With every move, Giants' management makes one thing abundantly clear: it doesn’t have a friggin’ clue.
Bengie Molina is back. After misjudging his value on the open market, the Great Satan, uh, Sabean made him swallow a one-year deal that still pays him far much more than he’s worth. So the 2010 Giants will look very much like the 2009 version.
Wow. Can you just feel the excitement? I haven’t been this stoked since my last root canal. Fortunately the cure for both is the same: a good anesthetic.
There seems to be a concept that Sabean and company just can’t grasp. As long as you keep working with the same pieces, the picture on the puzzle never changes. The only exception comes when you start jamming the pieces in where they don’t belong (“batting clean-up, Bengie Molina”) in which case you end up with a picture that looks like Andy Warhol’s interpretation of Pablo Picasso as rendered by Marilyn Manson. In short, it's an abstract mess.
Now the Giants will field a line-up very similar to the crew that won the most games among those who didn’t make the playoffs last year. The Giants seem awfully proud of that, ignoring the "didn't make the playoffs" part. Yes, 2009 was a much better season than the previous four, but that’s like telling the poor sap on the canoe in “Jaws” that he faired better than the little Kintner boy and should be happy he only lost a leg.
So looking at the line-up, I project something like this:
CF – Aaron Rowand
2B – Juan Uribe (Sanchez won't last 40 games)
3B – Pablo Sandoval
1B – Aubey Huff
LF – Mark DeRosa
C – Bengie Molina
SS – Edgar Renteria
RF – Schierholtz / Bowker / Torres / Velez / Lewis / 38-year-old FA recovering from ACL surgery to be determined.
Someone please tell me how this line-up is better than 2009’s?
The cards have been shuffled, but it’s basically the same deck. DeRosa replaces the failed F-Lew/Velez experiment in left, but there’s no guarantee the Giants didn’t just move that party two spots to the right. Huff essentially replaces Ishikawa / Garko at a bigger price tag.
There are no significant upgrades, and the rest is the same cast of characters.
Moving to the lead-off spot won’t stop Rowand from channeling Pedro Feliz and swinging at sliders in the dirt. Molina will still run like he’s been washing down animal tranquilizers with a fifth of Jack Daniel’s before every game. Renteria will have lost yet another step and will likely battle Sanchez for the team lead in days spent on the DL. Sandoval would appear to be the only real player here.
(Side note: is the Sanchez debacle a stunning indictment of the Giants' medical staff or what? I owned a '72 Vega that I'm sure is currently in better condition that the "gamer" the Giants got for Alderson. More on that at a later date.)
I had hope at one point – hope the Giants would finally be forced to give some of the kids a chance. Now I’m not so sure. The Giants' off-season moves have effectively blocked the ascension of everyone except Madison Bumgarner. They'll certainly screw that up as well. Can the signing of Satchel Paige be far off?
If you're a Giants fan (and if you still call yourself one then what's wrong with you?), you have to be looking at this line-up and asking yourself what the point to it all is. The Giants keep running guys out there with no apparent plan. The player aquisition modus operandi appears to consist of finding guys who prefer to play one more year rather than begin collecting their pensions.
This is nothing more than grandstanding -- making moves so that the less demanding (or thoughtful) Giants fan is convinced the front office is doing something. Unfortnately, that "something" appears to be accomplishing very little.
I don't undertand the thought process. I keep thinking back to the signing of Randy Johnson last year, when the Giants took a flyer on a guy they really didn't need. I can see a struggling team grabbing a guy about to win his 300th for the PR value. For a team supposedly rebuilding with younger players you have to ask: what was the end game? How was Johnson going to make the Giants better long term. The answer? He wasn't going to, and he didn't.
Molina, Huff, DeRosa -- none of these players make the Giants signifcantly better in the short term, none will be around long term, and in the case of Molina all it does is delay the rise of someone else. Better to let the kids play, even if it means a step backward in 2010, because continuing along this path sure doesn't bode well for 2011.
Bengie Molina is back. After misjudging his value on the open market, the Great Satan, uh, Sabean made him swallow a one-year deal that still pays him far much more than he’s worth. So the 2010 Giants will look very much like the 2009 version.
Wow. Can you just feel the excitement? I haven’t been this stoked since my last root canal. Fortunately the cure for both is the same: a good anesthetic.
