Giantsblog

The Giants gave their infield a little more depth when they signed Ryan Theriot to a one year deal worth around $1.25 million.  Theriot played both shortstop and second base the past couple of years and he’s also spent a small amount of time in the outfield.  He’s never hit for a lot of power, but he’s a nice guy to have if you need a hole plugged because you brought in a pinch hitter or want to do a double switch.

He does have a solid batting eye and he’ll draw a walk without many strikeouts.  He’s only okay in the field but that’s understandable considering he’s never in spot for very long.  He used to also be good for 15-20 steals but his success percentage is very good and he only stole four last year.

The Giants locked up former Marlins reliever Clay Hensley to a one year deal worth around $750,000 (with some incentives).  After a breakout 2010 season, Hensley took a step back and had a rough season in 2011.  This was due in part to them trying to push him back into the rotation after a few years out of the pen.  Just about all of his rate stats went down and the Giants will most likely use him out of the pen in 2012.

The Giants bullpen is shaping up to be a decent one.  Of course Giants fans should also remember Hensley because he was the guy who gave up Barry Bonds’ 755th home run.

The Giants signed catcher Eli Whiteside to a one year deal a week after they looked like they didn’t him a contract last week.  Apparently they did offer him a deal though and he eventually accepted it.  With Posey hopefully coming back, Whiteside will be competing with Chris Stewart for the back up catcher job.

Whiteside had the lowest batting average of any hitter in the National League in the second half with a .163 average.  He finished the season hitting .197.  The Giants also have Hector Sanchez waiting in the wings but someone like Whiteside should fill in nicely until Sanchez is ready to come back.

The Giants resigned Guillermo Mota to one year, $1 million deal.  Mota is getting up their in age (38) but he had a decent enough season where he threw 80 1/3 innings with an ERA of 3.81.  He also had a nice 77/30 strikeout to walk ratio but he’s still prone to the fly ball.

The Giants also met their contract tendering deadline by signing Tim Lincecum, Ryan Vogelsong, Sergio Romo and Santiago Casilla.  I like the Mota move because you can’t go wrong with those one year deals and you don’t need to spend a ton of money on your bullpen to get some solid production.

Here are the top ten Giants prospects as determined by Baseball America.

1)  Gary Brown OF
2)  Tommy Joseph  1b/C
3)  Heath Hembree  RHP
4)  Joe Panik  SS
5)  Francisco Peguero OF
6)  Andrew Susac  C
7)  Eric Surkamp
8)  Kyle Crick  RHP
9)  Ehire Adrianza SS
10)  Hector Sanchez  C

Cody Ross and Pat Burrell won’t have a choice in testing the free agent market because the Giants declined to offer either of them arbitration. The down side for the Giants is that now the team won’t get compensation, but on a good note, they won’t be stuck with either player at a potentially inflated value.  This was pretty much expected and it now frees up some money to go up and shore up an offense that was one of the worst in baseball.

The Giants have a few other people testing the waters as well.  Carlos Beltran, Orlando Cabrera, Guillermo Mota and Mark De Rosa are all also free agents.  There’s also twelve younger players eligible for arbitration so the front office is going to be busy this offseason.

The Giants made their first big deal of the season by trading one time pitching prospect Jonathan Sanchez to the Royals for the speedy outfielder Melky Cabrera.  Cabrera is coming off a career year in which he hit .305 and scored 102 runs.  The nice thing about Cabrera is that he can play all three outfield spots so the Giants can make their moves and adjust if need be to fill in all of their holes.

One knock on Cabrera was that his one stint in the National League didn’t go well.  He spent 2010 with the Braves and he was eventually released.  That left the door open for him to go to Kansas City where he had the best year of his career.

Sanchez had the no-hitter and then the big post season win but other then that, he’s been hit or miss.  Plus we have plenty of arms so I like the move.