Henry Schulman - San Francisco Chronicle (SFGate)
The July 20 deal that sent Ray Durham to Milwaukee seemed to be a precursor to a busy trading season for the Giants. Instead, it proved to be the sum of what general manager Brian Sabean was able to accomplish before Thursday's nonwaiver deadline.
It was a classic case of supply and demand being out of whack. The Giants hoped to move potential free agents Rich Aurilia and Omar Vizquel. What other teams really wanted was reliever Jack Taschner and catcher Bengie Molina, whom Sabean had no desire to shed for middling compensation.
So Sabean's work continues. As he said, "The reason we're not disappointed is that this is an ongoing process."
In other words, the Giants will have no trouble getting Aurilia, Vizquel, Dave Roberts, Randy Winn or anyone else with a substantial contract through waivers over the next several days. Once they clear, they can be traded anywhere. The needs of contenders can change on a dime, and Sabean happily will answer his phone if they call.
An even bigger question could be answered in manager Bruce Bochy's office at Petco Park in San Diego today. There, Sabean and Bochy will determine how to apportion playing time over the final two months, specifically how many starts the older guys will get versus younger players such as Emmanuel Burriss, Eugenio Velez and Ivan Ochoa.
Management had indicated the kids would play more once the trade deadline passed.
The inability to shed anyone aside from Durham "will not be an impediment to what we need to do," Sabean said. "We'll meet with the staff Friday and see how we introduce the younger kids and who has to take a backseat because of that."
Sabean also said he believes Aurilia and Vizquel understand.
"They all have a good relationship with the ballclub and the manager and us in the front office," he said. "They understand the program. They don't have any problem with the path we're following."
Moreover, Sabean said he will have a hand in deciding who plays, "to take the pressure off (Bochy) and to make sure everybody's on the same page. He understands that."
Sabean tried hard to move Aurilia, saying, "We did all the work and there was no interest," which is surprising given his versatility on the infield and resurgence at the plate. He is hitting .279 after hitting .252 last year and already has four more RBIs (37).
A team source said the Giants had talks with Minnesota that did not get serious. Although Aurilia's name cropped up in Twins rumors, they need a second baseman. In a seemingly odd move, the Giants had Jose Castillo play second throughout the Dodgers series after initially saying Velez would get most of the games there. Although Bochy denied it, the Giants could have been showcasing Castillo.
More likely, the Twins had joined a parade of teams that wanted Taschner, but Sabean was not going to trade him without receiving a good position player or back-end reliever in return, and what contender was going to part with that?
The Giants' commitment to Taschner is telling because he should be eligible for arbitration after this season as a "super two" player, which would mean a substantial raise from his $400,000 salary this year.
Taschner revealed Thursday he was summoned into Bochy's office about two weeks ago and was told the team was committing to him as a one-inning guy late in the game, as opposed to a lefty specialist.
"To me that's huge," he said. "I've enjoyed my years for the Giants. I've been waiting for an opportunity like this where they say, 'OK, you're going to be one of our lefty guys. You're going to help us out of jams in the seventh or eighth and help (Brian) Wilson out. That's something I wanted here. To have the team you're with be committed to you is a boost."
The Taschner tale, along with the team's reluctance to trade Molina to Florida, underscores how the Giants do not want to start from scratch, as the Pirates seem to do every year.
The 2008 Giants could lose 95 games, but they believe with the right offseason moves and their wealth of young pitching, they could make a quick jump to .500, which might be enough to challenge for a title next year in a weak National League West.
Sabean said he was hoping to make a deal for a player who could help the Giants in the future, such as the 2005 trade that netted Winn, "but early on I knew that wasn't going to happen. It didn't take the last couple of days to figure out that wasn't going to happen. That type of player wasn't moved, so that should tell you what kind of climate it was."
Moments after Sabean said that, news broke that such a player was moved, Pittsburgh outfielder Jason Bay, but it took the three-way deal that sent Manny Ramirez to the Dodgers to make it happen.
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