Giants Decline Renteria's $10.5 Million Option

It has been announced that the Giants have declined Edgar Renteria's $10.5 million club option. The decision is not surprising. Despite being named the World Series MVP just a couple of days ago, Renteria's career has been on the decline for a while and he is not even close to being a $10.5 million player. The real question is whether or not Edgar Renteria comes back at all next year.

First of all, Renteria did state during the season that he was mulling retirement and has continued to say that, although he hasn't made a final decision. Secondly, all Giants fans love and appreciate what Renteria did for the team during the World Series. But the fact is, he was a player most fans loved to hate during the regular season because he's just not very good anymore. Offensively, he has very little power and doesn't get on base particularly well and defensively, he's lost range. It's clear that he is no longer an everyday player.

The only reason bringing back Renteria is even an option is because the free agent shortstop class is incredibly weak. Juan Uribe is probably the best shortstop available, and even he's not an ideal starter. Additionally, Uribe will probably be able to get a starting job somewhere and will be looking for a good amount of money. Beyond him, there's Orlando Cabrera? Mike Fontenot? Some pretty unflattering options. Renteria has shown that he can be effective at times and he'd be cheap. But as I stated before, he is not an everyday player, so the Giants would need to have someone else for the position.

It's hard for me to see him coming back. The Giants need to improve the offense and shortstop is one of the areas they should look to find it. To do this they'd have to go through the trade market but it's clear that they could use an upgrade at shortstop. As Renteria is mulling retirement, I see the Giants looking to improve the position. If they're unsuccessful, maybe they offer Renteria a 1 year/$1 million dollar deal or something like that at the last minute. But Giants fans should hope the team will have a better option come 2011.

I'd be curious to see what you guys think. Should Edgar stay or go?

2010 World Series Game 5: SF 3, TEX 1

This will be a short game recap. You can be assured that Mack and I will have a lot to write about this coming week, but now is not quite the time for analysis or remembrance. Now is simply the time to savor and celebrate.

The 2010 Giants have brought home the first World Series championship to San Francisco. Game 5 turned out to be the classic pitching duel we expected in Game 1, with both Lincecum and Lee putting up zeroes through 6 innings. Lincecum was at his best, the kind of Lincecum we saw so many times in 2008 and 2009, the kind we saw in April and September of 2010, and the kind we saw in the playoff opener against the Braves. He could not be beaten tonight. Every pitch was working for him, and his velocity was strong. The Rangers simply had no chance. The only damage was a late solo HR from Nelson Cruz. Even then, the game felt over. Because the Giants did what they had to do with Lincecum throwing a gem. They got to Cliff Lee. Again.

Cliff Lee is a great pitcher. But he isn't everything he was made out to be, and that's no knock on him at all. He just isn't Sandy Koufax. He pitched quite well tonight, but the Giants once again weren't baffled by him the way other teams have been in the playoffs. They had hit the ball somewhat hard, but had nothing to show for it until the 7th inning. That was when 2 of the biggest playoff contributors, Ross and Uribe, hit back to back singles up the middle. Aubrey Huff sacrificed them over, getting his first sacrifice bunt of his career. An odd play, but I can't say I disagreed with it. Even though he is one of their most important hitters, the run environment tonight was low, and the smart play was to trade outs for runs. Huff also nearly reached, so it was a good call by Bochy, again. After Pat Burrell struck out, Edgar Renteria came up, and the Rangers had the opportunity to walk Renteria and pitch to the potentially much easier out, Aaron Rowand. But Cliff Lee, the proud, somewhat arrogant pitcher that he is, didn't want to walk Renteria. And I commend him for that. But I'm sure he wishes he had pitched around Edgar. On 2-0, Lee threw a fastball down the heart of the plate, and Renteria swung.

On the swing, the ball went straight into the air towards left center. It didn't really look like Edgar had driven the ball. But as it kept carrying and carrying, it became evident that this ball was not going to be caught. The outfielders were just too far. I thought it would land near the warning track, scoring 2 runs. But then it kept going, until it slipped over the left field wall for a 3 run HR. It looked very much like the NLCS winning HR by Uribe. The ball just found a way to get over that wall. Notice that it didn't hit the top and bounce back.

And that was all they would need to win the only thing that matters in baseball, the World Series. Lincecum pitched 2 more innings. He finished with 10 Ks in 8 innings, only giving up 3 hits and walking 2. Wilson finished off the 9th easily against the heart of the Rangers order. That's all I can really say now. Wasn't that short of a recap after all. Look for more posts this week about Game 5, the series, and the season as a whole.

