BY ANDREW BAGGARLY ON NOVEMBER 7TH, 2011

Just finished the conference call with Brian Sabean, Bruce Bochy and Melky Cabrera. Here are the main news points, including some offseason news on Pablo Sandoval. I’ll follow up with another post that goes in greater detail.

–The Giants actively shopped Sanchez at the end of the season. There wasn’t much action on him but Cabrera “was the best name available to us,” Sabean said. The GM added despite years of rumors, the club was never close to trading Sanchez until now.

–The Giants aren’t ready to say where Cabrera will play or hit, but Sabean said he’s comfortable putting him in center field. The scouting reports on his defense were adequate.

–No comment on how this move will affect Andres Torres. Ditto for whether the Giants will seek another No.5 starter to compete with Barry Zito and Eric Surkamp. Sabean said the matter merits more discussion before the GM meetings. As for Carlos Beltran, Sabean said, “We’ll see and that’s one of the things we need to do to: Reconvene on where else we’ll spread our money.”

–The Giants see a player coming into his prime who finally learned the value of conditioning. Cabrera said his career year was a result of weight training in Miami, which he’ll do again this winter. He used Alex Rodriguez’s batting cage.

–Bruce Bochy’s assessment: “He’s the type of player we need on this ballclub. He’s a run producer. He scores runs and also has the ability to knock in runs. He’s 27 years old and it looks like he’s coming into his own. He can hit at the top of the order. He can steal a base. He’s athletic and can play anywhere in the outfield. It’s hard to say where he will hit in the order and maybe even where he’s going to play in the outfield until we get to spring training, but he’s the type of player this club needs. He crosses home plate and that’s a need here.”

–The Giants have scouted 26-year-old Cuban defector Yoenis Cespedes, who is getting a lot of attention. But the club will not be active in pursuing him.

–What will the Giants do at shortstop? Well, Brandon Crawford “has done nothing to hurt his chances (in the Arizona Fall League),” Sabean said. But the decision on whether to get another shortstop hasn’t been made. As I mentioned earlier, the strong leaning is to give Crawford the job if the Giants get enough offense from other sources. My prediction: If they re-sign Beltran, Crawford will be at short.

–It’s important to note that the acquisition of Cabrera, a free agent after 2012, will not block top center field prospect Gary Brown. Brown was given a break toward the end of the Arizona Fall League schedule because he was sick and run down. But he does not have Valley Fever, Sabean said.

–Cabrera said he’s excited to be a Giant and will contribute however he’s asked. He struggled in his lone NL season in Atlanta for 2010, and looked awful at the plate in the NLDS against the Giants. In Spanish, he said, “I had a bad year. That wasn’t me.”

–As for Sanchez, his contributions will earn him a place in franchise history. But it’s clear the Giants had no appetite in tendering him a contract, especially after he showed little interest in pitching again after spraining his ankle in August.

“We certainly were right in not trading him (in the past), not that we had anything close to a possibility,” Sabean said. “But quite frankly, because of his year this year, there really wasn’t a lot of (trade) action or conversation with him. He did a great job and we all know his arm speaks for itself. He pitched a lot of big games for us. I’m sure he’ll move forward in his career and become an even better pitcher. It didn’t help that he couldn’t come back at the end of the year, both in our picture and it probably dampened other opportunities.”

–As for Pablo Sandoval, Bochy said he asked him in Taiwan if he’d gained weight since the season ended. Sandoval said no, he was the same weight, and pledged to arrive even lighter than when he showed up in camp last spring. He asked for and received permission to play 10 games in the Venezuelan winter league. He’ll leave on Dec. 10.

“I respect and trust that Pablo will come in the same shape he did last year,” Bochy said.

–Sandoval tested his strained shoulder in Taiwan by taking a few right-handed swings in the cage. “He feels he could bat right-handed right now but we’re being a little cautious,” Bochy said. “It seems like it’s healed up quite well and he’s optimistic that strained shoulder is behind him and he’ll be all set to go.”

And what about that clip of Pablo chasing a ball in left field? What was up with that?

“I’d put him out there for one inning,” Bochy said. “He said he always wanted to play outfield so I put him out there and sure enough, the first ball hit was to the wall. It was a close game so I put him at third base the next inning.”