Ken Rosenthal is reporting that Zack Greinke has agreed to terms on a 6 year contract with RHP Zack Greinke. The deal is reportedly pending a physical. Wowzer! THAT came up suddenly and out of left field! Gotta think neither the Giants or Dodgers were willing to go beyond 5 years and the D'Backs got him by adding on that 6'th year. I actually think this may work in the Giants favor here. While I really liked the idea of stealing Greinke away from the Dodgers, the contract came with a huge risk and put almost all of the Giants available budget into one player and an aging pitcher to boot, despite coming off one of the best seasons in MLB history.
If the Giants could not land Greinke, the next best thing is for him to sign with some team, any team, not named the Dodgers. As I said in the Comments of the last post, here are the good things this does for the Giants: 1. The Giants do not have the enormous risk of that contract. 2. Greinke is a lot less scary wearing a D'Backs uni than a Dodgers uni. 3. The Giants don't have to face him any more often than they did with him in LA. 4. It not only takes him away from the Dodgers, but now they have to face him 5 or 6 times per year themselves.
The Giants can now spread the risk of that contract over 2 or 3 players, although they will still have to compete with the Dodgers for available FA's now that the Dodgers are left with just one ace and a bunch of question marks in their rotation. The Giants fallback plan is said to be Leake and Samardzija. I'm good with Leake, but not thrilled at the idea of losing a draft pick for Samardzija. If that is their plan, they better get it done pronto because the dominoes are going to fall fast now.
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Man, this is like the oddballs of the oddballs this offseason. The hot stove's burning my house right now! I like the return of Leake because his stint with the Giants last season was pretty questionable due to the injury that he sustained but he did have some nice starts like the 3-hit shutout. He fits in the Giants way of pitching and loves San Francisco too.
ReplyDeleteI agree that the Giants should not lose a draft pick considering the talent level of the draft prospects this year is better and deeper than it was last year and Shark is coming off a pretty awful year in AL. But losing a draft pick for a fallback option is not in my wheelhouse. That said, the Giants need to improve on the depth of the rotation and the best possible way to improve it now is to add those two pieces.
Does Kenta Maeda intrigues you DrB? He's being posted.
ReplyDeleteSo far, pitchers from Japan have been good when healthy, but have all had significant injury issues. The Giants under Brian Sabean were never players in the posting process. I think there were just too many unknowns for his taste. We'll see if it is any different under Evans.
DeleteWhat do you think of going after Scott Kazmir? A mid-3 ERA pitcher who won't cost a draft pick.
ReplyDeleteI would be happy with Leake, Kazmir and the draft pick.
DeleteAnother consideration is Wade Miley, who I think is a very underrated pitcher and the BoSox may be willing to trade him. Not sure what they want in return. Bullpen help?
DeleteWith Greinke going away from the Dodgers I feel it is much less important to make a splash on pitching. All of a sudden the possible Bumgarner, Leake and Samardzija sounds like a much better lineup that what the Dodgers can scrape together. Even if they sign Cueto I still think we can have a better rotation. Our infield already was better than what they had. I think upgrading LF is a must but we don't have to break the bank. A guy like Dexter Fowler would be nice because he can play all 3 positions for when Pagan gets hurt or his D is suspect. Zobrist would be nice but his price seems to be on the rise.
ReplyDeleteI actually don't think LF is as important as people are making it out to be - probably less important than Center. I was very high on what we saw from Jarrett Parker last season, and I don't think he's another Schierholtz or Bowker. Doc said it best a few seasons back: Thing about Parker is, he's given almost identical production no matter where he's gone, including AA - .275/.360/.460! A power hitting corner OF, who can play D, and keep an OBP above .360? Sign me up. And as is pointed out in the next post, Mac Williamson is right there to pick up the pieces if Parker goes down. That's a half season of "experimenting with Youth" right there.
DeleteLeake is a definite YES. Kazmir a maybe. I can't see us going for Cueto, but he's very good if they like that rout.
I agree. If there is a need in the OF, it's for a CF who can both hit and D it up out there. Not a lot of those available.
DeleteNobody is talking about Wei-Yin Chen, but he's right there on par with Leake/Samardzija/Kazmir and might be a bit cheaper.
Fangraphs projects Chen for next season as on par with Cueto as well as with Kazmir and Samardzija. Unlike Kazmir, he would cost a draft pick, though.
DeleteWowza! Tip your hat to Dave Stewart. I do think any time there is a premium free agent (and hey, sometimes un-premium free agents) that an extra year wins the bid. Its interesting that the Giants and Dodgers didn't. We don't know the Gints bid, but the Bums went 5/155MM apparently, which is a "lowball".
ReplyDeleteI feel like the Giants just won't go over the top, but going over the top is what gets your guy. They did raise ticket prices 10% or more though...
In the end, its the players decision, and Greinke has been unabashadly about all zee moneys. He gets a better tax rate, the big AAV and the 6th year. He also makes the D-backs a contender, so he hits on everything. He had to compromise by taking deferred money, no opt out. No word yet on no-trade.
I'd move on to Kazmir quick. No draft pick, the Dodgers have nothing but lefties, might be able to rock that. Yes, he is an injury risk. Wei-Yen Chen as well, but does cost the pick. Of the players that cost the pick, I'd be OK with Gordon, Chen and Shark although I would grit my teeth a little in a way I wouldn't have with Greinke.
Iwakuma is going back to Seattle right? Right?
That didn't take long. Personally I like this deal because I believe in Shark's upside. I know a lot of people don't want to give up the draft pick, but I think its OK. Now if they could get Kazmir as well? That'd be sweet.
DeleteThe other thing that happened is Lackey signed with the Cubs, which is a bullet dodged if the Giants were really interested in him.
ReplyDeleteGreinke's good. His ERA+ from 2010--2014 was a respectable 115. The kind of thing you want out of a solid #2 guy. Someone like Matt Cain through 2012. But he's not $34 million a year good in my book.
ReplyDeleteAnd now we can chase Cueto who, frankly, I think was, from Day 1, the best pitcher available on the FA market. And has been, the past five years, the second best pitcher behind Kershaw in the National League. And that, FWIW, includes his 5-game, 9+ ERA hiccup with the Royals which scared the **** out of people...
We got one! Jeff Samardzija to Giants 5 years, $90 million. Hopefully we'll pull in Leake, or even someone better, as well.
ReplyDeleteReported interest in Iwakuma, which would make sense. Couple of years ($30-34 MM?); that would give time for Beede, Blackburn, Stratton, Mejia, et al. to progress normally.
ReplyDeleteHey Doc now that we got Jeff Samardzija do you think we should go after wei yin chen our rotation could go Bum, Samardzija, Cain, Chen and Peavy that's a good 5 i think?
ReplyDelete