Miltie to the Pirates?

Pirates manager John Russell was quoted today (or yesterday) as saying, regarding the Pirates’ needs this offseason (almost everything), “”To say what specific area, we’ll see what the board holds.  I don’t know — is it a left fielder? Is it a second baseman? Is it a pitcher? I don’t know. We’ll just have to look into it and see what’s available. Offensively, we’ve struggled. It would be nice to find a bat that can be productive.”

Well, that last part sounds like Miltie.  He can hit, and he’s in the Pirates’ price range, at least if the Cubs assume most of the remaining two years of Milton Bradley’s salary.

Bradley would be a (relatively) good fit on the Pirates: the Pirates are a small market team with a tight budget and a need for hitters at bargain prices.  There are only so many newspapers covering the Pirates (although the Pirates’ press seems to call them as they see ‘em from what I’ve seen).  Bradley could slip in, have at least one big season with the bat, and no one would be any the wiser, so to speak.  Of course, now that Miltie has guaranteed money, it remains to be seen whether he “can” play more than 101 games in a season.

Actually, my real fear is that the Giants will acquire Bradley this offseason.  mlbtraderumors.com has been reporting the Giants as one of about five teams possibly interested in Bradley.  My opinion of Brian Sabean (he and manager Bruce Bochy are reportedly likely to get contract extensions from the Gints in the very near future) is such (based on many years of close observation) that I could see him and the Giants doing something that stupid.

The Giants shouldn’t do anything to their outfield this offseason.  They will dump Randy Winn’s $9.6 million salary (according to espn.com), and they have enough in-house talent to cover the outfield in 2010.  The current crew is CF Aaron Rowen, LF Fred Lewis and Eugenio Velez, RF Nate Schierholtz, RF/LF/1B John Bowker and all-three-OF-positions Andres Torres.

This is certainly not a great crew, and the Giants would be well advised to invite a couple of the best unsigned outfielders to Spring Training, but it’s good enough that the Giants can save some bucks here to improve at second base and to pay the likes of Lincecum, Wilson and Cain the substantial raises they’ll be getting.

John Bowker has not hit as a Giant in 63 ABs this year, but he was the best hitter in the Pacific Coast League this year, he had a great year at AA Connecticut in 2007, and a solid year as a rookie Giant in 2008.  He really needs more of a chance before the Giants write him off.

I also like Andres Torres.  He’s a consummate professional, even if most of his experience has been in the minor leagues.  He’s a late-developing hitter who runs and plays defense well enough to have a major league career as a 30+ year old player.  His OPS is currently .892, albeit in only 140 ABS; but with eight triples (AT&T is a GREAT triples park thanks to Death Valley in right-center, but you still have to be fast enough to leg them out) and five stolen bases in six attempts, he’s clearly much faster than the average major league player, even at age 31.

Torres can’t maintain a major league .892 OPS playing regularly, but his 2007 and 2008 seasons in the high minors suggest that he really is one of those rare players who finally learned to how to hit in his late twenties and early thirties.  He’s definitely a valuable bench player going forward.

I don’t think much of Eugenio Velez’s long-term prospects, except in a back-up role due to his ability to play 2B and the corner outfield positions, but I think that Nate Schierholtz is essentially the second-coming of Randy Winn at a much more reasonable price and with more HR potential as he gains experience.  Fred Lewis is a lousy outfielder, but with a .350 OBP during in an otherwise disappointing season (.356 lifetime OBP) and an OPS over .800 this season and lifetime against right-handed pitchers, he has value against right-handed starters and as a pinch hitter.

Aaron Rowand’s way overpaid, but as centerfielders go, he’s good enough that the Giants don’t have to make some utterly lop-sided deal just to move his contract. He’s been a good-year-bad-year player throughout his career, and at age 32 in 2010, he may have one more good year left.  In fact, looking at his career progression, 2010 should be his last big year.

The Giants definitely need to find one big bat, preferrably right-handed, to hit clean-up behind Pablo Sandoval.  Jason Bay or Matt Holliday could be the answer, but they’d sure cost a lot, because you’d have to outbid their current teams, along with any other suiters.

I still think that Dan Uggla would be a great option, if the Giants could pry him away from the Marlins for a package centered around Jonathan Sanchez.  Then the Giants could re-sign Brad Penny and another of this year’s free agent starters.  Then their rotation wouldn’t be much worse than this year’s.

I’m probably dead wrong.  The Giants will probably move in a totally different direction, which may or may not be better than what I’m suggesting.  Just so long as they don’t trade for Milton Bradley.