Its Like Deja Vu All Over Again

Now its Jason Giambi's time to go home. All these homecomings are reminding me of the famous George Carlin routine comparing baseball to football when he says the object of baseball is to go home, just go home. Giambi signed a one year deal for 4 mil and and 6.5 mil option for 2010. This is the second big bat that Oakland has added with Giambi joining Matt Holiday. Adding offense was certainly the As number 1 need in the off season as they were dead last in run scoring in the AL last season. My feeling about Giambi is this. Anytime you can get a guy who hit over 30 HRs and drove in 90ish runs for only 4 million dollars its a bargain!! In addition this is exactly where Giambi wants to be, makes the deal even better. The middle of the As lineup will probably now be some combination of Holliday, Giambi and Jack Cust. That's not too bad. The rest of the offense is still far from adequate. As most of you know I'm a big Billy Beane fan and I'm confident he has a long term plan. Their farm system has been bolstered the past 2 seasons from trades. Alot of these guys are close to being significant contributors. If Giambi is healthy and puts up good numbers and Oakland is in it around the trading deadline the huge decision is what to do with Matt Holiday? I'm thinking there is no way Oakland will be able to sign him. His contract may even surpass Mark Teixeira's. If he is dealt for a package of top prospects I see Giambi's role as being a leader and a mentor on what will be a very young team. The only part of this move I don't like is signing Giambi means he will probably DH on most nights as they seem committed to Daric Barton(who was with Dan Haren was part of the Mark Mulder trade) at first. This means Jack Cust who is ideally suited to DH will have to play the outfield. This move has many more positives than negatives. Will the As challenge the Angels for the AL west next year? Probably not. But Billy Beane is doing what he always seems to do and thats trade players who are about to become too expensive for young talent and find veterans for good prices that will not blow his sub 50 mil payroll.

In another move that has was made for other reasons than to improve their team the Cubs traded Jason Marquis to Colorado for Luis Vizcaino. Now if I understand this correctly The Cubs have essentially given away Marquis and Mark DeRosa for nothing useful in return. They only made the moves to clear salary space for Milton Bradley. Am I off base thinking this is a huge gamble that has the potential to really backfire on the Cubbies. Marquis has won double figure games 4 years in a row and we know how valuable DeRosa is. Yesterday on Hot Stove Joe Magrane, who I like and have respect after listening to him for years do Rays games said he thinks with the addition of Bradley the Cubs can win 100 games and win the World Series. Maybe I'm in the minority but I'm not on board with this. Now if the REAL endgame is Jake Peavy than that would be another story totally. But by all accounts it is all about Bradley. Productive players are available every year around the trading deadline and the Cubs could have probably picked up a left handed bat then without sacrificing DeRosa and Marquis. As for The Rox getting Marquis. He is the type of pitcher who can succeed in Coors. His G/F was 1.9. Which means he basically got 2 ground outs for every 1 fly ball. With Colorado seemingly in rebuilding mode he will probably be a 1 year rental as he is a free agent at the end of the year. But for 2009 he joins what should be a very solid group of starters in Colorado. They will feature Aaron Cook, Jeff Francis and Ubaldo Jimenez. There should be a good competition for the 5th spot featuring Jason Hirsh, Taylor Buchholz and one of the ulite power arms in the minors Franklin Morales. The Rox like the As have really bolstered their farm system and should get back to contending sooner than later.