Baseball Opinion - Brian Bannister Shines

Occasionally, The Baseball Opinion will ask other baseball writers their input on a specific subject. Their response will be available in our Over a Beer and Peanuts section.

Need some reasoning why a GM made a recent trade? Don't know anything about the minor leaguers involved? Want to know who came out the best in the trade (what sportscasters will not say)? Then go to our Trade Bait section to read through the trade breakdowns.

Look at some previous articles from this site in our Archives.

Giants don't want Johnson

Christopher Solberg, Editor
4/10/2008

Fans and media outlets alike believe that the San Francisco Giants are needing to do a complete rebuild of their team from the ground up. Yet it doesn’t look like Giants’ GM Brian Sabean has fully bought into that. Recently, it has been flowing through the various media outlets that they have been actively looking for a left-handed first baseman. Henry Schulman of The San Francisco Cronicle has said that they’ve had internal discussions about Nick Johnson or someone to platoon with Rich Aurilia. That doesn’t sound like the thinking of a team that plans to rebuild.

That same article though does mention that the Giants scouted the Atlanta Braves’ Scott Thorman, noting that Thorman hit 11 homers last season in 268 at-bats last season. At Triple-A in 2006, he hit .298 with a .868 OPS, not too shabby. But his .216 batting average last season and his current .095 OPS this season at Richmond (albeit in only 21 AB) do not exude confidence that he can play, even semi-regularly in the majors.

The one name that does keep popping up is Dan Johnson. Oakland recently designated Johnson for assignment, making a trade more likely to happen. Dan’s alway put up good numbers as he rose through the Athletics’ system, but he’s struggled the past couple seasons in the majors, mainly due to injuries. But according to Henry Schulman’s article, the Giants don’t want to have anything to do with him.

This, of course, has made the blogs go crazy. Looking at Johnson’s stat lines that past couple seasons, many are berating Sabean’s lack of desire for Johnson. But if you sit back and ponder it, Sabean’s logic somewhat makes sense. Oh my gosh, did I just say that?

Billy Beane is probably doing like what any GM or agent does when selling his player or client to another prospective GM, he shines the light on the good…excessively. With Dan’s good minor league track record and a decent rookie season in 2006, the potential for Dan to be pretty good is there. Prince Fielder good? No, but he’s got the potential to hit 20-25 home runs per year and put up good on-base percentages. Beane is likely asking for a king’s ransom for Johnson and you can’t blame him.

Why should Sabean give up a decent prospect, or a decent prospect and a few mediocre ones for Johnson when he will likely have top prospect Angel Villalona ready in a couple years. The former third base prospect has moved over to first and he supposedly has more upside than Johnson.

Sabean needs to save his prospects and major league arms of worth for trades involving the other holes throughout the lineup. Unless you think that Brian Bocock, Jose Castillo, and Ray Durham are reliable everyday starters that provide good will provide good offense in the future. Outside of Rowand there’s no power in the outfield either. Top it off with the fact that the farm system is relatively barren and it looks pretty bleak, even if Sabean is smart enough to trade for the oft-injured Dan Johnson.

Baseball Opinion
is a privately run website and donations are always accepted to help promote and maintain the website. Baseball Opinion is grateful to any donors to the website.