5:57pm: Hank Schulman of the San Francisco Chronicle was told that the Giants "have no serious interest" in Burrell, while the Padres apparently "have no interest at all," according to a tweet from MLB.com's Corey Brock.
5:22pm: Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports reports that Burrell's preference is to return to the National League. Rosenthal also notes that Jermaine Dye's chances of finding a deal close to his asking price will be greatly diminished given that Burrell is now on the market and available at the minimum salary.
Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe pretty much eliminates the Red Sox from the Burrell sweepstakes, adding that the club "wouldn't have a space for another one-dimensional player" at DH what with Mike Lowell and David Ortiz currently filling the position.
3:48pm: The Padres and Giants are interested in Pat Burrell, according to the chatter that Andrew Baggarly of the San Jose Mercury News hears (Twitter link). Burrell, who will cost a pro-rated portion of the major league minimum now that he's a free agent, may be considering offers.
The Giants (14th in the NL in runs) and the Padres (13th in the NL in runs) could both use offense. Andres Torres, Nate Schierholtz and Aubrey Huff are hitting well enough for the Giants in the corner outfield spots and at first. Kyle Blanks has not produced so far for the Padres, but it's hard to imagine the Padres letting Burrell loose in the outfield, since he has played just nine innings there since 2009.
Burrell, who hit .202/.292/.303 for the Rays this year, is not necessarily a candidate for an everyday job on either team. They may be eyeing him as a potential source of bench power. The Padres could look to replace one former Phillie with another if they don't expect Matt Stairs to emerge from his early-season slump.
Phillies GM Ruben Amaro Jr. said yesterday that the Phillies are not interested in bringing Burrell back to Philadelphia.
…………..
That is all.
Sabean going for an aging veteran?
Surprise surprise.
Meets Giants criteria: Used to be able to hit, and remembers when 8-Track tapes were all the rage.
This is a different case for the Giants…
Would cost minimum and would be a late innings pinch hitter. Much different that Renteria, DeRosa etc…who were expected to produce everyday.
I’m ok with it.
Late innings pinch groundballer.
I am not, he woulda be taking up a spot on the roster that a rook coulda been utilizing, and for what? A .202/.292/.303 line? No thanks.
Keep in mind that Burrell’s screaming decline coincided with both a change in leagues and a move to DH. There’s a long trend of production dropoffs associated with players who only made one move or the other; Burrell did both. At the same time. it’s not much of a stretch to suggest that a move back to the NL and a return to the field would make a more useful player of him.
Just make sure it’s a really small field, for both offensive and defensive reasons…
Maybe this is fishing by the Giants to sign Jermaine Dye? Who am I kidding, Sabes just wants to sign Burrell for his experience and potential power. Regardless we need a right handed bat off the bench.
The Giants never really had any interest in Burrell, not even when his agent came out and suggested it.
And if the Giants were so tied to vets, they would not have saved spots for young players at LF, 1B, 2B, 3B last season, 2B and 3B in 2008, and RF this season, nor would they have continued to start Lewis in 2008 when Roberts came back off the DL.
Once people become biased in their opinions, they just look for any and all reasons to support their position.
Baggarly is writing that Burrell HAS drawn interest from the Giants and Padres. And could be weighing offers.
“Hank Schulman of the San Francisco Chronicle was told that the Giants “have no serious interest” in Burrell”
i’m not sure, but sense burrell did play his best years in the steroid era, did he do roids? this might be common knowledge that i am uninformed about.
I would LOVE to see Sabean and Bochy go! But Bowtie appears to have their backs, which shows he doesn’t have the gonads to make “tough” decisions.
88-74, 22-17, the names are Lincecum, Cain, Sanchez, and once Bumgarner up, best rotation top to bottom for the next 4 seasons, at least. It is pitching and fielding defense that is a competitive advantage in the playoffs, BP and THT studies show this, and those same studies show that offense don’t figure into how well a team does in the playoffs, so it’s OK if you don’t know those names as long as you know Lincecum, Cain, Sanchez, etc.
I’m glad Sabean is around, and Neukom had the balls to stand up to fan sentiment (at least based on the boards) and keep him.
See you on the bandwagon later.
Brian…is that you???
Lincecum, Cain, Sanchez are all great. Fine, make Sabes a scout!!
Zito
Rowand
Renteria
F. Sanchez
DeRosa
Finley
Benitez
Wellemeyer
Should I go on??
Well, I don’t reallly see a ring happening with a GM change either. Free agent signings is unfortunately governed by what is available on the market. People complain but often the Giants signed the best guy on the market but it just don’t work out. Sometimes you have to kiss the frog and hope that it works out.
But when it comes to talent found via scouting and drafting, the Giants have had a great record of keeping the talent they find, which unfortunately by now has other teams skeptical of dealing with them.
Look at how the Dodgers won in the 60’s, or the Orioles in the late 60’s early 70’s, or Arizona’s one W.S. It is doable with a great pitching staff.
Meanwhile, you don’t need a great offense to get into the playoffs where your pitching pays off, you just need an average offense, use SF’s 2009 RA, plug in 90 wins into the Pythagorean formula, and you will find that even a low ranked NL offense can win with our pitching and defense.
Add to that our pitchers are dominating. Read up on PQS by Ron Shandler’s Baseball Forecaster. It follow the percentage of times a pitcher is dominant by sabermetric metrics. Lincecum is elite, Cain and Sanchez are good, even Zito is pretty good. Bumgarner looks to be good too. That means that there are much less starts where the pitching is average or worse, meaning our team is never far from the lead.
And our offense, as not good as others, can score runs, as shown last night, and against good pitchers like Oswalt, Halladay and others.
Regarding the bandwagon, I’m sick and tired of being shouted down by the Sabean haters. I’ve had to put up with it for 4 losing seasons, while they blab on about how to rebuild when they have no idea how to rebuild a team, based on what all the Sabean haters said, the team should be a disaster right now, but it has not been for over 13 MONTHS now.
What I can’t believe is that the Giants have been playing exciting baseball and probably has the best team and situation for the future than any I’ve seen in my nearly 40 years of following the team. How a Giants fan can’t enjoy that, no, how a baseball fan can’t enjoy that, it almost brings tears to my eyes.
So you think I’m being harsh: deal with it, people have been harsh on me for a number of years now and I am feeling vindicated. But I don’t feel it’s being harsh, I feel bad for all you people who would rather complain than to enjoy the good that is happening with the team.
That’s the reality nobody faces up to, the team is going good, it has been for over a year now, and all people can do is complain about the bad. I’m not saying it’s perfect, I’m not saying there hasn’t been mistakes made, but if you take a realistic look at the team, where we are, where we are going, most fans outside of NY and Boston would be happy to have what we have.
People complain about sunk costs and releasing players, but they themselves have not embraced that because they cling to their hatred of Sabean and not look at the team as it exists now, without their baggage of their hatred of Sabean, and realize that the Giants are in a great situation right now.
And that comment about the bandwagon is nothing compared to what has been flung my way. You need a thicker skin if you are going to comment on the internet, I’ve learned along the way, a lot more, way more harsher comments are made every day, by some real brutes.