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Giants beat writer Henry Schulman wrote a piece suggesting that an Aaron Rowand for Carlos Zambrano trade with the Cubs would make sense for both clubs if the future contract obligations could be worked out.  It sounds like a textbook case of wishful thinking to me, because the Cubs would be damned fools to trade Zambrano for Rowand.

Sure, the entire north side of Chicago is tired of the fitful eruptions of Mt. Zambrano, but the big Venezualan can still pitch.  In 55.2 innings pitched, Zambrano has 53 strikeouts.  Sure, he’s given up a lot of walks (and more hits than usual), but Zambrano has always given up a lot of walks.

My gut says Zambrano is only minor adjustments and/or a trade to a pitchers’ park (Wrigley has always been a hitters’ park, at least once the warm days of summer arrive) away from success.  AT&T is only a hitters’ park on those five days every Summer when San Francisco experiences true summer weather.  Then the fog roles in, the temperature drops, the wind picks up, and it’s happy time for pitchers again.

Rowand is 32 this year (turns 33 on August 29), and Zambrano turned 29 on June 1st.  Who do you think is more likely to get his groove back at this point in their career?  The answer should be obvious.

Rowand would benefit from playing in Wrigley, but he’d still have to start swinging at strikes, something he’s had extraordinary difficulty doing this year, and something he’s never been particularly good at at any time in his career.

What I find most appealing about the possibility of the Giants acquiring Zambrano is that it would free up Jonathan Sanchez (and prospects) to trade away for the slugger I’ve been dreaming about.

The Giants need to do something to find a way to score the base runners they aren’t scoring now.  Someone who could hit the two- or three-run bomb at least as often as he hits into the double play would surely hit the spot.

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Dorothy “Dottie” Kamenshek was the Babe Ruth, so to speak, of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, the only women’s professional baseball league in baseball history. 

She passed away on May 17, 2010 at age 84.  The Gina Davis character in A League of Their Own was named after Dottie and loosely based on her.

The AAGPBL lasted 12 seasons from 1943 through 1954.  At its inception, the “girls” played a game that was closer to fast-pitch softball than what we think of as baseball. 

However, as the league matured, the rules changed until by the end of the 1954, the lady ballplayers were essentially playing baseball.

Here’s the All-American Girls Professional Baseball Association’s webpage describing the evolution of the AAGPBL’s rules.

Dottie played for the Rockford Peaches throughout her 10-year career (1943-1951, 1953).  She started as an outfielder but quickly moved to first base. 

According to this wikipedia article , She won the AAGPBL’s batting title in 1946 with a .316 average and again in 1947 at .306.

Dottie was the league’s all-time batting leader with a career .292 mark, and she was elected to seven All-Star teams (1943, 1946-1951). 

Dottie would have likely played all 12 years the AAGPBL was in existence, but her career was prematurely ended by back problems; how many slugging first basemen have had their careers cut short by back problems?  More than few.

Here’s a photo of the 1948 All-Star Team .  Dottie is the brunette (although they almost all look brunette in the black and white photo) at the bottom left.  She has the intense look of ballplayer determined to be the best.

As its 12-year history suggests, the league had some success. It was originally created with the idea that it would fill a gap created by the contraction of the minor leagues during World War II, when most healthy young men were in the service. 

The majors and the high minor leagues (what would now be considered AAA and AA) all continued play throughout the war, mainly by promoting players from the lower minors and calling players out of retirement to fill their depleted ranks.

Phil Wrigley, the owner of the Chicago Cubs, provided financial support for the new league, and Dodgers President Branch Rickey was also on the league’s initial board of directors.

Wrigley originally proposed that the women’s league play in major league parks when the men’s teams were on the road.  The other major league owners, showing their usual level of interest in creative new ideas that might increase revenue, nixed the idea.

The league ended up starting play in 1943 in only four small cities: Racine and Kenosha, Wisc.; Rockford, Ill.; and South Bend, Ind.  The league had a successful first season and added teams in Minneapolis and Milwaukee for the 1944 season.

Ironically, while league attendance increased, the two big city teams didn’t do well and moved to Grand Rapids, Mich., and Ft. Wayne, Ind., for the 1945 season.  League attendance topped 450,000 that year.

