Was the San Francisco Giants signing Aubrey Huff to a two-year deal the right move? It depends on who you ask, Giants fans seem to be in love with this guy for the Rally Thong and for him being an integral part of winning the World Series. But does that make him worth $22 million? Probably not. Bill James 2011 projections have him as a .269/.348/.453 hitter that will hit about 19 homeruns and drive in 68. Would you pay a guy that does that $11 million per? I don’t think so.
Keith Law seems to agree as well. On Law’s blog (Insider required), he says the Giants made a huge mistake by resigning Huff when they have Brandon Belt in the wings. Here’s an excerpt from his blog post:
The San Francisco Giants, meanwhile, made the worst mistake a GM can make after winning the World Series -- they're overpaying one of the guys who got them there, just because he got them there. After pulling a left-for-dead Huff off the scrap pile last offseason and getting far more than they paid for from him in 2010, the Giants re-upped Huff for two years and a vesting option at more than twice the annual salary they gave him on the just-expired one-year deal. I've outlined many times why I think Huff's 2010 season was a fluke, from the fact that he's 33 to his regression in the final two months (plus October) to his history of bad defense at several positions, and paying him more than he's likely to be worth just ten months after nobody wanted the guy makes little sense. It's worse when you consider that's best prospect, Brandon Belt, is a first baseman who finished the year in AAA and was the best everyday player in the Arizona Fall League. There's every indication that he'll be ready for a major league role by midyear. The Giants have to put one of these two in left field, unless they intend to use Belt as trade bait for something else, but the ideal move was to let Huff walk if he wanted more than a year, given his age and the big performance risk in giving him a multi-year deal. San Francisco
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