The San Francisco Giants made a trade on Friday that could improve their chances of success vs. bookmaker baseball odds. The Giants made a trade with Kansas City and acquired outfielder Jose Guillen for a player to be named later and cash. The Giants are listed with 12-1 offshore betting odds to win the World Series.
Bookmaker odds list the San Diego Padres and San Francisco Giants with similar odds to win the World Series since they are the top two teams in the National League West. The Giants are hoping that the addition of Guillen will help their offense. San Francisco is just 18th in the league in runs scored per game. Guillen was hitting .255 with 16 home runs and 62 RBI in 106 games for the Royals. Kansas City had designated Guillen for assignment which meant they had to trade or release him. The Royals overpaid for Guillen three years ago as they signed him to a $36 million, three-year contract. He had decent numbers for Kansas City but was never the superstar that the Royals thought he would be. Since joining the Royals in 2008, Guillen hit just .256.
San Francisco is planning on playing Guillen in right field and that might be interesting considering Guillen is not a very good defensive player. The Giants are looking at an outfield that has Pat Burrell and Jose Guillen at the corners and neither player is known for their defense. Guillen does add some power though as the Giants leading home run hitter this season is Aubrey Huff who has 16. The Giants are 17th in the league in home runs this season.
The Giants have been winning with pitching. They are 3rd in the league in ERA. The Giants are also third in the league in quality starts and they are first in the league in strikeouts. San Francisco is coming off a big series with San Diego over the weekend but now they head out on the road for a six-game trip. They begin with a very tough three games at Philadelphia where they have to face Roy Oswalt on Tuesday. They then go to St. Louis to play the Cardinals for three games over the weekend.