The league eventually added two more teams in Peoria, Ill., and Muskegon, Mich., and even conducted Spring Training in Florida, Mississippi and Cuba. 

As mentioned above, as the league matured, the game played became more like men’s baseball; and the early emphasis on the players’ sex appeal gave way to athletic performance on the field.

In the first three years after WWII, the league routinely drew between 2.000 and 3,000 fans a game, not much different from what many teams in the Independent A Northern League and American Association draw today.  Attendance peaked in 1948, when a 10-team league drew over 900,000 fans.

However, 1948 was also the year that television really got underway (including the televising of major league games), and league attendance declined after that. 

Also, as the game the AAGPBL played became more like men’s baseball, it became harder to find young women who could enter the league without training beforehand, since most of the talent base had only played women’s softball.

Here’s an article on the history of the AAGPBL if you want more information.

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In this era of expansion, no pitcher is ever too old or too arm-worn not to get one more chance.  The Nationals have reportedly signed 44-year-old Orlando “El Duque” Hernandez to a minor-league contract.

El Duque has pitched all of 26.2 minor league innings the last two seasons combined, but in fairness, he’s pitched pretty well (30 Ks and great ratios).  It will interesting to see if he has enough left to work his way back up to the majors.

I also learned today that former Giant Armando Benitez was recently signed by the Marlins and has made three appearances for their AAA club, the New Orleans Zephyrs. 

He has yet to allow a run, but he’s given up four hits and two walks in only three innings pitched.

Armando made seven AAA appearances last year, and in 2008 he made eight appearances at the major level and another eight appearances in the minors. 

MILB.com lists Armando at the same 260 pounds he was when he last pitched in the majors, but I wouldn’t be surprised if his current weight is really closer to 300 pounds. He was a big boy who always had a hard time getting a handle on his weight.

The A’s signed another former Giant, Boof Bonser, to a minor-league deal. 

Bonser never actually pitched for the Giants, but they drafted him in the first round in 2000 and brought him along until he was sent to the Minnesota Twins as part of the disastrous (for the Giants) Joe Nathan et al for AJ Pierzynski trade in November 2003.

Bonser has only thrown 35.3 professional innings since the injury that ended his 2008 season, but he’s still only 28 years old, so he’s still got a chance of making a comeback.

Former Cubs ace Mark Prior performed a workout for major league scouts two days ago.  Prior hasn’t thrown a professional inning anywhere since 2006, but he’s still only 29 years old.

However, mlbtraderumors.com reports that a “veteran major league scout” described Prior’s workout as “just all right.” 

Hardly a ringing endorsement for Prior’s latest come-back effort.  However, Prior’s agent says at least one team is interested after Prior hit 90 mph on the radar gun.

Elijah Dukes has finally surfaced.  He has reportedly signed a deal to play for the Newark Bears of the Independent A Atlantic League, where he will play with other noted former major leaguers Carl Everett and Daryle Ward.

This is Everett’s fourth year in the Atlantic League since last playing in the majors in 2006. 

He obviously must just enjoy playing baseball, because he’s almost certainly making somewhere between $15,000 and $30,000 a year playing in the Atlantic League.  Carl is now 39.

This is Daryle Ward’s first full season in the Atlantic League.  He played eight games for Newark last year after being released by two AAA clubs. 

Ward didn’t play badly at AAA, but he certainly wasn’t great, and at age 35 this year, it’s extremely unlikely he’ll recapture his youth at any time in the future.

The only previous rumor about Elijah Dukes I’ve heard since he was released by the Nationals in mid-March was that he had a deal to play for the Tabasco Olmecas of the Mexican League but failed to show up by the reporting date in early May.

I can’t say I blame Dukes for backing out of playing for a Mexican team.  Particularly if you are not playing for a team based in Mexico City, it’s big step down for a former major leaguer to play south of the border. 

Unlike playing in Japan, which can also be a big culture shock, the salaries in Mexico probably aren’t much better than playing in the Atlantic League.

