SF Giants Rumors – Insides On The Huff Signing
Posted on January 11th, 2010 by admin in SF Giants Rumors
Dennis O’Donnell of CBS 5 told me via email. That during the 5pm news they broke the news that the Giants have signed Aubrey Huff to a 1-year, $3 million deal. The deal is still pending a physical, and that will be taken today. The Giants confirmed the story at about 7pm last night. The Giants were still pursuing Adam LaRoche on Friday, but that deal appears to be dead since Huff can play the corners and some outfield. Obviously, the Giants are hoping Huff can recapture his stroke from 2 years ago when he batted .304, 32 homers and 108 RBI’s.
Chris Haft of MLB.com says the Giants filled their need for a left-handed hitter by agreeing Sunday with free agent Aubrey Huff. Haft believes Huff might fit the description of the No. 5 hitter the Giants wanted in their lineup. He has batted in the middle of the order for most of his career, spending 517 games at cleanup, 300 hitting third and 264 in the fifth spot.
Chris Haft told me via email that the Aubrey Huff signing caught him by surprise.
King of Cali thoughts: This is also a deal that I didn’t see coming. I must say I really like this signing. Huff does have a very nice bat. He’s a career .282 hitter with a lot of pop. This is what the Giants need in the middle of their lineup. Yes, he had a down season last year, but that’s how he can turn into a steal deal for us. It’s a low-risk contract (1 year, $3 million) with high rewards for the Giants. What are your thoughts on this signing?
~King of Cali
I have heard a lot of fans giving Sabean a hard time about this signing. I actually don’t think it’s half-bad, especially for the amount of money we’re paying compared to what we would be paying for LaRoche. If Huff puts up at least the same numbers as last year (hopefully they will be better), it will be an upgrade from our production at first base. He’s not particularly old, so I wouldn’t say he’s beginning the decline in his career, hopefully he’ll have a bounce back season. I feel much more comfortable with Huff holding it down the starting position at first base than Ishikawa. And by next season, Ishikawa will ideally have developed enough to take over the starting position at 1st.
I like this signing also because if his offense returns to his past years he will be a steal and it is low risk since it is only a 1 year deal.The giants may not be done also if you do the math we had a 2 year deal worth 17 million on the table to La Roche in which he rejected and is now off the table and we signed Huff for 3 million that leaves 5 million if the giants are willing to spend it on a good outfield bat and that will put us over the top and we will win the West.
While I do like this signing, let’s not get confused about Huff vs. Ishikawa. Last year, Ishikawa had a better offensive season, and Ishi’s defense goes without saying. Ishikawa batted .261 in ’09 while Huff batted .241. Huff had a lower OBP but had slightly more home runs (15 to Ishi’s 9) but Travis had less AB’s. The only way this deal works out well is if Huff recaptures his old form, which could happen. Still, this is not the big bat the Giants were looking for.
The know-it-all’s on McCovey Chronicles have lambasted Sabean for this move. Hell, any move he makes gets shellacked over there. But, I for one, think this is a great deal for the Giants. Like you said, it’s a “low risk, high reward” signing that could end up paying huge dividends. Huff is not exactly over-the-hill (just turned 33) and he’s really only had the one off year (last year when he was traded midway through the season). He’s playing for a contract again. Last season was his peak contract ($8M) and now he’s taken a huge pay cut ($3M). You don’t think he wants to prove himself? I do, and that’s why I think this is a great signing by Sabean. Although, of course, time will be the real judge, won’t it?
Really like the signing. I was pushing for this a few years back but Huff is very serviceable and you know what you’ll get from him. We won’t have a murders row here but we will have some very solid hitting with DeRosa, Sanchez, Panda,Huff and the rest of the lineup. The line up will provide opportunities for the newly signed Giants to drive in some runs and take a ton of pressure off Panda. With our pitching staff the Giants don’t and hopefully won’t need too many runs but all in all the signings were good. Every fan would like to see a Ryan Howard type player but they forget not a lot of players want to come to SF and what would we have to pay or trade for to get said bats. Just remember the Braves of the 90′s solid pitching and decent bats such as Ron Gant, Dale Murphy,a young Javi Lopez, Pendleton and Justice. No one really feared their batters but they consistently worked it out. Good day to be a fan of the orange and black….
I completely agree with Aaron Cantu MRCINSC, we don’t need the 1 enormous bat. I’m getting really tired of hearing “it’s not the one big bat we needed” line. If you add a Bay or Holliday to last years lineup with no other changes, you don’t get a lot of improvement. That lineup needed a major overhaul, not just in one position. We’ve needed a number of changes and I think that several solid hitters is way better than just one big bat. I don’t think it’ll happen, but I think that genuine small ball would work wonders for us, especially in AT&T park. If we could play like those early to mid-eighties Cardinals teams who walked, stole bases, and sacrificed, we’d be fine with a couple stronger hitters to add bit of pop and not have to worry about finding the next Albert Pujols. Just my two cents. What do you all think of the small ball thing?
@ Carl “What do you all think of the small ball thing?”
It’s true. Mark McGwire’s balls have shriveled up due to ‘roids. Join the McGwire bashing right now at http://www.mccoveychronicles.com/2010/1/11/1245977/mcgwire-a-man-of-integrity-cough
the signing was ok….I’m hoping he bounces back. Knowing seaban, I think we are done buying bats, but I think that purchasing the contract of nady will be great. Sandoval can play some catcher while derosa plays third, renteria ss, sanchez second and huff first. Put rowand in center with nady at left and schierh at right field. It’s just a tought. If center fielder or right fielder are not proving their bat, then we move nady and take panda of the catcher position….proyected lineup……rowand,renteria,sanchez, pandoval, derosa, huff, nady, schierho…….now that’s an offensive line of people.
the signing was ok….I’m hoping he bounces back. Knowing seaban, I think we are done buying bats, but I think that purchasing the contract of nady will be great. Sandoval can play some catcher while derosa plays third, renteria ss, sanchez second and huff first. Put rowand in center with nady at left and schierh at right field. It’s just a tought. If center fielder or right fielder are not proving their bat, then we move nady and take panda of the catcher position….proyected lineup..lets go giants…….rowand,renteria,sanchez, pandoval, derosa, huff, nady, schierho…….now that’s an offensive line of people.