Marlins Raise Payroll Limit To $40 Million

How realistic would a swap of Jacobs/Olsen be for Matt Cain?

I know the Giants have Sandoval and are resistent to trading Cain...but Jacobs is proven power and Olsen is fairly effective when he's not being a menace to society.

Very unrealistic. Jacobs had a terrible season even with his 30 or whatever HRs. .299 OBP at 1B? Barf.

(And since we're at comment #5 with no mention of the Yankees or Sox ... Hermida would be a sexy RF platoon partner for Nady and the exact type of young hitter Cashman should be looking at. Wonder if he's available on the cheap (IPK) or if he's still valued as a young, potential middle of the lineup bat.)

Nady has heavy career splits (including a .383 OBP vs LHP to .317 vs RHP) and the Stadium encourages you to play as many lefty bats as possible, so yeah. I'm not sure I care to rely on him as more than the weakside of a platoon given the power we give up with Damon (presumably) the full-time LF.

wow a whole 40mm...now they can keep a few arb guys.

"It'd probably take more but I don't know how Hermida is regarded anymore."

Wouldn't it be fun to know this sort of thing?

55saveslives is correct; that package won't get the Fish Sanchez let alone Cain, and the Giants have no need for pitching in return except a solid middle reliever. If the Marlins now have the payroll to keep all their arb-eligible players, the pieces the Giants would benefit from aren't available any longer and a deal between the teams is not likely.

The Giants will look elsewhere for suitors that can help them fill their infield needs.

Kinsler,

I agree that Olsen is not the same pitcher away from Florida, but I do like his WHIP and the Rangers always need lefties in their ballpark. If the price is two years of Gerald Laird, I think I make that deal.

NJM, yes, a Giants fan who travels a little within the industry for a day job.

I saw the mention last week about the Yanks' purported interest in a Rowand-for-Matsui swap, and the dismissal of this by some of my fellow Giants fans. From the little bit I've heard on my last East Coast trip over the weekend, I wouldn't be too quick to dismiss this however.

Moving Rowand's salary and allowing Lewis to move over to CF for a Matsui/Schierholtz platoon in LF has greater short-term benefits for the Giants than the status quo. I'd leave Winn in RF because of his defense at AT&T. But would the Yanks and Matsui even do it?

I'd hope the Giants at least dip their toes into the Rowand possibility amongst their salary-moving discussions this offseason, because I'd rather do that instead of moving Winn and Molina, who still have good value to the team in 2009 and can possibly yield picks after the season. Unloading Rowand's long-term salary committment also changes their approach to other FAs this offseason.

(I beg people not to say "zero chance" or "I guarantee this will happen". If we could have signatures on here, that would be in mine.)

Thanks, Buck. I figured Matsui still makes sense both as a lefty bat and from a marketing standpoint. Rowand is gross; I'd much rather take a straight salary dump with a blah reliever like Taschner coming back or something but I guess even Rowand for Matsui straight up helps in the short run as his bad defense in CF beats Damon's horror show.

I'm sure the new Mariners GM's first plan would be to overpay to the Marlins for a prototypical power first baseman, only the guy can't get on base.

I'm sure our first plan was to look at Mike Jacobs and go, "Yup, we need that sub-.300 OBP"

I'm not a giants fan so i dont see much of them on the East Coast... but as an owner of Matt Cain two straight years...

Is there anything to be said about Sanchez and Zito having higher win totals than Cain, despite vastly inferior peripheral stats?

What happened during Cain's starts??

55:

Agreed that the Giants' outfield situation is already crowded and that the team is trying to get younger. But the issue at hand was the wisdom of taking back Matsui for a far shorter period of time in order to unload 4 years and $48 million of Rowand. As for Lewis versus Winn in CF, do you harm the team more moving Winn out of RF or putting Lewis in CF. Good question. Alternately, the G's could move Winn to CF, and let a Roberts/Schierholtz platoon handle RF until 2009 and leave Lewis in LF.

at4:

I'd be interested to see what kind of run support Sanchez and Zito had in 2008 compared to Cain. And I also think that NJM as a point in that Cain may be matching up against other teams' better starters than Zito and Sanchez.

If the Giants could move Rowand for Matsui that would be a great move.

Rowand's contract is awful, his defense has been in decline for years, and he's basically the hitter he was this year.

Moving him for a shorter contract, higher upside guy like Matsui would be brilliant. Rowand and his contract are just gonna get worse. The Giants could move Lewis to center and have Matsui and Schierholtz getting time in left. And they could still move Winn who should at least have a little value.

Too bad Rowand sucks and things like grit, scrap and hustle have been proven to be near worthless.

55saveslives - I think it depends a lot on how well Lewis’ bunion surgery goes. Both if Sabean would do it And who plays C.F. if Rowand is moved. Lewis would not necessarily be worse the Marvin Benard was out there and it would increase his value. Of coarse some one would have to nail Roberts to the bench so he would not be written into the starting line up 4+ days a week.

As for the swap in genreal: I actually like the idea. The Giants gain a lot a payroll and roster flexibility. It would mean the only over 30 Vets on the roster next December would be 2 pitchers. And who ever Sabean might bring in this winter as a role player.

The Florida Marlins are the Los Angeles Clippers of baseball and Jeffery Loria the Donald Sterling

"I'm not sure I care to rely on him as more than the weakside of a platoon given the power we give up with Damon (presumably) the full-time LF."

It is not as if Damon is a slouch in the power department. The guy is an virtual lock for 15 HR and 20 2B, plus all the bases added with his speed.

Nady is fine as an everyday player. He is kind of like a right handed Paul O'Neill, both at the plate and in the field. Not a bad thing to have, unless you Yankee fans have a short memory.