BY ANDREW BAGGARLY ON NOVEMBER 7TH, 2011

There’s a lot of good analysis out there following the Giants’ trade today that sent Jonathan Sanchez and minor league lefty Ryan Verdugo to the Royals for Melky Cabrera.

I’ll start out by telling you what this trade wasn’t:

It wasn’t the Giants finally breaking up their rotation to get a hitter. Trading Sanchez did no such thing. If you listened to GM Brian Sabean’s comments carefully today, he said he began shopping Sanchez immediately after the season ended. He lamented that Sanchez’s inability (or unwillingness) to pitch again after spraining his ankle in August “probably dampened other opportunities.”

In other words, the Giants long ago determined that they didn’t want Sanchez back at his $5-6 million price point for next season. When you trade a guy you no longer want, that isn’t breaking up the rotation. That’s using your resources.

Sure, it’s a bit scary to think of Barry Zito or Eric Surkamp as the No.5 starter behind Tim Lincecum, Matt Cain, Madison Bumgarner and Ryan Vogelsong. But I do think the Giants will find another pitcher or two, at least to provide competition in the spring.

Who knows? Maybe the Giants discover that Roy Oswalt really, really wants to spend a season in San Francisco. When you play half your games at AT&T Park, it’s always easier to attract a veteran starter looking to get a short-term bounce into a better position to make money a year from now. (Even a few weeks can do the trick, in Brad Penny’s case.)

Anyway, Sanchez’s time with the Giants had passed. He’ll be 29 soon and he remained as frustrating as ever with his lackadaisical attitude and high walks totals. I know he received a lecture from coaches in July after telling me he felt “unappreciated here” and that he didn’t expect to come off the disabled list till September.

Sure, Sanchez’s strikeout rate and OBA remain among the best in baseball. The statistical set love his FIP. But ask his fielders if they’re impressed with his FIP while they’re standing around as he walks hitters on a cold night.

Numbers by themselves don’t win games, and if you watched Sanchez pitch, he didn’t always compete so well. When he was struggling earlier in the season, he was asked about possibly getting skipped in the rotation. Hs response? “I’m the No.2 starter. I don’t feel any pressure about it.”

When I asked him last spring about leading the NL in walks, and whether he felt motivated to cut down the free passes — a softball question if ever one existed — Sanchez surprised reporters by saying no, he was fine pitching the way he’s pitched in the past.

“If I walk two guys and get a ground-ball double play, hey, the inning is over,” he said.

Sanchez’s attitude was understandable in one respect: He pitched away from contact because he had to. With a continual lack of run support, he simply couldn’t afford to give in. And in a few very important games, he didn’t. When the Giants needed Sanchez to step up in Game 162 a year ago, he faced down the same Padres team who frustrated him all season. Yep, he walked six batters. But he beared down and pitched the Giants to a division-clinching victory over Mat Latos. He made his own brash prediction come through.

It’s a reminder that Sanchez’s best moments as a Giant weren’t merely good. They were historic. You could argue that his no-hitter in 2009 — the first by a Giant in 35 years — was the first glint of hope that brought them out of nearly four seasons of darkness.

But he went the other direction in 2011. He needed a change of scenery as much as the Giants needed a hitter. If he hasn’t put it together by now, under Dave Righetti’s constant tutelage, it’s not a very good bet that he’ll be a better pitcher in 2012. And with his salary only going up and up, that bet involves putting a lot more chips in the middle — chips better saved for Matt Cain and Tim Lincecum.

Sanchez remains an interesting upside play for a team like the Royals, who are starved for pitching. They have top prospect Lorenzo Cain to plug into center, and they probably weren’t going to re-sign Cabrera beyond this season. So it’s a trade of players who, because of the time and place, had become imperfect fits. It’s a trade that could help both teams.

One thing is for sure: Whenever Sanchez finds himself back at AT&T Park again, the applause will be strong and sustained. And deservedly so.

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Several folks have pointed out the similarity between Cabrera’s 2011 numbers and Andres Torres’ stats from his breakout season in 2010.

Two major differences there: Torres was 32 when he had his big season. Cabrera was 26. And Torres, even at his best, was seen as a platoon player who was much stronger from the left side. Cabrera hit better than .300 from both sides of the plate last year.

I remember seeing Cabrera with Atlanta in the NLDS and it looked like he was swinging underwater. Buster Posey kept calling for fastballs because he knew Cabrera couldn’t catch up to 90 mph. Same was true for most of that banged-up Braves team. But Cabrera said on today’s conference call that he was out of shape, so it stood to reason that he had nothing left in October. He got his wakeup call and had a big season in Kansas City. Now that he’s a year away from free agency, he’ll be more motivated than ever to have another huge year and set himself up for a hefty contract. The timing works out well for the Giants. They’re in need of some huge offensive numbers, if you haven’t noticed. And they’ll pay Cabrera less in arbitration than what Sanchez was going to make.

So this has the potential to be a terrific deal for the Giants. They addressed one major hole in the lineup without signing an expensive free agent. Who knows? Maybe the Cabrera move will convince Carlos Beltran to re-sign, too. You could do worse than a lineup that looks like this:

CF Melky Cabrera
2B Freddy Sanchez
LF Carlos Beltran
C Buster Posey
3B Pablo Sandoval
1B Brandon Belt/Aubrey Huff
RF Nate Schierholtz/Cody Ross
SS Brandon Crawford
P

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If you’re unfamiliar with Ryan Verdugo, he’s kind of like a minor league version of Sanchez with a lower ceiling. He has an uncanny ability to miss bats. But he also is capable of walking the ballpark. Verdugo had a nice year when stretched out to start at Double-A Richmond and he’s likely to be a big league contributor in relief, at least.

In terms of his background, Verdugo bears some similarity to closer Brian Wilson. He pitched at LSU and was drafted after having Tommy John surgery.

I had him ranked No.32 — just missing my top-30 list of Giants prospects in my annual report that I turned in to Baseball America on Friday. So I’m happy I won’t have to write up another guy to replace him. The top-10 will be revealed on Dec. 14; the whole chapter will be in the annual Prospect Handbook.

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In case you were wondering, the Elias rankings came out last week. Major League Baseball uses those rankings to determine Type A and B status for free agents. (Or if they have any status at all.) That status determines whether clubs are entitled to compensatory draft picks.

These annual rankings are so out of whack it isn’t even funny. Darren Oliver is Type A while Aramis Ramirez is Type B. Relievers are always overvalued because it’s done by positional grouping. They really should find another way to do this.

Anyhow, the only Giants free agent who qualified as Type A was Carlos Beltran. Ordinarily, the Giants would get a first-round pick as well as a supplemental first-rounder for losing Beltran as a free agent. But his contract forbids the Giants from offering him arbitration, which is tied to getting the pick. So the Giants will receive squat if Beltran signs elsewhere.

Type B free agents net their former clubs a supplemental first-round pick, and there are two Type Bs who finished the year in San Francisco: Pat Burrell and Cody Ross.

Burrell is likely to retire, so no extra picks there. As for Ross, I’m hearing there’s a chance he might return as a fourth outfielder and platoon partner for Nate Schierholtz. It’ll depend on how the market shapes up for him. But to get a pick, the the Giants would have to offer him arbitration and he’d have to decline it. Given that Ross made $6.3 million last year and couldn’t receive more than a 20 percent pay cut through arbitration, it’s pretty clear that sequence of events ain’t happening.

Bottom line: No extra draft picks for the Giants in June. They’ll pick 20th overall in the first round.