Melky Cabrera: ‘I Love it Here,' ‘Open' to Extension

Chatter built up quickly about the idea of getting free-agent-to-be outfielder Melky Cabrera an extension. And the snowball now appears to be at the bottom of the hill, with Melky himself commenting on the idea and saying he's "open" to that possibility.

The hypothetical chatter led to someone asking Brian Sabean about extending Melky and Sabean said he was absolutely open to a midseason extension for Melky.

So naturally Melky had to be asked about that. And he's "open" to the idea of hanging around San Francisco longer than just 2012.

"I'm open for whatever," Cabrera said in Spanish through fellow outfielder Angel Pagan, per Hank Schulman of the San Francisco Chronicle. "Right now, I'm focused on doing the best I can for the team. If it happens, it happens."

You have to wonder how much the actual city of San Francisco is helping Melky's performance. While it seems a little silly to attach success to geographic location, it's entirely possible that Melky didn't like the pressure of playing in New York, struggled to adjust to being shipped out when he played in Atlanta, enjoyed the small-town nature of Kansas City and now finds himself in the perfect spot -- a low-key baseball city with passionate fans and a team that's in the hunt for the playoffs.

Or maybe that's crazy talk. At the very least, Cabrera did say he likes -- nay, loves -- being in the Bay Area.

"I like it here. I love it here," Cabrera said smiling. "Everybody is good. It's a good town. I love it."

The Giants love Melky. Giants fans love Melky. Melky loves the Giants.

Seems pretty simple to get a deal done, except, as I noted on Tuesday, the Giants need to make sure they do this right. The idea of lobbing out an Aaron Rowand-type contract for Melky (5 years, $60 million) has been at least thrown out there, and that's kooky talk, if only because we're just 35 games into the season.

If Melky can produce at this level over the course of the entire season, or three-quarters of a season, well, that's great and give him more money. But don't overpay someone based on less than a quarter of a baseball season: if Melky regressed over the final 130-some games that contract would immediately be worthy of a forehead slap.

There's no more logic in making it rain on Melky right now than there is trying to propose to an attractive girl on the second date; you might want to lock it up now, but get your due diligence done first and see how the relationship holds up over the long haul.

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