Juan Uribe is catnip to Brian Sabean: the Giants should pass on both of them

It happens almost every year: the Giants, for reasons clear only to them, sign some 30 year-old (or older) hitter to a silly contract based on a career year and some pie-in-the-sky sense that he’ll do it again. The candidate for 2010: Juan Uribe:

There exists a player who sounds as though he wants to be a Giant next year. This year, he is hitting .299 in 378 at-bats. Project his numbers over 500 at-bats and he would have 20 homers and 70 RBIs.

His on-base-plus-slugging percentage (OPS) as an everyday player since Aug. 1 is 1.011. To put that in context, the only National Leaguers over 1.000 for the entire season are Albert Pujols and Prince Fielder. He is a favorite among fans and teammates.

I’ll pass on the Pujols/Fielder comparison because I’m trying to give up my ducks-in-a-barrel addiction and simply note that Uribe is putting up numbers like nothing he’s done in his nine seasons in Major League Baseball. Seriously, his OBP over the past four seasons has been .296, .284, .257, and .301. His lifetime OBP is .299. By any measure, by any way you slice and dice it, his current season is the very definition of a fluke. He has a touch of pop in his bat and can play two or three positions so he has some use as a utility guy, but he’s not the sort of dude you make a point of going after in the offseason.

Like Uribe, Giant GM Brian Sabean’s contract is up after the season. The fact that a 30 year-old fluke is sitting out there, just waiting to be given a $5M+ salary by Sabes is reason enough to find a new general manager.