So this is the projected lineup that folks are happy with?

OBP SLG Name OPS HRs

.322 .445 Bengie Molina .767 16
.351 .440 Fred Lewis .791 9
.339 .410 Aaron Rowand .749 13
.363 .426 Randy Winn .789 10
.299 .382 Eugenio Velez .681 1
.357 .329 Emmanuel Burriss .686 1
.357 .490 Pablo Sandoval .847 3
.337 .432 Travis Ishikawa .769 3
.370 .493 Nate Schierholtz .863 1

Edgar Rentaria .699 10 HRs in Detroit .761 lifetime in NL 6000 plus ABs and he gets 18 million for 2 years? Of course the solution to the power dilemma is to sign a 45 year old former power pitcher who now throws a Junior College Velocity slider. Way to go. Awesome. Totally awesome under the radar signing. Vintage Sabean arm twisting and wheeling/dealing.

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This is a list of unsigned free agents and their lines from last year with better power numbers than any of the above.

.430 .601 Manny Ramirez 1.031 37 HR
.386 .513 Adam Dunn .899 40 HR
.436 .563 Milton Bradley .999 22 HR
.367 .507 Pat Burrell .874 33 HR
.371 .471 Bobby Abreu .842 20 HR
.373 .502 Jason Giambi .875 32 HR
.345 .463 Casey Blake .908 21 HR
.343 .479 Jim Edmonds .822 20 HR
.314 .460 Joe Crede .774 15 HR
.353 .424 Ken Griffey Jr .777 18 HR

There was not a single Giant regular from last year projected into this year’s lineup that had a qualifying OPS over .800. Even the woe begone Edmonds Crede and Griffey would be a power improvement over every single batter in the Giants lineup. To be sure, everyone of these FAs has negatives, and the pathetic bottom three are exactly the types that Sabean has signed in the past to long term contracts. But as bad as those guys are, all you have to do is look at the Giants lineup above and you soon realize they won’t be able to compete and in the process they will be unwatchable except when Lincecum or Wilson is pitching. As it has shown in the standings for the last 4 years, it will again this year. Rooting for the Giants will be akin to rooting for the Washington Generals.

John – correct me if I’m wrong, but the #5 spot produced 3 wins last season. Are you arguing that Randy Johnson won’t win more than 3 games? It solidifies the rotation and gives Bumgarner, Alderson and Pucetas a chance to step up a level in the minors and develop.

Seriously, what’s the drawback here with this signing?

I’m with Fish. Look, Sabean should have been fired long ago and this club lost a HUGE poker chip when it didn’t trade Schmidt (and later a pre-hurt Lowry) for youth. But, Randy Johnson and Edgar Renteria for short-term contracts are “okay” in my book. The line-up is terrible and Sabean is really clueless, but these deals aren’t that bad in and of themselves. Hell, at this point, why not sign Manny for what he wants and two to three seasons in LF!?!

The Renteria and Johnson and Howry and Aflac signings taken as individual signings are not bad signings, just overpriced…which is understandable when trying to attract players to this wreck.

The silverware and crystal in the Titantics dining room were pretty good acquisitions too. There is nothing intrinsically wrong with Rowand, Winn, Bengie, etc. But the fact that those guys have about as much power as a fart in a snowstorm and they’re the best hitters on this club, tells the un-mentally retarded that you should probably try to acquire some immediate help in that department. Especially after four fucking years of being one of the worst offensive teams in MLB.

And unless you’re the Giants, you don’t protect yourself from leprosy by spending millions on flu shots.

I also think the Johnson and Renteria signings are ok. What we’re seeing here is the reality of attracting talent to San Francisco. Let’s face it the only hitter on +Mia’s list that would actually sign a contract to play here is Bradley. And that’s only if he’s truly burned all his bridges.

The rest of those guys won’t sign here because they know they won’t come close to their career production here. Hell Griffey would probably retire rather then play here. Manny wants 600+ home runs. Not gonna happen here.

