Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Giants' Plans for Off-Season Frugality Summarily Rowand

The Giants just signed Aaron Rowand to be their centerfielder for the next five years, at a cost of $60M. As I type this, I am giggling.

Rowand agreed to a $60 million, five-year contract with the Giants on Wednesday, giving the club a Gold Glove winner without having to trade either of its top young pitchers: Matt Cain and Tim Lincecum

The 30-year-old Rowand is expected to bat fifth for San Francisco after spending the past two seasons with the Philadelphia Phillies. Before that, he helped the Chicago White Sox win the 2005 World Series.

"Bottom line, I wanted to get in a spot where I would be long term," said Rowand, who noted he weighed four or five similar multiyear offers. "In this day of free agency, that's not commonplace. That's really the thing I was looking forward to most."

He is coming off his best season yet, earning his first Gold Glove award and All-Star selection while helping the Phillies to the NL East title. Rowand batted .309 with 27 home runs and career bests of 89 RBIs, 105 runs, 189 hits and 45 doubles in 161 games.

Like the Dodgers, the Giants now have the tough task of moving a light-hitting, speedy, small, and by-all-accounts-good guy over to left field (in their case, Dave Roberts). But unlike the Dodgers, the Giants' signing of Rowand (a 30-year old, like Andruw Jones) comes off Rowand's best season, when he hit 27 HR and 89 RBI. Jones, off arguably his worst season, still had 26 HR and 94 RBI.

And the Giants have Rowand for five years, three years longer than Jones' contract--at a rate of $12M/year rather than $18M/year. Wow. I mean, I know that your Bonds-less lineup has been said to be the worst in the majors (even worse than the Dodgers', if you can believe it). But for my money, I'd take the shorter-term deal with the guy who has something to prove--and hits for just as much power in an off-year.

Gotta love the Giants' attempt to keep up with the Joneses.

3 comments:

Matty D said...

5/60 = 12 million a year. Love you guys!!! Check out PedroforDelino.blogspot.com

Steve Sax said...

Yikes, I used to be good at math. I even got a 5 on the Calc BC AP Test.

Thanks, Matty D. I don't know what the hell happened there. Edited.

Unknown said...

I'm glad that the Giants signed Aaron Rowand to a contract this off season. They desperately need solid bats in their lineup.