I just don’t understand it.

As a serious follower of what the Giants did, do, and will continue doing, their abuse of young players doesn’t make sense of course. That is what is frustrating to fans. But if one looks at the totality of the Giants organization as primarily a marketing company than the way they are run makes sense.

Established mediocre veterans who are media friendly, yes-men of which to build a marketing and advertising campaign around. (This is what Rozelle did for the NFL and Selig has emulated with great success), Depend upon Dick Tidrow to continue to draft good pitching prospects, and hope that the team stays competitive enough through the end of the ticket-selling season while developing the 5th richest regional cable network contract in the country.

Thats pretty much it.

Sigh. This is one of my biggest problems with the last few years. We could have been one of the worst defensive teams in baseball at any point the last few years playing the young guys. We WERE one of the worst offenses in baseball each of the last, what, 4 years? What difference would it have made? We wouldn’t be worse off, that’s for sure. And at least by now we’d know if guys like Bowker or Schierholtz actually have it in them to contribute in some fashion. Even if they weren’t very good, knowing they can give us something for essentially free (as opposed to nothing for a lot of money, see: Winn, Randy) is good info – or even knowing they aren’t capable and we should move on is useful. I just don’t understand it.

Of course Sabean listens to him. As he contemplates another booger on the end of his finger and walks away mid-presentation

I may be wrong, but I think if you look back at all the signings over quite a few years, the Giants got exactly what one logically would have expected them to get

That is the point. People who use observational tools other than their own arrogant prejudicial stereotypes, mixed in with the sycophantic opinions of cronies even further down the evolutionary scale, to form their judgments, are routinely going to differ with the Sabean’s and Hendrys and Bowden of the world.

Unforeseen injuries and even inexplicable downturns and failings are part of the game. We all know that. Even if a 50/50 risk like a Brad Penny had not turned out, it was still a good decision to acquire him.

This is why I keep referencing the 1980s when I bring up Sabean. He is stuck there. The evaluation tools were so different then. Radar guns, pitching deliveries, body types, conditioning methods, nutrition, sports medicine…all of these things have advanced since then. Its not just the technologies and sabermetrics. Its 25 years of progress–four generations of ballplayers.

When Sabean makes a decison he is using 1980s criteria, and he scratches his head, wonders why those guys don’t do shit, looks around and blames Ishikawa, Bwoker, Shierholz, Burris, Lewis and others for the shortfalls of Renteria, Winn, Rowand, and Zito.

The rest of world is in the 2010s. Along with the franchises who are eating the Giants lunch between the lines year in and year out.

“Nate Schierholtz has helped himself by playing winter ball in Puerto Rico. The 25-year-old candidate for the right field job entered Wednesday batting .339 in 15 games for the Gigantes de Carolina, helped partly by tutelage from San Francisco’s globe-trotting hitting coach, Hensley Meulens.

“I give Nate a lot of credit,” Sabean said. “We really appreciate what he’s doing to go to winter ball and he has made some changes with Hensley. Everybody’s pulling for Nate. He’s got too much passion for what he does and he works at it. He’s a good outfielder (with a) good arm, good baserunner. We just haven’t seen enough consistency with the bat, or more so the power that we thought we’d have at this time. But he certainly (has) a captive audience right now. He wants to be out there.”

no brian….nate has a GREAT arm

and the reason you didnt see consistency from him is because….YOU AND YOUR MONKEY REFUSED TO PLAY HIM

the kid sat for the better part of a month to start the season, while you stuck with winn

guess i should be grateful for the small things though…at least sabean knows his name now

It amazes me, in these modern times, that a GM doesn’t have everyone from a grizzled old scout to a stat geek to a tea-leaf reader on the payroll. It’s absolutely in the category of “reasoned decision” that Sabean fails miserably.

I don’t get too excited about the money part, but nonetheless, you sign Edgar Renteria, he takes up space. And unless he’s hideously bad, he stays there at short.

I may be wrong, but I think if you look back at all the signings over quite a few years, the Giants got exactly what one logically would have expected them to get. Randy Winn, Aaron Rowand, Michael Tucker, are only disappointments if you’re thinking as John suggests Sabean is thinking. You look at Randy Winn’s career, there’s no real anomalies there, he is what he is – as is Rowand. The anomalies are realities in Sabean’s head, though – it becomes bizarre that the possibility that Sanchez, say, could hit .350, is taken quite seriously, yet that Rookie X might be an All-Star if he could just fucking get some playing time gets almost zero attention.

Massive risk-aversion. Meanwhile, rookies just die on the vine – not just misused, but wasted. You take Lewis or Frandsen, go back a couple-three of years, they could’ve brought something in a trade. Now, you can’t give them away. Really foolish. Remember when Feliz was the second-coming? Someone had to have known better.