Before the season started most analysts would have predicted that Lyndsey Lohan would have won an Oscar, before the NL West race would come down to the Giants and the Padres, but here it is August, and San Francisco and San Diego were all set to square off in an NL West showdown.
The Giants have been playing terrific baseball, winning more games in the month of July—20—than anyone else in baseball. What’s more is that veteran players who have seen their roles diminished, such as Aaron Rowand and Edgar Renteria have accepted backup roles with grace, leading to what some insiders believe to be the best clubhouse in baseball.
Brian Sabean, the Giants’ General Manager, obviously has an issue with all this winning and must have a vacation planned for the week after the season ends because he went and traded for Jose Guillen.
Guillen is such as great player that he was recently DFA’d by that perennial powerhouse the Kansas City Royals. The Royals DFA’d Guillen partly due to production, but also due to his clubhouse demeanor as one GM recently told ESPN’s Buster Olney that, “no contender” should take Guillen because his personality and clubhouse reputation may be the second worst to Milton Bradley.”
What’s more is that Guillen is terrible defensively, holding a lifetime UZR average of 18.1 runs worse than a replacement player (fangraphs.com) in RF, which is why he has predominately been used as a DH in Kansas City.
Given his complete lack of prowess in the field and charming personality in the clubhouse, one would expect that he can flat out hit, but they would be wrong. Guillen has a respectable wOBA of .325 this year, and has posted a wOBA as high as .391 in the past, but that doesn’t seem to be enough to make up for his lack of defense and more importantly carcogenic laced personality.
Basically, Guillen is an older version of Pat Burrell, with the same effect on clubhouses that Elizabeth Taylor has on marriages. So why would anyone trade for the guy, because, it’s Brian Sabean and after failing to land David Dejesus, Adam Dunn or Prince Fielder before the non-waiver trade deadline he had to do something.
I was hoping that he got it out his system with the deal for Mike Fontenot (a good deal by the way), but as they say wish in one hand and er, you get the point.
Hopefully, the Giants didn’t give up too much to get Pierzynski, I mean Guillen, and hopefully, this won’t all end very badly with Pat Burrell body slamming Guillen in the dugout while Rowand-2 kicks him in the head, on second thought….
Update
Jeff Fletcher of AOL Fanhouse is reporting that Bochy plans to insert Guillen as the starting RF and move Huff to 1B. Which means that this trade went from making sense if not for Guillen’s personality, to just traded for a .250 hitter to play RF who also happens to be a clubhouse cancer. Giants baseball….torture, Giants Front Office…torturing their fans.
Guillen’s numbers
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Year Tm G PA AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB CS BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS OPS+
1997 PIT 143 526 498 58 133 20 5 14 70 1 2 17 88 .267 .300 .412 .712 82
1998 PIT 153 605 573 60 153 38 2 14 84 3 5 21 100 .267 .298 .414 .712 84
1999 TOT 87 318 288 42 73 16 0 3 31 1 0 20 57 .253 .315 .340 .656 67
1999 PIT 40 132 120 18 32 6 0 1 18 1 0 10 21 .267 .321 .342 .662 68
1999 TBD 47 186 168 24 41 10 0 2 13 0 0 10 36 .244 .312 .339 .651 67
2000 TBD 105 349 316 40 80 16 5 10 41 3 1 18 65 .253 .320 .430 .750 89
2001 TBD 41 145 135 14 37 5 0 3 11 2 3 6 26 .274 .317 .378 .695 85
2002 TOT 85 259 240 25 57 7 0 8 31 4 5 14 43 .238 .287 .367 .653 66
2002 ARI 54 141 131 13 30 4 0 4 15 3 4 7 25 .229 .277 .351 .628 57
2002 CIN 31 118 109 12 27 3 0 4 16 1 1 7 18 .248 .299 .385 .684 76
2003 TOT 136 534 485 77 151 28 2 31 86 1 3 24 95 .311 .359 .569 .928 142
2003 CIN 91 349 315 52 106 21 1 23 63 1 3 17 63 .337 .385 .629 1.013 165
2003 OAK 45 185 170 25 45 7 1 8 23 0 0 7 32 .265 .311 .459 .770 101
2004 ANA 148 620 565 88 166 28 3 27 104 5 4 37 92 .294 .352 .497 .849 121
2005 WSN 148 611 551 81 156 32 2 24 76 1 1 31 102 .283 .338 .479 .817 116
2006 WSN 69 268 241 28 52 15 1 9 40 1 0 15 48 .216 .276 .398 .674 75
2007 SEA 153 658 593 84 172 28 2 23 99 5 1 41 118 .290 .353 .460 .813 116
2008 KCR 153 633 598 66 158 42 1 20 97 2 1 23 106 .264 .300 .438 .738 95
2009 KCR 81 312 281 30 68 8 0 9 40 1 0 22 50 .242 .314 .367 .681 80
2010 KCR 106 437 396 46 101 17 2 16 62 1 0 27 84 .255 .314 .429 .743 101
14 Seasons 1608 6275 5760 739 1557 300 25 211 872 31 26 316 1074 .270 .322 .441 .762 99
162 Game Avg. 162 632 580 74 157 30 3 21 88 3 3 32 108 .270 .322 .441 .762 99
G PA AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB CS BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS OPS+
KCR (3 yrs) 340 1382 1275 142 327 67 3 45 199 4 1 72 240 .256 .308 .420 .727 94
TBD (3 yrs) 193 680 619 78 158 31 5 15 65 5 4 34 127 .255 .317 .394 .711 82
PIT (3 yrs) 336 1263 1191 136 318 64 7 29 172 5 7 48 209 .267 .301 .406 .707 82
WSN (2 yrs) 217 879 792 109 208 47 3 33 116 2 1 46 150 .263 .319 .455 .773 104
CIN (2 yrs) 122 467 424 64 133 24 1 27 79 2 4 24 81 .314 .363 .566 .929 141
ARI (1 yr) 54 141 131 13 30 4 0 4 15 3 4 7 25 .229 .277 .351 .628 57
OAK (1 yr) 45 185 170 25 45 7 1 8 23 0 0 7 32 .265 .311 .459 .770 101
ANA (1 yr) 148 620 565 88 166 28 3 27 104 5 4 37 92 .294 .352 .497 .849 121
SEA (1 yr) 153 658 593 84 172 28 2 23 99 5 1 41 118 .290 .353 .460 .813 116
AL (9 yrs) 879 3525 3222 417 868 161 14 118 490 19 10 191 609 .269 .326 .438 .764 101
NL (7 yrs) 729 2750 2538 322 689 139 11 93 382 12 16 125 465 .271 .316 .445 .761 97
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Provided by <a href=”http://www.baseball-reference.com/about/sharing.shtml”>Baseball-Reference.com</a>: <a href=”http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/g/guilljo01.shtml#batting_standard”>View Original Table</a><br>Generated 8/13/2010.
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