I'm hoping that the Giants will be able to sign LHP Hisanori Takahashi for little scratch. (The Mets didn't come to a deal with him and he became a FA a few days ago.) He started in Japan, but was *mostly* a reliever for the Mets. A decent arm - this year in NY : 122 IP, 12 starts, 1.30 WHIP, 3.61 ERA, 8.41 K/9, .252 BAA, 2.65 K/BB. He had better stats than that in Japan. And his signing (for, say, $3M/yr) would be more than made up for by increased interest in/sales to the Japanese market. If we had Takahashi, Sanchez could be traded this off-season. (BUT, as I have said so many times before, only for a really good package - not just an OK fill-in role player.)