San Francisco Giants: Please No Boras For Us

In an unrelated article, I mentioned that there are three approaches the San Francisco Giants could take this offseason (you'll notice it sounds like I wasn't interested in writing the forthcoming piece; what can I say, I can't resist the Giants' siren song).

1. Use the extra cash to overhaul the team and acquire anything other than pitching and catching.

I really hope they don't take this option and I see no reason nor indication they will. It doesn't make sense, they don't have enough cash and/or the willing to spend it to do this successfully, and there aren't really the players for it on the open market. Everyone's either too old or too over-priced. And the young players are too good and too inexperienced to discard.

The Giants' management, though it has its faults, is not stupid. This isn't really an option.

2. Use the extra cash and make modest value-adds to upgrade either first base, third base, second base, and/or the bullpen.

This is the best option as far as I see it except SF has to be careful. The best options are likely to be the players who represent the highest risk of overpaying. The viable options as I see it are Orlando Hudson, Richie Sexon, Jason Giambi, Sean Casey, Doug Mientkiewicz, Joe Crede, and/or Juan Uribe.

All of these guys have high upside, but may be destined to never realize it or already too far on the decline. They also have one or two very good seasons in the past so they might try to command a bloated price.

If that happens, the Giants should walk because none of the above makes sense if you have can't get a steep discount because of age, injury, recent failure, etc.

My favorites are Casey or Mientkiewicz. They fill a need (although I do like Travis Ishikawa) figure to be the cheapest, don't strike out a ton, and play excellent defense so they will at least bring that to the table if their offense continues to slide.

Crede's interesting depending on the price, which could be ridiculous because he's still comparably young.

As for the bullpen, middle relievers are so unpredictable that the reliable ones are way too expensive for my tastes (much like closers). I'd prefer the Gents to wait until next year to see if some of the young guys (Alex Hinshaw, Jack Taschner, Billy Sadler, Merkin Valdez, etc.) can mature into the role.

Or wait until some guy starts next year off well and then grab him if the boys stay in contention for the first several months.

Of course, I just read that management is going to make on opening bid for Juan Cruz. Oh well.

3. Throw caution to the wind and sign Mark Teixeira away from the Los Angeles Angels.

At first, I thought this sounded like a close second option, maybe even a 1B.

The guy is a splendid hitter, a sparkling defender, reasonably young at 29 (soon after Opening Day 2009), and a good clubhouse guy from what I can tell. That right there is a pretty good candidate to build around for years to come and he plays a position where the Giants are unsettled.

Sure, it would take a ton of money to get him away from the free-spending Halos and their damned Antichrist (Rally Monkey). But San Francisco plays in a big enough market to do that, considering management did it for years with Barry Bonds.

Even with the raises due some players, the Gents have trimmed considerable payroll from their measly expenditure (by Major League Baseball standards) of $77 million last year. They could probably add close to $20 mil and still come in south of the $100 million mark.

Considering 11 teams spent over that mark last year, I don't think that's an outrageous suggestion.

Of course, I totally forgot about Scott Boras.

First, his greedy shadow means the contract will probably be an albatross of which I would want no part.

Second and most importantly, why invite that cancer even deeper into the foundation of your franchise (he's already Barry Zito's agent)?

Here is a parasitic piece of garbage who not only flatly rejected a two-year, $45 million contract for Manny Ramirez, but had the nerve to disparage it. That would be $22.5 million per year for a 36-year-old outfielder who is a disaster in leftfield, dogged his way off a perennial contender that let him act the daily fool, and is just a general ticking time-bomb.

I know Manny tore up the league after the Los Angeles Dodgers acquired him, but a one-dimensional player isn't worth $22.5 million per year unless his name is Barry Lamar Bonds.

And Boras disparaged the offer. Said he intended to field more serious offers.

This is the kind of repugnant attitude that is destroying professional sports: drive those salaries as high as possible with the right sales pitch and leverage because the public can always be suckered into paying for them.

It will eventually destroy the games because fans have already been pushed to our breaking point. If the agents and owners push us harder, the effect won't just be a decline in ticket sales. It will be an abandonment of fanhood, and that kind of bitterness will be difficult to reverse.

And I didn't even get into the Alex Rodriquez fiasco during 2007's World Series, the Andruw Jones contract, Zito's contract, or that nonsense he pulled with Pedro Alvarez after the 2008 draft.

Scott Boras is a repellent abomination driven by greed and conceit.

I sincerely hope none of those "serious" offers he expects to field this offseason are from the Orange and Black.

For Mark Teixeira or any of Boras' stable.