better than the Garko/Sanchez combo we got back.

We're still devoid of a cleanup hitter and don't have real good speed around the bags. If we could land a Josh Willingham or similar 20+ HR corner OF for marginal prospects I would call this trade deadline a pretty damn good success. Right now though we basically just made marginal upgrades at 1B and 2B and while the lineup does look a notch better it may not even be worth it. as usual Sabes is making tiny upgrades instead of making big moves. Now that we have Sanchez and Uribe on the big league club I wonder if we actively look to trade Burriss/Frandsen plus other marginal prospects for that last power bat. I just don't think that's enough to land a power bat though.

 

Sanchez had a nice debut today offensively. 2 hits, 2 RBIs, 1 run. Made a couple mistakes on defense but admitted after the game that he was trying to hard to make a spectacular first impression with the glove. I'm liking this trade more as time goes by though. As I keep reading grades on this trade, writers with knowledge of Alderson's pitching seem to be saying that hes lost velocity since his high school days and his stuff isn't that great anyway. I keep reading that hes projected as a middle of the rotation guy but many are starting to suspect hes actually more of a 4/5 starter.

Sanchez, on the other hand, I may have underestimated. Sure, hes not the power guy we envisioned but hes a pretty damn good hitter and one of the best at his position. Hes instantly the second best hitter on the club behind Sandoval. I liked what I saw from him with the bat today and he could do really well in our park smacking doubles through those huge gaps.

Aside from Sanchez, the team had a great series against the Phillies this weekend. Zito has been money lately and you have to appreciate how hes performed since Johnson has been injured, hes stepped up his game. Keep in mind that hes got a track record of starting off slow and getting better as the season wears on. Garko has been disappointing but he, unlike Sanchez, has been in the AL his whole career so hes got to adjust to the pitching in the NL. And how about Eugenio Velez? Hes been money since we called him up. Hes pounding the ball to the right side of the field and giving us a huge shot in the arm. Hes showing some power, timely hitting, giving us some elite speed around the base paths. If he keeps it up he'll be just as much of an impact addition as Sanchez or Garko can be, even despite his suspect defense.

 

SAN FRANCISCO (AP)—All-Star second baseman Freddy Sanchez(notes) waited four days to make his San Francisco Giants debut so his sore left knee could get some extra rest.

It was well worth it.

Sanchez had two hits and two RBIs in his first game in a Giants uniform, Barry Zito(notes) made his third straight strong start and San Francisco beat the Philadelphia Phillies 7-3 on Sunday.

“Obviously it’s a different type of feeling any time you get traded and are playing in your first game,” said Sanchez, who was acquired from Pittsburgh two days before the trade deadline last week. “It felt like it’s been forever since I had an at-bat so it felt a little different up there. But everyone’s made me feel at home and that feels good.”

Batting in the No. 2 spot, Sanchez singled in his first at-bat then added a two-run double in the sixth when San Francisco scored three times off Phillies’ starter Cole Hamels(notes) to break the game open.

 

Bengie has sucked for months. Did really well last season, opened this season pretty hot, but hes been very mediocre the last few months. I've been really supportive of Bochy and generally have no problems with his managing outside of him continuing to hit Bengie 4th and continue to give Rich Aurilia ABs (hopefully thats over with Uribe moving into the utility-man/pinch hitter/spot starter role). You could excuse it before when our only other competent hitters had little to no power with the exception of Sandoval who was a fixture at the 3 spot. Now with Sanchez/Garko you've got guys who provide a little extra pop but a lot more RBI ability, we also can't forget the emergence of Velez. Now we've got options, we've got guys like Rowand, Winn, Schierholtz/Velez, Renteria, etc. hitting where they should be hitting. Bengie's slow ass at the 4 spot kills a lot of potential RBIs that could be had by Garko/Rowand/Winn/whoever else hits behind him. And its not like we can dismiss his lack of speed because hes hitting the ball well.

With this team we really need to give up on the idea of a traditional cleanup hitter. Our only notable power hitter is Sandoval and I don't see him moving from the 3 slot. We just need to rely on our guys who hit well for average, string runs together, hit line drives, and dink and dunk runs in. Bengie should be hitting 6th or 7th, just behind the likes of Sandoval, Garko, Schierholtz/Winn, Rowand, etc. He can still get us RBIs from that position and he won't be killing us on the base paths because he would only be hitting ahead of Renteria and the pitcher.

 

Freddy Sanchez is raking!

 

How about Garko? Hes been catching some bad breaks but looking a lot better the lsat few days. Blasted one to deep center today that was an out then blasted a triple that was about 20 feet from being a HR off the wall. Hes 2-4 with 2 RBIs today. Showing some much-needed pop.

Velez continues his hit streak to 12 games. Whiteside money with the grand slam today. Not Bowker with a triple to the very top of that hill in CF. The offense is looking pretty good which is especially noteworthy considering we're on the road. Trying not to get too excited though because we haven't faced very good pitching in Hou and the corners are really shallow. Martinez had a solid outing today.