Well, I’ve just read a couple of Giants blogs, McCovey Chronicles, and MVN Giants Cove, as well as a few others, and there seems to be –at the least– some minor cause for optimism. The team has signed it’s big-time draft picks, has recently optioned out a couple of guys who just didn’t seem to be ready for prime time, and have discovered a few players who might, just might be contributors on a winning club in the future.
Here’s Kevin Gibbs, writing at the Cove:
…. the Giants have designated Jose Castillo for assignment, sent Holm and Bowker to triple A and called up Rohlinger, Sandoval and Ishikawa. When the Giants picked up Castillo they were hoping that he…. actually, I have no idea what the Giants hoped for with Castillo. By the start of the 2008 season, Castillo had firmly established that he could neither hit nor field at the major league level. Shockingly, on the Giants, Castillo neither hit nor played defense at the major league level.
OK, so, maye that’s not exactly positive, but, it’s a good thing that the team did it. 
I like the move to ditch Castillo, who is –unbelievably– a worse player than Pedro Feliz, and wish Bowker could have figured out how to lay off pitches that didn’t reach home plate, but there is no reason not to see if any of these other “prospects” have a chance to become real players. As Kevin points out, so far, only Fred Lewis has developed into a real player during this experimental phase. One more might make it a trend.
However, it remains true that we have a team that has hit 66 home runs this season, (about half what a normal club would hit), that has scored just 457 runs in 120 games, is 20 games under .500, and this team was put together by Brian Sabean on purpose. He is the architect of this mess, and the fact that he has made some strides in solving the team’s future doesn’t buy him a total pass.
I’m just saying…..
3 Backtalkers
We hear a lot about how the Giants’ offense is bad because Sabean has focused on drafting pitchers, but that now that he is “focused” on building up the offense, it should improve. But think about this:
1) Sabean has indeed favored pitching over hitting in the draft.
2) Sabean spent roughly $180 million to buy free-agent pitchers (Zito, Morris, Benitez)
3) The Giants play in an excellent park for pitchers.
And despite all this, the Giants are only 10th in the league in ERA! So, when Sabean focused all the organization’s resources on building up the pitching, he created a below-average pitching staff. And now he is pledged to fix the offense. I wait with baited breath…
From Spec Richardson and Tom Haller during that great run of 1975 to 1985 the Giants put together exactly two seasons over .500. With Managers like Joe Altobelli, Dave Bristol and Frank Robinson. Lifetime losers. All Five of them.
And while there were contributory years from baseball cards Vida Blue, Jack Clark, and a winding-down Willie McCovey, we were just as likely to be treated with the botchery of stiffs like Mike Ivie, Phil Nastu, John Curtis, Tom Griffin, Johnnie LeMastee, Guy Sularz and any number of persons of non-interest.
Brian Sabean and Felipe Alou and Bruce Bochy fit right in with this bunch. They have foisted upon us as Jim cited above, such worthies as Barry Zito, Armando Benitez, A.J. Pierzienshki, Aaron Rowand, Dave Roberts and a plethora of punchless, limp-wristed singles hitters. In the meantime they shuffled off the likes of Francisco Liriano and Joe Nathan for a tumor and unceremoniously showed their best hitter and the only reason to watch this pathetic collection of garbage, the door. And than wiped out all traces of his existence in the aftermath.
For any serious follower of team baseball, the current version of this franchise is not worthy of much investment from either an intellectual or an emotional standpoint.
The Front Office is run by marketing hacks and cronies who know more about baseball cards than baseball. They are horrible at evaluating talent. They are horrible at developing what talent they have.
Make no mistake. The media wannabes, and junior general managers, bloggers and their commentors, can stroke themselves all they want about the latest and greatest rookie signings, trade and how great Matt Cain, is. The simple fact of the matter the Giants are leaderless, talentless, and clueless when it comes to competing against their peers. Even the AL Development Squad Oakland A’s across the Bay are more interesting, more talented and more organized.
So Peter Magowan is gone. His replacement? Some other High Society Schmo from Bushwood Country Club; this one a corporate lawyer from Microsoft. Another pasty faced middle aged metro sexual who refuses to talk to the media. Way to assert leadership there. Way to chart a new course. Way to assure all those rummies who lined the Giants pockets with season ticket revenues that their money will be well spent.
The simple fact of the matter is the Giants are not a baseball team. They are an investment firm and care about only one thing. The money guys. The partners. The general partner. Their investment in the franchise. Their investment in the goldmine real estate that Pac Bell sits on.
Bochy is around because he doesn’t rock the boat. Neither does Righetti, or Wotus, Flannery or any of the others. Joe LeFevbre, Jack Hiatt and Felipe Alou are still on the fucking payroll for krissakes. Of course they are, because they don’t rock the boat and they are good little corporate organ grinder monkeys. “As long as we keep rakin’ in the cash, and you guys don’t rock the boat, everybody is going to be happy” “The win lose thing is for suckers. Fans spend money for the “illusion of winning”, not the actual winning.” This is the last year of the Bonds-All Star game ticket ploy. Next year Pac Bell will turn into Camden Yards. A brick facade visited by tourists mixed in with a few thousand hardcore fans with little else to interest them.
The only reason to watch this team is the same reason to watch the Niners. A morbid, bitter curiosity of how deep and how long these once stellar sports organizations can stay in a cesspool, before external factors finally force the ownerships of both to leave.
+mia,
Glad to see you’re alive and well. No longer missing in action.