When the Giants Come to Town, It's Bye-Bye Baby

07.13.2007
I Opened and Read It and Said They Were Suckers

Pee-Mags! My favorite letter writer. My main man. A missive from the big chief just arrived under the transom. I won’t bore you with the whole thing. OK, I will.

**

Dear Lefty Malo,

Not my real name. You probably knew that. My real name is Ubaldo Giuseppe. Some people call me “Giu.”

Earlier today, we issued a press release announcing that the Giants have signed Senior Vice President and General Manager Brian Sabean to a two-year contract with a club option for 2010. Given Brian's extensive track record over the last 11 seasons, I firmly believe that he is the right person to return this team back to our winning ways. 

Brian has presented to me his recommendations…

I have visions of Loyal Brian in puffy pantaloons and a velvet feathered cap kneeling before Petrus the Stern and presenting a parchment scroll on a silver platter. M’Lord! Herewith… the recommendations! Anyone else feeling this?

about our future direction and I am fully confident that he and Manager Bruce Bochy will get us back on the right track.

Wait a second. What are the recommendations? I thought you were going to dive right in.

I look back at the job Brian did in turning the team around in 1997, when we clinched our first National League West title in eight years and won 22 more games than the previous season.

Dude, that was sweet! It was also ten years ago. Is this a subtle hint that to get better, the team has to trade a beloved veteran or two, like Sabean did with Matt Williams? That makes sense, except this team has no beloved veterans.

Additionally, after the 2002 season, when we had significant turnover, Brian retooled the club and we went on to win 100 games and the National League West in 2003.

This is undeniably true. And since then, of course…what?

Our approach has always been to try to win and develop younger players at the same time. This remains the approach.

Except for the “winning” part.

We have implemented this strategy very successfully in the past

(until 2005)

and believe that this is the right approach moving forward.

But what part of the once-successful approach has led to our current situation? Why has it gone wrong? Is there not room here for some frank talk, mano-a-mano, managing general partner to season ticket holder? Is it so wrong to say, “Armando Benitez: Not the right approach”? Or “Hillenbrand? More like Hillen-oops!” or “No more crazy Zito contracts, we promise!” OK, I guess that would look unprofessional.

Brian's proven ability to identify and develop young players -- including our young and much sought-after

hitters?

pitching staff -- will be instrumental in turning the team around.

Oh. “Young players including our young pitching staff” — but excluding young hitters. You, sir, are a clever man.

With that said, our obvious hope is to climb back into this race.

Stop right there. This better be a slick little marketing gimmick to keep the casual, fair-weather, cell-phone-talkin’ fan from losing interest entirely. Sell, Peter, sell. Rebuild, Peter, rebuild. 

We will be very open to improving the club -- both in the immediate future and in the long run.

I am eyeing you warily. I am rhetorically circling your perimeter, wondering whether I can trust you, hombre.

Thank you for your continued support of the Giants.

That’s like the corner rock-slinger thanking a crackhead for his regular patronage. Don’t you know that I have no choice???

Peter A. Magowan
President and Managing General Partner
San Francisco Giants

You call me Lefty, I call you Pee-Mags. OK? OK.

**

But wait. There’s more. Here are a few select quotes from today’s press conference:

"It puts Brian in a much better position to do what he feels he needs to do in terms of making trades and whatever assessments are necessary to make, than would be the case if we were to wait until the October or November time frame," Magowan said. "We can get a running start on the '08 season by making these moves now." 

Magowan said that although the Giants have tried to win and develop players simultaneously in the last several seasons, "I think the emphasis has been more on winning than developing. It's a balance, and the balance is always in flux because you might feel you're just a player or two players away. If you're several players away, you put more emphasis on developing."

Magowan cited the Dodgers, Padres, Braves and Mets as examples of teams possessing a decent mix of homegrown talent and players obtained through free agency or trade. "We don't have that strength of balance on our team," Magowan said. "We have to strive to try to get a better one in the future."
Also on the Network:



[July 13, 2007 9:20 PM]  |  link  |  reply
Josh from Hollywood said

Here's my theory. P-Mag turned on his radio on the drive to the ballpark the other day, flipped past KNBR, not wanting to hear about his last-place Giants, and landed on a classic rock station. "Do It Again" by The Kinks was playing, and P-Mag loves The Kinks, so he cranked it up, and the words really struck a nerve with him...

"Standing in the middle of nowhere
Wondering how to begin
Lost between tomorrow and yesterday
Between now and then
And now we're back where we started
Here we go round again
Day after day I get up and I say
I better do it again"

"That's just like the situation with the Giants", P-Mag exclaimed to no one in particular. "We're back where we were 11 years ago -- a last place club, stuck between the past when we contended, and the future, where we need to go -- saddled with older, high-priced vets we need to move in exchange for the next young sluggers. Just like the Kent deal!"

His mind spun excitedly as the song continued, into its chorus...

"Then it's back where you started
Here we go round again
Back where you started
Come on, do it again"

"We need a GM who can engineer a turnaround like we had in '97," P-Mag shouted into the phone.

