Newly hired Padres GM A.J. Preller spoke about a variety of topics during his Wednesday introductory press conference. Dennis Lin of U-T San Diego provides the abridged version including why Preller was interested in the job, the challenge of wooing hitters to Petco Park, and his top priorities (answer: getting to know his employees).
- Also from Lin’s piece, Preller commented on working with a small budget. The Rangers may be a big budget team now, but that’s a recent development. Preller was a part of the Rangers front office when they reached the World Series on a $55MM payroll in 2010, so he’s familiar with building on the cheap. Interestingly for Padres fans, Preller expressed an expectation that ownership would expand the budget when the team was a major player or two away from getting “over the top.”
- With his impending free agency, Pablo Sandoval presents the Giants with a dilemma, writes Drew Fairservice of Fangraphs. On the surface, it’s easy to dismiss the nearly 28-year-old Kung Fu Panda as an inconsistent free-swinger. However, he consistently ranks among the top defensive third basemen and has settled in as a steady 120 wRC+ hitter (20 percent above league average). The Giants have a track record of loyalty to their free agents, so it will be interesting to see if they allow Sandoval to test the waters.
As the Giants continue into mediocrity it’s a bigger and bigger pipe dream they keep Sandoval. For one thing Adam Duvall, and possibly Buster Posey also have interest in the hot corner. For another the, obvious, the AL can afford to spend a lot more on the potential DH Sandoval will become, no way the Giants go 7 years, he’ll be gone.
As a Giants fan, I can say that the only reason that the Giants are playing mediocre ball is because they aren’t scoring runs. So why would they let Pablo walk, when they are in dire need of offense? This team needs Pablo to be able to win in the future. They also need a less injury prone leadoff man, and my thought is to trade Angel Pagan for prospects or perhaps another leadoff hitter, one that is more likely to play 150+ games while Pagan keeps getting injured (Denard Span, Ben Revere, or Desmond Jennings?). A contact hitting second baseman (Panik has been looking good lately), a semi-power hitting left fielder (Alex Rios, perhaps?), and another rotation piece to replace Vogey (Justin Masterson or Francisco Liriano?) and the Giants are a heavy favorite for a NL wild card spot and maybe even the division in 2015. Add in a bullpen upgrade over Yusmeiro Petit and Juan Gutierrez and the Giants are primed for a deep postseason run.
Pablo can go where he, and more pointed, in the direction of money, Scott Boras wants him to go. I don’t think the Giants WANT to let him go, but neither do they want to go 7 years or 5 for an unprecedented amount.
Scott Boras isn’t Pablo’s agent, and I think that Pablo would be willing to take a couple million per year off of his salary to remain in San Fran. For example: Hunter Pence would have made more on the open market than he did with us, but he stayed anyway.
Boras was solicited by Pablo for advice, in regards to his dealings before the season. If he thinks he can get more money there, that’s where he’ll go, I’ll bet.
And I don’t see Pablo compromising like Pence, who’s 4 years older, did.
Hunter signed his contract at age 30. Pablo will be 28 when he signs his.
28 is “his prime” his BDay is Aug 11. That’s practically a whole season of his prime year. Teams will pay extra for that.
I was just pointing out the 4 years thing wasn’t accurate.
Um, Pablo is 27 right now, Pence is 31. It is in fact, 3 years and 5 months, you’re right. However even at 30 he’s 2 years older than that prime which Pablo will be in, so the deal for a player in his prime is not relative to Pence.
Um, Pablo will be 28 when he signs his contract. Pence was not 31 when he signed. Yes, Pence was roughly two years older (actually less than that) than Pablo when he signed his contract. Research has proven that a player’s physical prime is much earlier than the age of 28 (usually around age 23 or 24 with an average slow, steady decline from there until age 33-36 when players are then prone to a rather dramatic dropoff at any time). While Pablo’s overall career numbers, when adjusted for park, are pretty similar to Pence’s when he hit free agency, Pence has been a more consistent player from season to season. He’s also been much healthier than Sandoval. There are a lot more factors than just age.
