If you were to have gotten Giants general manager Brian Sabean all liquored up in a private setting (I know you’re probably weirded out by the start of this sentence, but stay with me here) and asked him which players he wouldn’t mind giving up in a trade to acquire a bat, he almost certainly would have uttered this name: Jonathan Sanchez.

Hell, there’s a great chance he would have uttered that name first. But that was before Sanchez’s no-hitter against the Padres on Friday night, when he struck out 11 batters and was a Juan Uribe-error away from throwing a perfect game.

The Giants had been waiting for that kind of performance all season out of Sanchez. Granted, they weren’t expecting that good of a performance, but they did have high expectations for him coming into the 2009 season.

He did show flashes of brilliance earlier this season, most notably in a two-hit, 2-0 win over the Diamondbacks on April 17. But ’09 has mostly been a season of massive frustration for not only Sanchez, but also a Giants organization that had hoped the 26-year-old lefty would be the third leg of a tripod that also featured pitching sensations Tim Lincecum and Matt Cain.

Sanchez has always been a strikeout pitcher, but for much of this season he struggled mightily with his control and he seemed to be racking up K’s only because he was wildly effective. And when he would start to struggle during games, he appeared to be a mental midget on the mound and could never recover.

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1. Nice start for Josh Beckett
This season hasn’t gone the way of the ace so far, with CC Sabathia, Cliff Lee, Justin Verlander and Tim Lincecum all struggling for their respective teams. But one No. 1 that didn’t struggle in his ’09 debut was Boston’s Josh Beckett, who fanned 10 in the BoSox’s 5-3 victory over the Rays on Tuesday. You hate to make claims that a pitcher is already in midseason form after only one outing, but Beckett’s two-hit, one-run effort against Tampa was impressive.

2. Speaking of Tim Lincecum…
Boy did he struggle yesterday for the Giants. But the good news for San Fran and the reining NL Cy Young winner is that his velocity wasn’t down, it just looked like he had a major case of the yips in his Opening Day debut. He looked too pumped up from the start and just never settled down. Fortunately, Aaron Rowand, Bengie Molina, Travis Ishikawa and the rest of the G-Men offense helped Lincecum out as SF romped the Brewers 10-6. Huh, what a concept – the Giants offense bailing out the pitching for once…who would have thought?

3. Dombrowski better be taking heat today in Detroit
In the offseason, Tigers’ GM Dave Dombrowski’s answer to solving the bullpen issues in Detroit was signing former Arizona closer Brandon Lyon instead of pursuing other avenues like J.J. Putz (who is now a setup man for the Mets). At least for one day, the decision backfired as Lyon blew Edwin Jackson’s (7.1, 2 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 4 K) gem in Toronto by giving up three runs on three hits as the Jays knocked off the Tigers 5-4. Granted, Lyon has plenty of time to bounce back but if he doesn’t, the Tigers will be left with mental midget Fernando Rodney to close games, who didn’t necessarily earn the role this spring with a 7.00 ERA. Considering Joel Zumaya may never pitch again due to freak injuries and Nate Robertson (who Dombrowski just gave a 3-year, $21 million deal in January of ’08) is pissed about being taken out of the starting rotation, Dombrowski has quite a mess brewing in Detroit.

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I know this guy (I’ll stop short of calling him a friend but wouldn’t hesitate to pick up the phone if he called) that at the start of all the major sporting seasons will throw out his list of “sleeper teams� to watch out for.

What’s funny about this guy is that he knows if he’s wrong he’ll never be called out because hey, they were just sleeper teams anyways right? But if he’s right, well hell, he’ll look like some kind of sports sleeper team Nostradamus.

This is the same guy that’ll pick a No. 16 seed to beat a No. 1 every year in the March Madness Tournament, so on the rare chance it happens he’ll have the opportunity to say that he called the upset of a lifetime. The funny thing is that he would have been wrong the previous 34 years of predicting 16’s over 1’s, but that would be beside the point.

Anyway, this piece is dedicated to him – the “Sleeper Team Guy.� For fans, there’s nothing like predicting a perennial loser (i.e. the 2008 Tampa Bay Rays) to rise from the ashes and make a postseason run no matter what sport it is. And with Opening Day right around the corner, I think it’s a perfect time to hand out some potential sleeper candidates of my own.

Below are five deep sleepers to make a postseason run this year in baseball. Most pundits assume that none of the five will finish better than third in their respective divisions, which is why I can get away with calling these teams “deep sleepers.� If any of them make the playoffs, I’ll wax poetically about it in my sleeper teams piece next year. If none even sniff a postseason berth, then in honor of “Sleeper Team Guy� don’t expect me to admit I was wrong. Yeah, that’s right – accountability is for losers.

