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

09.28.2009
Health Care Reform

A highly-paid doctor or two opened up Edgar Renteria's right arm the other day and found all that money he could have been saving with Geico, in the form of quarters and nickels. At least that was the size of the "significant bodies" that had separated themselves from his elbow-bone, and their discovery caused the Giants brass to gush all over themselves about Renteria's warrior-like behavior: pillaging villages, stealing women and killing livestock. That type of thing. But it's hard to ruin someone else's primitive civilization with painful bone spurs, mate. 

All kidding aside, I commend Renteria for trying to give the Giants their money's worth -- and ours, too. I don't come here to bury Edgar. But the fact that he was, in Brian Sabean's words, "fried almost at the All-Star break" makes you wonder what the team docs were looking at when Renteria got his physical in December. Warrior-worthy bone spurs and chips don't appear overnight. Were they not detectable before the Giants pulled the trigger on the big hairy contract?

Then in July, the docs signed off on Freddy Sanchez, who admitted recently he knew before the trade he would need off-season knee surgery. And he didn't even have a rubber mallet and stethoscope. Presumably the Giant medical staff had all this, and more -- they even had Sanchez in town while the deal was going down -- and they still gave Sabes the green light. Or maybe not. We dwell in speculation land here. Perhaps they gave Sabes the flashing yellow, and Sabes floored it anyway. If the docs said Sanchez was good to go, they were embarrassingly wrong, and if they said proceed with caution, Sabean showed no signs of doing so when he probably could have at least extracted some cash from the Pirates to help defray the costs of Sanchez's contract. 

Whatever the case, the Giants bought high twice on damaged goods, and it would serve Bill Neukom well to figure out who knew what and when before his general manager, whoever it might be, starts wheeling and dealing as the hot stove heats up.
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10 Comments

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Geoffrey | September 29, 2009 5:10 AM | Reply

Lefty, don't forget that you can also throw the whole Noah Lowry debacle into the mix as well. So that makes three (potential) cock-ups in the last year alone from the medical staff. Suddenly Bonds having his own guys starts to make a lot of sense.

Either way you look at this, someone has to get fired. If the medical staff completely failed with Renteria and Sanchez then they deserve to go, we cannot afford to throw millions of dollars at guys who are broken/breaking down. If the medical staff did see the problems and fully informed Sabean then he cannot return. To gamble against professional opinions like that with millions of dollars should not be tolerated.

Presonally, I'd get rid of them all.

Jefferson | September 29, 2009 12:10 PM | Reply

The power of magical thinking strikes another American business. It's very sad.

Pato replied to comment from Jefferson | September 29, 2009 2:17 PM | Reply

say no to crack Jefferson.

John Perricone replied to comment from Jefferson | October 2, 2009 4:24 AM | Reply

Don't forget the ridiculous $28 million dollar contract Sabean gave to Edgardo Alfonzo, admitting that the team wasn't interested in a physical for a guy who had missed 100 games due to a back injury that was clearly permanent. Or the $14 million we gave to Ray Durham when he was on his last legs, or the $27 million Sabean gave Moises Alou when he was 40!!!!

Don't forget the half dozen players who have gone from the starting lineup to retirement the last four years.

KM | September 29, 2009 3:43 PM | Reply

Renteria's last AB of the season was his fateful 9th-inning failure vs. the Rox. Down 4-2, second and third, no outs, rally going, season on the line (really). Later Bochy said there's no one he'd rather have up there in that situation. But the next game, no more Rent at SS.

Makes you wonder who said what to whom. Did Edgar finally ask out, or did someone (Sabean, Neukom, Bochy) decide they'd seen enough of the futility? And if it's the latter, how did that notion not get implemented until after Renteria looked so feeble in what was a season-killing loss?

Eric | September 29, 2009 5:42 PM | Reply

So with the extraction of these fragments his avg will raise at least... 38 pts? based on the size and painfulness maybe two, three bombs per spur? Sounds like our starting shortstop to me

Statman Crothers | September 29, 2009 6:30 PM | Reply

Did those bone fragments have anything to do with him being 20+ lbs overweight this season too?
His range was awful.

Chato's Land | September 29, 2009 9:15 PM | Reply

Can Neukom deliver us the Public Option?

You know the universal coverage full-season plan where we have:

Choice of Plans - fan voting on who the manager and lineup are before every game

No pre-existing veteran conditions

No out-of-pocket rookies

No annual or lifetime salary caps

Recession of contracts after they have been signed ex. Rowand, Zito, Rent

Deductibles for bad deals - see F. Sanchez injury et. el.

Lower premiums on beer and garlic fries

Federal subsidies for those fans below the Federal Bleacher Poverty Line

Sign me up!

obsessivegiantscompulsive | September 30, 2009 12:39 AM | Reply

I think the Giants knew about the tear in Sanchez's leg and that it would need surgery over the offseason, but thought that they could keep him in playing condition for the rest of the season.

And that would have worked for the most part except that he blew out his shoulder in batting practice and lost a chunk of games like that.

Then they said it was a fluke, with his spikes getting caught in the grass, that finally brought his knee down for the count.

I think they wanted him, hopefully for now, but more for next season. The reports I've seen about this type of surgery is that it is easy to recover from, so his knee should be 100% next season (cannot vouch for his shoulder, other knee, elbows, or other moving parts).

Boof | September 30, 2009 1:25 AM | Reply

There is no sugar coating these types of decisions. They were horrible. If someone was running any other type of business and displayed that kind of judgment, they'd be out on their ass before you could say "unemployment."

Apparently, for this organization, it gets you another contract extension. And that, my friends, is why this team will never win a World Series with Sabean at the helm.

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