Will Giants Trade for Freddie Sanchez?

The Giants salvaged the final game of their three game series with the Pirates in Pittsburg today, winning 4-3, after scoring all of one run in 23 innings in the first two games of the series and losing the two games by a combined score of 4-1.

The series really showed the Giants' offensive weakness. Losing a series in which their three starters had a combined ERA of 1.77 (20.1 IP, 16 hits allowed, four earned runs, three walks and 22 Ks) is pretty pathetic, especially against an als0-ran like the Pirates.

Meanwhile, the Pirates made patently ridiculous contract extension offers to SS Jack Wilson and 2Bman Freddie Sanchez.  I don’t think much of Jack Wilson. He's now 31-years-old, and has really had only two good seasons with the bat in a nine year career. He's good with the glove, but with a .690 OPS, he’s way overpaid for what he give you in the current economy.

Sanchez, however, is legitimately a strong-hitting 2Bman, who's having a good year. The offer the Pirates made him is downright insulting. The Pirates offered Sanchez a two-year extension worth about $10M total, but only if he agreed to void his current 2010 option for $8M, which vests if he gets 600 plate appearances. If he stays healthy, the option almost certainly vests, because he’s over 350 plate appearances already.

In my opinion, the extension offers made by the Pirates reflect poorly on the team. It's clear to anyone paying attention that the Pirates made the extension offers solely as a face-saving move, so that management could go to the fan base and say, "We tried to re-sign our two biggest stars, but they weren't interested."

However, the offers were so palpably bad, that it should be clear to everyone that they weren't legitimate offers. In fact, Wilson and Sanchez, through their agents, have already flatly rejected the offers.

If I were a Pirates fan, I'd be insulted that the team thinks so little of my intelligence that they think I'd be tricked by such a shallow ruse. It would have shown a lot more class just to say that the team can't afford these guys, is playing poorly and needs to continue rebuilding, and send the players on their way in exchange for prospects in an above-board manner. If you're going to do it anyway, why play games?

There's no doubt now that Wilson and Sanchez will be traded by the deadline, so long as the Pirates can get something in return.

Neither Sanchez nor the Giants' 2Bmen did much in this series. Sanchez went three for thirteen with a double and a walk; and Juan Uribe and Kevin Frandsen went two for twelve with a double and a walk.

At the end of the day though, Freddie Sanchez is hitting .313 with an .824 OPS, while Juan Uribe is hitting .293 with a .774 OPS. More importantly, Sanchez is a much better bet to continue hitting in the second half. Uribe hasn't finished a season with an OPS higher than .713 since 2004.

The pressure is on the Giants to make a deal. They've got a real shot at making the post-season for the first time since 2003, and GM Brian Sabean is trying to hold onto his job after four consecutive losing seasons. You can bet that there was more than one conversation between Sabean and Pirates GM Neal Huntington about a possible trade for Sanchez this weekend.