Friday, January 15, 2010

Giants fans should be in a Huff


Earlier this month, I pleaded with the Giants to sign Johnny Damon.

It made so much sense that I couldn't comprehend a reason why they wouldn't... especially with the Yankees evidently moving on, the Red Sox not biting and all of the usual suspects of big spenders passing.

Damon would be the spark plug on the top of the order. (Who exactly is the leadoff man now? Aaron Rowand? Emmanuel Burriss?)

He's an exciting winner... he's a marquee player who the fans in San Francisco would love... he has gap to gap power and would probably hit a crap load of doubles and triples... and would give the lineup a huge jolt without being a power hitter angry that his numbers are dropping in the Bay Area.

So naturally they didn't go for him.
Of course they went for Aubrey Huff... a classic "home run hitter who padded his stats in band box parks."

He's not a bad player, but he's not the spark this Giants team needs. Huff was a 25-30 home run guy calling places like the Trop, Enron Field (or whatever it is called now) and Camden Yards his home. Not exactly challenging home run parks. And now he is going to see a lot of fly balls dying at the warning track.

Chosing Huff and sticking him at first makes no sense to me.

They already signed DeRosa and along with Freddy Sanchez, Juan Uribe, and Eugenio Velez, they had a deep infield (and could move Pablo Sandoval to first base where he belongs.)

Damon in the lead off spot with DeRosa batting behind him and Sandoval driving them home would be a decent start to improving a team that won 88 games last year (and 90 wins probably means the Wild Card.)

Instead you have Sandoval at third instead of first, Huff instead of Damon as the new face and DeRosa showing his ability to play anywhere on the infield by being the starting left fielder.

And all the while Damon wanders the free agent landscape looking for a home.

Why don't GMs listen to me?




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2 comments:

  1. Damon is still around, Huff will put up similar stats to the red sox TERRIBLE signing Beltre

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  2. I stand by the Beltre signing...
    He's very good defensively and he was playing in a bad hitters ballpark.

    He isn't going to be as good as he was his roided last year in Los Angeles... but the Red Sox have decided to shore up their defense (Scutaro, Beltre, Cameron) and pitching (Lackey)

    And I hear pitching and defense is important

    ReplyDelete