Jeff Fletcher Posts

Footprints in the Snow is FanHouse's look at the paths to be forged by MLB teams this winter as they look ahead to 2010.

The Giants made a nice improvement from 72 victories in 2008 to 88 in 2009, achieved pretty much because of an outstanding pitching staff. The Giants aren't likely to pitch better in 2010 than they did in 2009 -- their 3.55 ERA ranked second in the majors -- so if they are to take the next step, they'll have to find a way to score more runs.

The bad news is, outside of Pablo Sandoval, they don't have a single player on their roster who is a safe bet to perform at an above-average level next year. The good news is that means the Giants have a lot of flexibility in where they can put whatever players they find to upgrade. They seem locked in to Freddy Sanchez at second and, because of their contracts, Edgar Renteria at short and Aaron Rowand in center. Sandoval can play first or third. Other than that, the lineup is a blank slate that GM Brian Sabean can spend the winter completing.

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Since Zack Greinke and Tim Lincecum won Cy Young awards this week with modest victory totals, there has been much discussion about how baseball writers are finally moving into the 21st century and looking beyond the win column.

Although I'm all for patting baseball writers on the back -- since I am one, and I did vote for Greinke -- I think in the case of the NL Cy Young, my colleagues may have looked past victories, and still picked the wrong guy to make their point.

Let's start with the ol' FIP, or Fielding Independent Pitching. FIP is a stat intended to quantify how well a pitcher performed based solely on the things in his control (strikeouts, walks and homers) without regard to the vagaries of the defense behind him.

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Tim Lincecum won his second consecutive Cy Young Award on Thursday, pulling out a narrow victory that is likely to be the story of this awards season.

The Giants' 25-year-old flame-thrower edged out Cardinals' teammates Chris Carpenter and Adam Wainwright in an election that was just as tight and unpredictable as expected, with a twist at the end.

Lincecum (15-7, 2.48) had the fewest victories of any starter to win the Cy Young in a nonstrike season, and he also became only the second pitcher to win the Cy Young without getting the most first-place votes.

Lincecum received 11 first-place votes among the 32 ballots cast, from two writers in each National League city. Wainwright got 12 first-place votes, but he finished third because he had only five second-place votes. Carpenter, the only one of the three who was not named on all 32 ballots, got nine first-place votes and finished second.

Jim Tracy didn't even need a whole season to earn the NL Manager of the Year Award, or to earn a three-year extension.

Tracy, who took over for fired Clint Hurdle in late May, became the second manager to win this award after taking over a team in the middle of the season. The other was Jack McKeon, who took over the Florida Marlins early in 2003 and led them to a World Series title.

Shortly after Wednesday's announcement of the Manager of the Year award, the Rockies announced that Tracy had signed an extension through 2012, which had been expected for a few weeks.

Tracy was picked first on 29 of the 32 ballots submitted, from two writers in each NL city. On a 5-3-1 voting system, Tracy earned a total of 151 points, easily outpolling Cardinals' manager Tony La Russa, who got two first-place votes and 55 points. Dodgers manager Joe Torre finished third, collecting the remaining first-place vote and 33 points. In all, eight managers were named on ballots, and none of them were listed on all 32.

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Footprints in the Snow is FanHouse's look at the paths to be forged by MLB teams this winter as they look ahead to 2010.

Depending on your perspective, the rebuilding plan general manager Billy Beane started after the 2007 season has either worked well or has stalled out. The A's have filled up their organization with young prospects, and they had the makings of a very good young pitching staff last year. However, they still managed to win only 75 games -- the exact same total as the year before -- because their everyday lineup is still in flux.

The only position player who has established himself as the long-term answer at his position is catcher Kurt Suzuki. Otherwise, players like Ryan Sweeney, Cliff Pennington and Rajai Davis have played just well enough to have jobs going into spring training, but not well enough to be considered established.

The good news is the A's gave their young pitchers plenty of opportunity to learn in 2009. They started a pitcher 25 or younger in 147 of their games, most in the majors, and just about all of them showed flashes (or more) of brilliance.

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For the second time in five years, an A's closer has won the American League Rookie of the Year, but this one came as a bit of a surprise.

Andrew Bailey, who was a longshot to even make the team out of spring training, followed 2005 winner Huston Street in taking the award. Bailey had 26 saves and a 1.84 ERA for the A's, earning an All-Star berth along the way. Despite those numbers, he was considered by many to be behind Texas shortstop Elvis Andrus and Tigers pitcher Rick Porcello in the race.

Bailey earned 13 first-place votes among the 28 ballots cast, from two writers in each of the 14 American League cities. Based on a 5-3-1 voting system, Bailey totaled 88 points. Andrus came in second with eight first-place votes and 65 points, followed by Porcello, with seven and 64.

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CHICAGO -- On a day this week when the stock market had one of the encouraging spikes investors have enjoyed more frequently over the past few months, Kenny Williams let out a sarcastic cheer for what it meant to baseball.

"Let's go, let's party," he said. "We've got cash again."

Then, the White Sox general manager quickly returned to reality, at least the version of reality that he and his colleagues have been describing this week at the GM Meetings.

"I don't think it works that way," he said. "We might need to see six months of recovery before we buy into that. We need an advertiser or a sponsor or two to come back to us."

CHICAGO -- Matt Holliday's performance in Oakland last year might have given some American League general managers a reason to be reluctant before ponying up the big bucks for him, but Scott Boras is ready with the answers.

Of course, Holliday's agent has to take that approach, because the two biggest suitors on the market -- the Yankees and Red Sox -- play in the American League.

Boras said the slow start had less to do with Oakland or the American League than it did with Holliday's own swing.

CHICAGO -- Major league general managers either have no interest in expanding the current replay system or they realized the futility in debating something that ultimately owners and commissioner Bud Selig must decide.

Either way, they concluded their first day of formal meetings without any discussion of expanding the system.

Jimmie Lee Solomon, MLB Executive Vice President of Baseball Operations, presided over the Tuesday morning meeting and said that there was discussion about tweaking the current system, but nothing about adding more use of replay.

CHICAGO -- Expansion of instant replay is expected to be one of the topics discussed when baseball general managers begin their formal meetings on Tuesday, but one of its longtime proponents is not optimistic that his group can effect any change.

"Whatever the instant replay discussion is, I'm going to raise my hand [in favor]," said White Sox GM Kenny Williams. "However, I don't know at the end of the day that vote is going to mean much."

This postseason was full of mistakes by umpires, leading to a national debate about whether the use of replay should be expanded beyond its current scope. Williams said he's been pushing for the use of replay for seven or eight years, but he's come to the conclusion that it doesn't matter what he or other general managers want.