Knee-jerk Reaction -- Confounding

by SonDog

I waited for the news on Friday that Shea Hillenbrand was coming to the Giants. Seriously, I checked ESPN all day after reading Buster Olney's blog this morning that the Giants were considered the favorites to land the man who's manager challenged to a fight. Since his dust-up with the Blue Jays, I had a feeling that the moody infielder would soon be a San Francisco Giant. It made too much sense, given the Giants needs, for this trade not to happen.

That being said, I am saddened, shocked and somewhat pissed that Brian Sabean gave up Jeremy Accardo in this deal. While Accardo has been somewhat inconsistent the last two years, he's a guy who has at times looked unhittable. At 25 years old, Accardo is the type of pitcher that the Giants should be building around as they go through their 2007 rebuilding year. At worst, Accardo is a solid 7th/8th inning guy who could get you to your closer. At best, Accardo is Joe Nathan - Part Duex.

In Hillenbrand, the Giants get a guy who will probably walk at the end of the year, or go ape-shit before that time if the Giants fail to remember his birthday. For a rent-a-player with marginal power at best, the Giants gave up way too much.

It makes me think, if the Giants had packaged Steve Kline and Accardo, could they have received Austin Kearns and Felipe Lopez from the Reds a couple of weeks ago? Seems to me that the Reds received comparable relievers in return for the pair of regulars when they traded them to the Nationals.

For Sabean's sake, hopefully Accardo turns out to be nothing more than a margianal reliever and Hillenbrand becomes Jack Clark.