MLB Hot-Stove Heating Up

In addition to the Stanford post today, I Also wanted to talk a bit on the MLB offseason, as moves have started to happen rapidly and the GM meetings are just 1 short week away.

The Bay Area teams have both been active, as we've mentioned the A's moves grabbing third basemen Edwin Encarnacion for nothing off of waivers from Toronto, then trading for LF David DeJesus. The Giants have been just as busy, re-signing 1B/OF Aubrey Huff, then in the wake of losing SS/3B Juan Uribe to the Dodgers, they went out and signed former A's shortstop Miguel Tejada. That all happened in November, so I can only imaging what's in store for December and January. The A's are now apparently focused on Lance Berkman to be a possible DH for them in 2011... Elsewhere, the other big signing thus far has been Victor Martinez to Detroit at 4 Yr/$50M, which I don't think is too bad a deal for Detroit in this market. Some think Martinez's skills are eroding behind the plate, but he can be moved to 1B or DH, as he's a .300 hitter with 25/100 potential when healthy, and he's finally supposed to be healthy.

The biggest steal of the offseason so far has to go to the Florida Marlins, who got themselves a potential legit #2 starter in Javier Vazquez at 1 year for $7 million. I was kinda looking at Vazquez as a back-up plan for the Giants if they decided to deal Jonathan Sanchez this winter, and at that price, he would have been worth it. In the NL, that dude is nails with stats similar to Matt Cain's, with even more strikeouts (look what he did for Atlanta in 2009). At worst, Florida can cash him in at the trade deadline to some contender for a legit prospect. Win-Win move for the Marlins...Though this market is very thin, there are still some marquee guys out there looking for homes. Cliff Lee, Adam Dunn, Carl Crawford, Derek Jeter, Jayson Werth and Adrian Beltre are all still available, and none appear to close to getting anything done. As far as the top guys, my guess is Jeter obviously winds up back with the Yanks, Crawford with some big market team like the Angels, Red Sox, Yankees or Mets and I think this is the year Adam Dunn makes the switch to the AL (Maybe Boston or Chicago), a league which really suits his style to a T (though I wouldn't mind him playing the role of Pat Burrell for the Giants for the next 2 years, but not 4).... Much, much more Hot-Stove talk to come, as we'll probably make this a weekly occurrence here at the BASJ. And obviously, for day-to-day Giants stuff, check out The Giants Baseball Blog.