David Pinto notices Jack Cust’s terrific half-season:
Jack Cust homered twice last night as the Oakland Athletics defeated the Texas Rangers 4-3. That gives Cust twenty home runs in eighty three games. With a .404 OBA and a .550 slugging percentage, Cust is having a great half season. As I’ve said many times, if you have a problem at first base or DH, it should be easy to fix. There’s always a Jack Cust sitting out there.
And as I’ve said many times, the Giants have gotten bottom of the league production from first base for a decade, save the great production Andres Gallarraga gave them for a month in 2001, which they treated as if it were a disease:
Andres Gallarraga was acquired on July 24th. In the 20 games after he arrived, the Giants went 17-3, surging from 6.5 games behind the D’backs to just a half game out of first place. Their run production spiked upward, from an average of 4.93 to 6.75 runs per game. During that stretch, Gallarraga was a dominant force, providing a whole new look to the Giants lineup.
Not only offering greater protection for Jeff Kent; virtually everyone in the lineup was able to significantly boost their production. The difference between having the Big Cat instead of JT in the lineup was obvious to even the most casual observer, (my wife, just back in the states after 14 years living in Italy); the team simply looked unbeatable. After the surge, the Giants were a season high 17 games over .500 at 69-52, and seemed a lock to make the playoffs.
By that time, however, JT Snow was healthy, and Dusty was faced with a decision. Should they bench the Big Cat? Should they platoon the right-handed Gallarraga and the lefty Snow? Many articles and columns were written around this time, and there seemed to be a lot of references to someone not losing their job because of injury, (another bogus bit of nonsensical “common sense”).
Dusty made some reference to JT producing in the past, and how they couldn’t expect to win without his bat (really, you could look it up), and then he benched Andres and started playing Snow. And how did that work? Almost exactly as you might expect. When they made the switch from Andres, with a slugging percentage around .600, to Snow, with a slugging percentage around .350; it completely derailed the offense. Over the next twenty games, the Giants offense slumped to only 4.05 runs per game, and the team produced a record of 9-11. (By then even Dusty could see that JT wasn’t going to get it done, he started platooning them, but the damage was done. Andres and the team never got back on track).
That twenty game stretch, in which Dusty Baker’s loyalty to one player superseded his loyalty to the team, the organization and to its fans; cost the Giants the playoffs. From that 69-52 record, the Giants went 21-20 the rest of the way, losing the division by two games to the eventual world champion Diamondbacks.
It wasn’t just Baker, either. I went to the Giants’ fan invite that season, with the playoffs still in question, and I asked the first question of the session. I asked Sabean why he and Baker were putting Snow back in the lineup, and he defended the decision, I actually got to hear him say that Snow saved the team 1000 runs a year with his glove. I’m not shitting you.
That ‘01 team was almost certainly better than the ‘02 team, and with the kind of run Bonds was on, the Giants would have been a favorite to get the Serious.
The team’s failure to get a real first baseman, one who actually hits home runs, (really, one of the most important offensive positions on the field) was one of the keys to their failure to win a championship during Bonds’ unbelievable run from 2000-2004.
That they continue to trot out first base production of ten home runs a season is enough of a reason to fire Sabean, right now, before he signs Rajai Davis to a three-year, $11 million dollar contract extension that he’s not up for. Oh, and by the way, if Davis is still running out a plus-.400 OBA at the end of the season, I’ll post an “I’m stupid” column and keep it up for a week.
12 Backtalkers
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I’m sure Rajai will be right about where is now at the end of the season. Now that Roberst is back and healthy, he’s the proven veteran who will get all the at-bats that should be going to Rajai so we can see if he’s for real.
So I look forward to your “I’m Stupid” column.
Even if Rajai Davis is any good that still doesn’t account for the gaping holes we have at virtually EVERY position. If it wasn’t for pitching we might have one of the worst teams in league history.
Are you saying that unless Rajai has a .400+ OBP by season’s end, he won’t be worth the trade? He’ll still be damn valuable if he can post a .370 OBP and continue to wreak havoc on the bases.
No way Sabean signs Rajai long-term until he shows at least another year of above-average performance. He’s not arb-eligible til 2010 or 2011.
