Giants Staying Quiet in 'Series Aftermath

Bruce Bochy just missed winning NL Manager of the Year, and although Giants' fans were a little upset about it, nobody really cared too much. Why? They're still basking in the aftermath of their World Series victory.

Celebration time is winding down though, cause key dates are creeping up on us quicker than every body's used too. Like I said earlier in the postseason, since the Giants played a whole extra month, it's making this offseason go by very quickly. We're just 2 short weeks away from the arbitration deadline in which teams must choose to tender or non-tender their eligible players for 2011 contracts. The Giants themselves have quite a few key components to their World Series winning team eligible for raises. Those guys include Postseason hero Cody Ross, Andres Torres, Jonathan Sanchez, Postseason bullpen hero Javier Lopez and Santiago Casilla. I'm assuming all will be tendered contracts, so I wouldn't worry about any of them leaving the Giants, I'm just really curious to see what kind of numbers Jonathan Sanchez and Cody Ross will end up at. I think it would be best for the Giants to avoid arbitration and sign both Ross and Sanchez to 2 or 3 year deals. In arbitration, Ross could get $7-10 million and Sanchez could get even more, so I think it would be in the Giants' best interest to just give each a small multi-year deal. Maybe something like 2 years/$15 million for Ross. Sanchez is a pitcher, and left-handed, so he's a more complicated issue. On the free agent market today, Sanchez could get upwards of $12 million a year from somebody, so a 2 year, $12-15 million deal for him wouldn't look so bad considering.

The other important date, one just 10 days away on November 30th, is the last day in which the Giants can offer their own free agents arbitration. It will be interesting to see what they do with Huff and Uribe if neither are signed by then. I think they should offer it to Uribe, seeing that the market for middle infielders is so thin and there's a very good chance the Giants will lose him. Either way, it would be nice to see Sabean make some kind of noise to show us that he's still not off in Hawaii or Paris soaking in the Series' win. Normally Sabean tends to be one of the more active GM's earlier in the offseason, so it is strange to see him sit so quietly, even though the Giants did just win the Series.

GBB's MVP Picks: With the league MVP selections just around the corner, I wanted to put in my picks before anything went official.

AL MVP: Josh Hamilton, OF Texas: The dude hit .360 with power and run production while playing a gold glove cf while carrying the Rangers to playoffs for the first time in years. Take him off that Texas team and they're a .500 at best ballclub. With, they almost won a World Series.
2nd Place: Miguel Cabrera, Detroit
3rd Place: Robinson Cano, New York

NL MVP: Joey Votto, OF Cincinnati: Can't really decide between him and Pujols so I can't wait to see who wins this one. I'll go with Votto just because he really carried that Reds team and they beat out the Cards in the Central.
2nd Place: Albert Pujols, St. Louis
3rd Place: Carlos Gonzalez, Colorado