**YOUTUBE VIDEO REVIEWS ON THE HOTTEST ELECTRONICS OUT**…

I agree with you about Soriano, and I think it illustrates the dangers in giving out an 8 frigging year deal to a player…..a team like the Yankees will just shrug off the last two years of Texeira’s contract, should he decline towards the end. But for other clubs, it can be a killer.

I’m not excusing the Zito contract by pointing out Wells’ contract, but here’s the biggest problem with Zito’s deal: It’s set a very dangerous precedent. What do you think Lincecum, Cain, Sanchez, Bumgarner and any other pitcher in the Giant system are going to use as a baseplate to negotiate a deal with Giants? Yep, Zito’s contract. They’ll think “well, if the Giants gave Barry X dollars, then I deserve Y dollars….”

It’s a very slippery slope.

But this is the part that kills me. Other than this blog, and a few intermittent blurbs on fanboy sites, nowhere is mainstream media taken to task for the absolutely incompetent bordering on corrupt coverage of the Giants organization mismanagement for the past several years. Guys like Barbierie, Radnich, and Ostler may take an occasional swipe, but other than a few attempts at truth-telling the coverage of the Giants Mangament is breathtakingly pathetic and sycophantic. Pravda could not have been more in the lap of the Communist Party under Kruschev.

It is so much easier for these guys who depend upon access, and who willingly subject themselves to the flattery of Larry Baer, to just swallow the press releases, conduct some softball interviews, and throw the occasional Kevin Frandsen under the bus while doing the Giants front office dirty work for them, than it is for them to actually behave like journalists instead of extensions of the Giants Media machine.

“Player don’t like Payphone Park?”

At least some of us are paying attention and putting their statements, onfield decisons and offield policies under a magnifying glass and questioning the bullshit stories that come out of 3rd and King Baseball Theme Park.

Everytime I see you post I think of “Fish” (Abe Vigoda) on the old Barney Miller sitcom, as this very large, kind but lumbering sad-eyed old detective who has seen too much and is very sardonic but hilariously deadpan funny, so it is always good to see you post. Even when we think the other is full of shit.

On Topic.

I don’t know what happened to Soriano, but damn he was awesome with the Yankees, and he just seems to get a little worse each year…at least in my perception.

And no fair pointing to the Wells contract when the Zito contract gets called out. Thats the kind of stuff that propagandists do…deflecting attention from really bad and horrible decision by attempting to point out someone else’s egregious decisions.

I don’t think you are excusing the Zito contract. You know baseball better than that, but sometimes if you don’t take the time to elaborate sometimes, guys like me take things the wrong way. You’ve a lot to contribute when you take the time. And since we’re on the subject.

I can’t stand Zito’s pitching and the negative effect of his contract.

As far as Zito’s contract goes, take a look at Vernon Wells. I think THAT has to be the worst contract in baseball.

First the money.

Carlos Lee signed with the Astros. His payday? $3M signing bonus; $100M over 6 years. Could the Giants have matched or exceeded this offer? Certainly. They did not.

Alfonso Soriano signed with the Cubs. His payday? $8M signing bonus; $136M over 8 years. Could the Giants have matched or exceeded this offer? Sure, but they didn’t.

Why not?

The chaos.

Even if the Giants had seriously engaged in a bidding war with the other teams interested in these two players – which they did not – the Giants were at a serious disadvantage.

Some may remember the media circus surrounding Bonds which was raging at the time. Others might point out that the Giants were fielding the oldest players in baseball, the average age of their starting eight being 36. Still others may recall that the Giants had mercifully released 72 year old manager Felipe Alou and replaced him with the dynamic and charismatic Bruce Bochey, who had been released by the Padres despite having just won the division championship.

If the above is not enough convince the skeptical that the Giants were in chaos prior to the 2007 season one merely has to recall who they did sign in their panic and confusion: In a bidding war against themselves the Giants signed Barry Zito for $126M over 7 years; widely held to be the worst signing in the history of baseball. And when one looks back at the Alex Rodriguez signing with the Rangers, that is saying a lot. The Giants front office was the laughing stock of Major League Baseball. Hands down.

As far as signing Mark Teixeira goes the Giants were never even close to competing for his contract. Teixeira signed with the Yankees for $180M over 8 years with a $5M signing bonus. The Giants were not about to pony up that kind of scratch, because many of the same decision makers who had botched the negotiations in 2007 were still in charge and were trying to figure out how to extend their own contracts and job security. They were never going to go out on that limb.

None of this had anything to do with the ballpark. Players who declined offers from the Giants that cite the park as their reason were being polite. It would be impolitic to say something like “I’m not signing with the Giants because they are cheap and their current organization and clubhouse is a well known nightmare.”

About the ballpark.

The dimensions at AT&T park are not friendly to power hitters. It would not be a huge mistake for the Giants to enclose the huge right center field area known as triples alley (they could build more bleacher seats and actually have a bullpen area) in order to bring the dimensions more in line with other major league ballparks. There would be more home runs and less excuses.

Media Spinning the Baer propaganda just as predicted. And right on time too. This guy is turning into a regular West Coast reincarnation of the “People’s Daily Worker”:

From the same guy who went all breathless when there was a rumor floating around a couple offseasons ago about a supposed leaked report that had a list of names of players who allegedly tested positive for something that was positively absolutely against the rules, allegedly. And on that list was supposedly the name of Lamar, who it was said tried to get a ham n egger pinch hitter to claim alleged substance as his own or something along those lines that was totally irrelevant to reporting out that the Giants franchise was poised once again to spend 6 months and 162 games failing at baseball. Here’s the latest corporate drivel:

…It’s the same reason they barely discussed Mark Teixeira last winter. This is the same franchise, remember, that was spurned after trying to sign Alfonso Soriano and Carlos Lee. Some of that money eventually ended up going to Aaron Rowand. Most hitters just don’t want to come to AT&T Park.

Its the Park? Really? Fuck it. Tear it down and get the taxpayers to pay for a more hitter-friendly park. Problem Solved

1993: “Give us a new stadium and we will be able to build the best stadium in the world to attract all the best free agents”
2003: “Paying off the new stadium precludes us from signing really expensive free agents, but mainly its Barry Bonds fault because he is too expensive”
2008: “No free agents want to come here because its a shitty park.”

Just keep reporting out the facts. And people wonder why MSM is about as trustworthy as “Read My lips…no new taxes”

Well. Read my lips.

No +mia money for you Mr. Giants moneybags.

I think that Pettite’s post-season record is excellent, but I don’t think that it should be enough to put him into the HOF. But I think that he will get in, possibly in his 3rd or 4th year of eligibility. It might depend on how thin the class of 20XX happens to be, as well.