SF Giants, Oakland A's Trade Chatter

The baseball season is right about at the un-official halfway point, which means the trading deadline is just a few weeks away (July 31st). Both Bay Area baseball teams should make some deals, although both have different reasons to do so.

The A's are the only team not making a run in a very tight AL West, as they sit at 32-43, 10.5 games back of the first place LA Angels. They really need to find a way to dish off some of their veteran, soon-to-be free agents. Amongst that group are Jason Giambi, Matt Holliday, Nomar Garciapara and if he can get himself healthy before the trade deadline, possibly Justin Duchscherer. Now, outside of Holliday, none of these guys are really going to bring you a huge return package, but Giambi and potentially Duchscherer may definitely have some value to some teams. In fact, Duchscherer had a brilliant 2008 season, in which he won 10 games and sported a 2.54 era over 141 innings. He also held opponents to a .210 batting average, while carrying a 1.00 WHIP. Needless to say, he showed what he's capable of doing if healthy, a contending team desperate for a good, front of the rotation arm could turn to Duchscherer.

Matt Holiday would likely bring the most in return, although he's having an unspectacular year in his first stint away from Coors Field, and a lot of teams may feel he's not nearly the impact bat he was with Colorado. I still think he's a good, solid hitter and will be around .300 with 25 homers and 100 RBI on a yearly basis once he gets familiar with the AL (If he sticks around). Giambi is interesting as well, because he's cheap, can DH or play first, and can still yank one out of the yard with pretty good consistency, but he's not going to bring back anybodies top prospects.

As far as the Giants go, they're going to be in buying mode for the first time a few years, as they [1] sit atop the NL Wild Card standings and are desperately searching for a bat they could attain without dealing one of their top prospects. KNBR reported today that the Giants had some people looking at Jermaine Dye, as they may have interest in packaging some players to get the 35 year-old right fielder. Dye is just the kind of bat the Giants need, as he hits right handed and has cleanup hitter type pop. He's currently hitting .287 with 18 jacks and 48 RBI's. Even though he's no spring chicken, he's certainly a capable right fielder, and still more than capable with the stick, and he probably will be for another 3-4 seasons. He's got a 12 million dollar option for 2010 which the Giants would most likely pick up if they acquired him.

The only thing that I worry about in trading for an outfielder now, is what would happen with Nate Schierholtz. The 25 year-old right fielder has really started to turn his game on as the Giants have started playing him everyday, and he could be turning into a real good player. He's a big reason why the Giants are 7 games above .500 right now. The only way they'll find out what he's capable of is if they keep trotting him out there every night though, and adding Dye would likely cut into Schierholtz's playing time drastically. As much as I like Randy Winn, and as good as he's been here with the Giants, I would try and package him in a potential deal for Dye to help clear the logjam in the outfield.

By Trevor Cole The Bay Area Sports Journal