"But that guy's still our GM, Petey", Larry Baer replied from the other end of the line.

"Exactly", P-Mag bellowed. "Sabes is just the man for the job. Get his agent on the phone and start talking extension asap."

[July 14, 2007 12:06 PM]  |  link  |  reply
Reeky said

Ugh. Cut a worm in two and it will wriggle a long time before it finally dies -- "My San Francisco Giants".

[July 14, 2007 8:44 PM]  |  link  |  reply
Jonathan Bass said

Sabean is a smart guy. My guess is that, behind closed doors, Sabean has pushed to take the club in a different direction at different points over the past few years. I'm thinking Magowan and co. were behind the decision not to pursue Vlad, and the over-arching decision to keep modestly retooling around Bonds since '02. All the while Sabean has said "I respectfully disagree," and gone out and worked within the provided parameters. The Zito signing, also orchestrated by Magowan, was probably the last straw. Now Sabean has enough I told you sos under his belt to say, let's make a deal. You give me 2-3 years to make the baseball decisions, and see if I can clean up this mess, starting with the '07 deadline. No one is untouchable anymore, including Barry. If I can't fix it, I'll move on.

We'll see.

[July 15, 2007 1:12 AM]  |  link  |  reply
Boof said

That's a nice story. Too bad quite a bit of it is fiction.

[July 15, 2007 2:43 PM]  |  link  |  reply
Dan from NM said

You totally kick Grant's ass in the headline department. The title of today's post is perfect.

[July 16, 2007 1:58 AM]  |  link  |  reply
ogc said

I don't know Boof, I trust every word ELM tells me.

:^p

[July 16, 2007 3:26 PM]  |  link  |  reply
Cyrus said

I think this sweep at the hands of the hated Dodgers might have driven Lefty into internet exile.

I don't buy into this new trend of taking all of the blame off of Sabean's shoulders and dumping it on Magowan and Baer. Face the facts: if you want to say that Magowan forced Bonds on Sabean, then that's even more reason to say he's the fall guy.

Bonds is the most feared hitter by far in the lineup and the ONLY regular who has an OPS above the ML avg (!). Sabean picked Roberts at a 3/18 deal over shorter-term fixes like Byrnes who would have been much cheaper. Sabean extended Winn based off of 2-3 totally aberrant months. Sabean re-upped Durham after he hit out of his mind in the second half of last year to mask the previous years of injury at the one position the Giants have a viable prospect. And Sabean has persisted with Feliz at 3B and various scrubs at 1B (since Snow) instead of biting the bullet and trading for a real bat. And that's without even getting into the whole closer mess that probably cost the team a division title in 2004.

Bottomline, Sabean should not be exonerated. And though it's now trendy to blame ownership and say that this extension is a symbol of a new direction is foolish. Paraphrasing, Sabean has already said that they're not open to a sell-off but would be more in tune to a Winn or Schmidt-like deal that helps the team now and later. It just doesn't seem like this group is honest with how bad the position talent on this team is. They're old, they're way below average, and they're locked up long term for big money. Wow, what a slogan- ladies and gentleman, you're 2008 Giants!

[July 16, 2007 4:52 PM]  |  link  |  reply
johnP said

Question and theory: Has anyone ever considered that the secret to Sabean's success with veterans in the early 2000s might have been Balco-related? The strategy is simple: bring in an over-the-hill veteran; juice him up for a couple of years; and voila - re-found vigor? The only data-point I have for this theory is Benito Santiago.

[July 16, 2007 5:16 PM]  |  link  |  reply
pantalones said

That's not enough data points, johnP... remember Marvin Benard and Armando Rios were involved in the BALCO scandal, too, and their juicing didn't help the Giants much. Plus, Santiago hit a pedestrian .273/.313/.414 as a Giant.

Maybe you could argue for Ellis Burks, although he was traded for in 1998, when nobody knew a thing about BALCO.

[July 16, 2007 6:46 PM]  |  link  |  reply
ELM said

I'm here. Just super busy today.

[July 16, 2007 6:57 PM]  |  link  |  reply
Cyrus said

John P-- I'm guessing that was tongue in cheek but the easiest way to blow a hole in that theory is to ask why Sabean has then continued to sign aging, over the hill prospects when the Balco option is no longer available (ostensibly)?

I think your theory might be on the right track in the sense that it's more along the lines of "Shit, this worked before, why can't it work again?" Of course, that line of thinking ignores a) Barry Bonds has not found the fountain of youth and both his playing time and effectiveness have/are falling off and b) you don't have the same bullpen as you did in your "glory years" that can nail down a game once you give them a lead in the 7th inning.

Say what you want about this year's bullpen, and yeah their collective stats don't look bad, but my guess is that if they had more leads to protect their ERA would jump quite a bit. They just don't strike me as a bunch of pressure performers.

[July 16, 2007 9:59 PM]  |  link  |  reply
johnP said

Not 100% tongue in cheek. I'm not claiming this is the case, although the hypothesis intrigued me. Maybe, it's simply a desire to invent a new conspiracy theory :)