Entering the ninth inning last night, I had a Giants obituary complete. I was pretty bitter at the prospect of getting swept by a team that has about one player in its lineup that has to shave daily. In fact, if I were a D-Backs fan right now, I would be thrilled about the next seven years or so. That lineup is going to be ridiculous.
Anyways, here's the post, titled "It's like watching Schindler's List after visiting a nursing home"
Martha Stewart is polishing the brass on the Titanic man, it's all going down!
When I saw the defensive alignment last night, my first thought was, "What in the hell is Ryan Klesko doing in right field? This can't be good." Well, it wasn't. Noah Lowry deserved to win, but the adventures of Klesko (see: crappy, shitty, ridiculously awful) in the fourth inning was too much to overcome.
It's to the point where even the third base coach sucks. Tim Flannery's indecisiveness in the third inning brought a screeching halt to what could have been a big inning. Wait a minute... Ray Durham likely would have grounded into a double play anyways, so I guess it didn't matter that much.
And yes, you might as well call me Debbie Downer. With four solid teams ahead of them (okay, maybe just 3), 9 games behind in the standings and absolutely nothing resembling life in its offense, the Giants are drowning in the deep end of an ocean of worthlessness.
The anchors keeping this Titanic in the deep include:
1) Brian Sabean
2) Rich Aurilia's crippling lack of productivity in the 3 hole.
3) Does Durham enjoy grounding into rally killing double plays?
4) How in the hell does Pedro Feliz still have a job?
5) The bullpen. All of them. Especially Steve Fucking Kline and Jack Fucking Taschner
6) Brian Sabean
7) Have I mentioned Brian Sabean?
Do I have to keep going? I've watched the better part of 5 games since Sunday and I can say with complete sincerity that I don't feel like this team stands a chance of making the playoffs.
Next thing I know, Feliz ties the game in the ninth with a homer, Taschner pitches a perfect bottom half, and Kline ultimately saves the game with a perfect inning. Go figure. Maybe Sabean will sign all three of them to four-year extensions today.
3 comments:
Still, they had a runner on after that homer from Feliz, momentum, and were not able to produce.
Omar's homer over the Venezuelan flag guy had a feel good quality about it. I was smiling right up to the Klesko stupidity on the paths and was waking the baby up with cursing when the ball got by him in the outfield.
Pedro isn't just hitting last night though. I know I've been on the "down with Pedro" bandwagon from day one but he is dialed right now. The past couple weeks he's been hitting the ball hard every time and eventually those will be hits.
It won't last. I promise you it won't last. Like I said, it's precisely why he still has a job. I has a hot streak for a week or so, then is useless for a solid month. His OBP stands at .300, which would be a career high. Pathetic. Remember, he always tails off in the second half too. So, this year he has been exceptionally shitty.
Omar was big last night. It was nice to see that somebody invited him to the party for a change.
Dear "Lunatic Fringe,"
This is Brian Sabean. I am tired of your relentless criticism over the past several months. As a result, I am writing this response to continued blog posts. Imagine, a whole blog designed solely to criticize me.
There is this notion among some misguided fans (like those who read this site) and writers that I have not made any good moves since the 2002 World Series. In fact I have made several excellent decisions. I will highlight a few examples.
After the 2002 season I decided that Jeff Kent was washed up. Additionally, he was really starting to get under poor Barry's skin. We let him go and were able to sign Edgardo Alfonso and Ray Durham. I knew I could depend on Ray to play and produce day in and day out. Although many said that Alfonso had lost something, I felt that given an opportunity to play in a hitter's park like PacBell (as it was called then) would really help him.
I also traded Russ Ortiz for Damien Moss and Valdez. This was a very good trade for us. While Russ had come up in our farm system, Moss had the great opportunity to come up in the Braves farm system and everyone knew their farm system was much better than ours. Plus, I really like the Australian food, Vegemix, and knew I could share it with Moss since he was from Australia. During the 2003 year I traded for Sydney Ponson. I knew he had a reputation of liking to party and eating too much. However, I thought that in SF, he would finally little opportunity to engage in those two vices.
Prior to the 2004 season I made several excellent decisions. First, I received much unwarranted criticism from the fans about our decision not to pursue Vlad Guerrero. I got so angry that I even called them the lunatic fringe. However, two things they were not able to consider. First, I had knowledge that Vlad for some reason refused to take Steroids or HGH. As such, there is no guarantee that he will be able to produce like Barry Bonds was able to until his late 30s, early 40s. Second, I had to worry about the payroll. If I had signed Vlad I would not have been able to afford signing guys like Armando Benitez and Barry Zito to huge contracts in the upcoming years.
Plus, at that time (prior to the 2004 season) I was able to sign several excellent free agents like Michael Tucker, Dustan Mohr, Jeffrey Hammonds and Brett Tomko. These guys were definitely worth giving up our future draft choices for.
Prior to this season, I traded two pitching prospects Francisco Liriano and Boof Bonser, plus Joe Nathan, who had prior arm problems for a proven all-star catcher in AJ Pierzynski. I was most happy about adding a veteran player like AJ to help out in the locker room.
Just writing this brings back so many good memories of my ability to outsmart other GMs. For example, last year I picked up a good, proven big league hitter named Shea Hillebrand for another pitching prospect named Jeremy Accardo. Although I thought that Jeremy had the ability to someday become a very good closer, we already had Armando Benitez, a proven commodity, to fill that position.
A couple of years ago, I signed Randy Winn to a lucrative deal after he became a free agent. I had been looking for another Marvin Bernard / Armando Rios type and he really fit the bill. Imagine if I had signed Vlad, we could have never affored to resign Randy.
Finally, this year, we were able to sign Barry Zito. He cost a lot, but it is invaluable to have a Jim Barr, Kirk Reuter type pitcher in the rotation to eat up innings. Yes, his ERA is up near 5.00, but I anticipate it getting back to just above 4.00 before the end of the year. Just think, we are only paying him about a litle over a million dollars for every two starts which he makes
Finally, the Gianst were able to resign Barry Bonds. I know we paid him a lot of money, but his agent told me that there were a lot of other teams bidding on him, so I knew that we had to pay to get him. Yes, he is really getting old and it probably does not help the team long term. But, just think of all the money the fans are giving us to see him break the record.
Despite repeated slams, our farm system has produced some excellent position players in the past 15 years like Todd Linden, Lance Niekro, Pedro Feliz, etc.
Finally, some good news for you fans. The Mets released Julio Franco, a proven hitter, and we anticipate signing him shortly.
Take care, GM Brian Sabean
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