When a team wins two World Series in three years, every promotional bobblehead day becomes big news. I’m looking forward to the one that depicts Gregor Blanco making that diving catch during Matt Cain’s perfect game, because you just KNOW it’s coming. Yes, little stories or even non-stories become stories that draw attention, because everyone loves a winner.

Not to denigrate bobbleheads, but the Giants actually made news for legitimate reasons twice over the last two days.

Brian Sabean isn’t letting Hunter Pence go

I was almost 100% sure this would happen, but it’s still interesting to hear the General Manager speak with this kind of certainty.

“Pence is going to be coming back,” Sabean said at the general managers’ meetings. “We think there are some things he can do to fix what went wrong this year. We like the player. We made a big trade to get him, and he’s going to be a Giant next year.”

The similarities between Pence and Aaron Rowand are many, and they’re mind-bummering. Over the last six months, anyway. There’s the Philadelphia connection, with that gravity-free alien station known as Citizens Bank Ballpark. The whole “gamer” idea that Pence, like Rowand, could leave part of his face on an outfield wall at any time. And, of course, the inability to come to the plate with any type of discernible plan or ability to discern which sliders are better left alone.

But Pence still hit home runs during his brief time as a Giant, and his batting average on balls in play was .261 with San Francisco, significantly lower than his career BABIP of .321. Plus, the Giants gave up a perfectly decent outfielder (one who requested a trade, but still) and a good power-hitting catching prospect to get Pence, so letting him stroll to warmer pastures like Carlos Beltran last year makes little sense when the Giants can have the final say in where Pence ends up.

If Buster Posey ever runs into financial trouble (which will never happen), he’ll have no shortage of cool things to put on eBay

Posey won his first Silver Slugger award, something that shouldn’t come as a surprise since he led all NL qualified catchers in average, on-base percentage and slugging. This is just a warmup for Posey’s eventual MVP trophy, which will come next week.

Also, I found this article called “Odds to Win 2012 National League MVP Award” on a site called Bet Firms. I don’t know the writer’s credentials or if the article was meant to provide anything in the way of substance beyond an SEO-friendly headline, but Posey and Pence had the same odds: +2500.