2010 World Series Game 2: SF 9, TEX 0

Big wins are the toughest to write about, and the surreal experience of them coming in the World Series makes it even tougher. But here we go:

The Giants ended up winning by a larger margin tonight than they did in Game 1's slugfest, but until the 8th inning, this was the kind of game San Francisco fans have gotten used to. Edgar Renteria hit a solo HR in the 5th inning to break the 0-0 tie, and Juan Uribe added a run with a bloop single in the 7th inning. The Giants had 2 outs and the bases empty in the Weird Inning, and proceeded to score 7 more runs. A single by Posey. A fistful of walks. A triple by Aaron Rowand. Double by Torres. The Giants batted around for the 2nd straight day against the Rangers. Ron Washington's bullpen managing was atrocious in a close game, and now you have to question the state of the bullpen itself going back to Texas. The Giants did well to let the Rangers pitchers dig themselves into deeper holes, and it allowed for a stress free 9th inning. The Giants defense has also been stellar in the 1st two games, most notably the old men on the left side, Renteria and Uribe.

Oh, and then there was Matt Cain.


Cain went 7.2 innings, giving up only 4 hits and 2 walks to a strong Texas lineup. He now has pitched 21.1 innings in his first postseason without giving up a single earned run. Tonight, he was what all Giants already knew he was: A great pitcher. A pitcher who makes hitters slam the bat down in frustration when they popup a high fastball. There's been a lot of talk this whole postseason among the sabermetric community anytime Cain was pitching, wondering how he does it, because his peripheral numbers just don't match the end results. Yes, Cain has pitched all of his postseason games at AT&T, and there have been flyballs that might have been home runs in other ballparks. But you can forget all that, because the dominance is evident. It's shown by the past 4 years of quality pitching, and his performances in the last 2 months are just a microcosm of that. We saw it tonight, and last week against Philadelphia, and in Game 2 of the NLDS. And we saw it at Coors Field in September, when Cain single-handedly tossed the Rockies out of playoff contention. He has baffled great lineups. He has gone long in games. He has worked with slim leads. He does it all, and he only just turned 26, but has the composure of a 10 year veteran. After Cain's complete game in Denver, I said that he may not be the best pitcher on the Giants. In fact, he certainly isn't. But he's the one I love the most. Because while composure, toughness, and heart can't possibly be measured, they can be recognized, and they are things we can admire and love a player for. Matt Cain has great stuff, and he had the Texas Rangers off balance tonight because of a good fastball and changeup. That's why he pitched so well. But even I like to think that a certain factor in this admirable World Series performance was Cain's own unrelenting, undaunted drive to win.

SF 10, LA 2: Diiiiiiiiirrrrrrrrtttyyyyyyyyy

Wow, that was pretty great.

Not only did Jonathan Sanchez give up just 4 H, 1 ER and strike out 12 Dodgers, he didn't walk a single batter. He was just beautiful. It's the kind of beauty that's impossible to stop thinking about. Just thinking about how beautiful he is makes me smile. When I think of him, nothing in the world can bother me. Thinking of him makes me feel like I'm in the middle of an open field dancing and playing with flowers and butterflies. You know what it is that Jonathan and I have? It's love. Congratulations Mr. Sanchez, you will be who I'm thinking about when I go to sleep tonight. What?

Now that I've expressed my love for a man over the worldwide web for billions of people to see, I'll talk about something else. Actually, no. Sanchez lived up to his nickname tonight, Dirty Sanchez. The nickname is so obvious and simple, but it's perfect. The Giants are in first place. He can be absolutely nasty and starts like tonight show how valuable he is. If you read this blog a lot, you probably know that I'm in favor of trading him for a bat. But he is too valuable to give up for anything. The Giants are in first place. A 27 year old left-handed pitcher with a 3.21 ERA and a 9.3 K/9 is only worth giving up for a legitimate middle of the order hitter. If you can't get that, you keep him. It's just a bonus that he happens to be frickin' beautiful!

The pitching wasn't the only bright spot tonight. The Giants found themselves down by a run after half an inning because of a double and a throwing error by Juan Uribe, but that didn't scare the offense. The Giants are in first place. In the bottom half of the 1st, Aubrey Huff tripled and Buster Posey promptly brought him in with an RBI double. Then in the 3rd, with 2 runners on Aubrey Huff blasted a 3-run shot over the right field wall. I bet you can't guess what awesome thing I'm going to say next, though. The Giants are in first place. The next batter, Buster Posey, also blasted a home run, this one into the left field bleachers to give the Giants a 5-1 lead. It was the Aubrey and Buster Show! Against the Dodgers. With the division lead on the line. Epic. The Giants are in first place. There was also a Jose Guillen homer and a couple more RBI hits and the Giants ended up with 10 runs. Against the Dodgers. With the division lead on the line. Epic.

