Sometimes I feel like I'm caught in a time warp. It's as if Doc Brown and Marty McFly really souped up a Delorean, grabbed Bill Murray in transit, and Giants fans get to relive 2002 all over again....except for the good parts.
Sping training is here, so I'll soon spend more time writing about the Giants' rather murky future. But first, one final off-season stab at the powers that be -- whose only real contribution this year is ensuring that poor Timmy Lincecum won’t starve (although how he’ll live on a paltry $23 million over the next two years is beyond me).
My thoughts on Lincecum’s arbitration case are buried in the archive for all to see. And while I advocated not signing him at all, I certainly can’t blame the Giants for the contract they ended up giving the team’s brightest, and probably only, star (sorry Panda, you aren’t there yet). Yes, I actually will say Giants management did something right.
So, can we now borrow Mr. Peabody’s wayback machine and revisit the disastrous Zito, Renteria and Rowand signings? Like I was gonna go back-to-back paragraphs without saying something mean about Brian Satan, uh, Sabean. Man, those Freudian slips are killer.
Now I have to say I was pleased with the Solomon-like wisdom of the Lincecum signing. For those who missed it, Timmy wanted $13 million for one year, the Giants countered with $8 million. The compromise was each camp getting its way for one year with $2 million in signing bonuses tossed in for Lincecum’s trouble. Basically the Giants bought out two years of arbitration for the paltry sum of $11.5 million a year.
Everyone was a winner. Lincecum gets paid, the Giants get some insurance against future disaster, and MLB avoids an arbitration loss would have set a salary precedent no one this side of a Rod Tidwell-channeling Donald Fehr could appreciate. There were, I’m sure, funeral dirges being piped in via Muzak at the MLB headquarters, but I won’t shed a tear since I hold that group in almost as much disdain as I do the Giants front office.
So, you gotta ask yourself, if someone in the Giants front office suddenly grew a brain, why couldn’t that happen BEFORE the immense mental vapor lock that has saddled this team with more bad paper than Michael Milken’s wet dream?
Sadly, those incredibly inept contracts not only didn’t cost anyone a job, they served as no basis for caution when the Giants waded into the free agent pool this off-season.
I operate under the assumption that, if you’re going to write, you also better read. The Mercury News had a great quip that earns a repeat here:
"In the three years since the Giants divorced themselves from the Barry Bonds era, they have talked repeatedly about getting younger, faster, healthier and homegrown. A glance at their forecast everyday lineup shows virtually none of that is happening. Six of the eight position players are in their 30s and were acquired via free agency or trade. Of those six veterans, three are coming off surgeries, two will try to rebound from sub par years, and the other is Bengie Molina…”
The Lincecum signing might have been cause for hope. Here’s a young stud they Giants are trying hard to keep, yet they’re also showing some financial smarts. That would be a lot easier to accept had they not shelled out $12 million for two years of Mark DeRosa and another $3 million for a year of Aubrey Huff. Also, don’t forget that Molina didn’t really take a pay cut (with appearance incentives he’ll equal last year’s $6 million) and the Giants handed out a $2.25 million RAISE to Juan Uribe to return as a utility guy.
Now I'm not a finanicial wizard, but I’d dare say that for the 2010 figure of $17 million-plus I just laid out the Giants could have found someone capable of hitting the ball out of the park without having to pick up their first drive and swing from again behind second base. Funny how that figure is the average annual salary paid to Matt Holiday – who the Giants said was far too pricey. Things that make you go “hmmn.”
The projected starting eight has two guys the Giants can legitimately paint as part of the future: Sandoval and Schierholtz – and you can almost bet that the first time Nate struggles he’ll be replaced by the ghost of Michael Tucker. And the great unknown is that the Giants may still add further to the arthritis army with Kim and Mota among the spring training invitees.
Now I’m not saying that anyone over the age of 30 is worthless (although you don’t see many thirtysomethings on “America’s Next Top Model”, do ya?), but where’s the learning curve here?
The Giants' recent track record in this area is nothing short of abysmal. In addition to the afore-mentioned signings were obvious follies such as the $9 million paid to Dave Roberts last year as he tended to his petunias. Even when they tried to be fiscally reponsible they geeked it. Anyone remember Sabean's claim that the Giants got 11 guys for what they would have paid Vladamir Guerrero? How many of those 11 contributed? Heck, how many were with the team when Bad Vlad's contract in Disneyland expired?
I’m sick to death of the Giants paying lip service to the ida of getting younger, then blowing salary on guys who’s best days came during the Reagan Administration. Sabean is clearly gun shy about young talent, and who can blame him when you recall that this is an organization that proclaimed Cody Ransom to be the future at shortstop and touted "superstars" like Damon Minor and Lance Niekro to be anchors of the team for years to come?
