Baseball Musings
Baseball Musings
December 12, 2006
Giles Cut Loose

The Atlanta Braves did not tender Marcus Giles a contract. He becomes a free agent:

The Braves pushed hard to trade Giles during the winter meetings, but couldn't work out a deal for someone to take their leadoff hitter from this past season. So they declined to tender him a contract for 2007.

General manager John Schuerholz said he couldn't risk going to arbitration with Giles, who made $3.85 million in 2006 and likely would have commanded over $5 million for next season.

My god, who would want to spend $5 million on a player with a .361 career OBA! The horror! It's a good thing nobody gave an 8-year, $136 million dollar contract to a player with a .325 OBA this winter.

Wait a minute. The Cubs did that!

But I forget. Soriano had a good year in 2006 and Giles didn't. It can't be that either of them were flukes. That why Alfonso is worth so much more.

I'm sure Marcus will find his OBA is appreciated in San Diego.


Posted by David Pinto at 10:44 PM | Free Agents | TrackBack (0)
Comments

Wow! Considering there were rumors of a Linebrink for Giles deal a month ago, and even more rumors of a Linebrink/Peavy for Giles/Saltalamacchia/Ramirez deal around the same time, good thing neither of those happened. Now if SD can just get him signed...

Posted by: david at December 13, 2006 02:23 AM

JC at Sabernomics has an interesting post on this. According to PrOPS, Giles has been a bit lucky over the years.

Posted by: Tom G at December 13, 2006 07:09 AM

Rumors are just that, but San Diego deserves credit for keeping their powder dry and gambling on Atlanta non-tendering Giles.

Posted by: Tim K. at December 13, 2006 01:04 PM

$5-7 mil in this winter's market hardly seems excessive for Giles. Economics forced this decision and you have to wonder if the Braves are going to continue to be able to compete at an elite level consistently.

Much as I think of the Braves' braintrust, none of Pardo, Johnson or Aybar is the equal of Giles and won't be anytime soon. Kelly johnson the most intriguing of the group if Hubbard can teach the former SS the 2b mechanics.
bill

Posted by: Bill McKinley at December 13, 2006 02:17 PM
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