The Giants' management went into Las Vegas with a few different agenda's on mind (hopefully none of which included strippers, roulette tables and an array of intoxicants). One of which was to try and figure out a way to get power [1] and a little bit of defense onto one of the infield corners. They also had C.C. Sabathia on their radar as well as Randy Johnson, who could serve as an insurance policy if Noah Lowry is unavailable come March and April. However the most newsworthy item that came from them this week is that Aaron Rowand will be moving down in the lineup. CC ended up in New York, which is for the better anyway. Him, Timmy and Matty would have been brutal for opposing hitters, but it's just too hard to tie up that much money into only two pitchers, especially with Lincecum getting ready cash in big in 2 years. And apparently the asking price for any young hitter who could help was too much. So, amongst all that talk, Brian Sabean, Dick Tidrow, Felipe Alou, Bruce Bochy and Co. have to feel somewhat defeated as they leave Vegas Thursday because they got absolutely nothing accomplished there. Supposedly instead of pursuing players who could help this team, Sabean and co. were busy having dinner with Aaron Rowand, and trying to figure out where Pablo Sandoval and Fred Lewis would hit in the lineup. I don't know, it's always good to start planning ahead, but finish putting your product together before you start discussing batting slots and what not. It's early December, not February. Not that I really expected the Giants to do anything earth shattering in Vegas, but I did they would be more involved and maybe have made some progress towards doing something helpful. Maybe they did and it just got kept behind the scenes, but judging by the way Sabean sounded in interviews, it's not likely.
The lack of activity from the Giants over the last few weeks, has lead me and many who follow the team religiously think that the team they currently have will most likely be the team we see take the field April 5th. If that's the case, the Giants would head into the year with absolutely no [2] back-up plan for corner infielders Travis Ishikawa and Pablo Sandoval, both of whom have barely gotten their feet wet at the big league level. Starting the year with this current group of guys would also mean another middle of the order including the likes of Bengie Molina, Randy Winn and Fred Lewis. No knock on any of them as they are all nice players, but Molina isn't a cleanup hitter and Winn and Lewis seem better fit for 2nd in the order, although having one of them hit third wouldn't be too bad. They still may make a move to add a bat, but agian, listening and reading Sabean's interviews from the meetings is leading me to believe that this team is practically set. Joe Crede is looking more and more intriguing by the day knowing. Crede comes with a back issue that isn't clear but as I've state here many times, a one year deal with an option wouldn't hurt anything. Signing someone seems like the only option to get some power into the lineup at this point, as any trade for any type of young hitter seems to have gone out the window as GM's started filtering out of the Belagio Wednesday and Thursday. Again you never know with a guy like Sabean, but I would expect the Giants to stay very quiet the rest of the winter.
This article was originally published at The San Francisco Giants Blog