The Newark Bears have the Atlantic League’s worst record about halfway through their season.  We’ll see if Dukes can give them a boost and make it back to a major league organization in the process.  There aren’t many other places left to go if you can’t hack it in the Atlantic League.

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Anthony Ranauldo, the right-handed pitcher out of LSU the Red Sox selected with the 39th pick of the 2010 Major League Baseball Draft, wants top-10 signing money or he’s going back to LSU for his senior year, according to this article by Amanda Comak of the Cape Cod Times.  (Ranauldo is currently pitching in the Cape Cod Summer League.)

Ranauldo came into the 2010 season as one of the five most highly regarded college pitchers available in the 2010 Draft, after a 2009 sophomore season in which he went 12-3 with a 3.04 ERA, and a pitching line of 124.1 innings pitched, 93 hits, 15 home runs, 50 walks allowed, and 159 strikeouts.  He also performed fantastically in the 2009 College World Series.

However, a stress reaction in his pitching elbow kept Ranauldo out of action early in the 2010 college season, and when he came back, he was not effective, going 5-3 with an ugly 7.32 ERA and a line of 51.2 innings pitched, 60 hits, nine home runs, 27 walks allowed and 54 strikeouts.

Ranauldo is represented by Scott Boras, so you know young Tony wants to get paid.  In this case, he might, in fact, be best served by going back to college for his senior year.  If his arm is right, and he has another season equal to his 2009 campaign, he will be a top-15 pick in the 2011 Draft.  At 6’7″ and 225 lbs, he’s got a body type Major League teams like in their right-handed heavers.

What should the Red Sox do?  They certainly have the money to lock up Ranauldo if they value him highly.  At the same time, he went 39th for a reason—there are legitimate concerns about his arm health.  Also, Ranauldo pitched little during his freshman year at LSU, so everything is riding on only one great season.

Slot money for the 39th pick, at least based on what 2010 draftees have already signed for, is about $850,000.  2B Kobrin Vitek out of Ball State, whom the BoSox selected with the 20th pick of the 2010 Draft, has already signed for $1.36 million.

If I were the Sox, I would be reluctant to give Ranauldo more than what they gave Vitek.  Vitek was selected first for a reason, and their respective signing bonuses should reflect that.  Of course, later draft picks get well above slot money all the time, if the teams that select them think they are worth the risk.

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Here’s an article from Andrew Baggarly of the San Jose Mercury News about San Francisco Giants general manager Brian Sabean and his desire to hold information close to the vest.  It’s in response to an “informal poll” (meaning that not all GMs responded and it’s not entirely certain how many did) by Buster Olney of ESPN.com.

This found Sabean to be the hardest GM to make trades with because he doesn’t respond to telephone calls, according to the GMs who participated.

I thought the article was particularly interesting because of an e-mail I received from San Francisco Chronicle Giants beat writer Henry Schulman a couple of years ago.  I wrote him a snarky e-mail to the effect that his articles should be giving us (Chronicle readers) more information about what trade possibilities the Giants were pursuing, rather than telling us the Giants had decided to break up Barry Bonds’ old locker. 

After sending me an equally snarky response, Schulman sent me a second e-mail, in which he explained that Giants’ management is exceptionally good at keeping information from leaking out about what trade negotiations are going on, so local sportswriters have to find something else to write about. (I’m paraphrasing.)

Baggarly’s quotes describing Sabean include a statement to the effect that Sabean doesn’t return telephone calls when the opposing GM is just trying to “gather intelligence.”  I found that quote particularly interesting, because as a lawyer I know you have to give a certain amount of “intelligence” to receive “intelligence.”

In other words, you have certain information that no one else has, but there are 29 other GMs in Major League Baseball who may well have information that you don’t have.  You give them some information, and they will give you some in return. 

The key is to make sure that you only give them the information that you want to give or are at least willing to let them to know.

I strongly suspect that Sabean is a guy who knows what he knows and doesn’t much care what other people know.  That’s not a great way to learn something you didn’t know before.

Also, I suspect that sometimes the best deals for a GM aren’t the ones the GM initiates himself. 

