Late Innings

Obviously, by reading the title you can tell that I like the Giants’ new signing of Randy Johnson. He’ll slot in nicely in the number three spot in the rotation, and will serve a number of purposes. First and foremost, he’ll deliver at least 175 above-average innings. He’ll add fans to the stands, and most importantly he’ll immediately weaken their division rivals the Diamondbacks.

Johnson’s one year deal is guaranteed 8MM in 2009, with incentives that could push the total compensation up to 12.5MM. It’s a great move by Brian Sabean, and Johnson will clearly bolster their rotation. And as the great RotoProfessor points out, the Giants suddenly have a solid five man rotation from top to bottom. He sees a rebound from Jonathan Sanchez in 2009 (me too, but that WHIP needs to come down.) I honestly expect this signing to benefit Barry Zito more if anything. Zito is not an ace (albeit being paid like one), and with Zito now starting the fourth game of the season, I wouldn’t be shocked if he broke out of the gate strong in 2009 (I’ll save him for my sleeper list.)

Any ways to summarize things, the Giants have a great rotation, and I like their bullpen also (they signed Bob Howry and Jeremy Affeldt earlier.) They clearly need offense, and the signings of Edgar Renteria and Josh Phelps will help. If Sabean came to me however and asked me for two players to sign to patch up everything, I would open up the checkbook and bring in the following two pieces:

1. Joe Crede
2. Adam Dunn