Giants Have Interest in Jose Guillen

The Giants have been looking for ways to add power to their lineup without giving up the farm, and their best chance to do so may be right now, as the Kansas City Royals have waived outfielder/DH Jose Guillen.

Supposedly, the Giants looked at Guillen when they were scouting Scott Podsednik back before the deadline, buy obviously didn't have enough interest in him to work out a deal. However, now they can scoop up Guillen just by assuming the remaining $3.75 remaining on his contract for 2010 and maybe sending KC some irrelevant minor league prospect. Guillen would definitely bring a potent right-handed bat to the Giants lineup, and solidify one of their corner outfield spots with a guy who's a pretty good defender with a cannon arm. Prior to his release, Guillen was carrying a .255 batting average along with 16 homers, 62 RBI. On the Giants, that would immediately place him 2nd in the HR and RBI categories behind only Aubrey Huff. The real question regarding Jose Guillen though, and a reason why teams are so leary on taking a chance on him, is his negative perception as a teammate and clubhouse presence. He's been compared to Milton Bradley, and one of the big things the Giants have going for them right now is their cohesion as a team and I don't know that they'd take on the risk of adding someone like Guillen.

I personally wouldn't mind them taking a shot on him as long as they don't need to give up anybody. Even though they've stepped things up a bit lately, the Giants still need all the offense they can get, and Jose Guillen is a guy who could come in and hit in the middle of the order with Buster Posey and Aubrey Huff and really solidify things. The Giants have only scored 6 runs over their last 3 games, and were unable to cash in on a couple of solid starting performances because they weren't able to score a couple of runs. In fact, they really should have lost their last 3 in a row but caught a few breaks in Friday nights game which allowed them to eventually win it in extra innings in Atlanta. Yes, it would probably cut into Travis Ishikawa and Nate Schierholtz's at-bats, but if those guys are playing well, Bochy could still find ways to get them into the lineup. Basically, the question the Giants need to ask is would they rather be giving crucial playing time down the stretch to Pat Burrell or to Jose Guillen, and I'd have to take Guillen right now if I had the option. Guillen is by far the better fielder of the 2, and although Burrell may have more pure power than Guillen, I think Guillen is a better overall hitter at this point in each of their career's. Unfortunately the Giants weren't able to claim Adam Dunn off Waivers from Washington recently, killing any chance of bringing Dunn to San Francisco for the season's final 2 months, so Guillen could be their last, real option at adding power. We'll be keeping a close eye on this situation over the next week or so.

And again, we here at the Giants Baseball Blog encourage all Giants fans to check out the charity event being put on by Matt Cain and his wife, Chelsea, on August 14th. It's looks like there will be some great food and plenty to drink and you can enjoy it all for just $30, check out more information here: http://baseballwivesallstarcookoff.eventbrite.com/!