Cust To The A's Is Great For The Giants

Susan Slusser reports that Jack Cust has resigned with the A's for 1 year $2.65M.  This is fabulous news for the San Francisco Giants for 2 reasons:  Cust simply was not a good fit in San Francisco and his relatively small contract may help Sabean negotiate down other players he is engaged with.  

There is a lot to like about Jack Cust.  He has a great story of working his way up through the minors, he gets on base and he has power.  Moreover, of the left handed power bats on the market, Cust's power probably would have translated best at AT&T.  First, Cust isn't a pull hitter, his power is about equal to all fields .  Second, of his 25 HRs, 17 came at the following pitcher-friendly ballparks: 

14 McAfee Coliseum

1 Petco Park

1 Dodger Stadium

1 AT&T Park

From a Giants perspective the problem with Cust is really his defense.  Without a DH, the Giants would have been looking at an outfield of DeRosa, Rowand and Cust... possibly the worst in baseball and no way to support a young pitching staff in big ballpark with several tricky fence angles.  Jack Cust also is a strikeout machine and while his lifetime OBP is .374, that masks the fact that it has fallen from .408 to .375 to .356 over the past 3 seasons.  At $2.65M it wouldn't have been a terrible signing and who knows, maybe Cust could have played a passable 1B or even been a pinch hitter but really he isn't the Giants answer.  

The really good news for the Giants is that Cust's $2.65M contract just established a pretty reasonable contract for a 30 year old with 25HRs.  Sure Cust's defense and strikeouts kept his contract lower, but surely it will drag other contracts down.  While Sabean's 2 year $17M offer to Adam LaRoche was lunacy, 1 year for $4-5M starts to sound decent and really doesn't seem that out of line with Cust's contract.

Jack Cust =  .240BA, 25HR, 70RBI, .356OBP, Bats Left, Age 30

Adam LaRoche = .278BA, 24HR, 80RBI, .357OBP, Bats left, Age 30

Other free agents with similar numbers:

Russel Branyon = .250BA, 31HR, 76RBI, .357OBP, Bats Left, Age 34

Mike Jacobs = .228BA, 19HR, 61RBI, .297OBP Bats Left, Age 29

Johnny Gomes = .267BA, 20HR, 51RBI, .338OBP Bats Right, Age 29

None of these players will really help the Giants win in 2010 because adding a HR (or less) per week just isn't going to win that many additional games.  That said, its a relief to anyone suspicious of Brian Sabean's talent evaluation, contract negotiation and general understanding of baseball that Jack Cust's short-term, low value contract should help minimize the damage.  Unfortunately, Johhny Damon's value seems to be primarily based on intangibles, leadership and championship rings, which Cust's signing likely won't dampen, so that boobie trap still has Brian Sabean written all over it.