As the trading deadline came to a close yesterday, it seemed as if Sabean had sat on his hands again. Whatever reason he gave, may it be the 'ol "The value we were asking for was not being given back in return", or my personal favorite, "We still see ourselves as contenders right now", thousands of Giants fans were preparing themselves to let it be known that Sabean's 2-year extension was the most recent of idiotic moves by the San Francisco Giants.
However, as minutes went by past the deadline, we found out that Morris, probably our most important asset to trade, was in fact, traded. Why was he the most important asset to be traded? Well, it definitely wasn't because of his quality of play. The crap has hit the fan for Morris in his last 5 starts or so, making me wonder if he was doing his best to lower his trade value so he could stay in San Francisco. No, the reason this was another fantastic trade by Sabean is that we gain about $13 million or so over the next year that we would have had to pay him for his crappiness. Also, there is no shortage of quality pitchers that can rise up in his spot, as apparently Ortiz and Misch will compete for Morris's now vacant rotation spot (no link, but I read it somewhere yesterday). My bet goes to Ortiz--let the feel-good story of the year continue!
Sabean...thank you for giving us a bit of hope that you weren't lying through your teeth when you spoke of rebuilding and getting rid of vets. I don't care that all you got in return was Fred Lewis 1.5 and the always-intriguing player-to-be-named-later. Thank you for giving us a bit of hope that you actually know what you are doing from here on out. Now keep it up! Now that this kid give us our 1,265th outfielder, let's get rid of Roberts! He is unnecessary, as Freddy Lewis can give us the same kind of production and has yet to hit his peak. I'd also love to see us get some kind of prospect for Durham, Klesko, and I'm fairly certain if Kline is put on waivers someone will bite...a quality veteran lefty out of the bullpen is always needed somewhere....somewhere that is, except for San Francisco.
UPDATE: How does Pittsburgh even take Sabean's calls anymore, after the Schmidt deal? Pittsburgh's probably about the last place I expected Morris to go.
UPDATE II: What a great game last night! While Penny and Martin bawled all night about the strike zone (which was definitely consistent for both teams), Lowry wriggled out of trouble and the 'pen played fantastically. One of my new favorite Giants pitchers is Hennessey...he does everything that the rest of the pitching staff has trouble doing: throwing strikes! Way to go, Blownitez replacement!
UPDATE III: Just a thought...as the Giants heat up (they've won or split the last 3 series and are well on their way to taking one from the Dodgers as they haven't lost in LA this year), nothing is certain. Just employ the 'ol Dusty Baker methodology, and 11 weeks left and 11 games back in the division gives us time to make up a game a week. It certainly isn't impossible. Improbable, maybe...but not impossible. No, I'm not kidding myself, but there still is some hope. And baseball, much less than life, is nothing without hope.
Oh, and by the way, as I prepare for visiting the Giants/Pads on Saturday, keep this in mind: the last 2 Giants games I have attended, Bonds has hit 3 home runs. And we will be sitting in right field. Oh yeaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh.
1 comment:
Ah, gotta love the spam comments. Yeah, I was glad that Sabean traded Morris too, but I wish he would have done it 6-8 weeks ago when Morris actually had some value. Still, he dumped the salary, which was nice. As for the Giants chance of contending... I think we're only kidding ourselves if we start to travel down that path.
Post a Comment