Henry Schulman of the San Francisco Chronicle writes the Giants are willing to offer Manny Ramirez a two-year guarantee, maybe.  Scott Boras is looking for a four-year guarantee with a vesting fith year option.  Gernerously, Boras has offered to backload the deal for the Giants.

New to the equation, but old for Boras' case, is a new television network partly owned by the San Francisco Giants.  Boras is looking for a piece of the expected revenue to be considered as resulting from Manny Ramirez' presence on the team.  It is plausible.

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The San Diego Padres signed 2B/OF Chris Burke yesterday.  This is noteworthy because the Padres can offer Burke what he has been unable to receive in his stints with the Houston Astros and Arizona Diamondbacks - a better shot at full-time ABs.

One could argue Burke's .194 AVG last season doesn't merit any ABs, I prefer to focus on the 27 walks in 165 ABs, though.  Incumbent 2B Edgar Gonzalez was a great mid-season recall, but his plate discipline is not nearly as good.  While I enjoy the human interest story of Edgar getting his break at 30 and getting to play with his little brother Adrian, I can't ignore the chances of Edgar Gonzalez seeing more balls in play turning into outs.

Given Burkes' batting eye, a simple improvement in his AVG coupled with a deproved one of Edgar Gonzalez puts Burke in the everyday line-up.