Giants shopping for a first baseman

San Francisco Giants’ GM Brian Sabean said on his weekly radio show that the team is still searching for a left-handed hitting first baseman. The Giants have had conversations within the organization on different players, the two main candidates would be Washington Nationals Nick Johnson and Atlanta Braves Scott Thorman. Both were on the trading block during the off-season and spring training, but are they still available?

I doubt the Nationals would look to dealing Johnson. Johnson has had an amazing start to the season after missing all of 2007 due to injury. He’s been playing first daily again and it looks like the Nationals are very happy with him. So you would have to think the Giants won’t even inquire about him. If they do, I’m sure the Nationals requirements have gone up since the spring ended.

The most likely one out of the two is Thorman. Thorman is currently in AAA and won’t even be recalled to Atlanta unless there is an injury or a major slump. Remember, the Braves have Mark Texeira at first so where would Thorman play? At the moment, the Braves are looking to find a trading partner FOR Thorman. Seems like a perfect match to me. The Giants could easily send an average middle reliever and get the left-handed 1B they seek.

The person who loses out the most in this is Dan Ortmeier, a switch-hitter, is currently the teams left-handed hitting 1B. Ortmeier has pretty much gotten no opportunity to start the season as Rich Aurilia continues to start ahead of him. Guess the team must have lost faith in the 26-year older. Not quite sure why thou as he did have 17 extra base hits (6 of them homers) in just 157 at-bats, he’s even got pretty good speed tallying 4 triples .

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Tags: Atlanta Braves, MLB, San Francisco Giants, Washington Nationals