There seems to be a concept that Sabean and company just can’t grasp. As long as you keep working with the same pieces, the picture on the puzzle never changes. The only exception comes when you start jamming the pieces in where they don’t belong (“batting clean-up, Bengie Molina”) in which case you end up with a picture that looks like Andy Warhol’s interpretation of Pablo Picasso as rendered by Marilyn Manson. In short, it's an abstract mess.
Now the Giants will field a line-up very similar to the crew that won the most games among those who didn’t make the playoffs last year. The Giants seem awfully proud of that, ignoring the "didn't make the playoffs" part. Yes, 2009 was a much better season than the previous four, but that’s like telling the poor sap on the canoe in “Jaws” that he faired better than the little Kintner boy and should be happy he only lost a leg.
So looking at the line-up, I project something like this:
CF – Aaron Rowand
2B – Juan Uribe (Sanchez won't last 40 games)
3B – Pablo Sandoval
1B – Aubey Huff
LF – Mark DeRosa
C – Bengie Molina
SS – Edgar Renteria
RF – Schierholtz / Bowker / Torres / Velez / Lewis / 38-year-old FA recovering from ACL surgery to be determined.
Someone please tell me how this line-up is better than 2009’s?
The cards have been shuffled, but it’s basically the same deck. DeRosa replaces the failed F-Lew/Velez experiment in left, but there’s no guarantee the Giants didn’t just move that party two spots to the right. Huff essentially replaces Ishikawa / Garko at a bigger price tag.
There are no significant upgrades, and the rest is the same cast of characters.
Moving to the lead-off spot won’t stop Rowand from channeling Pedro Feliz and swinging at sliders in the dirt. Molina will still run like he’s been washing down animal tranquilizers with a fifth of Jack Daniel’s before every game. Renteria will have lost yet another step and will likely battle Sanchez for the team lead in days spent on the DL. Sandoval would appear to be the only real player here.
(Side note: is the Sanchez debacle a stunning indictment of the Giants' medical staff or what? I owned a '72 Vega that I'm sure is currently in better condition that the "gamer" the Giants got for Alderson. More on that at a later date.)
I had hope at one point – hope the Giants would finally be forced to give some of the kids a chance. Now I’m not so sure. The Giants' off-season moves have effectively blocked the ascension of everyone except Madison Bumgarner. They'll certainly screw that up as well. Can the signing of Satchel Paige be far off?
If you're a Giants fan (and if you still call yourself one then what's wrong with you?), you have to be looking at this line-up and asking yourself what the point to it all is. The Giants keep running guys out there with no apparent plan. The player aquisition modus operandi appears to consist of finding guys who prefer to play one more year rather than begin collecting their pensions.
This is nothing more than grandstanding -- making moves so that the less demanding (or thoughtful) Giants fan is convinced the front office is doing something. Unfortnately, that "something" appears to be accomplishing very little.
I don't undertand the thought process. I keep thinking back to the signing of Randy Johnson last year, when the Giants took a flyer on a guy they really didn't need. I can see a struggling team grabbing a guy about to win his 300th for the PR value. For a team supposedly rebuilding with younger players you have to ask: what was the end game? How was Johnson going to make the Giants better long term. The answer? He wasn't going to, and he didn't.
Molina, Huff, DeRosa -- none of these players make the Giants signifcantly better in the short term, none will be around long term, and in the case of Molina all it does is delay the rise of someone else. Better to let the kids play, even if it means a step backward in 2010, because continuing along this path sure doesn't bode well for 2011.
It's amazing how someone thinks they make an intelligent argument by stringing together cutesy analogies and ill fitting metaphors. The Giants are better off this year than last. What the Giant fan needs to remember is, this is a franchise that built a ballpark that is pitcher friendly. Thus they have drafted primetime pitchers and rely on free agents to fill out the lineup. Look at the projected lineup. One home grown starter if you don't count the debacle that is rightfield. The projected rotation includes 4 of 5 homegrown pitchers. True Sabean is not the sharpest GM on the planet and he has made some bad moves. He has also made some great moves. Making him an average GM. The bottom line is the pitching is there. Both the rotation and bullpen are solid. The lineup is veteran and should score enough runs to make them winners at home enough to offset a sub .500 road record. Face it folks the West is winnable with this lineup. It will be a battle. Just get me to the playoffs and let the superior pitching take over.
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