One potential move that has taken a backseat to the Roy Halladay sweepstakes at the winter meetings this year is a deal that could make Dan Uggla a San Francisco Giant next season. According to FOXSports.com’s Ken Rosenthal and MLB.com’s Joe Frisaro via their Twitter pages, the Giants and Marlins are heating up discussions involving Uggla.

Uggla is the right-handed bat that the Giants desperately need. They acquired Freddy Sanchez at the trade deadline last year, but he could potentially move over to third base (moving Pablo Sandoval to first) in order to make room for Uggla, who hit .243 last year with 31 dingers and 90 RBI. San Francisco is already a contender (and I use that word loosely) with its pitching, but in order for the G-Men to make a serious run at the postseason they need more pop in their lineup outside of “The Panda.”

The question now becomes: What do the Giants need to part with in order to acquire Uggla? They’ve already traded one top prospect away in Tim Alderson to acquire Sanchez, and they have zero plans to deal pitcher Madison Bumgarner or catcher Buster Posey.

The problem is that the Marlins would no doubt ask for Bumgarner in a deal for Uggla. The bigger problem is that Giants’ GM Brian Sabean might just pull the trigger on the deal because 1) he’s Brian Sabean and 2) he’s willing to do anything to acquire a player he absolutely covets, and Uggla fits the bill. (Remember, this was the same man that traded Joe Nathan, Francisco Liriano and Boof Bonser for one year of A.J. Pierzynski.)

I’m sure Sabean would love to trade Fred Lewis, Kevin Frandsen (who I’m absolutely convinced is hated by the organization) and a couple of second-tier prospects in order to acquire Uggla. But that’s not going to work for Florida. They’re in the market for young talent, not talent that has never developed and by the looks of things, never will.

If Sabean pulls off a deal for Uggla and is able to retain Bumgarner and Posey, then kudos to him. If he winds up trading Bumgarner, well, then the man just traded away his No. 1 pitching prospect for a guy that hit .243 last season.

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]]> http://www.scoresreport.com/2009/12/11/are-the-giants-getting-closer-to-acquiring-uggla/feed/ 0 http://www.scoresreport.com/2009/06/14/could-lee-be-a-trade-option-for-giants/ http://www.scoresreport.com/2009/06/14/could-lee-be-a-trade-option-for-giants/#comments Sun, 14 Jun 2009 23:10:25 +0000 Anthony Stalter http://www.scoresreport.com/?p=19997

The Chicago Tribune is speculating that the Giants could make a push to acquire Cubs first baseball Derrek Lee. The paper notes that San Fran’s pitching is good enough to keep them in contention, but the team desperately needs a big bat and Lee could be a viable option given that Chicago has a couple of replacements for him in Micah Hoffpauir and Jake Fox.

While rumors are definitely fun to discuss, this one looks like it has no teeth. The Cubs haven’t given any indication that they want to deal Lee and even if they have considered it, he’d still have to waive his no-trade clause. (And why would he waive it to go to a team like the Giants?)

The Giants make an easy target in all of this because yes, they do need a bat. Aaron Rowand, Pablo Sandoval, Bengie Molina, Randy Winn and Juan Uribe don’t exactly strike the fear of God into opposing pitchers. But GM Brian Sabean has to be smart here and even though San Fran is playing well, it’s probably not worth it for the Giants to trade young arms (which they’ve got plenty of) so that they can put a band-aid on a deep gash.

Now, if a situation comes up and a club is willing to part with a young bat in order to get a couple of arms, then all bets are off. If the Giants can get a young, productive bat this season that could also add to their rebuilding process, then Sabean would be a fool not to jump on the opportunity. But how often do clubs make young bats available?

The Giants have already been linked to the Marlins’ Dan Uggla and the Nats’ Adam Dunn. Now Lee’s name has been throw into the mix and while it would be tempting for Sabean to add a bat to his weak lineup, none of the aforementioned names are going to help the Giants win a World Series this year so why bother? Why sacrifice the future for half a season?

We’ll see if this rumor grows any legs, but I hardly doubt it will.

Apparently the near-Jake Peavy deal between the Padres and White Sox woke up other general managers in baseball, because trade rumors are starting to kick up around the league.

One of the bigger rumors is that the Giants are interested in Marlins’ second baseman Dan Uggla. According to the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, the offense-needy Giants would have to give up a young starter to swing a deal for Uggla, and both Matt Cain and Jonathan Sanchez’s names were brought up in the report.

Even though San Fran has one of the worst offenses in baseball (they currently rank dead last in the NL in runs scored, on base percentage and slugging percentage), Giants’ GM Brian Sabean should be kicked repeatedly in the stones if he trades Cain for Uggla straight up.

Cain is pitching in his fourth year already and he’s only 24. His career record of 35-44 suggests he’s light years away from becoming a productive pitcher, but his career ERA of 3.63 paints a better picture. He’s a pitcher that has been cursed with poor run support over his career, but that has changed this season and he’s now finally getting the attention he deserves while posting a 5-1 record and 2.40 ERA so far in ’09.

Uggla would give the Giants’ lineup much-needed pop, but his .200 batting average is death right now and who knows how his power would transfer to a pitcher-friendly AT&T Park. Ask Aaron Rowand how it feels to hit in that home run-killer that the Giants play in. He hit 27 dingers three years ago with the Phillies and managed just 13 last year in his first season with Frisco.

I know I might regret saying this because after all, he was the nitwit who traded Joe Nathan, Francisco Liriano and Boof Bonser for ass clown A.J. Pierzynski in 2003, but Sabean isn’t stupid enough to trade Cain for Uggla straight up. The Giants need offense, but it can’t come at the cost of sacrificing a potential 20-game winner in Cain. Sanchez might be another story considering he is less of a sure thing than Cain is, but even he might not be worth giving up for an average-killer like Uggla.

Believe it or not, the Giants are headed in the right direction. They’re stacked with young pitchers (including two minor league prospects Madison Bumgarner and Tim Alderson) and have a couple of emerging position players who will be ready for the show by 2011 (or sooner). They’re probably not going to catch the Dodgers or make a serious run at the NL Wild Card this year, so there’s no sense panicking and trading away young pitching for guys like Uggla. They’d be better off giving youngsters Emmanuel Burriss and Kevin Frandsen more playing time and hoping one of them can emerge as a quality seventh or eighth hitter in the lineup. (Not too mention that both Burriss and Frandsen are better defensively than Uggla is.)