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Crasnick bashes Manny (the Dodgers one):

"I bet he gets $15-20 million a year for three or four years, especially if he keeps his nose clean and helps the Dodgers win it," said another executive who has worked for large, small and middle-market teams. "Hell, it wouldn't surprise me if [Dodgers owner] Frank McCourt would do that. He loves all those Boston guys."

But within seconds of making that prediction, the same executive made it clear how appalled he was by the whole thought that Manny would cash in after all this.

"He wouldn't play for me," the exec said. "I'll tell you that. I might cost my team a chance to go to the World Series. But we work too hard to put a team together to take on a guy like that. As soon as you open the vaults for him, you'll wind up with the same problems Boston had."

Washed Up Major Leaguers Seek Brains

A hopeful start by the youth-infused lineup is once again obliterated by a haggard bullpen.

But I'm sure you all are more ticked at something else:

LaTroy Freaking Hawkins.

I can't even believe he has a job. But, of course, he picks up the W, joining the likes of Chan Ho Park, Jason Johnson and Mike Hampton as baseball zombies who have feasted on the collective ineptitude of this meek, meek franchise.

And now, without further ado, your midday roundup.

Snark Alert: I really debated kicking this guy while he's down. But, ultimately, I decided to be the smaller, more petty person.

Jose Castillo (remember him?) had a bit of a reputation as a malcontent on his previous stops on his DFA Tour of the NL. So while John Bowker was nothing but classy in accepting his assignment to Fresno, what did Castillo have to say?

"I'm not happy," he said. "I'm surprised. I think I played good for this team. It was the first year I played third base."

Well, in addition to the fact that Shrekstillo made more than a few of his appearances at third with the Pirates last year, I'd like to pose this question to Jose: what, exactly, is your definition of "good"? Does it include an assessment of a .191 average post-All Star Break?

Add "delusional" to the list of colorful adjectives you may already ascribe to Jose.

Cold-Blooded: The Giants cost Geno Espineli his Olympic dreams by calling him up just ahead of the games in Beijing.

So it makes perfect sense that they would send him down just as Olympic baseball heats up. Matt Palmer is the beneficiary of Sabean's ice cold trigger finger, in a move that presumably covers the Giants if they need long-relief or spot start in the dog days.

Prospect Bonanza Continued: Baggarly (who's on a roll, I must say) reports that the Giants inked intriguing 13th-rounder Juan Carlos Perez. The D2 outfielder slipped because of visa issues, but you can't argue with the numbers. This is what Baseball America had to say:

Perez put up the craziest statistics in the state. Playing at hitter-friendly Western Oklahoma JC, he set Division II junior college records with 37 homers (one short of the overall juco mark) and 102 RBIs while batting .465 with a 1.102 slugging percentage. While his stats might be inflated, the 6-foot, 185-pounder has legitimate tools. He has a sound swing with bat speed and easy power, average speed and arm strength, and a chance to play center field. The bigger issues with Perez are his age (he'll be 22 in November) and his immigration status. A Dominican, he stayed in the United States after his original tourist visa expired, which could prevent him from gaining a work visa to play pro ball. If he gets his paperwork, he could go in the first 10 rounds.

Baggs, meanwhile, makes a comparison with this guy.

From your mouth to God's ears, Andy.

Contract Talk: A quick primer for those of you who are wondering what the difference between a major league contract (which Buster Posey signed) and a minor league contract, the more traditional contract for draftees.

Essentially, a major league contract is guaranteed, and the signee is eligible for the minimum required salary of a major leaguer, which is set at $390K this year.

Perez, for example, will get his bonus money, but will be salaried at a minor league level, which is generally peanuts at the lower levels, and, um, cashews once you work your way up.

Look Out, Earthquakes: James at A Giants Minor League Blog (a nice recent complement to the already excellent Giants blogosphere) proposes a very interesting, and likely, scenario for the Single-A Giants next spring:

Various baseball people have been musing about whether or not Conor Gillaspie should be moved to second. Here’s one reason why it might not happen. It is likely that he will begin next year on the San Jose roster with Nick Noonan who is limited to only second base. There has been some talk that Noonan might be promoted straight to Connecticut but that’s absolutely crazy. Unless Noonan makes huge strides in plate discipline this offseason, sending him to Connecticut is just setting him up to fail. So, it is likely that the San Jose roster next year will consist of Angel Villalona at 1B, Nick Noonan at 2B, Conor Gillaspie at 3B, and Buster Posey at C. That’s a hell of an infield. Madison Bumgarner will also be on that team.

So, come '09, there could very well be a dominant Giants ballclub - you'll just have to head further down 280 to find it.

Comment! Freak excluded, who is your favorite current Giant? Tough, isn't it?

BREAKING: Posey, Kieschnick, Crawford Sign; Giants Grow A Pair

Baggarly (of course) has the scoop:

The Giants are on the cusp of signing first-round pick Buster Posey to a major league contract worth roughly $7.5 million, industry sources told the Mercury News.

