Nov. 30, 2010RATTO ARCHIVE
A'S PAGEA'S VIDEORay RattoCSNBayArea.com
Miguel Tejada. Yeah, Miguel Tejada. Well, why the hell not?Actually, we know why the hell not, but we also suspect that there's ahidden who in there, too. As in, he's not supposed to be Juan Uribe.He's supposed to be Bengie Molina.
Giants, Tejada Agree on One-Year Deal
Signing Tejada, as the Giants just did, makes more sense to thedisinterested observer if he is going to mentor Emmanuel Burriss andorBrandon Crawford for elevation at some later point in the year. Ourguess is that it will probably be Crawford, because the Giants haveseen Burriss over the years and have a pretty good idea of what he isand is not capable, and wouldn't need a mentor to bring out his hiddenTulowitzki.Put another way, the one-year-deal tells you what the Giants want from,and what the market was for, Tejada. It was the same market that Molinadidn't enjoy a year ago, and why he returned to help ease Buster Poseyinto his job. He didn't like it, and he didn't want to do it, but hedidn't have a lot of choice.The same is almost certainly sure of Tejada, whose best days are nolonger visible in the rear-view mirror. He is a place-holder, andlittle more. He won't help a lot in the field, but he may still havesome bat pop, and perhaps he has wisdom to impart to Crawford. Surely,he would not have been signed without that clear signal, and surely hewould not have agreed if he had another suitor who would want him forhis body rather than his mind.In short, this is less than what it seems for you veteranSabeanophobes, and potentially more than what you could have imaginedif Crawford has big league game. As a permanent condition, though . . .nahhhh.
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