I couldn’t understand some parts of this article, but it sounds interesting…

I couldn’t understand some parts of this article, but it sounds interesting…

This is the San Francisco Bay Area – the politically correctness capital of the world. Magowan has catered to the forces of politcal correctness that govern the city ever since he first assumed the leading ownership role.

You might as well ask why have the Giants never had a male PA announcer over the last 14 years. A woman’s voice is, by nature, overly shrill and unsuited for the position. The other teams instinctively realize this, which is why no other team has hired a woman for that job during the 14 years that the Giants have maintained one.

The high-pitched shrieks of the two female PA announcers that have worked for Magowan have inevitably been intrusive upon and disrespectful towards the many Giant moments that have taken place at home.

But Magowan is more interested in appearing to do the “right” thing by the standards of political correctness than in ensuring capable job performance.

I think that the PA example is somewhat of a microcosm of Magowan’s philosophy towards the sort of team that he would put on the field — a team with a relatively low payroll built around one high-profile superstar and a number of low-priced sidekicks that would excite the fan base, put butts in the seats of the Giants beautiful still-youngish ballpark, but would not necessarily seriously contend for a championship.

I don’t think that Sabean sold Magowan anything. I think that it was Magowan selling his vision to Sabean.

While the Giants obviously came very close to a championship in 2002, that wasn’t really by design and would have been an unexpected bonus if it had occurred.

I actually do NOT expect the Giants to re-sign Bonds. I expect them to do the same thing with A-Rod that they did during the Bonds era — sign A-Rod and fail to provide him with the supporting cast necessary to seriously contend for a ring.

But sometimes the blind pig does find an acorn. I agree with giantsrainman that the pitching situation is not bad at all, and that the Giants rotation and bullpen is gelling into a very capable pitching staff.

The Giants are likely to continue to prove — as they have started to this year — that the old maxim about pitching being 75% of the game — is a false one. You cannot win if you don’t put runs on the board, and the opposition can take the bat out of A-Rod’s hand, just as they did with Bonds. The upcoming years are likely to field a number of good-pitch no-hit teams that do not contend.

And yet, having said THAT, it’s incumbent upon all of us to display some humility by acknowledging that we can’t predict the future. The Giants ALMOST won it all in 2002.

And their late 1980’s renaissance began the very year after the Giants lost 100 games. Their 103-win season in 1993 also came on the heels of a poor 1992 season.

I agree that, while A-Rod will keep the fans coming to the ballpark, the future doesn’t look particularly bright for championship hopes. The likelihood is that the Giants will field a pretty team that doesn’t win — reflecting again, Magowan’s obsession with appearance over performance.

But I don’t KNOW this and no one else can know this.

and it looks like sabean is sitting on his fat butt, getting nothing accomplished in regards to unloading any more vets

can anyone explain to me the reasoning behind resigning the incompentent during the season?

the two “blockbuster” trades that he made couldve been done even if he was a lame duck gm

this org is run by idiots

A great pitching career is like preparing to go to the moon. Everything has to be almost perfect for a Steve Carlton, Jim Palmer, Juan Marichal, Nolan Ryan to have a long and distinguished career. Too often injury is mistaken for routine soreness. Pitchers, especially young pitchers, will try to hide injuries such is the pressure to perform. But its a numbers games. There’s 1000 guys ready to step in and take your place. Teams always say the right things about putting the welfare of the player first, but thats bullshit unless the guy is a superstar like Clemens or Bonds. They’re the ones that set up the numbers game to begin with. Players are commodities and always know, they are just one injury away from “Wally Pippdom”. Thats just the way big time sports are. Even at the high school level where only competitiveness and prestige are the rewards

I just wonder sometimes if we get so caught up in the results of each game, series, season, that we begin to dehumanize the craftsmanship and artistry of baseball and objectify the players. But that observation comes with way too many years of hindsight, which by nature carries its own brand of cynicism. I’m probably thinking too much. Anyway I really enjoy and appreciate the comments and observations of others with a different slant on things.

i was going by the initial report in regards denker…who, btw, has many more games logged in the minors than kfran ever did

like i said….lets see where they put denker next season, and how well he does there

if he starts out in aa and hits for avg and some power in the eastern league, maybe that will mean something

and i for one am not so ready to write off kfran as a bench player

I’m still under the impression that if we ever got to the postseason again that Lowry would be stellar. He has great poise on the mound and never seems to get rattled. Reminds me of Tom Glavine in that fashion.

Cabrera won’t happen either, plus I’m not sure I would want the Giants to mortgage their future with a player who while extremely talented has a VERY questionable work ethic and is going the way of Kevin Mitchell/Cecil Fielder via the mid 90s. If he doesn’t watch what he eats he might not be around for very long.

The only way to really change what’s going on is to make smart trades and be able to upgrade the system, ie the Sweeney trade netted a guy who was expendable for a deep Dodgers system in Denker, but coming over here he’s quickly one of our best and at a position of need.

What sucks is that other then some power arms in the system and the more touted guys we already have on the ML roster, there is slim pickings that we can use to acquire pieces. Unfortunately all the veterans we have are such hasbeens now that they are of no value. Maybe what they need to do is get some 1 year deals to veterans like the Pirates did, who can hopefully play well enough in order to trade them away at the deadline, and in the meantime will fill the roster spots while our prospects develop in the minors. Only problem is we gave like 3 year deals to these vets so many of them are useless because nobody wants to take on a contract for a guy who’s not that good of a player anymore, even if they can still help a team. Like Kenny Lofton, he’s been traded a bunch of times, mostly because he’s only been on 1 year deals. If he had Roberts contract, I doubt he’d ever be moved.