San Francisco Giants
So, I haven’t really followed the rest of the league so much this year, because the Brewers have been so entertaining, and my Rotisserie team is god awful…. Anyway, I saw the first two games in person of the Giants/Brewers series.
I am having a little trouble understanding the logic behind the construction of the Giants. They have the best player of all time that is still a very productive hitter. They have surrounded him with 7 other below replacement level hitters. These aren’t hitters that have huge upsides either. They are virtually all over the age of 35, and most are closer to 40. Don’t you need some kind of protection for Bonds? His best years were when Jeff Kent was hitting behind him. 6 out of the 7 hitters have OBP < .320. Roberts (.287) Aurilia (.278), Feliz (.284) Vizquel (.277) are the wosrt of the lot. The only other hitter in the lineup that I wouldn’t mind playing for my team is Randy Winn, who is a very average hitter.
Financial constraints did not restrict this team from going out and getting protection for Bonds. They instead chose to blow that money on Barry Zito…. another case of the best pitcher on the market, being vastly overpaid. Signing a potential #1 starter is rarely a bad decision, but it was a bad fit for the Giants. The team was stocked before in starting pitching, and didn’t really have a hole in the rotation. Jonathan Sanchez could have been locked into that #5 job behind Morris, Cain, Lowry, and Lincecum.
I don’t think there is another team that could have used a player like Carlos Lee. He would be a perfect fit in the #4 hole in San Fran. The only hope for a SF fan would be to have Bonds break the record prior to the deadline, and then to ship him for some young hitters. Of course, SF doesn’t believe in developing from within. They have signed several marginal free agents that they likely could have made waiver claims on, in order to sacrifice #1 draft picks. SF doens’t like paying high signing bonus’ to draft picks, so they make sure they don’t have these picks….. INteresting strategy…..
June 21st, 2007 at 7:33 pm
They REALLY blew it by not signing VLAD a few years ago. That guy would have been the PERFECT protection for Bonds.
Otherwise, you nailed it - they don’t like spending $$$ on draft picks. When they have had picks, they have developed some really good pitchers, but position players are awful. Just awful.
BTW - Sabean has officially lost his mind; when he traded Benetiz a few weeks ago, he actually admitted the fans/media distate for Benetiz played a part in his decision. WTF? You can’t POSSIBLY let fans/media dictate your moves - that’s the equivalent of letting the inmates run the asylum. And even if it were the truth, you don’t admit it….
June 22nd, 2007 at 6:39 am
Wasn’t Sabean considered a “young genius” in the Beane/Theo/Cashman class? What happened?
And bringing this back to the Sox cuz… well, that’s what I do… would you rather have invested over $100 million in Barry Zito or Dice-K? I’m not saying Dice-K’s gonna win the Cy Young this year, or even Rookie-of-the-Year (as some predicted). But… I feel a lot better about Dice-K’s potential the next five years than I do about Zito’s… perhaps that’s just cuz I’m a Sox fan though.