Aubrey Huff Part Deux
As you may all know by the now, the Giants signed Aubrey Huff to a one year deal worth $3 million late last night. Appearing as though Brian Sabean himself reads this blog, my wish was granted, and Aubrey Huff was bestowed upon my struggling team.
Aubrey Huff, San Francisco Giant
Based on my defense of a Huff signing in my last post, it’s safe to assume that I’m completely for this move. And I am. It’s a one year deal, so we’re not stuck with him if he continues to regress. It’s worth $3 million, which is $6-7 million less than Adam LaRoche will get to be the exact same player. And now with DeRosa, Uribe, and Huff all locked up for the coming season, I think it’s safe to say that our offense will be better in 2010.
So what qualifies as better? Well a good start would be league average. Let’s say that hypothetically Huff hits .267/.334/.445, which is what Bill James predicts he will do. Already that represents an upgrade from last year at first base, where Travis Ishikawa hit .261/.329/.387. Now let’s say that Mark DeRosa also fulfills his predicted line of .260/.335/.418. Already we have an upgrade over last season if he ends up playing left field. Finally, for the sake of conveniency, assume that Buster Posey matches Bill James and hits .270/.331/.405. This too would represent an upgrade over last year’s Molina debacle at catcher.
At three positions of need, we have noted improvement over last year’s horrific offense. They may not be extreme improvements, but this is a step in the right direction. Think of what didn’t happen this offseason (at least so far). We didn’t sign an aging catcher in the mold of Brad Ausmus who would have blocked Posey. We didn’t overpay for Johnny Damon. We didn’t send Jonathan Sanchez to the Marlins for Dan Uggla, preserving our first-rate pitching staff. And finally, we didn’t succumb to the temptation of doling out a monstrous contract to Matt Holliday. Overall, I have to give credit where it’s due and say that Brian Sabean has done a good job so far given the resources available on the free agent market.
My bold prediction for the 2010 season? The Giants will be a better hitting team thanks to these signings. It may not be pretty, but I dream of a world where my team can put forth a league average offense with a stellar pitching staff to complement it, and this collection of ballplayers we have now may just be the ones to accomplish this. The 2010 San Francisco Giants: Hey, We Could Be Worse.
“Think of what didn’t happen this offseason (at least so far). We didn’t sign an aging catcher in the mold of Brad Ausmus who would have blocked Posey. We didn’t overpay for Johnny Damon. We didn’t send Jonathan Sanchez to the Marlins for Dan Uggla, preserving our first-rate pitching staff. And finally, we didn’t succumb to the temptation of doling out a monstrous contract to Matt Holliday.”
That, my friend, is what so many knee-jerk, unrealistic fans out there fail to recognize time and time again.
It’s not, “Huff could help us, and it’s low risk.”
It’s always, “Typical Sabean move. When are we going to get a big name?”
Getting sick of these people. You too?
I agree whole-heartedly. It’s hard to get out of the anti-Sabean mindset given that he hasn’t been a very good GM for some time now. This makes it difficult to give him credit when he actually earns it, so I guess I do understand the mindset.
At the same time, even with Giants fans as jaded as they are, they need to take a step back and realize that this offseason has actually been pretty good given the circumstances going into it.
I don’t understand the benching of Ishi. I agree Huff will likely slightly outproduce Ishi in ‘10. But Ishi had a very respectable rookie season. True, his phenomenal home stats will likely regress to the mean, but so too will his horrid road stats improve considerably by virtue of the years experience w/ MLB pitching, MLB parks, and the MLB experience.
The difference is Ishi has a chance of improving and improving significantly, putting himself in position to be our 1b of ‘11. Huff on the other hand will be gone. Even worse, he has an outlier year, is resigned and tanks in ‘11. If he is gone for ‘11, we have a hole to fill – and no idea whether Ishi is ready to fill that 1b hole. To me the small improvement Huff brings is outweighed by the development/evaluation of Ishi.