Ah Bearded Wonder...how we barely knew ye

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.

Two sides

After a week at the lake where yours truly finally, finally got up on a wakeboard, I am ready to post again for your reading pleasure. Apologies for the delay, life's real busy lately. Things should calm down after August.

This whole Sabean extension has Giants fans splitting to two sides, most of whom are standing in the "This is the last thing the Giants organization should have done" side. My gut reaction was to jump over with them, but after reading many, many opinions on the matter, my mind was changed a bit.

John over at OBM (which is probably the best-written Giants blog I've seen) presents a valid case for the crowd calling for Sabean's head. On the other hand, Martin at Obsessive Giants Compulsive (another well-thought out Giants blog) presents a case in defense of Sabean, which as controversial as it may be, has some very good points that swayed my opinion a bit.

After hearing both sides of the argument, I have to say I lie somewhere in the middle. I agree that Sabean has not made any impacting trades that turned out to be positive since the Schmidt trade. He has done a poor job of developing the minor league system, and has signed mediocre after mediocre player, giving them huge contracts.

On the other hand, if (and that's a big "if") McGowan played puppeteer to Sabean's Pinnochio all these years since Sabean turned the team around with the Matt Williams trade, then I can see the case for giving Sabean a year or two to see what he can do on his own will. My deepest feelings tell me that Sabean had just as much to do with the current state of the Giants' organization as McGowan, but because of the job he's done with the pitching staff, and the recent off-shore signings he's made in the past year, I don't think it's a horrible thing to give Sabean a chance. Plus, I do think that if we had brought in a new GM, there is no guarentee that he would be any better than Sabean, and we also may have to suffer even longer for him to get used to and get to know the players in the Giants organization.

My official stance, then, is that I give Sabean one trading deadline (which is rapidly approaching), and one offseason to show us that he can still work some magic and make some steps in a positive direction. We don't need to be a winning ballclub next year, but at least show us that you are able to manage this team in a manner that leads towards the future (ie. get rid of old guys, get new young hitters). And for goodness sake, hire some scouts and coaches that can find and develop young hitters! The lack of these organizational leaders could be the Giants' biggest problem!

Time's up, Big Boy

This just in - the Giants' roster just got much lighter.

Of course it's not news to you, as Benitez was traded on Friday, but I didn't get wind of it until yesterday, as I was in the state of 10,000 lakes (which may be a bit underestimated, as I feel like I saw at least that many on the 3-hour stretch from the airport to my destination). To summarize, it was a good time had for the most part, excepting the realization once I arrived that I was now in the hometown of Nathan, Liriano, and Bonser. Yick.

The night before I left I had the joy of reading about Armando's balk-fest in New York, and it reiterated my 3-year lament of the Giants to avoid Blownitez at all costs. Since J.T.'s playoff go-ahead HR off Benitez in a Mets uniform years back, the guy was cemented as a choke-job (in my mind at least), and I couldn't believe they actually signed the guy for the kind of money they did 3 years ago. He has one season where he notches up a lot of saves with the Marlins, and suddenly Sabean forgets the past and thinks this headcase is worth $15+ million. Throw in the way they handled the end of Nen's career and that they'd currently have an even more effective closer for much less money (and a much more likeable guy) in Jeremy Accardo, the whole closer situation has been handled pretty miserably since they made it to the World Series. Do I care that Messenger has been largely ineffective for three years? It crossed my mind for about 2 seconds before I realized I'd never have to see Armando waddle out to the mound in a Giants uniform ever again.

There are two problems, though, that came through in the wake of Benitez's trade:

1) Who's going to close now? Perusing through the pitching roster, based on stuff alone Correia's probably your pick, but as far as effectiveness goes, Hennessey is your more likely candidate. 7 runs given up all year, a 3.5 K/BB ratio, and a 2.82 ERA is definitely going to make yourself the most effective Giants reliever. The lack of walks is what would comfort me as a replacement for Benitez. He doesn't have nasty stuff and is equally unintimidating, but as long as you can "Do your job", that's all that matters, right Armando? Another candidate would be Russ Ortiz, as he was very successful as a closer in college, and the fact that barring an injury, there really is no rotation spot for him.

2) Brian Sabean. Widely considered a mastermind GM after his acquisition of Kent, he has had very little success in his trading/signing of players in the past few years. Putting that aside for a moment, though, his attitude is what concerns me. Is he really dedicated to making this team better, or is he just trying to cover his tracks? Commenting on the Benitez situation, he said,

"He's been hounded by the media, the fans and some teammates," Giants general manager Brian Sabean said. "To think he's the root of our problems the last couple of years is ridiculous.
"The one thing I know is he's strong enough to be a whipping boy. I don't revel in his demise. It's time for everybody to do a gut check."

When asked about trading for a bat, he responded,

"Ask the guys who can't answer the bell every day. Once we find out who is ready to play every day, then we'll have a better answer about what we have internally. ... We need guys on the field, and as usual, we're not getting it. So ask them when you get (to Philadelphia)."

It seems to me like rather than admit he blew it by signing an overweight, headcase closer that never came through in the clutch for way too much money, he goes Armando on us and tries to blame his position players - not just for their lack of hitting and spotty defense as Armando did, but he goes as far as saying that their unhealthiness has been their fault. Let's just forget for a second that it's usually not someone's own fault for being injured, and let me state what every Giants fan with half a brain has been thinking the past few years...BRIAN, THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU SIGN PEOPLE OVER 30 YEARS OLD TO EACH POSITION ON THE FIELD AND THROW AWAY DRAFT PICKS LIKE OLD FRUIT! NOT EVERYONE ON THE TEAM IS GOING TO BE IN THE LINEUP EVERY NIGHT! WHEN YOU ARE OLD, YOU ARE MUCH MORE SUSCEPTIBLE TO INJURY! MAYBE IF YOU SIGN SOMEONE YOUNG FOR A CHANGE, THEY WOULD BE ABLE TO HANDLE THE WEAR AND TEAR OF A 162-GAME SEASON!!!

Sorry about the tirade, but Sabean's frustration should lie in nothing but his self-caused mess of a team. He will have paid Benitez over $418,000 for each of his 45 saves in a Giants uniform. Just think about that for a while, Sabean. Once you can answer to that, you can start telling us how he wasn't a problem.

EDIT: Forgive me for living under a rock for the past week and not being able to find certain articles/news feeds. Apparently Hennessy has been named the new closer. It's not likely that Bochy went Michael J. Fox on us and took my advice, but anything's possible.