Edgar Renteria went 4-for-5. Say hello to your new leadoff hitter!

The Giants are in first place.

SF 5, LA 4: ...And Thence We Came Forth To See Again The Stars

Juan Uribe does not get on base that much. He plays a lot of positions in the infield, but he's not great at any of them. But goddamn can he hit one out, and it always seems to happen when it matters most. And that's why even with his surprisingly bad OPS+ of 91, he's one of the more valuable players on this team. Jeez, I sound like some writer I'd mock on FJM Friday. You can get that way after a 5-4 comeback win in LA.

But Uribe's no doubter against Broxton was just the final bomb in a barrage of HRs by the Giants near the end of the game. Matt Cain was looking good to begin the game, but the 4th inning was not kind to him. Thankfully, he was able to recover and go 3 more innings, with a final line of 7 innings, 7 hits, 4 ERs, 1 BB, and 6 K's. Buster Posey's HR in the 7th started the Giants comeback, and it was quite impressive. One of the longest HRs I think I've seen a right handed hitter hit at Dodger Stadium. Then Edgar Renteria started the 8th inning with a ball down the left field line that stayed fair to make the score 4-2. Good by Edgar, but I'd be disappointed if that 1 HR earned him lots more playing time. It probably will.

Pat Burrell then came up, and after falling behind 0-2, he battled and battled before sending a shot into left center to make the score 4-3. The Octavio Dotel trade just keeps looking worse and worse for the Dodgers. So does Jonathan Broxton. What the hell happened to him? I remember the days when he was the best of the 3 NL West California Closers. His stuff was electric, and he was giving up just over 5 hits per 9 innings. Now he's post 2005 Brad Lidge. Can't be counted on at all. Sounds good to me.

We've said a lot after Giants losses that "these are the games bad teams lose." Well, this was the kind of game a good team wins. And the Giants are a good team. Good enough? Maybe. The Padres lost today for the 9th straight time. They are falling apart. Hopefully they don't find a way to put it all together right when the Giants go to Petco next week.

Game Recap: SF 2, LA 0

We all know that Matt Cain is one of the most underrated pitchers in the game. Being overshadowed by Tim Lincecum doesn't help, and neither does Cain's quiet, calm personality. He never gets any attention, yet he'd be the ace on a lot of teams. To prove my point, I present to you:

This picture breaks my heart every time I see it. Matt Cain deserves more respect, and hopefully he got some tonight on ESPN. Cain looked close to as good as he's been all year, and that fact that it was on national TV just makes it even sweeter. Tonight he went 7 2/3 IP, gave up just 4 H, 1 BB and struck out 7 Dodgers. It was just a beautiful, beautiful outing from Cain.

There wasn't too much offense, but only one big hit was needed and it came from Edgar Renteria. After the Dodgers walked Aaron Rowand to get to Renteria (why?), there were runners on 1st and 2nd. Renteria made them pay by lining a triple into the left-center gap, scoring both runners.

Sweeping the Dodgers is always delicious, and this was the first time it's happened since 2004. Now the Giants need to take this momentum on the road to Coors Field. That place has never been too friendly to the Giants, so winning at least 2 of 3 would be nice.

Game Recap: SF 6, FLA 4

It's not often these days that Juan Uribe and Edgar Renteria are the reason the Giants win. I mean, Uribe did have a grand slam the other day, but still, he has been slumping hard. 8thInningWeirdness was at the game tonight, and what a game it was. Let's dig into the details.

Josh Johnson is the leading contender for the Cy Young at this point, so I wasn't expecting the offense to do much against him tonight. I gave myself low expectations, and as a result I was pleasantly surprised that the Giants were able to score first. In the 3rd Inning, Andres Torres doubled, of course, and Aubrey Huff proceeded to hit a double that would bring him home. The next batter, Buster Posey, blooped a single to score Huff and extended his hitting streak to 20 games. It was nice to see our 3 best hitters this year combine to score against the league's best pitcher.