[Snip]

The Giants also went beyond the recommended slot value to sign their third-round pick, Texas Tech outfielder Roger Kieschnick. He received a $525,000 bonus, $40,000 over the recommended amount. The club didn't announce a deal with their fourth-round pick, UCLA shortstop Brandon Crawford, but Bruins officials have been told that he signed for $375,000 — exceeding slot value by $92,000.

Overall, a very encouraging development for the rapidly improving farm system. Assist to the purse-string holders for going well above slot on all the guys to get them delivered.

Ryan Rohlinger: Rookie Roosebumps; RiGetLost

Well, no one said these kids could make the transition seamlessly. But although Ryan Rohlinger had some miscues in his ML debut, you'd be hard pressed to pin the abhorrent pitching on the kid, unless you were some kind of psycho.

So, before the 11AM kiddie parade pre-empts your regularly schedule rants and raves in this space, let me take this opportunity to use the Giants second consecutive loss to the 'Stros as Exhibit R that Dave Righetti must go?

Some doomed contrarians may ask, "Why is that? Don't you think that Barry Zito sucks independent of coaching?"

My retort? Some thought the Giants would be an excusable team, in spite of their horrific offense, because of their sublimely talented pitching staff, but instead they have proven consistently inconsistent and maddeningly middling. Three-quarters of the way through the season, the Giants are in the bottom half of the league in ERA and rank fourth (in a bad way) in walks allowed.

And although I can't find a stat that proves it (and I encourage all you sabermetrician nose-miners to back me up), the pitching staff is inexcusably charitable to their counterparts, a point that Kruk and Kuip have repeatedly echoed.

Last night, once again, was an example of how this staff is liable to give games away. The Astros would have won if Larry, Moe, and Curly were in their lineup last night.

"But what about Lincecum?" some of the soon-to-be-dealt-with dissenters may point out. Well, I suggest you review last month's SI cover piece on The Franchise. Or just read this:

"His dad obviously did a very good job with Timmy," says Giants pitching coach Dave Righetti. "I treat Timmy differently from most pitchers: I leave him alone."

But for the other poor saps that are subject to Righetti (think Cain, Sanchez, and all the other young guns in the pipeline), we risk wasting the sky high potential of these talents because Giants brass are too hardheaded to let a crony go.

A point of optimism? If Sabean could fire his curiously close pal Joe Lefebvre, he could conceivably give the axe to Rags.

Comment! Should Dave Righetti go?

DING DONG, CASTILLO'S DFA'D (And Everyone's Up)

Well, how about that for a move? (From Baggs)

Huge, huge shift today. The Giants have a whole new corner infield. John Bowker and Steve Holm were optioned to Fresno and Jose Castillo was designated for assignment. Rohlinger, a third baseman, comes from Double-A Connecticut along with Sandoval, who can catch and play first base. Ishikawa was lighting it up at Triple-A Fresno. He switches spots with Bowker, who was hitting .154 since the All-Star break.

Wow, is it me or did it just get a whole lot less suck in here?

Okay, I'm not going to go overboard, but this is a big day for the youth movement. We could conceivably see this lineup tonight:

RF Winn

2B Burriss

LF Lewis

CF Rowand

1B Ishikawa

C Sandoval

3B Rohlinger

SS Ochoa

What a difference a day makes.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go scrub OBnB of any acknowledgment of the existence of Shrekstillo. (Prances off, giggling.)

UPDATE (3:33PM): And, in typical Giants fashion, the only one of the trio to get the start is Rohlinger, who is penciled in at third and batting second tonight. Even Omar, God bless him, is playing.

WTF Is Going On? (UPDATED)

With a big shoutout to OBnB associate J2X, rumor has it Connecticut third baseman Ryan Rohlinger, not Travis Ishikawa or Pablo Sandoval will get the callup.

At this point, it only seems to be corroborated by a few posters at McCovey Chronicles.

[UPDATE (1:34PM): Brewercentric has posted a story from the exceedingly creditable PrepsOnTheNet. Still, it looks like Rohlinger is indeed a San Francisco Giant. In case you're wondering, Milwaukeeans are interested in this story as Rohlinger's a Wisconsin product.

The question remains: who goes down, or out? I imagine management makes space for Rohlinger on the 40 man by putting Merkin Valdez on the 60 day DL.]

Rohlinger could conceivably supplant Feliz Lite, a thought that sends shivers up my fandom-ravaged spine.

But he also plays second base, a position of great depth but a lot of perceived necessity, as Grant so eloquently stated a week ago.

Rohlinger, 24, hasn't put up eye-popping numbers this year in either Single-A San Jose or in Norwich, but he has shown a propensity to take a pitch, a rarity in this brain-dead hacker breeding farm system. Granted, I'd rather see this guy trot out to third at this point than Castillo.

So how does this relate to John Bowker, who was the presumptive sacrificial lamb? Unclear, unless the Giants are about to make a move, or three, that no one saw coming.

