Affeldt Deal Finalized

With the completion of his physical, the Giants will finalize a 3 year 18 million dollar contract to retain the services of one of the best left handed setup men in the game, Jeremy Affeldt. Although six million a year may seem like a bit much, you can't under-estimate how valuable Affeldt is for the Giants. He has been one of the best in the game for the past 5-6 seasons and has never suffered any significant arm issues. Some have second guessed signing him until he is 36 but I expect his arm to hold up fine and I think that is well in line with what the market commands.

The Giants should also finalize a new contract for Marco Scutaro this week and when that is complete it will only leave Angel Pagan as the final unsigned critical component to this past season's title run. With the depth of the free agent outfield class, and Pagan's insistence on testing the market, I expect for this one to go unresolved for quite some time. The Giants have touched base with Nick Swisher but I strongly doubt they would bring him in without signing another outfielder as well. As for Hamilton, the Phillies have gotten a lot of attention as the team for him but I find that hard to believe unless they were to move Cliff Lee's contract.