One rumor that seemed to have more legs than most was the Giants reported interest in RHP Mike Fiers. Fiers has fascinated sabermetricians for being one of the first pitchers to find success throwing average velocity FB's up in the zone(Matt Cain actually did it before Fiers but we won't go there in this post). Anyway, the A's(who else?) beat the Giants to the punch and signed up Fiers for 2 yrs/$14-15 M. Fiers was a reliable innings eater over the past 4 seasons with IP ranging from 153.1 to 180. His ERA's in that time ranged from 3.56 last year to 5.22 in 2017. As you might expect from a guy with his profile, he tends to give up a lot of dingers and needs to work in a ballpark that suppresses HR's. He's averaged just over 1.4 fWAR over the past 5 seasons. If he continues that, he will bring back surplus value. He may be more valuable to the A's who are likely to give him better run support than the Giants.
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The Cubs agreed to terms with RHP Kendall Graveman for 1 year/$575 K. There are some quirks in this one: It comes with a club option for $3 M in 2020 with no buyout, but if he is on the 2019 active roster for 1 day, the 2019 salary bumps up to $2 M with an additional $500 K in incentives. Graveman is a #5 SP type who put up ERA's in the low 4's from 2015-2017. Last year he pitched just 34.1 innings and his ERA ballooned to 7.60. He's a pretty big risk to not be fully healthy or effective but the structure of the contract makes if essentially no-risk to the Cubs.
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Doc ,,I love your blog > but dont titled your post " the Giants don't sign whomever"!!!
ReplyDeleteI have been a faithful reader of your blog!
Getting tired of this seemingly desire for " Z " to make deals for the sake of a deal!
Sheesh > it's your blog you can say anything you want.
That said > over the last 5 plus years that I have been reading and reviewing > I have shared a number og personal insights about how and why I became a Giants fan Atic!
I have been following the G's since i was around age 10. My father was a G's fan back to the days of the Polo grounds
I am 67; so you know 89, 2002 the `10 > 12 > and 14 to some extent 16 > I am happier the a pig in s#%^.
Feel free to tell me to go blow> the incessant negativity is making my head feel like exploding
Richard in Winnipeg
Hey Richard! Thank you for reading and commenting. I know you have been a faithful reader for a long time and I greatly appreciate that. I am just trying to have a little fun here and maybe I've run a joke into the ground. I just think it's a tiny bit ironic and maybe joke fodder that Zaidi was apparently brought in to shake up the status quo and we're now well past the winter meetings and nothing much has happened. My sense of irony is likely heightened by my belief that Bobby Evans' processes were good and he is the victim of terrible luck and a whole lot of scapegoating.
DeleteHaving said that, there is still a long way to go in this offseason and Zaidi may well have a great plan up his sleeve. I really hope he does and we'll all feel the excitement as it unfolds. In the end, I think what we all want is to see the Giants have a strong organization and play winning baseball no matter who is pulling the strings in the front office.
So, please don't take my headlines too seriously. I don't want your head to explode or feel like I am being incessantly negative. It's just me and my odd sense of irony and humor coming out.
not really related to this topic but went over to the mlb site and wanted to check out the fan forum over there. Hadn't been there in a couple of years and wanted to just see what was up these days. For some reason, I can't seem to find a link to it, do they not offer it any more? Had been a cesspool for a long time so maybe they got tired of moderating it but just curious if that is in fact what happened. Anyone know?
ReplyDeleteIDK. I haven't been on an MLB or sfgiants.com forum for years now. One reason I stopped posting on them and started this blog almost 10 years ago is they had become nothing more than an exercise in internet bullying. If MLB wasn't willing to make the effort to moderate them, it's probably better if they just shut them down.
DeleteI'm not too disappointed that they lost out on a journeyman 3rd-4th starting pitcher like Mike Fiers. There are still good players yet to sign and maybe Zaidi is waiting for the market to come down before signing a player, which might be a good thing for this team's payroll situation short term 1-3 years. An interesting signing for me would be Brian Dozier to platoon with Joe Panik at 2nd base. Off course we should be hearing where kikuchi will sign shortly.
ReplyDeleteLG
It would depend, of course, on how much Dozier would cost. I do like Kikuchi as a pitcher but am very leary of his injury history.
DeleteAnonymous, they 86ed all the mlb.com message boards last season. Also no longer have comment sections on any of their articles.
ReplyDeleteHappy Holidays, I've read an interesting trade rumor in a FanSided article involving the Giants and Cubs. The names involved are Jason Heywood, Mark Melancon, and Will Smith. It says if anything happens, it would be after the new year. Who knows whether its true or not, but maybe it's something to monitor during a slow off season.
ReplyDeleteLG