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Offseason Movement: The G-Men added a solid piece to their starting rotation in former Cy Young-winner Randy Johnson. The club also signed free agent Edgar Renteria to play shortstop, and added Jeremy Affeldt and Bob Howry in hopes to strengthen their bullpen. Rich Aurilia and Josh Phelps were given minor league contracts, although Phelps was already reassigned to minor league camp.

Top Prospect: Madison Bumgarner, LHP
Who would have thought that the farm system that produced Tim Lincecum, Matt Cain, Brian Wilson and Jonathan Sanchez would have a pitcher as its top prospect? While catcher Buster Posey, corner infielder Angel Villalona and starter Tim Alderson deserve mention here, Bumgarner earns the Giants’ top prospect tag for his “ace� potential. While he isn’t expected to take Lincecum’s No. 1 spot any time soon, Bumgarner could turn out to be a San Fran’s No. 2 in the next couple seasons. He dominated his first full year in the minors after being selected in the first round out of high school, posting a 1.46 ERA in A-ball. He has a fastball that reaches 97 mph and once he develops his secondary pitches, Bumgarner should make his first big league appearance in no time.

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The Twins and Giants have emerged as potential candidates for free agent Pudge Rodriguez.

The new possibilities, Minnesota and San Francisco, were identified by a source with a National League team in the bidding.

The Twins’ interest may depend on the health of star catcher Joe Mauer, who’s had a back issue early in camp. The Giants have Bengie Molina to catch, and he’s even penciled in as their cleanup hitter, but Pudge could get games at first base and third base in San Francisco, which is planning to employ youngsters Travis Ishikawa and Pablo Sandoval at those positions, respectively.

The Marlins play only 15 minutes from Rodriguez’s home, but they also like their young catcher, John Baker. The Astros’ catchers are struggling this spring, but they haven’t been very aggressive so far in their pursuit of Pudge, who’s played superbly for Puerto Rico in the World Baseball Classic, hitting .545 with two home runs.

The Twins make sense because Mauer’s health is a concern. But the Giants’ interest in Pudge for anything more than a backup catcher would be asinine. He’s never played third base and has limited experience at first. He obviously can still hit (he went 4 for 4 with two dingers the other night while playing for Puerto Rico in the WBC), but it doesn’t make any sense for the Giants to sign another crusty old vet to take at bats away from Pablo Sandoval, Travis Ishikawa and John Bowker at the corners. They already have one of those in Rich Aurillia.

Chances are if you had the opportunity to flip on a San Francisco Giants game in the second half of the 2008 season, you could have sworn that Bengie Molina had changed his number and was now playing the infield.

That’s because at 5’11� and 246 pounds, Pablo Sandoval could easily be the body-double for the 5’11�, 225-pound Molina.

Unless you’re a Giants fan or a true fantasy baseball mega wizard, there’s a good chance you’ve never heard of Sandoval. San Fran signed the 22-year old switch hitter from Carabobo, Venezuela as an undrafted free agent in 2002, but thanks to his performance over the last month of the 2008 season, Sandoval is officially your 2009 ultimate fantasy sleeper.

In 145 major league at bats last season, Sandoval hit a scorching .345 with a .490 slugging percentage and 10 doubles. He also jacked three home runs, knocked in 24 RBI and crossed the plate 24 times in San Fran’s weak offense – the same weak offense that will give him the opportunity to hit fifth in the lineup this year behind the aforementioned Molina.

Rumor has it that the San Francisco Giants are quietly making a play for free agent Manny Ramirez.

Acquiring Ramirez would come with a number of headaches — from simply having the mercurial slugger on their roster to likely having to trade one of their incumbent outfielders (Randy Winn, Aaron Rowand, Dave Roberts). But all in all, he’d probably be worth it for a team that isn’t all that far from seriously contending. They play in a soft division where 85 wins could easily equal a playoff berth.

That’s especially true when you consider three factors: (1) the market for Ramirez is severely depressed because of the number of all-hit, no-field corner bats on the market, (2) signing him would simultaneously improve the Giants’ offense and weaken the rival Dodgers and (3) it would save GM Brian Sabean from having to engineer a complex trade for a bat that would cost him one of his top young pitchers like Jonathan Sanchez.

I tossed the idea of the Giants being potential sleepers in the Manny Ramirez sweepstakes in early December and as long as they don’t go ridiculous with the length of the contract, I think it would be a great move for club in desperate need of a bat.

As the article suggests, the Giants aren’t that far away from competing because they have such a solid pitching staff, headed by NL Cy Young winner Tim Lincecum. But their lineup is comprised of roll players and lacks major pop. Adding Manny would instantly make Bengie Molina, Randy Winn (if Manny doesn’t push him out) and Aaron Rowand better, and if younger players Pablo Sandoval, Fred Lewis (if Manny doesn’t push him out) and Travis Ishikawa can continue to develop, the lineup would certainly be good enough to win the NL West.

It’ll be interesting to see if the G-Men can steal the Dodgers’ most coveted free agent.