Grant over at McCovey Chronicles puts the pedal to the metal about our new/same old GM. In the first post he reminds us of some of the stupid the things Sabean has said:
…. spreading payroll around might be what Sabean does worst. When you have a team like, oh, the Tigers did this offseason, maybe it makes sense to pursue free agents who are the Dr. Pepper to your farm system’s Dr. Skipper. Yeah, a good farm system should have three Michael Tucker-type players at hand at all times, but when a team is complete, it doesn’t hurt to pay a couple of million for the real Michael Tucker. But Sabean runs every team as if it’s a candle short of a birthday cake. The two biggest problems with the Giants in the post-Kent era:
1. The complete inability of the farm system to produce position players.
2. The inclination to go after two or three players with limited upside to fill out a roster instead of one player with All-Star upside and less-expensive filler.
This is the kind of quote you get when both of those points start necking:
If we had signed Guerrero or [Gary] Sheffield, we would have been without [Jim] Brower, [Scott] Eyre, [Matt] Herges, [Dustin] Hermanson, [Brett] Tomko, [A.J.] Pierzynski, Feliz, [J.T.] Snow, [Jeffrey] Hammonds, [Dustan] Mohr and Tucker — obviously not being able to field a competitive team, especially from an experience standpoint, given our level of spending.
In the other one, he outlines, in terrific detail, what he would want in a Giants GM. I won’t post the whole thing, you gotta go read it, but here’s the one line I like best:
…. Japanese relievers seem to kick all kinds of ass. The GM for the Giants should get some.
Good stuff.
Meanwhile, the Chron byline reads:
Two-year deal will allow Giants’ GM to build a team without the anchor of Bonds
The anchor? The best player of all time has been an anchor? That’s some crack sportswriting, there. The anchor’s been the GM, who has seen all of his mistakes glossed over by the super production of the best player of all-time, who has traded for exactly one All Star in the last decade, who has developed exactly no full-time position players during his ten years at the helm, who has drafted exactly no hitters with any marketable skills, and who has signed one player after another to debilitating and financially irresponsible contracts. The anchor? Get a clue.
6 Backtalkers
[...] Original post by John [...]
bonds=clinton
everytime the repugs eff up…they blame clinton
everytime this org effs up….they blame bonds
watch….in 10 years, when the team is still without bonds, they will be blaming bonds for eating up all that payroll in the 90s and early 21st century
wanna explain to me how bonds has hamstrung this org, but zito’s contract will not??
Good one, Uncle Joe. To me the amazing thing is that the local media parrots the line that Bonds is dragging the organization down. Not that I normally expect sports writers and talk show hosts to think logically, but this is bad even by their subterranean standards…
Steaming hot pile of BS #3874 from the local media: Don’t blame Sabean for not developing position players, because he’s focused on pitching.
The Giants have spent plenty of high draft picks on position players like Linden, Torcato, Niekro, and Ishikawa. The problem is, these guys can’t play. Let’s say that in the last ten years the Giants only drafted as many position players as most organizations draft in seven years, or six. That’s no excuse. Developing no position players in ten years worth of drafts is a terrible record. So is developing no position players in six years.
There is not one piece of evidence – NOT ONE – that Sabean can develop or acquire talented position players, either via drafting or trading. On the trade front, the only notable under-30 position player he traded for was AJ, and you know how that turned out. So, will someone please explain to me how, when your organization’s biggest need is young position players, you look over all the available candidates and choose the GM who has the clearest record of failing in this regard?
You have to understand, this is the same guy who, in the middle of the worst losing streak during the eminently forgettable 2005 season, without prompting, chose to extend Felipe Alou’s managerial contract to a fourth year. I would expect that after the Giants finish 70 and 92 this year, Bochy will be offered a 5 year 60 million contract with a $100,000 bonus for each win over 55 the Giants attain.
Jesus, this is getting worse.