Or it could all be a hoax. Stay tuned, folks.

Freak Is Fine, Giants Still Suck; Bye Bye Bowker?

From Extra Baggs:

He’s OK, according to his agent, and expects to make his next start. The liner hit him on the tibia just below the knee. Bad bruise. You may breathe normally now.

Well [gasp] said.

Give [gasp] me [gasp] one [gasp] second.

Okay, now, in case you passed out and/or blacked out the rest of the game, I'm sure you assumed, correctly, that the other, less talented, Giants lost...badly.

Which means it's time for, you guessed it, a reactionary move!

Once again, from the always intrepid Andrew Baggarly:

All signs point to Bowker going down

Once I noticed that Travis Ishikawa wasn’t in the lineup for Fresno tonight at Portland, I went into a whirlwind trying to figure out whether he was on his way to Houston. (Late update: He pinch-hit in extra innings, so no, he wasn’t enjoying a bag of peanuts on the first Southwest flight to Houston Hobby.)

But there are indications that something is coming, as they say. For one, Brian Sabean showed up today. Demoting John Bowker is a fairly significant move given the tenor of this Giants season. It’s certainly a call that the GM wouldn’t want to make from afar. Plus, when you break the news to a player with Bowker’s potential future role in the organization, it’s probably best that the GM is in the room.

Add to that Bruce Bochy’s non-denial….”We’re talking about it” … and even with the roof closed at Minute Maid Park, you could tell which way the wind is blowing.

To me, the decision isn’t whether to send down Bowker but whether to replace him with Ishikawa or Pablo Sandoval. (I checked, and yes, Sandoval played for Connecticut tonight.)

So, though it looks like nothing is immediate, there's a good chance we'll see some type of transaction this series.

Optioning Bowker would be a blow for the half-assed youth movement for this franchise - the kid came up with a bang and had a very solid first two months in the big leagues. Right now, though, he's in a 9 for 75 slide, and sounds pretty lost in his approach.

However, the real impetus for a switch would not simply be to get Bowker some pressure-free regular ABs in the minors, but the lights-out hitting of prospect-turned-has-been-turned-prospect-again Ishikawa. Most of you remember him as a smooth fielding first baseman who had a cup of coffee with the 2006 team, only to regress and find himself in Single-A last year. But this year's been a different story altogether:

Travis Ishikawa is hitting .312 with 16 homers and 46 RBIs since his June promotion from Double-A. Ishikawa, 24, played 12 games for the 2006 Giants, backtracked last year when he was demoted to Class A San Jose (in part because of injuries) but re-emerged as a viable prospect this year.

In his first eight games of August, he hit seven homers. Of his 53 hits, 38 have gone for extra bases. Counting his stats from Double-A and Triple-A, he has 24 homers and 94 RBIs, numbers that he didn't come close to producing in any of his first six years of pro ball.

Although most local scribes feel Sando-Yeti is in the mix for a call-up, Ishikawa, who is the same age as Bowker, makes a lot more sense, both because of his fielding prowess at first as well as the logical development curve of the 21 year old Sandoval.

Then again, who said logic plays a part in any of these moves?

Carney and Manny On the plus side, Manny Burriss appears to be in the team's long term plans. But Carney Lansford thinks that he needs to spend a lot of extra time this off-season hitting from the left side. Looking at the stats, he's got a point.

AuRayLia? In the above pieces, both Baggarly and John Shea speculate that, with All-Star rookie sensation Evan Longoria out, the Rays may have an interest in Rich Aurilia. Don't know if this is a case of two reporters echoing one another's idea or an actual corroboration of a legitimate rumor, but it's worth noting.

Henry Schulman, however, appears to be plum crazy.

Who's Afraid Of Jim and Randy Wolf? For the second time this year, the Giants faced Randy Wolf while his brother, Jim, umped. Pardon me, Mr. Selig, but it would seem that with the less than holy officiating going on throughout the sports world, there would be a provision that would recuse said umpire from umping his kid brother's games.

Arms Race On a positive note, the Giants farm system has talented pitchers coming out of their ears these days. You've all heard of Madison Bumgarner (who had another magnificent start Saturday) and Tim Alderson, both '07 first rounders.

But two other heralded prospects shined on Monday:

Three left-handers in the Giants organization took no-hitters into the sixth inning Monday night. Jonathan Sanchez's effort at Houston was the most conspicuous, but he was joined by San Jose's Clayton Tanner and Augusta's Scott Barnes on the Class A level.

Gillaspie Shines And finally, while Buster Posey remains unsigned ahead of tomorrow's deadline, Conor Gillaspie has had a hot start in the Arizona Rookie League, driving in 7 runs in his first 20 PAs to go along with a .316 average.

Taking the liberty of speaking for all Giants fans, when it comes to third base, this is our most desperate hour. Help us, Obi-Con; you're our only hope.

Comment! Which youngster will make the biggest splash for the Giants?