How many young, on the upside of their hitting careers, position players have the Giants signed in the last 20 years? Bonds. Kent (was he considered a power hitter or a 2B with some power? And he was traded and re-signed) Who else? Seriously?

Now part of this is that the Giants for the Bonds-Kent era focused on pitching but another factor is that power hitters don’t want to play in San Francisco. And they really don’t want to play in AT&T. None of them do. For a younger player its the end of their power career. Todd Helton has stated publicly that he hates hitting in AT&T. He’s not the only one. Most feel that way.

To acquire a free agent hitter they would have to laughably overpay. For example there’s no way Texiera would sign here for less then 200 million.

So the only option the Giants have is to grow power or trade pitchers for it.

This is the sort of Sabean shit that drives John, me and a few others non-crack smoking Giants followers crazy:

From Andrew Baggarly’s column over at the San Jose Mercury on Saturday 12/27.

“We mean business,” Sabean said. “We’re trying to get back into our winning ways, and I think now we’ve got a chance to make a run at the division.”

This is the statement he issued in conjunction with the 8 million dollar signing of a 45 year old pitcher. With a lineup consisting of no. 7 hitters, that isn’t capable of scoring 700 runs per year.

He says:…”….we’ve got a chance to make a run at the division.” Why? How? Because the Padres, Rockies and fools in Arizona and LA are almost as cynical and inept as he? Because all of a sudden, magic fairy dust is going to convert Rowand, Molina, Roberts and Winn into run producing behemoths? Don’t be stupid.

Look, if all you care about is the standings, than just conduct a series of 5 way coin flips to determine which one of these suckbag teams in the NL West gets to have their asses kicked by a legitimate, interesting, Major League caliber team in October. But if you are really interested in watching a quality MLB team, never mind a legitimate pennant contender, then you are out of your fucking mind if you believe even half the shit that Sabean and the clown media and blogs are shoveling at you. And don’t give me that bullshit about Lincecum and Wilson. Nice young kids. Who are almost certain to regress this year.

Its this simple people:

This team cannot score runs. They have not scored runs in the past. They cannot score runs now. They will be unable to score runs in the near future, unless a bunch of minor leaguers can migrate from A and AA ball to Cooperstown in the next six months. Here’s the prior four years

640 runs last year. ……………. Fifth Place….72 Wins
683 runs the prior year…………Last Place….71 Wins
746 runs in Bonds last year……Third Place…75 Wins
649 runs in 2005 w/o Bonds except
for a few weeks late ………. ….Third Place…75 Wins

Goodbye to Durham and Vizquel up the middle and Hello to Renteria his .740 OPS and Burris with his .686 respectively and this is going to give the Giants a chance to:….”…..make a run at the division.”

The Giants have replaced a number 8 hitter with another number 7 hitter, and a number 7 hitter with a number 8 hitter, and wishful thing. Thats how Sabean corrects the lack of run production and the lack of winning?

One more thing. I’m sick of the bullshit overblown, exaggerated canard that players won’t come here because PacBell is too hard to hit in. If that were a major obstacle and this team actually did want to compete for legitimate power hitters, they would spend a few hundred thousand bucks, rearrange the fences (they finally did this at the Stick), paint a home run line across the right field wall and use the extra space to sell seats in the shithole that everybody whines about formerly known as “triples alley”.

How convenient that once Bonds “cancerous clubhouse presence” couldn’t be scapegoated for the lack of free agent signings, all of a sudden its the new ballpark? Please.

Anybody that has followed the Giants for more than 10 minutes will recall the same bullshit was repeatedly put out by media and the Giants front office about Candlestick when rationalizing the Giants shittiness.

“Wah….Candlestick is too windy. Its too cold to hit. The wind knocks down all the linedrives….” etc. etc. etc.” Yeah, well McCovey, Mays, Bonds, Cepeda, Mitchell, Clark as well as Marichal and Perry all feasted there. It was about the talent, and the ability to mold that talent into a winning team. Not the fucking ballpark. What bullshit. For years the same idiots have been saying no pitchers will pitch in so-called hitters parks. What the fuck is a matter with you people who believe the bullshit coming out of MSM and idiot fanblogs?

