The deal that hurt the most was the trade with the Milwaukee Brewers that added badly needed help for the bullpen in the person of lefthander Will Smith.
The 6'5 Smith strikes batters out and isn't a situational lefty either,so he can be used against lefties and righty hitters.
Smith is likely to stick around for a while as although he is arbitration eligible in 2017,he isn't a free agent until 2020.
Smith should be able to help a bullpen that has been fragile at times to be generous,so that part of the deal,I have no issue with,but when you obtain talent,it costs talent and this was no different.
The biggest blow was losing righthanded pitcher Phil Bickford,the Giants first round pick from the 2015 draft.
Bickford has dominated at two levels this season (Low A Augusta and High A San Jose) notching ERA's in the low two's and showing command that few see at those levels.
Opposing hitters hit a little over ,200 against Bickford and he looked to be on a fast pace to the big leagues before this trade.
I really loved Bickford as a prospect and that part makes this a tough pill to swallow for me.
I am happy for Andrew Susac,the long time Giants catching prospect that was stuck in the awkward position of being too good for AAA,too good to be a backup and needs to play every day,but not good enough to beat out Buster Posey.
Susac spent this season at AAA Sacramento (273,8,36 in 53 games) and will finally get his chance to stick in the big leagues with the Brewers having a vacancy after finally trading Jonathan Lucroy to Texas,so I'm glad for Susac,who was never going to get that chance with San Francisco.
The Giants did need bullpen help in the worst way and Will Smith should be able to help there,but boy do I hate losing Phil Bickford!!
The Giants then made a move to bolster the back end of the rotation as they shipped third baseman Matt Duffy and two players from Low A Augusta in shortstop Lucious Fox and pitcher Michael Santos to Tampa Bay for lefthander Matt Moore.
Moore,who at one time was as good as anyone in the game,is a season and a half after a return from Tommy John surgery and at 7-7 and 4.08 ERA is just starting to get back into past form.
The 27 year old Moore was 17-4 with a 3.29 ERA in 2013 before getting injured two starts into 2014,so if he can even approach that level,the Giants could have another strong addition to the rotation.
I haven't heard who Moore will replace in the rotation and shove into long relief,although if I had to guess,I would say Jake Peavy stays in the rotation and it's Matt Cain that moves to the bullpen.
Matt Duffy heads to Tampa on the slide in 2016 after nearly hitting .300 and hitting 12 home runs in a second place in the rookie of year voting in 2015.
Duffy had injury problems in 2016,but wasn't playing that well when healthy and newly acquired Eduardo Nunez was likely to take playing time away from Duffy at third anyway.
The versatile Duffy can play three positions and at worst should prove to be a valuable utility player for the Rays.
Lucious Fox was a prospect from the Bahamas that was given a six and a half million dollar bonus last summer.
At 19 Fox was fast tracked to Augusta and has struggled at the bat hitting just .207 and two homers in 75 games in the SAL.
Fox might have been moved too soon considering his opposition in the Bahamas,but his tools still are there and Tampa could be buying low on a talented prospect.
21 year old righthander Michael Santos posted good numbers at Augusta (4-2 2.91 ERA) but doesn't miss many bats (44 K's in 58 innings) and that is a concern in projection for Santos as he moves up the ladder.
From what I see,Santos was the minor part of this deal...
I like Matt Duffy.although not as much as some Giants fans did and Lucious Fox hurts because of the size of his bonus.
The Giants paid him so much that the Giants could not pay any one prospect (international only) more than 300,000 for not just this year,but next year as well.
That means that a year after this deal,the player has moved on and yet the team still has the constraints from his bonus-that hits hard.
The Giants must have thought that Lucious Fox was unlikely to hit and moved him while he had value-They have to hope to be right.
Matt Moore was worth the gamble because if (huge if) he can even approach his 2013 form-the Giants have a foursome of Bumgarner,Cueto Samardizja and Moore that few teams will able to match.
It's worth the risk.
Back later,now that these trades reviews are finished with a podcast sometime today....
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