Our Holiday Wish to SF Giants Nation

This holiday we want the lonely to find company; sick to gain health; sad to find levity, unemployed to find work; broken-hearted to endure; and another San Francisco Giants World Championship parade down Market Street in 2013.

Happy Holidays to you and yours. Go Giants!

The Sons of Johnnie LeMaster

Our Wish List of 2013 SF Giants Promo Items

Each season the SF Giants compiles a promotional calendar to entice the masses to attend a game and walk away with a nifty souvenir (aka the stadium giveaway) to take home compliments of (fill in the name of any sponsor). In recent years, the bobbleheads have been all the rage, and this past season the gnome giveaways leapt over the bobbleheads as the must-have giveaway items.

Now with the club fresh off a 2012 World Championship, it's safe to say we'll have a 2013 promo calendar themed around the World Championship. Sure, we'll get the good old standard giveaways: calendar, schedule magnet, cap, baseball cards, and few bobbleheads tossed in. But how about something different?

Here's our list of giveaway items that we would schedule if we were in charge of the promo schedule ...

• Inflatable replica of the Commissioner's Trophy ... fans could bring this to every home and ROAD games - especially down in LA. We could remind all opponents who the defending champs are!
• Replica National League MVP trophy - let's celebrate with Buster by having a replica trophy can we can hang on to.
• Continuing on the trophy theme ... have a replica World Series MVP trophy day in honor of Pablo.
• Again, with the trophy theme ... have a replica National League Championship Series MVP trophy day in honor of MARCOOOOOOOO ... SCUTARO!
• World Championship themed FatHead stickers that we can take to Kinko's and put on cardboard stock to bring them to the games.
• Juan Marichal replica statue ... you know this is gonna happen.
• Cow bells with the World Championship logo ... can you imagine the bleachers ringing the cow bells when Matt Holliday is playing LF!? "Holllllliday!" 
• Plastic batting helmet with the World Champs logo ... what happened to those plastic helmets?! They use to give them out a the 'Stick! Maybe some fans actually used them as a batting helmet in a game :-/
• Wrist bands with the caricature of Buster Posey, Mr. MVP! Remember when ball players had wrist bands with their likeness on them?!
• SF Giants World Champs Twitter themed shirt with #RallyZito #RallyVogey #RallyBum #RallyCain #RallyEnchiladas
• Another SF Giants shirt that says, "It's the San Francisco Giants show so far!" @therealmattkemp
• Hat clips with World Champs logo
• And finallllly ... World Champs logo thongs for the ladies (and for Aubrey Huff)!!!!

Whatcha all think? Awesome, right!? We should work for the promo department.

Our Fearless Offseason Predictions for the SF Giants

Well, it appears we have Jeremy Affeldt back into the fold after hearing that he had agreed to terms (3yrs for $18M) with the club. That's the market for middle relievers folks ... nice work if you can get it.

But we digress ... so how will the rest of the roster look heading into spring training of next year.

So here's the list of SF Giants that are either free agents or arbitration eligible:

FREE AGENTS:

• Melky Cabrera: He earned $6M this past season, but the club wants no part of this act or circus for 2013 ... he'll sign with another club for 2-yr deal worth around $8-10.
• Freddy Sanchez: He earned $6M this past season to essentially work out in Phoenix and then fly up to SF for some postseason games to watch from the dugout. Freddy, thanks for 2010, but adios!
• Angel Pagan: we think he's looking for "Aaron Rowand money" <gasp> ... we got chills just typing that. But coming off a World Championship he's looking to cash in ... we think he'll sign elsewhere for a three-year deal.
• Ryan Theriot: the man that Marco Scutaro replaced. I'm sure he's looking for a starting job somewhere, and SF doesn't appear to be a fit. If he's willing to return as a backup, the Giants will sign him, but that seems unlikely.
• Guillermo Mota: he earned $1M this past season ... even though he was suspended, he still has value as low cost alternative. Our guess the Giants will sign to another one-year deal just under $1.5M.
• Marco Scutaro: we expect the club to resign him to a two-year $17M deal, with a club option for a third year.

ARBITRATION ELIGIBLE:

• Brian Wilson, last year of arbitration: our guess is that BWeezy will be wearing a new uniform next season. He earned $8.5M in 2012, and take only a slight pay cut for 2013. The risk is too great for the Giants to resign him ... they'll let him walk.
• We expect the following guys to have some raises next season ... Santiago Casilla, Sergio Romo, Buster Posey, and Gregor Blanco.

FEARLESS AND BOLD HOT STOVE MOVES

• We expect the Giants to get a CF via trade, so this is our forecast ... drum roll please ... the Giants will trade Tim Lincecum to Boston for Jacoby Ellsbury.
• LF will be platooned by Blanco and Gary Brown.
• The club will look for an inexpensive fifth starter, think Jason Marquis or a return of Kevin Correia.
• The team will look for another middle reliever, think Joe Rauch on a two-year deal worth around $6-7M.
• A trade of one of the two Brandons will take place to bolster either the 1B or SS position.

So that's it! This is what we guess will pan out in the weeks and months to come. How close will we be, who knows, but you'll know changes are a coming. What are your guesses on what might happen in the offseason?