The Vlad commentary starts at about the 6-minute mark on the second mp3 listed at the top. The 7:21 is where you can here the question specifically…

Ralph: “How ’bout this; if you had THAT one to do over again, would you have done that one?”
Magowan: “Yes”
…
Ralph: “Finally after all these years I got a yes.”

Even if the ONLY reason DePo made out so well on the Penny-LoDuca trade was because he knew something about LoDuca that other teams didn’t, it STILL puts him miles ahead of our current management on internal talent evaluation alone.

Not trading Schmidt when his contract was up (when he had actual VALUE still), significantly overpaying to retain marginal players (Bernard, Perez, etc? SERIOUSLY?), giving up draft picks on guys nobody else even wants (how many picks have the Giants lost in the last 10 years? How does that help an organization?), trading a ton of talent for a player who doesn’t even fill a major need position (DoublePl-AJ), and countless other gaffes are proof enough that it’s time to move on.

I’m not saying anything new here, as John’s said it all before, and could rattle off a list infinitely longer than this.

As to your question about where Magowan makes the Vlad comment, it was during the series of questions that he wouldn’t answer that you referenced (he wouldn’t even admit that he overpayed Zito, stating that “you can’t evaluate a 7-year deal after 1 year” – not an exact quote). Ralph even made a comment like, “We got him to answer one!” or “admit to one” or something along those lines.

wanna know why he came out ahead on the penny/lopuca trade??? cuz he and the entire bums org knew that lopuca was roided up

something they left out of the details

and where does peter the pink state that on second thought he wouldve gone after vlad?

he reiterated the injury issue (total bullshit, as they went after el fatso and omar) and talked about bonds

peter the pink has no clue and thats why he is sticking with a clueless gm

and im sick of razor and mr t….they ask questions that peter is not going to answer…..

why not hit him with real questions like….ok, so the philosophy was to draft pitchers in order to get position players….where are those position players?

after 12 years of drafting mainly pitchers, why spend so much money on the fa market going after a starter and a closer….both who suck?

why the fuck are you talking about 2017….do you think that giant fans are gonna support a team that cant get its financial act together until the stadium is payed off?

and why are you so afraid of rebuilding?

I have to agree with everything you said, but want to note that the Giants reduced their payroll to about $77 million this year (17th overall) so at least we’re not spending top 10 money to suck this bad…

On another note, I’m sick of having this “gamer” crap shoved down my throat. A real “gamer” doesn’t overthrow the cutoff and give runners free bases (Rowand opening day). A real “gamer” can make defensive plays (Durham giving up the first hit by diving too far on a ground ball yesterday). And “gamers” don’t lose games like we did yesterday, letting a runner on second score on an infield single? Really Durham? The audacity of the Giants executives to sell us this bullshit in this fashion pisses me off, if our veterans played fundamental baseball it would be one thing but they’re making the same mistakes the kids would for $5 million a year more, without the potential improvement the kids might make.

I didn’t really want to post this here, but no longer see a separate e-mail link for you on the site. I’m not sending it to stand up for the Giants, but it seems only fair to take this into account re the ostensible purging of Bonds from the ballpark. If nothing else, it should remind us to take the words of Bruce Jenkins et al with a grain of salt. You and most of the commenters here are good about that when the sportswriters are being stupid about Bonds & steroids, but it seems we’re less so when they strike a chord with resentment toward the front office. For what it’s worth, here’s the front office’s letter to the Chronicle, which no on seems to have read before jumping all over them:

LETTER FROM THE GIANTS
Bonds is remembered at AT&T
Staci Slaughter
Sunday, March 30, 2008
Editor – We were extremely disappointed to read the recent assertions by two Chronicle columnists that the Giants are somehow attempting to erase the memory of Barry Bonds from our ballpark. In fact, quite the opposite is true. The only things that were removed from the ballpark were the items that were relevant to Barry as an active Giants player.

All of the plaques and markers that recognize his historic achievements and contributions remain on permanent display in and around the ballpark. This includes seven of the 14 plaques in the Giants History Walk and his seven MVP awards, along with the other Giants who won the honor (Jeff Kent, Kevin Mitchell, Willie McCovey and Willie Mays). On Opening Day, we will unveil a plaque on the right-centerfield brick wall marking his record-breaking home run. Additionally, Barry Bonds is prominently featured in our 50th Anniversary displays around the ballpark and on the cover of our media guide – which highlights some of the Giants greats over the past 50 years.

The contributions of Barry Bonds to our club and our community can never be erased in the minds of the millions of fans who witnessed all that he achieved in a Giants uniform over 15 seasons.

- Staci Slaughter, Senior Vice President of Communications, San Francisco Giants

This article appeared on page D – 2 of the San Francisco Chronicle

Speaking of which, I heard Peter Magowan on KNBR yesterday and he admitted that if he had it to do over again that he’d sign Vlad . . . no shit. He mentioned Vlad’s back as a concern (which is was, to some), but what really surprised me was when he said that many people were WRONG in assuming that he’d take over for Bonds, because they had him under contract for 3 more years, and he ended up staying for 5. Forgetting the fact that Vlad’s still playing, wouldn’t it have been just as good to (if not BETTER) to pair them up then to simply replace one with the other? What kind of ass-backwards logic is that?

Oh, and of course, he conceded that if they had signed Vlad that they wouldn’t have made the DoublePl-AJ trade, which would have kept Nathan, Bonser, & Liriano in Orange & Black. Weaksauce, indeed.