Friday, March 26, 2010

Spring Training Update: Trade Winds

Roster crunches throughout baseball has a bunch of teams looking to make trades, not the least of which are the Giants. These aren't going to change the balance of power in the NL West, but it makes for interesting speculation from roster watchers. Let's try to break it down:

The Giants are looking for a utility IF who can play both 2B and SS. That tells you something about both Kevin Frandsen and Juan Uribe and possibly about how long the Giants think Freddy Sanchez is going to be out.

The Giants are looking to trade Fred Lewis and Frandsen, which also tells you something about Frandsen.

The D'Backs would be willing to part with Augie Ojeda, but not for either FLew or Kevbo. The D'Backs are looking for pitching.

Joe Pun on azgiants.com mentioned that the Giants bullpen candidates are being heavily scouted by other teams.

Playing armchair GM for a minute, here's what I'd try to do:

1. Find a couple of teams that might want FLew or Frandsen. Be willing to accept a low-minors prospect with some promise who's struggled, kind of the same idea as Darren Ford. Who knows, they might get lucky again.

2. Trade a surplus bullpen arm or two for Ojeda or some other middle infielder who can play SS.

Of course, this begs the question of what happens when Sanchez comes back, but the Giants are anxious to win early this year as they feel last year's slow start might have cost them a playoff spot, so they may decide to worry about what happens when Sanchez comes back, when he actually comes back. Wouldn't be the first time the Giants have played it that way.

Farm Report: I recommend checking out Joe Pun's latest photo gallery from yesterday's low A/Hi A matchup against the A's. A couple of comments on the pics:

Edward Concepcion looks like a pitcher to me. Almost a perfect power pitcher's body. Nice looking form too!

I was surprised at how thin Wendell Fairley looks. I'm not sure where I got this idea, but I had him envisioned as at least slightly overweight, but in this pic, he looks like he has significant room to fill out.

Late entry: New round of options: Darren Ford to AA, Francisco Peguero to Augusta(I was hoping to see him in San Jose. Sometimes these assignments change at the last minute so we'll see). Jesus Guzman and Tony Pena to minor league camp.

Late entry: Now comes word that Kevbo has, indeed, been traded to the Boston Red Sox, of all teams! The Giants get either the proverbial PTBNL or cash. So, that shoe has dropped. Maybe I'll do a Kevin Frandsen prospect retrospective when I can put it together. It was a great story while it lasted. I wish him all the best with his new team. If anybody deserves to find a niche, it's The Kevin.

2 comments:

  1. I remember playing against Frandsen in high school. It's a shame he was never given a chance after the 100-odd games he got in 2007. Best of luck to him in Boston.

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  2. Yeti Monster,

    Thanks for sharing that experience. Yeah, I still think that if some team was willing to be patient with Frandsen, he could have a Mark Loretta/Mark Grudzielanik career, but there is a surplus of second basemen right now and it's easier for a team to pay for the illusion of production certainty (i.e. Freddy Sanchez) than to try to develop a Kevin Frandsen. I was looking at Boston's roster, and it appears that Kevin may have a decent chance of sticking as a reserve IF as they really don't have anyone behind Dustin Pedroia or Marco Scutaro.

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