The boys over at MVN actually think what I have to say is interesting, (as opposed to my wife or members of my family and friends), and so invited me to discuss the upcoming debacle, I mean, season. You can listen here, and please come back to OBM and tell me what you think.
In the meantime, Vizquel has just come up lame, (what a surprise), so we are on track to see more of whoever we have (Frandsen) who can field grounders in his stead. At least he’s younger than me. David Pinto thinks Vizquel’s shot at an everyday job just got real thin:
…. I think the chance of Omar being the regular shortstop for the Giants again is slim. He was terrible offensively last year, and I have to believe a knee injury is going to cut into his range. He was still above average last year, but this could change that.
Frandsen, who put up impressive minor league OBAs, never received a real chance to play from the Giants. If Kevin lives up to his minor league record offensively, the Giants would be foolish to return Vizquel as anything but a late inning defensive replacement. Time to make Frandsen part of the youth movement.
Yeah, well, the Giants were already foolish to throw another $5 million at Vizquel, a 43-year old, who had just come off the worst season of his life. They were again foolish to suggest that he was going to be an everyday player this season. And they are foolish to now be surprised that he is slated to miss significant time. Don’t be surprised if they are foolish again, and go out to get some bullshit, 38-year old, washed up shortstop (I’m sure Neifi Perez is available) to make sure Frandsen spends another season on the bench.
UPDATE: Grant has a suggestion, one that actually included thinking and analyzing and planning:
Ben Zobrist.
Zobrist is a pre-arbitration shortstop who is blocked by a shortstop at the major league level, Jason Bartlett. Zobrist is not in the future plans of the Devil Rays, who have Reid Brignac as their long-term solution.
Ben Zobrist has never had an on-base percentage below .400 at any minor league level.
Ben Zobrist has a decent defensive reputation.
Ben Zobrist does charity work for causes you care about. Look it up.
Ben Zobrist fills a need for the Giants. His team doesn’t have a plan for him in the short- or long-term. That team could use some inexpensive bullpen help. They could use a ML-ready starting pitcher to avoid rushing their 1,783 starting pitching prospects.
18 Backtalkers
At least it solves the problem of who to play at second, Durham or Frandsen.
We just inherited another full season of Durham.
oh, dear.
Although Pinto is right, he’s not Bruce Bochy. Bochy will have Omar back out there faster than you can say “youth movement.”
This has to be the most perfect OBM column ever. John, you’ve managed to distill your entire philosophy of the Giants into one little item. I hope the rest of your readers appreciate this as much as I.
I’m sure you’ll have lots of interesting observations as the season wears on, but this one’s a gem – essence of OBM – and the rest is mostly riffs and variations on the theme.
Now that Barry’s gone, I may just print this one to carry with me and reread when I wonder what’s on your mind.
I’m all for Neifi – he’s cheap (so he can be easily overpaid), the fans recognize his name (seems to be a prime consideration), and he’s a proven commodity.
I don’t care about “saving hundreds of runs with their glove”, when any decision comes up of youth vs what we got, youth is the answer. Under all possible best-case scenarios, the Gigantes finish at .500. I can’t imagine that benching Durham, Visquel or Aurilia can possibly be worse than playing Frandsen. Or if it is, what’s the difference? Losing 92 games versus losing 93?
I remember when Pedro Feliz was supposed to the future star… I have to wonder if not giving him a regular position with everyday at bats didn’t leave him stuck at never improving. I have to wonder if that hasn’t been a recurring problem with the Giants. So Frandsen, Velez and the 18 extraneous outfielders end up being two good regulars – that’s better than the team’s done in quite some time. And to carry on further, I think it’s unbelievable that there’s no Minor Leaque alternative to Visquel – no glove wizard who can’t hit a damn? No guy that hits 500 foot home runs but can’t draw a walk? No guy that can steal 50 bases but forgets which base to throw to? Nobody who has great athletic skills but is totally inexperienced and 18? Pretty damn sad that’s there’s no one to give a “what the hell” shot to for a month.
I wonder if we will have one of the worst offenses in history this year? At 1B, SS, 3B, and LF we are practically guaranteed to have among the worst hitters in baseball at the position. At C and RF we are a little below average. 2B is Durham, who was among the worst hitters in baseball last year and is now 36 years old. Rowand is probably a little above average for a CF.
If the pitching falters, we lose 100. And maybe even if it doesn’t…
It’s all so depressing, I don’t even have much to say any longer. This team is awful.
who cares about the ineptitude that is the giants?
they are gonna stink, and they are gonna keep paying the archtect of their stinkage
i was hoping that john was gonna be all over the insanity of congress going after the rocket for perjury
or going off on the following article:
http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/7841636?MSNHPHMA
rosenthal is an asshat
Joe,
I am so tired of the show, I have nothing. Really, what more could I say about Clemens or these Congressmen or writers that I haven’t already said, over and over?
We’re going backwards with this kind of bullshit.
Congress. Media. Selig. Fehr.