Unless and until Magowan cleans house in the minor league operation, it doesn’t matter. The market has changed. Quality position players under the age of 47 that do not eat up 20% of the payroll don’t exist anymore. Therefore you have to develop your own. The Giants under Jack Hiatt have developed zero impact players since he took over in 1992. Zero. None. Nothing. Thats hundreds of drafted and signed players. Not a single fucking player. NOT A SINGLE FUCKING PLAYER IN 16 SEASONS! Bill Mueller and Pedro Feliz do not count as impact players. Mueller had a couple of B seasons. Thats it. Only Tim Lincecum who basically came right out of college with his own personal instructor (his father) has been an impact player. For 3 months. Cain is inconsistent and still falls into the category of potential. Nathan got good elsewhere. Schmidt was from elsewhere. The current young guys, including Cain and Lowry have no idea how to consistently control the strike zone. Good instructors and Good coaching make for good players. Bad instructing, bad coaching by guys who are where they are due to nepotism do not a winner make. This franchise has Stoneham and Lurie written all over it again. Except the new owners swindled some prime real esatate at below market in the process, so their checkbooks are fine.
This franchise has devolved into nothing more than an extension of Pier 39 complete with garlic fries, brie cheese, white wine and tourists.
Amen, +Mia.
This team is dreadful. And it’s going to get a lot worse before it gets better.
Does Jack Hiatt have compromising pictures of someone? There must be an explanation as to why the Giants haven’t developed an position player in 15+ seasons. The Giants spent the money to sign and keep Barry, Sabean made two impact deals (Kent and Schmidt) and some nice spare part deals/signings. But Barry’s age precludes him from being the centerpiece of a good team now, and role players without a role are just bodies.
Magowan, Sabean & Co. have ridden Barry and ballpark he built to eight seasons of unprecedented attendance. They’ve strung it out as long as they could, with historic homers and All-Star games. But it’s over. There is nothing that makes this team worth watching consistently, and that’s not likely to change any time soon. We’re going to finish last this year, next year and for the forseeable future.
Not completely on topic, but I was looking at the numbers, and they’re pretty unbelievable. The real stat that matters for evaluating hitters is OPS, of course. The only stat combines how often a hitter gets on base and his power numbers. I like to subtract 500 points from a hitter’s OPS because you pretty much get that for showing up.
Here are our punchless Giants, compared to a team with some bats, the Phillies:
1B Klesko .287/Aurilia .172 – R. Howard .465
2B Durham .156/Frandsen .071 – Utley .496
SS Vizquel .107 – Rollins .357
3B Feliz .215 – Dobbs .314/Helms .186
C Molina .213 – Ruiz .227
LF Bonds .584 – Burrell .384
CF R. Davis .392/Roberts .207 – Rowand .394
RF Winn .255 – Victorino .281
Bonds kills everyone on their team, but it’s not pretty after that. Look how weak we are at 1st base. 2nd base and SS are horrific. Rajai Davis is putting up Rowand-like numbers so far, but will it last? Roberts is worthless – we know that. We must have the lightest hitting middle infield in baseball. Under .200 OPS (minus 500), and you should be lucky to be riding pine on a Major League bench.
Btw, Old Man Bonds is tops in all of baseball, 42 points ahead of A-Rod. The only other NL hitter above .500 is Chipper Jones at .517 (67 pts behind Barry). Something for all the Bay Area sportswriters and fans who say Bonds needs to go. $15mm is a bargain for this guy. The problem is everyone else around him. The guy who should be sent packing is the guy who wants to get rid of Bonds, Mr. Sabean.
Btw, how did the WHIP stat get so popular? It’s basically the equivalent of OBP for hitters. It doesn’t take into account extra-base hits against. So Zito has a 1.49 WHIP, and Lowry has a 1.46 WHIP. Well, Zito has coughed up 19 homers to Lowry’s 8. The real stat to look at is OPS Against. Zito’s is .281 (again, I like to subtract 500 pts) while Lowry’s is a solid .212. Incidentally, Bad Luck Cain is at .176, and Lincecum is at .162.
How Zito ever got his ridiculous contract from the Giants, I’ll never know. Over his last 3 years with the A’s, he was 41-34 with a 4.05 ERA and 81 homers allowed. His OPS Against was .259 last year, which is pretty unimpressive. With numbers like those, he signs the richest contract for a pitcher in Major League history, and turns out to be much worse. The Giants were bamboozled. And now there’s no money to get hitters like Howard, Utley, or Rollins.
So OPS = OBP+SLG-500. It makes sense in that the differential between really good hitters (Bonds) and bad hitters (Durham) is expressed in a more pronounced way. i.e Bonds .584 vs Durhams .156. We all know that the Giants lineup is horrible beyond pathetic. Not even major league quality. What enrages me more than anything is the very concept that Bonds is the problem with this team. An out and out canard.
