| Christopher Reina. 7th January, 2009 - 9:36 pm
 Under the logic of circularity and memory lane, the A's and Jason Giambi have reunited just after his seven-year mission in the Bronx concluded.
I always thought the boos he received upon his returns to Oakland were especially unfair; their ownership could never seriously afford what he would command in the open market, and he even wore A's colors during his introductory press conference when he first put on pinstripes.
His stay in New York was a failure from the standpoint of being no closer to a ring than he was in 2001 and 2002 despite one World Series appearance and an additional 104 postseason at bats. He also was controversially involved in PED's and had multiple performance highs and lows.
Contracts are clearly for future performance and the A's have made a very sound investment in Giambi, which will pay him $4.5 million in 2009 and $5 million in 2010 unless they buy him out for $1 million.
In 2008, Giambi hit 32 homers, slugged over .500 and probably most importantly, played 145 games, which was his most since 2003. He was ranked 124th in FIC and 'deserved' to make $7.5 million. His FIC based performance puts him ahead of players such as Ryan Howard, Adam Dunn, J.D. Drew and Pat Burrell.
The suspected decline of age and taint of PEDs has made Giambi a candidate to be the most affordable free market player in the game over the next two years.
Even though I live in the Bay Area, I'm not particularly in touch with the pulse of A's fans, but if I'm excited about his return, I would have to strongly assume that they are as well and his presence in the middle of their lineup should give them a much needed spike in attendance. They were ranked 13th out of 14 teams in the American League in that category, drawing $1.67 million fans.
The A's were ranked last in the AL in slugging and OBP in 2008, but with the additions of Matt Holliday and Giambi, as well as the prayerful health of Eric Chavez, their once feeble lineup has some teeth on their bats and may compete with the winter-weakened Angels.
Grade for Oakland: A |
