I know it was shoulda..coulda..woulda but should had paid that to Cody..younger and can play the outfield. Huff also is holding back Belt's development..because you know Boccehead loves those veterans.

"that being said, i lost a ton of respect for him when he had his little tirade about ZITO"

Come on man, he was sticking up for one of his team mates.......seems like the right thing to do if you are a team player and your team mate has a couple of breakthrough games after being horrible forever.

"Play Pill

-RH power bat
-His numbers are better than any other player at the position

Seems obvious who should be getting the majority of starts at 1B right now."

I'm sorry antica but buying that Pill is a career .304 hitter in all of 54 major league at bats is more foolish than believing that Belt is always going to hit .220 at this level, the latter could come true unfortunately but the former just ain't happening.

Pill will be 28 by the end of this season. In 6 minor league seasons he's a .279 hitter with a .328 OBP. While that's respectable, expecting those numbers to go up, rather than down in the big leagues is not a smart bet. Belt on the other hand hit .343 with a .457 OBP and it didn't take him 6 years to rise to the level where he was knocking on the big leagues door. If you look at his other numbers they're pretty ridiculous.

Has he gotten it done at the big league level? Nope. Not yet. But if you're calling to trade Belt and rely on Pill to be the answer as the Giants future first baseman in the long run you really need to scratch the surface a little deeper than the 54 total ABs that Pill has, along with the less than 200 that Belt currently owns.

Pill is filling the role that he's earned and deserves, and that's a right hand hitting bat off the bench with the occasional start to give guys rest. No more, no less.

What do I think of Huff so far?

Grab some pine meat. Been saying it since early last year.

"PS Thomas Neal recently got DFA'd."

I think he was brought back on with Cleveland shortly after. Not that it matters much. Not sure that he'll ever sniff the big leagues.

Yes I do.

I wasn't arguing your point at all which is why I said I don't think Neal will sniff a day on a big league roster.

I was simply pointing out that he was picked back up by Cleveland. A side note if you will. Not saying it made him valuable. I would have been perfectly fine trading Thomas Neal for a pitching machine. Those things are like 5 grand!

Hey LGSF,

"when I see people screaming to the heavens about someone like Neal being traded..."

Please link to a single thread featuring this "screaming to the heavens" you're referring to.

All I remember is posters complaining about acquiring Cabrera...and the fact it cost anything beyond a used fungo bat. I was probably one of the biggest Thomas Neal fans here...but after he stalled at Fresno, even I didn't have much hope for him as a future starting-quality OF.

LoneStar

Hey LGSF,

"I'm not going to search through a year of threads to find it."

No need for that. Just go back to the day or two surrounding the announcement of the trade.

You want to reference something that never happened, you've got to expect to get called on it. And remember...we're looking for broad-based, screaming to the heavens lamenting the loss of Thomas Neal...or at least more than poor old tacklebox.

LoneStar

No change over last season. Let's not forget that Huff is supposed to be the Veteran. And yet, we're still talking about a .200 BA with next to ZERO production. OB % because of his walks? He's not on the team for that.
Pill at 1st base, and let Belt pass or fail in LF. Continuing to let Huff show no improvement is just an extension of last seasons complete failure.

Sabean and Co do appear to be great at trading useless garbage.

Too bad they have a knack for getting useless garbage back. We lost nothing in losing Thomas Neal, but I'd argue we lost something in gaining O. Cabrera. He had *several* errors that changed the complexion of games that were just inexcusable. I'd also argue that those extra opportunities for Crawford LAST year would have been a good thing for THIS year.

Still...I can't argue with the strategy. The Giants saw they had good pitching on a potentially short window and gambled for it. They traded prospects for half a year of Beltran, and they tried to improve offense every where else they could. It just wasn't enough, due in large part to injuries. You sure as heck can't say they didn't try though. Keppinger Beltran Cabrera etc. It just became comical how the injuries kept piling up.

Then add into that Huff's questionable work ethic and terrible season and...

~MrGPAC

"I was absolutely right about Schierholtz and I took heat for years for it before I got the last laugh."

.360 BA - just hilarious, but keep laughing. That way we know you are insane.