Brian, it’s not that youngsters can be trusted. You can’t be trusted to pick them.
The Giants player development and acquisition program has failed, and failed miserably. Since the Giants last made the postseason, they’ve come up with exactly three players from within the system who contributed – Lincecum, Sandoval and Brian Wilson. Meanwhile we’ve been treated to Kevin Frandsen, Todd Linden and Manny Burriss as our position player highlights.
I've thought long and hard about why the Giants fixate on the proverbial "proven major leaguer" (translation: has-been). Clearly Sabean still believes it's still 2002. To hear him spin it, ownership decreed that the roster be filled with vets to compliment Barry Bonds, and in 2002 it brought the Giants within a Dusty Baker brain fart of a title. But Bonds is now three years gone, and despite the quips about getting younger, Sabean clearly is bent to continuing along that path. So either he lied about the AARP attack being ownership's call, he knows the "prospects" are nothing of the kind, or some rift in the space time continuum has him eight years behind the rest of us.
You'd think at some point he'd figure out (or someone would enlighten him) that the 2002 team wasn't as good as its mark and that performance was an abberration. Until that happens, or until Wild Bill quits worrying about socks and cans his ass, we Giants fans will continue to be disappointed.
The Giants have a handful of very good, very young pitchers. It would be a shame to see Sabean waste them the way he wasted the greatest hitter of our age (that sin alone should have earned Sabean a pink slip). I dont know that Bumgarner, Posey, Ford, Noonan, et al are the answer. What I am certain is that the likes DeRosa and Molina aren't -- and anything is better than the same old same old.
The Giants point to prosepcts and talk about the future, while the guys they keep brining in epitomize the past. In this scenario, the present isn't even relevant. The Giants need to start thinking about the future yesterday.
Hello, McFly?
Sping training is here, so I'll soon spend more time writing about the Giants' rather murky future. But first, one final off-season stab at the powers that be -- whose only real contribution this year is ensuring that poor Timmy Lincecum won’t starve (although how he’ll live on a paltry $23 million over the next two years is beyond me).
My thoughts on Lincecum’s arbitration case are buried in the archive for all to see. And while I advocated not signing him at all, I certainly can’t blame the Giants for the contract they ended up giving the team’s brightest, and probably only, star (sorry Panda, you aren’t there yet). Yes, I actually will say Giants management did something right.
So, can we now borrow Mr. Peabody’s wayback machine and revisit the disastrous Zito, Renteria and Rowand signings? Like I was gonna go back-to-back paragraphs without saying something mean about Brian Satan, uh, Sabean. Man, those Freudian slips are killer.
Now I have to say I was pleased with the Solomon-like wisdom of the Lincecum signing. For those who missed it, Timmy wanted $13 million for one year, the Giants countered with $8 million. The compromise was each camp getting its way for one year with $2 million in signing bonuses tossed in for Lincecum’s trouble. Basically the Giants bought out two years of arbitration for the paltry sum of $11.5 million a year.
Everyone was a winner. Lincecum gets paid, the Giants get some insurance against future disaster, and MLB avoids an arbitration loss would have set a salary precedent no one this side of a Rod Tidwell-channeling Donald Fehr could appreciate. There were, I’m sure, funeral dirges being piped in via Muzak at the MLB headquarters, but I won’t shed a tear since I hold that group in almost as much disdain as I do the Giants front office.
So, you gotta ask yourself, if someone in the Giants front office suddenly grew a brain, why couldn’t that happen BEFORE the immense mental vapor lock that has saddled this team with more bad paper than Michael Milken’s wet dream?
- Renteria: 2 years, $18 million to cultivate his “clutch’ reputation, meaning the rest of the time he’s an unmitigated disaster at the plate.
- Rowand: 5 years, $60 million to flail at sliders low and away like a photo negative of Pedro Feliz.
- And the Zitotross: 7 years, approximately 400 gazillion dollars with an option for year eight that has about as much chance of getting picked up as Aileen Wurornos, and likely with the same disastrous results.
Sadly, those incredibly inept contracts not only didn’t cost anyone a job, they served as no basis for caution when the Giants waded into the free agent pool this off-season.
I operate under the assumption that, if you’re going to write, you also better read. The Mercury News had a great quip that earns a repeat here:
"In the three years since the Giants divorced themselves from the Barry Bonds era, they have talked repeatedly about getting younger, faster, healthier and homegrown. A glance at their forecast everyday lineup shows virtually none of that is happening. Six of the eight position players are in their 30s and were acquired via free agency or trade. Of those six veterans, three are coming off surgeries, two will try to rebound from sub par years, and the other is Bengie Molina…”
So basically the Giants “youth movement” involves finding guys who have yet to announce their retirement. Glad the Merc finally called the Giants out on it.
