I was perusing mlbtraderumors.com and came across the chat they had yesterday.  It seemed that more than one Giants fan believed that Jonathan Sanchez would be made available this offseason in a bid to get infield help, specifcally power hitting corner infield help.  They have pitching coming up through the pipelines with the likes of Madison Bumgardner(or is it Roenhauser? Gardenhoser?) so the fans think Sabean my spin Sanchez for a young power hitting CI.  The guy that runs mlbtraderumors.com implied that they may wait to trade him till next year's trade deadline, just to make sure their young pitchers can handle AAA first and show they are ready for the bigs.

My suggestion is to trade somebody for Sanchez.  I'll talk about who that somebody could/should be later.  First, I'll focus on Sanchez.

According to Cott's, he had just under 2 years of ML service, so I think he is under team control for 4 more years, with arbitration starting after next season.  That is a good thing that will probably drive his cost up a bit.  His numbers look pretty good, even though his ERA is a little high.  His peripherals are good enough that you can see his upside and his FIP is somewhat encouraging.  Maybe in front of a little better defense, that ERA will drop.  These numbers, his age, and his cheapness make him a solid option as a number 3/4 type starter.  Trading for him would obviously be cheaper financially and in terms of draft picks that signing a Derek Lowe, AJ Burnett type.  I don't know anything about his mechanics and he did have a trip to the DL this season with some rotator cuff tightness, but besides that, I can't find any other signs of injury.  Someone who knows pitching mechanics may be able to better speak to what kind of injury risk he may or may not be.

A rotation of Carp, Waino, Welly, Sanchez, insert name here(Boggs, Looper, Piniero, McClellan?) looks pretty solid to me.  Sanchez's Southpawedness balances it out nicely.  Plus, if he does not cut it as a starter, then you have a cheap LH reliever who held Lefties to a .220 average this season(though they did slug .409 against him...ughh).

Now to the question of who to trade for him.  The Giants seem to be looking for power hitting CI's.  Fortunately for the Cardinals, we have a surplus of those type players in our system.  Steve Hill(1B?), Allen Craig(3B), David Freese(3B), and Brett Wallace(3B) all fit the bill.  I'm not going to mention Brett Wallace anymore because I don't think we can trade him until June, and even then, right now, he's untouchable for me.  That leaves Hill, Craig, and Freese.  I think Hill's lack of a true position could cause problems, but I also think that he can play 1B and know that he can mash.  Craig plays an average to above average 3B and call also mash.  Freese plays a good 3B and can mash and hit for a pretty good average.  His MLE is .264/.318/.446 with 19 HR, which is not a lot worse than what Glaus has put up in St. Louis this season.  I actually think that Freese's average would be slightly higher than that(along with a bump in OBP).  I don't know exactly what the Giants want, but I'm guessing they want a major league ready player.  Hill and Craig are not, but I believe Freese could definitely hold his own as the starting 3B for a team like the Giants.  Would Freese be enough to pry Sanchez away? Would we need to throw in a C-level prosepect to make it work?  Maybe even one of our flamethrowing RH relievers we have in the minors?  I don't know, but I definitely think that Mo should call Sabean and try to work out a deal.

I'd hate to see Freese go, because I think he could be a valuable reserve for the Cards next season.  But I think by trading for Sanchez, we could save money to make a run at Furcal or Hudson, which would go long way in helping our MI and offense.  Plus it would give us at least 4 cheap years of a solid #3 starter.  Dave Duncan does scare me with young lefties though.

Thoughts?