MLB still qualifies the prime years in terms of contracts up to age 28. You’re apparently not reading what I wrote “Pence is ~4 years older than Pablo” NOT WHEN THEY SIGNED. If you think Pence could’ve gotten what Pablo can get on the open market I think that’s completely false. I also believe what the agent said, that they will test the open market, and similarly if Pablo doesn’t feel that agent is going to get that max deal then he will look to Boras as he did before. The symbolism of him doing that in that place was big for Giants fans and the front office, it was a statement.
I think you’re reading an awful lot into a couple minute long conversation between a baseball player and a well known baseball business person.
You, nor I know what might have been said beyond that on the field, they clearly know each other. Sabean took note, that’s nuff said for me. It tells them they’re not going to get a sweetheart contract from the agent by working him, it let’s the Giants know he’ll go where he can get the most money regardless of what that agent wants.
…or it was just a friendly conversation. The agent (his brother and his agency) are going to want whatever Pablo wants.
“The agent (his brother and his agency) are going to want whatever Pablo wants.”
That’s a quaint picture, but it’s far from reality. The agent’s job is to get the player the most in terms of money and years. The decision will ultimately be up to the player but the players union will influence strongly in terms of that player taking the best deal on the table.
OK. I missed the part where I indicated anything different than that.
The agent does not want what the player wants by any set standard, players want all kinds of outlandish things. The agent is a shark that deals independently from the player UNTIL the pen goes to the paper to sign the deal of the players choosing. It is not a process of following the players desire as you indicated.
While players hire agents to be their expert negotiators and not have to deal with the day to day nuances of negotiation, its completely absurd to think the player and their agent aren’t in constant contact about their general desires, priorities and what is or is not reasonable and/or attainable.
The player does not tell the agent where to pursue deals, the agent fields the offers and filters them to the player, not the other way around. Nuff said.
Yep, players never ask their agents to gauge mutual interest or seek deals with specific teams. Never.
WHO are we talking about? Of course there are different cases, this is the typical case, and the one Pablo as a FA is going to be.
I think MOST players indicate to their agent what their preferred city or cities are before hitting free agency and what kind of money it would take to end up anywhere else if that’s even an option for them. We obviously have no idea if SF is Pablo’s preferred city, it could very well be Miami or even LA.
How many players do you really think have that kind of clout? By far the typical is teams coming to the player, and in terms of the agent that’s all it is. The agent may ask a team to come up with an offer but it’s still up to that team to bring it back to the agent.
If you put production at the top of your list then you can take ATT park off it. In a place like even Chavez ravine he’d have 5-10 more jacks a year, that’s huge. I would speculate that Pablo himself wants to leave SF and all that baggage behind in a pretty big way.
I meant production is terms of past productions serving as a predictor for future production to help create a baseline for a contract. But they have all kinds of park adjusted stats now that you should really check out.
Where does MLB qualify this? But why is the current age difference relevant? What seems far more relevant to me is the age difference between Pence when he signed the contract and Pablo when he signs his contract. But again, even taking that into account there are an awful lot of other factors. Health and production being the two of the three biggest ones along with age.
Read this article: ‘Prime time or past prime time: there are indicators’ From the article, “Players typically peak in their late 20s and start declining in their early 30s. Give or take.” My contention is simply that Pablo will get “prime year” money, whereas Pence really did not. Similarly Pablo can ask for more years because he is younger.
You don’t think the way that Pence has takes care of his body and his very limited injury history bridges the very small (at the time they signed/will sign their contracts) age gap between he and a player who struggles with injury and has had a couple issues with maintaining his fitness?
Ever hear what goes on in a an arbitration hearing? The team is expert in tearing down all that logical worth, the one factor that is indisputable is the players age. Simply put, in the cutthroat world of agents and deals, I don’t.
I don’t understand what you’re trying to say there at all. Yes, both sides are going to have a lot more information than we’re outlining here when it comes time to negotiate. But I think production, health and age (in that order) are generally accepted to be the top three factors. Pence has/had a couple years on Pablo but his consistency, both in terms of production and health, outweigh Pablo’s. That’s why I think we’ll see a Pablo contract in the same general range.
