I have seen a rabid anti-Dye sentiment, maybe not on this board, maybe on somewhat more cynical discussion boards that I frequent, but it has been pretty strong.

The reasons for being anti-Dye are his defense, his age, and his horrible second half. For most of the off-season I agreed with these opinions, but lately I have gradually changed my opinion because of things I have seen or read.

The first: I was checking out the Mychael Urban chat (slow work week) and someone asked him to pick from a list of remaining free agents not named Holliday. The list was Podsednik, Beltre, Dye, Tejada, LaRoche, Delgado, Overbay, Burrell.

Before Urban answered I was looking at this list and thinking who would I pick and Dye jumped out for a number of reasons. He is an actual #4 hitter (more on that later), he doesn't have a big injury concern like Delgado, he wouldn't cost a lot in trade or dollars (Overbay, Burrell, Beltre). But more than anything, it was just the idea of him hitting behind Pablo in AT&T. I'd say, from that standpoint, both Burrell and Delgado would be close seconds, but given the injury of Delgado and the cost of Burrell I would have to give Dye the nod.

Btw, Urban said Dye too, but his reasons were sort of lame, like he said Dye was a good fielder and could play RF, so let's address that.

I would not put Dye in RF at the phone booth, that would be disasterous. Dye's agent said at the beginning of the offseason that he was willing to play first. I would have to see how he did, but that would give the Giants a lot of options on any given day.

Dye is probably a better fielder in both the outfield and at first than Burrell, not that that is saying much.

So, the last issue is his hitting. I was watching Hot Stove on MLB Network.

Aside: who has changed their image more in the last two decades than Mitch Williams, I would have expected him to be more like the dude from Eastbound and Down than a tv talking head.

Anyway, they brought up Dye. In fact they threw up the stats of Damon, Dye and Holliday. They basically said for the money Dye was the best hitter on the market. Not sure I agree, but they made an interesting case. One of them pointed out how Dye might have something to prove a la Abreu last year. Then they pulled up his stats divided into the first half and the second.

In the first half he played 81 games had a line of 302/375/567, 20 hrs, 55 rbi. He did have slightly high 322 BAbip. His second half was horrible, but he did have an unusually low 195 BAbip.

My point is, even at 35, I don't think your career ends like that. You don't go from his first half line to career over in one season. I think Dye still has something left in the tank, and as currently consituted, the Giants will give him a lot of opportunity to rest over the course of the season.

My last thought, if you are the Giants, with this staff, why wouldn't you go after Holliday, regardless of the cost. Maybe they don't think he is that good, that's a possibility. I also think that they expect to have some impact players rising through the system very soon. I think a bridge to those young players like Dye is the right path.

The counter arguement to Dye is LaRoche (maybe Delgado if you think he is healthy). I am very concerned with what LaRoche's numbers will look like in AT&T. I think he would struggle offensively much more than Dye might.

I haven't seen many anti-Dye posts here, so maybe I am preaching to the choir, but that's my 2 cents.