The Lincecum signing might have been cause for hope. Here’s a young stud they Giants are trying hard to keep, yet they’re also showing some financial smarts. That would be a lot easier to accept had they not shelled out $12 million for two years of Mark DeRosa and another $3 million for a year of Aubrey Huff. Also, don’t forget that Molina didn’t really take a pay cut (with appearance incentives he’ll equal last year’s $6 million) and the Giants handed out a $2.25 million RAISE to Juan Uribe to return as a utility guy.
Now I'm not a finanicial wizard, but I’d dare say that for the 2010 figure of $17 million-plus I just laid out the Giants could have found someone capable of hitting the ball out of the park without having to pick up their first drive and swing from again behind second base. Funny how that figure is the average annual salary paid to Matt Holiday – who the Giants said was far too pricey. Things that make you go “hmmn.”
The projected starting eight has two guys the Giants can legitimately paint as part of the future: Sandoval and Schierholtz – and you can almost bet that the first time Nate struggles he’ll be replaced by the ghost of Michael Tucker. And the great unknown is that the Giants may still add further to the arthritis army with Kim and Mota among the spring training invitees.
Now I’m not saying that anyone over the age of 30 is worthless (although you don’t see many thirtysomethings on “America’s Next Top Model”, do ya?), but where’s the learning curve here?
The Giants' recent track record in this area is nothing short of abysmal. In addition to the afore-mentioned signings were obvious follies such as the $9 million paid to Dave Roberts last year as he tended to his petunias. Even when they tried to be fiscally reponsible they geeked it. Anyone remember Sabean's claim that the Giants got 11 guys for what they would have paid Vladamir Guerrero? How many of those 11 contributed? Heck, how many were with the team when Bad Vlad's contract in Disneyland expired?
I’m sick to death of the Giants paying lip service to the ida of getting younger, then blowing salary on guys who’s best days came during the Reagan Administration. Sabean is clearly gun shy about young talent, and who can blame him when you recall that this is an organization that proclaimed Cody Ransom to be the future at shortstop and touted "superstars" like Damon Minor and Lance Niekro to be anchors of the team for years to come?
Brian, it’s not that youngsters can be trusted. You can’t be trusted to pick them.
The Giants player development and acquisition program has failed, and failed miserably. Since the Giants last made the postseason, they’ve come up with exactly three players from within the system who contributed – Lincecum, Sandoval and Brian Wilson. Meanwhile we’ve been treated to Kevin Frandsen, Todd Linden and Manny Burriss as our position player highlights.
I've thought long and hard about why the Giants fixate on the proverbial "proven major leaguer" (translation: has-been). Clearly Sabean still believes it's still 2002. To hear him spin it, ownership decreed that the roster be filled with vets to compliment Barry Bonds, and in 2002 it brought the Giants within a Dusty Baker brain fart of a title. But Bonds is now three years gone, and despite the quips about getting younger, Sabean clearly is bent to continuing along that path. So either he lied about the AARP attack being ownership's call, he knows the "prospects" are nothing of the kind, or some rift in the space time continuum has him eight years behind the rest of us.
You'd think at some point he'd figure out (or someone would enlighten him) that the 2002 team wasn't as good as its mark and that performance was an abberration. Until that happens, or until Wild Bill quits worrying about socks and cans his ass, we Giants fans will continue to be disappointed.
The Giants have a handful of very good, very young pitchers. It would be a shame to see Sabean waste them the way he wasted the greatest hitter of our age (that sin alone should have earned Sabean a pink slip). I dont know that Bumgarner, Posey, Ford, Noonan, et al are the answer. What I am certain is that the likes DeRosa and Molina aren't -- and anything is better than the same old same old.
The Giants point to prosepcts and talk about the future, while the guys they keep brining in epitomize the past. In this scenario, the present isn't even relevant. The Giants need to start thinking about the future yesterday.
Hello, McFly?
You don't include Matt Cain as either a homegrown star or a contributor since the Giants last made the playoffs. That might be an oversight?
ReplyDeleteI would also count Jonathan Sanchez as a contributor, with the promise of even better things in the future.
Sergio Romo is a reliever, but I would count him as a contributor too. With Lincecum, Cain, Sanchez, Wilson and Sandoval, the Giants farm system has been above average in productivity over the last 3-4 years.
The current farm system is very promising. BA ranked them #4 overall this year, so there is a high probability that more help is on the way, both in the near future and another 3-4 years down the road. That's if the Giants stop acquiring talent in the organization today.
The Giants are currently as well positioned for the future as any team in baseball. Yes, it remains to be seen whether they can capitalize on all that talent, but you have to give some credit for assembling it.