Sometimes, another GM might express interest in a certain player on your team who’ve you’ve soured on or simply don’t value highly, but the other GM thinks the player is what his team needs.  There’s never a cost in listening to what the other GM is willing to offer and seeing if you can get him to agree to something more if the proposal sounds promising.

Exchange of information is usually crucial to any kind of negotiation, particularly when both sides have some idea of what they’re doing. You can’t get information without communication, so I’m not really a fan of a method which doesn’t include in engaging in communication.

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The Bengie Molina trade has been getting a lot of attention on the Internet, I assume because Bengie was once a big star and because people have wildly varying opinions of his value as a ballplayer.

I saw on mlbtraderumors.com that the player to be named later the Giants will likely receive is Michael Main, a 21-year-old RHP, whom the Rangers selected with the 24th overall pick of the 2007 Draft. 

If Main is the PTBNL the Giants do, in fact, receive, he’s worth the $2 million in salary for Molina the Giants are sending to Texas.

Main is currently a starter for Bakersfield in the Class A+ California League.  He’s 5-3 with a 3.45 ERA and a line of 91.1 IP, 87 hits, 14 HRs and 21 walks allowed, and 72 Ks. 

The home run total is too high, but the rest of the numbers are pretty good for a 21-year-old starter pitching in the hit-happy California League.

Bengie has been something of a lightning rod the last few seasons.  The stat-heads (of which I would consider myself an out-lying member), argue that Bengie is way overrated because his on-base percentages are terrible, he’s dead slow, and his defense behind the plate has slipped considerably in recent years.

As a Giants’ fan, I’ve gotten a good look at Bengie in his tenure in San Francisco, and I don’t entirely agree. 

Yes, Bengie’s OBP is terrible, but it’s comparable to an awful lot of other regular and semi-regular catchers in MLB, and most of them don’t have Bengie’s power.

Yes, Bengie’s only hit 20 home runs in a season once, and it was exactly 20 that one year (2009), but he’s hit between 14 and 19 HRs in six other seasons.  That has some value.

Bengie’s offensive inadequacies were exacerbated by the fact that Giants manager Bruce Bochy insisted on batting him cleanup much of the last few seasons. 

That’s not Bengie’s fault—he’d have made a fine sixth- or seventh-place hitter.  Sadly, the Giants didn’t have a whole lot of significantly better options.

My personal observations were that Molina did a good job managing a young pitching staff.  The numbers, however, suggest that perhaps Bengie didn’t make much of a difference.

The Giants’ team ERAs the last four years (including 2010) were 4.11, 4.28, 3.74 and 3.46 when Bengie was catching, compared to 4.19, 4.38, 3.55 and 3.46 overall.  That looks like a wash, although Bengie was overwhelmingly the catcher behind the plate for the Giants in those years.

Much of the problem with Molina’s inability to throw out base runners as a Giant was the result of a pitching staff unable to hold runners and move quickly to the plate. 

For example, I doubt any of the Molina brothers, even the young, spry Gold-Glove-winning ones, would throw out a high percentage of base-stealers with Tim Lincecum on the slab.

Of the National League’s top 20 starters the last two seasons, Lincecum has been the worst at holding runners to their bases. 

Fortunately, he doesn’t allow a lot of hitters to get on base and can rely on the strikeout to keep runners from advancing.  The rest of the Giants’ pitching staff isn’t a whole lot better (Brian Wilson in particular is the second-coming of Robb Nen).

Mychael Urban of CSN Bay Area, while I don’t necessarily agree with his contention that this is Brian Sabean’s biggest deal of the last few years, makes a particularly good point that Bengie is a veteran player who feels like he’s put in the time to deserve to play every day, even if he isn’t performing. 

Bengie had subtly made it clear that he would not be happy if he lost his starting job to Buster Posey.  That meant Bengie had to go.

Young players (as a group) are hungrier than veterans (as a group).  Young players just want to get in the line up and get a chance to play so they can prove themselves.

Veteran stars have a sense of entitlement that, even if they haven’t been carrying their salaries for a while and are old enough they probably won’t get back what they’ve lost with the passing of the years, they still feel they should be playing every day based on what they accomplished in the past.

That’s just not the way professional sports work.  Teams have now shown that they will eat a surprising amount of salary once they’ve decided a veteran star just doesn’t have it any more.

