Giants Acquire Jose Guillen

The Giants acquired Jose Guillen for a PTBNL and cash.

MLB Trade Rumors: "The Giants acquired outfielder Jose Guillen from the Royals for a player to be named later and cash. The Royals, who gave Guillen an ill-advised three-year, $36MM deal in December of 2007, designated Guillen for assignment on August 5th. Guillen still has $3.39MM left on his contract, but the Royals are covering some of that, according to a press release. The 34-year-old is hitting .255/.314/.429 on the season with 16 home runs in 437 plate appearances. He has logged only 169 innings in right field, so playing him regularly in the outfield would be risky. The Giants probably don't have an everyday role in mind for Guillen anyway - there's no reason he should supplant Pat Burrell, Andres Torres, Aubrey Huff, or Travis Ishikawa."

Emmanuel Burriss will likely be sent down to make room, thus leaving Nate Schierholtz as the only viable pinch-running option.

Jose Guillen's stats are as follows: .255, 16 HR, 396 AB

For comparison, here's Ryan Garko's stats from '09 before the Giants got him: .285, 11 HR, 239 AB

Guillen's slash line is: 255/.314/.429

Garko's slash line: .285/.362/.464

Let's not look too much into Guillen's history of power numbers:

SF Chronicle: "Veteran major-league outfielder Jose Guillen, who played part of the 2003 season for the division-champion A's, bought thousands of dollars of steroids and human growth hormone from a troubled Florida anti-aging clinic and had some of the drugs shipped to the Oakland Coliseum, business records show."

Guillen might benefit from a switch to the NL, which is said to be the weaker league, but with pitchers like Strasburg, Jimenez, and Johnson emerging this year as seemingly unstoppable forces, this might not be true anymore.

About Jose Guillen's personality, here's Extra Baggs on the matter:

"Guillen, well … there’s a reason he’ll be playing for his 10th major league team. But when we spoke to Bruce Bochy about Guillen on the last road trip, he was a huge proponent to add him to the roster. The skipper must feel he can keep Guillen in line, with help from his veterans. That’s good, because that’s exactly the challenge he has now."

Hopefully, Guillen will not ruin the great clubhouse chemistry that has been built that has allowed the Giants to win 25 of their last 35. And hopefully, he'll actually contribute, maybe hit a few home runs down the stretch. That might be worth it.

The Giants will be Guillen's 10th team:

1. Pirates
2. Devil Rays
3. Diamondbacks
4. Reds
5. A's
6. Angels
7. Nationals
8. Mariners
9. Royals
10. Giants

I have heard from sources that Guillen will be the everday right fielder with Huff moving to first. If this is true, Bruce Bochy has no clue what he's doing. Assuming Guillen starts in all of the Giants' remaining games, his defense will probably cost them 12 runs or so. This would be worth it, if his bat more than made up for it, but it doesn't. He'll be taking playing time away from Ishikawa, who tears up RHP.

Ishikawa vs. Right Handed Pitchers in 2010: .316/.363/.482

Guillen vs. Right Handed Pitchers in 2010: .264/.311/.462

Is Guillen really a better option for the starting lineup than Ishikawa, with his inferior hitting, atrocious defense, and his carcinogenic clubhouse attitude? I think not. Unfortunately, Bruce Bochy disagrees with me.

Giants Acquire Mike Fontenot

Giants acquired Mike Fontenot from the Chicago Cubs today in a trade. They gave up low-A outfielder Evan Crawford.

As you can see from his stats, he has absolutely no power and absolutely no speed. His fielding value for the year is negative. Frankly, Emmanuel Burriss with his speed and defense and Juan Uribe with his power would be better options as starting 2B and SS. I guess Fontenot is better than Sanchez, and will add depth while Renteria is out, but he honestly has no value as a starter. Even his platoon splits are not all that amazing despite the fact that he bats left handed (.286 vs. L, .284 vs. R). And his walk rate is mediocre. He's projected to bat .270 the rest of the season with 2 HR in 110 AB, but I would be surprised if he hit 2 HR during the remainder of the season, considering the fact that he only has 1 so far.

To summarize Fontenot: mediocre walk rate, horrible power, fielding, and speed.

Who knows, though? Miracles can happen. We've seen players unexpectedly perform well with the Giants. I'll let his bat, glove, and legs do the talking, but I don't expect much. Hopefully he won't be the next Ryan Garko.

The good: he has a high P/PA (pitches/plate appearance), and complements Sanchez, who cannot hit rightys at all (.232 avg); If he can even somewhat recapture that 2008 season while platooning, he'll be beneficial to the Giants.

What we gave up: Evan Crawford, an outfielder at Single A Augusta. He's batting .255 on the year with 4 HR in 432 AB. We don't appear to have given up much, thankfully.