Where did you hear anything about Scott Boras and Pablo Sandoval? A quick google search didn’t turn up anything about that for me. Pablo is represented by a completely different agency and his own brother. I don’t really see how or why Boras would get involved.
It happened at the home of the enemy, in Chavez ravine, how could you miss it? From CSN BA on 4/8: ” he spent several minutes during batting practice over the weekend talking with agent Scott Boras behind home plate at Dodger Stadium. Boras often gives solicited advice to players who aren’t his clients. But you can bet they weren’t trading healthy pasta recipes.”
several minutes talking to him before a game in April is far different than getting him involved in any way with contract negotiations.
Do you really think that was or will be the extent of the conversation for one of the best FA’s on the market? I choose to believe the agent greed factor tends to rule all in that scenario.
Do I think that will be the extent of the conversation between that player and an agent who doesn’t represent him? Unless Pablo is considering switching agencies, and we have no reason to believe he is seeing as how his brother is now one of his representatives, yes I do believe that’s probably going to be the extent of Boras’ involvement. What is the agent greed factor? I choose to believe agents do the job they are employed to do, which is get the best possible deal for their clients. Maybe that’s a flawed system, but that’s what their job is, why fault them for it?
What is the agent greed factor: Deals for: A-Rod, Fielder, Bonds. Who made those way overpriced deals? Scott Boras
define overpriced? The Giants got every bit of what they paid for, and then some, out of Barry Bonds. By today’s standards Bonds would have had to have gotten well over 800 million dollars from the Giants to be getting fair value for the roughly 118 WAR he gave them.
Are you kidding? How many WS did the Giants with Bonds? And how much were they still paying him when they finally did win when he wasn’t even in the game??
No I’m not kidding, I think an individual player’s value should not be measured only by WS titles.
OK, go with playoff wins then. How many with Bonds vs Posey for instance?
“The 2002 World Series was just another forum to cement his dominance. Bonds mashed three home runs in the first three games, and yet somehow his team was down 2-1. But then three intentional walks in a victorious Game Four and three hits including two doubles in Game Five saw him and his Giants just a win away from a championship.
By the time Game Six rolled around, Bonds had racked up a 2.144 OPS in 22 plate appearances, a mark surpassed only by Lou Gehrig‘s 1928 series, a 2.433 OPS headlined by four home runs in four games (17 PA).”-Fangraphs
So, I mean, its clearly Barry Bonds’ fault the Giants never won a World Series with him in uniform right? What a choke, he was so not worth the money.
Not just Bonds the player, either. Don’t forget Victor Conte and Balco to boot, they played just a small part in that “production.”
Search “Pablo Sandoval + Scott Boras”
Even if Pablo doesn’t want to compromise, he is still the best 3B on the market this offseason. The Giants will have a hole at 3B. So, they will give Pablo what he wants, and I think he will get 6 yrs 108 million. That’s 18 million a season, and I think that the Giants ownership will give Sabean that kind of breathing room.
6 years at the same $ as Pence would be a compromise, when he could get 7 to put him at 35 when it’s done, through the “most productive” years. I just don’t see him taking less to stay here where he’s lost countless hits and jacks to triples alley, especially now that he’s following the predictable trend for S hitters, hitting much better from the L side.
This is from his agent before the season, “if nothing was done by the All-Star break, he’ll go to the open market.” So my thinking is that the Giants would have to overwhelm him with an offer, 7 years at that kind of money, and I just don’t think they’ll do it.
There have been 8 free agent contracts of 7 or more years signed the last 4 years. Cano, Tanaka, Ellsbury, Choo, Pujols, Fielder, Crawford and Werth. That’s it. Of those eight, six of those players were coming off multiple years of consistently outperforming Pablo by a pretty wide margin. Most of those players had little to no significant injury history at the time they signed their contracts. Because there are contracts like the Werth contract once in a while I’m not ruling out a 7 year deal for Pablo, I just think recent history proves its far from the sure thing you seem to believe it is for a player with Pablo’s issues with consistency and injury.
When you say injury realize that 2 major injuries were the hamate bones in each hand he no longer has. Take out those injuries and there’s little left to signal a red flag repeated injury.
I’ll be stunned if the giants give him 100m. I think he’s gone.