I wish Bengie all the success in the world in Texas, but now that the deal is done, I’m also hoping that Chris Ray turns out to the sixth coming of Juan Uribe, Aubrey Huff, Pat Burrell, Santiago Casilla and Denny Bautista: i.e. another American League wash-out who finds new life in the City by the Bay.

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It’s been reported that the Giants will be sending about $2 million along with Bengie Molina to Texas, which means the Giants got almost nothing for him unless Chris Ray ends up surprising almost everyone.

Even so, the Giants needed to get Posey into the line-up at catcher, and Bengie wouldn’t have been happy being the back-up catcher, regardless of how little he’s been hitting this year.  Still, I hate the idea of trading away a major league star when his value is at its lowest, just on principal.  At age 36, however, and having possibly the slowest legs in MLB, it’s doubtful that Molina’s trade value would have improved much unless he suddenly got red hot between now and the trade deadline.

Dave Cameron of fangraphs.com thinks that the Royals David DeJesus would be a perfect fit for the Giants because he gets on base and is having a career year.  DeJesus doesn’t hit into a whole lot of double plays, plays outfield defense and is under control for $6 million in 2011.  Cameron acknowledges that the Royals are rumored to be requesting the moon in a trade for DeJesus, but thinks there’s a deal to be made hear.

Like El Lefty Malo , I have my heart set on someone like Prince Fielder, who has real pop, which DeJesus obviously does not.  I could live with the Giants trading Jonathan Sanchez and a couple of top prospects (but not Madison Bumgarner) if it meant receiving Prince Fielder in return.

Like DeJesus, Fielder has one more year of control left before free agency.  However, Fielder is arbitration eligible this coming off-season and will almost certainly make more than $12 million next season.

The fact that DeJesus is having a career year so far doesn’t really impress me.  Fielder is a better hitter than DeJesus, and even though Fielder is having a down year so far, I would still bet on Fielder having the more productive second half of the 2010 season.

The single biggest drawback to Fielder, aside from the talent that would have to be sent to Milwaukee (although, as noted, Fielder’s trade value is down somewhat due to his slow start this year), is that Giants’ management has said they aren’t interested in “rental” players, and Fielder isn’t a good bet on a long-term $100 million+ contract, because of his body type.

SI.com lists Fielder’s present dimensions as 5’11″ and 268 lbs.  It’s awfully hard for guys who weigh that much to stay in the line-up once they reach age 29 or 30, particularly in the NL where they have to play the field.

In a totally unrelated note, the Marlins have been getting some flack for the way they handled their managerial search after canning Fredi Gonzalez.  Here’s an article from Joe Capozzi of the Palm Beach Post with critical comments by Bobby Valentine, who didn’t get the job, and former Mets GM and now commentator Jim Duquette.

Bobby Valentine is a good manager, but he’s kind of a hot-head, which may not be the best thing for a perennially young team like the Marlins.  Also, I’m pleased to see somebody new, in this case Edwin Rodriguez, get a shot.

I was surprised, and a little disgusted, to hear that Rodriguez is the first person of Puerto Rican descent ever to manage in the major leagues.  Given how many Puerto Ricans have played in the majors since the 1950′s, it’s well past time that somebody hire a Puerto Rican manager.  It certainly doesn’t hurt if the team doing so plays in South Florida, with its substantial Latino population.

Experienced former managers are always going to be around for another hurrah, so why not try somebody new first and see if he can bring something new and valuable to the table?

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The Giants sent catcher Bengie Molina to Texas today for RHP reliever Chris Ray and a player to be named later in a deal that developed very quickly. Giants management is extremely good at keeping trade negotiations secret until a deal is announced.

In terms of the players involved, I think the Rangers got the better end of the deal. While the OPS of Rangers catchers so far in 2010 is pretty close to Bengie’s for the Giants, the Ballpark at Arlington is a much better place to hit than AT&T Park in San Francisco, not to mention Bengie has played in the AL before.

