The San Francisco Giants are going to be aiming really high in the trade market this week. They want a big time offensive player for the outfield with Ryan Ludwick, Carlos Beltran, Alfonso Soriano, Hunter Pence and B.J. Upton. None of those guys are going to come cheaply but the Giants are willing to move pretty good prospects to get one of them. There isn’t much available on the trade market at catcher and shortstop but I could see the Giants making offers to the Royals for Mike Aviles (2B,SS and 3B) and to the Cubs for catcher Geovany Soto. It will be interesting to see what the Giants do because they need more hitting if they want to repeat as World Series Champions in 2011.

I don’t think the Giants need to make huge changes heading into the trade deadline. But I would make three small deals that would help them in the last couple of months of the season. First off I would offer 28-year old switch hitting IF/OF Eugenio Velez and 26-year old lefty swinging 1B/OF John Bowker to the Cleveland Indians for outfielder Austin Kearns. I would then offer 26-year old outfielder Nate Schierholtz and 26-year old infielder Matt Downs to the A’s for Jack Cust. Kearns can play some CF and you could always platoon Kearns and Cust in RF which I would think would be a productive pairing. Finally I would offer 27-year old righty starter/reliever Joe Martinez to the Orioles for lefty reliever Mark Hendrickson. Adding Kearns, Cust and Hendrickson might not sound too sexy but they would make the Giants a better team.

The Giants are 42-40 on the season which has them in 4th place in the N.L. West, 7 games behind the Padres. The Giants are wasting too much good pitching and they can get on a roll with the addition of a big bat for either RF or 1B. Jose Bautista, Luke Scott, Jose Guillen, Jorge Cantu, Cody Ross, Corey Hart, Prince Fielder, Derek Lee, Lance Berkman and Adam LaRoche are the players who make the most sense. If the Giants get one of these players they will make the playoffs…….mark my words.

With the Giants being at fully near strength with the return of Freddy Sanchez and Edgar Renteria I think they should make a move for a RF. Luke Scott (Orioles), Austin Kearns (Indians) and David DeJesus (Royals) will likely all be available at the trade deadline or before. Of those three I think that Luke Scott would cost you the most but he is probably the best player. I think the Royals would jump at the chance to get someone like Sergio Romo from the Giants. But in the end, Austin Kearns would be the cheapest route in terms of what the Giants would have to give up to get him. With that in mind I would trade with the Indians who would likely be willing to take Eugenio Velez and Ryan Rohlinger for him.

The Detroit Tigers might be looking to move left fielder Marcus Thames. If they are then the Giants should be interested in making an offer for him. Emmanuel Burriss and Merkin Valdez would likely be enough to get the job done for Thames. Thames has huge power but he has always been platooned. He could probably hit 30-40 homers with full time at bats and that’s what he would likely get with the Giants. The great thing about getting a player like Thames is that the Giants would also have more than enough money left in the budget to find a big bat for RF and 1B.