Great Job Guys! A Truly Awesome Performance! Thanks a lot. If you fuckers had been running World War II we’d all be goose-stepping around in kimonos and rubber samurai swords. Individually, you’re some of the most stupid, ignorant, over-educated, yet totally undignified vermin to ever strap on a three-piece suit. As individuals, you’re so short-sighted, I’m surprised you can see your own fucking shoe laces. On second thought, you cant–which explains why you wear loafers. Yet combined you’re smart enough to disgrace the National Pastime, humiliate the greatest players of an era, inflate the cost of attending a game to where you assholes now rival OPEC in gouging the Average American out of his already 45% taxed dollar.
You assholes should be given life sentences in the Attitude Adjustment Center at San Quentin and never see the light of day again.
I’m just not much interested in the current collection of Giants flotsam and jetsam. It will take effort to pay attention beyond Cain, Lincecum, Wilson.
Spending anything more than five bucks to see this embarrassing tribute to Sabean and Magowan and Baer is a waste.
i know there really is nothing left to say….i just enjoy reading your rants
mia just did a good job….but it aint the same
John, you (and Grant) hit the nail on the head.
During this off-season, I was wondering if the Giants should/could/would trade Lowry or Sanchez to the Rays for another player, Akinori Iwamura. Although 3B isn’t the ideal position for him, Iwamura would in all likelihood be the 2008 Giants’ leader in OBP and probably would provide at least as much power, if not more, than Rich Aurillia. Does this deal make sense or am I way off base here?
I would say that deal doesn’t make sense in that there’s no point in the Giants giving up any of their younger pitchers for any position players at this point. Iwamura can’t play 3rd, short, 2nd, first and left all at the same time. They’re so far away from any semblence of a team its ridiculous. It’s a given they’ll come in last in every offensive category this year and last in NL west but will they actually manage to win 70 games?
All these young players they have right now aren’t worth shit. They’re simply placeholders with low salaries until the bulk of the fossil’s contracts come off the books.
When I think of young players leading the way for the Giants I’m picturing players who are currently in San Jose, college and high school.
Sadly, I think Grega is right…. it’ll be a few years before the Giants are good again. Talk about trades, talk about free agents… there’s too far to go to not just fire Sabean, fire Bochy, and sit tight. I know it’s been said a million times before, but the team had Bonds and was still awful. I think the Giants might make a run if they signed 4 Bonds(es), but that’s about it.
I think Grega is right too. I only wanted Iwamura as a stopgap solution for Villalona. And I wasn’t a big fan of the Rowand signing because of the length and the likelihood that he improves the Giants a few wins but not significantly.
Rowand’s fine. The Giants’ mistakes were not last off-season, they were the last three or four off-seasons combined. And we can all tick off the choices by our front office that fucked this franchise up for the present and the near future. I’d be very surprised if this team doesn’t lose 100 games this season. The D-Backs, Dodgers, and Rockies are all better than last year and the Padres aren’t “that” bad. We are…that bad.
I think the Giants’ primary “mistake” has been a farm system with a stunning inability to develop position players. As much as we gnash our teeth about Dave Roberts, Randy Winn, etc., I don’t think we have more bad contracts on the books than a dozen other teams (at least we didn’t until Barry Zito), and Sabean’s trading record isn’t that bad (yes I haven’t forgotten the Pierzynski trade). But when your farm system produces exactly zero quality position players over ten years, you will be a last-place team unless you spend like the Yankees and the Red Sox. And maybe even if you do…
Well, maybe this is part of the reason they haven’t been able to develop any position players. The Giants minor league system for years had a system-wide hitting instruction coordinator. Seems he tried to make more than a few Giants farmhands change their swings. Somewhere between a Jeff Bagwell and Walt Hriniak, (even if their natural swing was a Ted Williams) A Charlie Lau/Walt Hriniak theoried weight shift moving forward swinging down and trying to cut it to put backspin on the ball kind of swing. Leading with the knob (Don Mattingly, Fred McGriff, and the Giants Bill Mueller, Todd Linden, Lance Niekro, Kevin Frandsen, Nate Shierholz, Fred Lewis. This as opposed to the Ted Williams slight uppercut. A hip swing with leg power leading with the barrel. Bonds, Cepeda, Mays, Aaron, Will Clark, Matt Williams, Robby Thompson and Willie McCovey to name some of the more recognizable swings.
No mind that most baseball folks who know about these things know that to drastically alter a hitters natural swing or a pitchers natural throwing motion once they’re out of high school is problematic at best, and career-ending at worst. Nevertheless, that was the Giants hitting instructor’s theory on hitting mechanics. So instead of Gary Maddoxs and Gary Matthews and George Fosters and Jack Clarks and the guys I just listed who strode into the ball, leading with the barrel and a slight uppercut to match the path of the ball, this hitting instructor gives us guys like Linden, Frandsen, Niekro etc. And to go with those mechanics here’s a little quote on in-game plate strategy.
“You’ll never get a better pitch to hit than the first one”
So of course, he was so good at developing minor league hitters he got promoted to the Big Club where he got to ply his wares beginning in 2001. Who? No other than Brian Sabean’s New Hampshire HS teammate Joe Lefebvre.
To paraphrase Paul Harvey “Now you know some of the story.”
your farm system produces exactly zero quality position players over ten years
The plan was to draft and develop pitchers at the expense of position players.
Worked so well they signed Zito to one of the worst contracts of all time.
To paraphrase Buccaneer Coach McKay:
“What do you think of the execution of the front office?”
“It’s an excellent idea.”