Ray has a solid 3.41 ERA, but with a line of 31.2IP, 24 hits, four HRs, and 16 walks allowed and only 16 Ks, I’m not particularly impressed. Who knows, though, he might be another former American Leaguer who has a jump in performance coming to San Francisco. As mentioned, SF is a better place to pitch than Arlington.

The Giants’ move is obviously intended as addition by subtraction. There had been rumblings that the Giants intended to get Buster Posey more starts behind the plate, and now, he clearly will.

Bengie also has about $2.4 million left on his 2010, one-year contract.

If the Rangers have agreed to assume all of the remaining $2.4 million, and there’s a good chance they did, given what the Giants received in return, then the Giants will have some money to assume salary if, and when they trade for an outfielder who can hit.

I’m a little sad to see Bengie go, as he was a good Giant. However, you can’t be too sentimental if you want to see your team win.

It will be interesting to see how Posey does as the starting catcher. After a torrid start, he’s only hit .146 (7-for-48) since June 12.

Posey has the talent, and I’m convinced he’ll be a major league star if he stays healthy. However, it remains to be seen how quickly he adjusts to the adjustments the NL’s pitchers made after his first couple of weeks in the league.

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I was looking at the box score of the Giants-Dodgers game today, and aside from the fact that the Dodgers are thumping the Giants, I noticed that Jamey Carroll was having a big day (2-for-2 with a couple of walks and three runs scored), and it got me thinking about how much Carroll has changed since he first came up in 2002.

Carroll didn’t establish himself as a legitimate major league player until he was 29-years-old.  He started his career with the Expos, during their death spiral, and, to the extent that I paid attention to, what the Expos and Carroll were doing, I didn’t think he’d stick around for more than a couple of seasons as a backup infielder.

Very quietly, however, he’s had a terrific career for a player who reached the major leagues so late.  Carroll isn’t a true star, but he is an extremely valuable platoon and bench player.  He plays second base (well, according to fangraphs), third base (average defense),  short stop (slightly below average defense), and on occasion the corner outfield positions.  Meanwhile, he has a career .354 on-base percentage, which is just tremendous for a middle infielder who can give you the flexibility Carroll can.

Carroll has no power (his career slugging percentage is lower than his OBP), but he runs pretty well, so he makes a great table setter.  In fact, he has well more than twice as many runs scored in his career as runs batted in.

Carroll has mostly played for bad, low-profile teams like the Expos, Nationals, and Indians, although he played two seasons in Denver and had his best season there in 2006.  He looked like his career might be over after poor seasons at age 31 and 33, but he’s now had three strong seasons in a row as a guy who gets about 350 to 400 plate appearances a season and  plugging holes as more respected players get injured or don’t perform.

Carroll is making a shade over $1.5 million with the Dodgers this year, and with a .397 OBP so far, he’s been a bargain.

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Here’s an article from mlbtraderumors.com which states that the MLB Players’ Association is not opposed to the idea of allowing teams to trade draft picks.  Neither am I.

The article suggests that teams are concerned that allowing the trading of draft picks might give amateur players leverage because they could demand trades to the teams they want to sign with.  That’s certainly a possibility, but I think it’s far outweighed by the advantage to teams of having another option on how they go about building themselves up for the future.

Draft picks as a group have a definite value, and the people at fangraphs.com and elsewhere have put a value on what players in each draft slot are worth on average.  Their estimates may be more or less accurate, but they are based on facts (i.e., who got drafted in each draft slot in the past and the total value of those players as major leaguers divided by all players in the group), so these values are certainly reasonable estimates of value.

However, baseball draft picks are certainly less likely to develop into major leaguers than NBA or NFL draft picks—but that’s still not a valid reason to prevent MLB teams from trading their picks.  Some teams value draft picks more highly than others, and teams can already lose late first round or early second round draft picks by signing Type-A free agents.

Teams like the Pirates or the Royals might well benefit by being able to trade their high first round picks for players who are already established Major League players or prospects playing in the high minors.  The poorer, second-tier teams already make decisions not to draft the best players available at their draft slot, because they have concerns about their ability to sign those perceived as the top draft picks.

Allowing teams to trade their draft picks if they so choose gives every team more options in trying to build up their clubs in the future.  I don’t see how that can be a bad thing.

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