The bottom line is very apparent for anyone sober enough to look at reality. The Giants are interested in one thing. MARKETING THEIR TEAM. Not winning. Not putting great players on the roster. Not having a great team. Larry Baer, everytime he opens his mouth, tells you straight up what they’re about. “The Giants are about MARKETING THE BALLPARK EXPERIENCE”.

And you do that by signing over the hill, overage, has-beens and former baseball cards to peddle to the quiche-eating, wine-sipping, cellphone-blathering, garlic-fry-reeking, morons who wouldn’t recognize a slider from a cutter if Krukow didn’t tell them 56 times per game.

Eventually, folks will figure it out, like they figured Lurie and his crowd out. They got tired of the bullshit, empty promises, non-performance, and endless excuses. Just like I did, til they cleaned house, and brought in guys who knew how to win.

Instead of spending millions on baseball cards, the Giants should have been ransacking the Twins, Blue Jays, A’s and Rays farm personnel and scouts. Organizations that not only know how to draft well, but how to DEVELOP and TEACH. You know. Organizations that don’t have General Managers that brag about not knowing who is in their farm system. Organizations that actually have a business model predicated on building winning baseball teams, not marketing a ballpark experience.

And don’t give me that bullshit about Lincecum

What bullshit?

Who are almost certain to regress this year.

Why?

Not out of context at all. You said it. Own it.

You are an insufferable asshole who constantly makes insufferably long, unsupportable statements (which you expect everyone here to take as the delivered truth), and then mount personal attacks when your voluminous vomitous is rightly challenged.

Go fuck yourself.
No one else ever will.

And nobody ever knows WTF you’re talking about.

The venomous and interminable spittle is as tedious as it is predictable.

I’ll spell it real slow for the trollops whose knowledge of baseball is limited to Topps, Fleers, Giants press releases, internet and the math club.

1. Larry Baer: “THE GIANTS ARE ABOUT PROVIDING THEIR FANS WITH A BALLPARK EXPERIENCE” not “The Giants are about providing their fans with championship baseball”

2. Barry Zito, Aaron Rowand, Randy Johnson, Edgar Renteria. Just under $50 million per year.

3. Not a single impact offensive player, other than Bonds in 5 years. None. Zero.

4. The starting pitching has only 2 solids. Lincecum and Cain. Sanchez is potential while the 45 year old with back problems and Zito are wishful thinking at this point.

Thats just simply the way it is. Anything can happen for sure, but that won’t be because of a long range plan on management’s part. Teams sometimes win in spite of the stupidity of its front office. But thats no reason to delude oneself into ignoring baseball reality.

If we can just sign Manny this team would suddenly become very interesting… just FUCKING DO IT. I don’t care what kind of shit he pulled in Boston – we’re used to putting up with all sorts of crap, and it’s better than losing.

I’ll spell it real slow for those who think they are all sophisticated because they can say “trollops”:

1) A baseball team interested in making money? And the money comes from fans? Who would’ve ever guessed! This must be a new development… can’t date back to more than 1876.

2) $50 million/4 players = $12.5 million a year. Can’t possibly be right – ballplayers don’t make that kind of money.

3) yeah, life is rough… only three Cy Young award winners and a prospective fourth in the rotation. Plus Sanchez. And maybe Lowry. The horrors.

4) I dunno – Randy Winn’s worked out pretty well, Bengie’s been better than anyone would have expected, Lewis is surrounded by “future MVP” talk, just retired HOF shortstop and left fielder, middle infielder with incredible speed that there isn’t really even a roster spot for….

So, I guess if we can’t rely on stats, 4 gazillion blogs, and being fans… guess we should all just be Yankee rooters (different than trollops, if we must be euphemistic). They buy the world series every year! Just like the Mets! Oh… wait….

Can we please no longer refer to Barry Zito as a Cy Young winner? I know he actually won a Cy Young award, but referring to him in that way now is kind of insulting.