One way or another, the Giants will be making Tim Lincecum a very rich young man. The arbitration case has Lincecum seeking a $13 million deal for 2010 and the Giants coming in at $8M. Either way, a win-win for Lincecum. You would think the reasonable thing to do would be to split the difference and make "The Franchise" a happy man. Maybe set a cordial tone for his eventual long-term contract. But we'll see how things play out.
According to Yahoo Sports:
Lincecum is seeking the richest contract ever awarded in arbitration, surpassing the $10 million that Alfonso Soriano(notes) (2006) and Francisco Rodriguez(notes) (2008) got after losing cases and Ryan Howard(notes) received after winning in 2008.
Meanwhile, there is chatter about Buster Posey playing other positons this year, specifically first base, if his bat proves out in the early going.
The quest to slim down Pablo Sandoval via "Camp Panda" worries me a bit. It reminds me somewhat of the Mets efforts to trim down "El Sid" Fernandez in the 80's. He slimmed down all right. So did his fastball. And the hitters ended up feasting on El Sid. I hope the Giants are doing this because Sandoval's performance was hindered by the weight rather than just doing something for the sake of appearances. Tony Gwynn was not exactly the most svelte figure hitting .300 or better.....
Other than that, the only thing to look forward to will be the RF battle between Schierholtz and Bowker and what the Giants will do with Bumgarner as the fifth starter in the bigs or the ace at AAA. If he can give 150-175 innings at the major league level, I think it's something they should do.
Giants added RHP's Horacio Ramirez, Guillermo Mota and Byung-Hyu Kim to round out the bullpen depth. If one of the three hits, its a win for Sabean. This is is wheelhouse it seems, building a competent bullpen.
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