Matt Cain was solid tonight giving up just 4 H and 3 BB in 7 IP, but he threw 2 pitches that he probably wishes he could take back. A 2-run homer by Cody Ross tied the game in the 5th inning, and after the Giants scored in the bottom of the 5th on a Freddy Sanchez RBI single, Cain gave back the lead again on a solo home run from Dan Uggla in the 7th. Overall, giving up 3 ER in 7 IP isn't bad but the Giants probably weren't going to score many runs against Johnson, so Cain needed to be flawless to get the win, and he wasn't.

The real fun started in the 8th inning. In a 3-3 tie, Juan Uribe belted a deep home run to left center field to give the Giants a 4-3 lead. The atmosphere was exciting and there was a buzz in the ballpark. Like I said when he hit his grand slam, the Giants could use an improved Juan Uribe. A couple of batters later, Edgar Renteria hit a 2-run homer down the left field line to give the Giants some insurance runs and a 6-3 lead. Edgar's game last night was brutal, but I felt good for him after all of the fans in the ballpark booed him before the game today.

Also notable: Andres Torres was 3-for-4 with a BB tonight. He's good, real good.

Really fun, exciting game to be at tonight. Always feels good to win against the best pitcher in the league.

Game Recap: FLA 4, SF 3

It's interesting that even when the Giants are hot, they never go on winning streaks. Even during this stretch where they've won 16 of 21 games, their longest winning streak has been 5 games. Maybe that's a good thing because it means they've been consistently good. But tonight, they were not very good and it was mostly the fault of the offense.

Specifically, the offense was terrible in the first 6 innings, never even getting close to scoring a run. Ricky Nolasco shut them down. But as soon as Nolasco came out of the game and I tweeted this, magic was in the air. Aaron Rowand came in to pinch hit for Travis Ishikawa, which seemed like a questionable move to me, but he proceeded to hit a two-run homer to cut the Marlins lead down to 3-2. Let me break it down for you: Aaron Rowand saved the day. Amazing. The Giants were still losing, but there was hope.

Unfortunately, the bullpen was not very good again. In the top of the 8th inning, Guillermo Mota allowed a run scoring double, giving the Marlins a 4-2 lead. It'd be nice to solve that problem. Soon.

In the bottom of the 9th inning the Giants tried really hard to come back, but ultimately failed. Andres Torres grounded out to bring a run home, but then up came Edgar Renteria. Up to that point in the game he had been 0-for-4 with 2 K's. Well, he struck out to end the game with a runner on 3rd, so make that 0-for-5 with 3 K's. Ouch.

Barry Zito didn't pitch great: 6 1/3 IP, 8 H, 3 ER with 1 BB and 3 K's. But he wasn't terrible either, and when a pitcher only allows 3 runs through 6 innings, a good offense will get that pitcher the win. You've gotta feel a little bad for the guy, and Zito's hard luck continued as he fell to 8-6.

A win would've been extra sweet tonight because not many teams have beaten the guy who is pitching for the Marlins tomorrow. Josh Johnson has a 1.61 and a WHIP under 1 and he is the leading contender for the Cy Young Award this year (screw Ubaldo Jimenez). Fortunately for San Francisco Giants fans everywhere, 8thInningWeirdness will be at the game tomorrow night and we have an impeccable W-L record. Believe it. Even though it's not true.

Big Z a Giant?

In our second installment of "Trade rumors that will be forgotten and never mentioned again due to their obvious unlikelihood in hindsight", the Giants have been mentioned in a Carlos Zambrano article by Tim Dierkes over at mlbtraderumors.com. In his effort to find a team with overpaid players that could be traded for Zambrano, Edgar Renteria and Aaron Rowand have been proposed. If traded, their combined salaries would be $36 million, which means the Giants would take on $9 million extra with Zambrano.

When I first saw this, I thought, how could the Giants possibly pull off getting Carlos Zambrano for Edgar Renteria and Aaron Rowand? Then I thought, why would we trade for a pitcher? Then I thought, Renteria and Rowand? How? Is Zambrano having that bad of a year? Is he that horrible of a human being? You have to be a horrible human being to be traded for Aaron Rowand's contract, right?

If this trade is possible, which I seriously doubt, there is no question the Giants should go for it. Zambrano has a career 3.58 ERA, 9th best among active pitchers with enough innings, and he has never had a year with an ERA over 4.00. He's 29. His ERA is 5.66 this year, but if you disregard his Opening Day start, where he gave up 8 runs in 1.1 innings, it's 4.47. Is this a pitcher that should be banished to the bullpen, with the track record he has? I understand the character issues Zambrano brings with him, but I'm willing to take that risk if it means getting rid of Aaron Rowand's playing issues.

Lincecum, Zito, Cain, Sanchez/Bumgarner, Zambrano?