It seems he is a problem for Magowan on a personal level and Magowan/Sabaen/Baer/media are trying to color it as an on field deterioration. This is laughable by any objective measurement. Magowan has an inferiority complex which manifested itself in public (only briefly before he reined himself in) during the 2002 season when he started publicly whining that Dusty Baker was getting an unfair amount of credit for the Giants success. He actually insinuated that the media was lax in not crediting himself and his management team enough for the on-field success of the team. This didn’t fly very well, so he changed tactics and started a whispering campaign against Baker leaking stories of a tax dispute that had been going on for 10 years, shortly after Baker started having problems with the local media sniping at him and he sniping back. Enter the “tax problem” story.”
He didn’t out and out fire Baker, he just publicly let it be known that he wasn’t about to continue to grant Baker favored persona status anymore. For the last couple of years, Bonds had been under fire from all sorts of questionable sources over and above the usual antagonistic sports hacks. Rather than defend the guy who actually turned the franchise around on the playing field, he is either silent, or sending mixed messages depending on whether Bonds is hitting the ball well or not.
Sabaen seems to be nothing more than Magowan’s mouthpiece on all matters Bonds. Bonds was Magowan’s hire when he took over management prior to the 1993 season. For years Magowan pounded his chest in public shouting to the world that it was he, and nobody else who was responsible for Barry’s presence in San Francisco. So as Bonds ages, he distances himself. A real swell that guy. And people wonder why players play hardball at contract time and leave for the biggest contract and screw the home town team? It was Magowan’s decision to sign the disaster that is Zito. We all knew he was overpaid and overrated, but nevertheless an adequate replacement for the LA-bound and perennial leader atop the Disabled List, Jason Schmidt. Nobody in their right mind could have predicted Zito going all Rick Ankiel on the Giants though. As of now, a worse contract than the ones given to Mike Hampton and Kevin Brown combined. 30 7 inning starts with 3 runs or less seemed reasonable. But what we have is a guy who struggles to keep opponents from scoring about twice that amount–averaging almost a run an inning since July.
I don’t know if there is any salvage value left in Zito. I do believe that the more they run him out there to get humiliated, the worse he is going to get. His first 3 starts after the ASB would have been enough for any rational management team to shut him down and send him home for the season. With explicit instructions to do whatever it takes to get his head together by Spring training, or look forward to a nice career as a journeyman middle reliever in the Central Valley Beer League. All he has succeeded in doing is bring more self doubt upon himself, embarrass his team, and attract even more ridicule to an already credibility-lacking management and ownership group. Every time he goes out and throws a 40 pitch inning, another 100 season ticket holders rip up their renewal letters. Every time opponents put up a crooked number, his teammates bats pick up additional ounces of dead weight. The Giants are bouncing around 90 – 95 losses for the year. Having Zito gone would have helped diffuse some of the rancor that is sure to follow. Everytime he shows up, you can see thousands of bricks flying into tv screens and other thousands of fans in the park, either picking their noses, flipping out their cell phones, or playing tourist wandering around the park until Barry Bonds comes to bat. Most PacBell attendees are too lethargic at this point to even boo with any energy. Too many targets. Feliz, Roberts, Durham, Frandsen, the bullpen. Biggest waste of 90 million I’ve ever seen.
Awesome post, +Mia. Sad.
davis is a rook, and under our control for awhile, so for the first time in recent history, we dont have to worry about sabean going butt crazy and signing a late season aquistion to some ungodly contract.
and i would just like to know…when is the fucking lying gonna end
“we are gonna give the kids more playing time”
when did russ and richie find the fountain of youth???
why the fuck is klesko playing first???
why hasnt roberts been dealt so that freddie can return, or nate can take his rightful place??
why the fuck is durham still on this team?
oh why do i even bother
hey john….take a good look at the cards
the cards started off the season miserably…then their braintrust came up with a brilliant thought….we dont give a shit how much we are paying the vets….lets give the kids a shot…and lo and behold….they are now battling for the central
and according to many sources, the cards farm system aint much better than ours…but they took a chance…unlike the fucking idiots that run our show
sabean will not rebuild this mess
if we dont lose 100 games this year, we will next
i dont care how good cain, lincecum or noah are
i dont care if wilson is finally healthy and can be the closer that he was always meant to be
sabean and peter m will find a way to screw the pooch
Sports Illustrated…
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