Brian Sabean sits on his hands... Again!!!

The San Francisco Giants are world champs. You can't take that away from them, no matter how hard you try. This team has been called out on the carpet by fans and media types for not doing enough to bag the big whale in free agency. They definitely were not as desperate as the Boston Red Sox who signed the biggest free agent on the market, Carl Crawford, despite the need for an everyday center or left fielder who is a difference maker in the San Francisco lineup. They didn't trade for Adrian Gonzalez to improve the lack of power in the order and they definitely didn't go out of their way to spend money to make the 2011 team better than the 2010 team. Of course, you can raise the argument that the 2010 team won a world series ring, so why go and fix what isn't broken? For the better part of the last 15 years, I have watched the way the Yankees do business. They go out and win a world series ring then try to improve the team the following year, in a similar way as the Sox did this year, knowing that it's almost impossible to win another ring with the exact same team.

When you have the best pitching staff in major league baseball, you are allowed a certain margin of error as a GM that many teams aren't. Sabean has never been the type of GM to run out and sign a guy like Jason Werth to a $140 million deal for 7 years. He doesn't chase the big fish, he chases tadpoles. Not because they don't have the money but because they choose not to spend big money. They are content with signing an old Miguel Tejada to a short term deal and hoping/praying that he can add some pop to an already impotent line up. They are content to re-sign guys like Andres Torres, Aubrey Huff and Pat Burrel on the cheap and hope for the best. I guess that many fans are still just happy to be here. Happy to be walking around with their 2010 world series champs sweatshirts on, expecting the team to do it again in 2011. I'm not that guy. I feel strongly that this team has not done enough to make a serious run at another ring and unfortunately we live in the bay area, where sports fans are more likely to toe the company line and keep quiet than they are to rip the team to shreds and demand more.

The Giants have a lot of things going for them entering the 2011 season. They play in the worst division in baseball, the level of competition has steadily declined with the Dodgers ownership group preparing for a reality show on Divorce Court, San Diego trading away their biggest talent and the Diamondbacks are, well, the Diamondbacks. Colorado is the only team that can challenge San Francisco for the division and we all know how great that organization has been in recent years. That being said, I feel like 2011 is going to be a let down year here in the Bay. I hope it's not because the energy at the ballpark last season was like nothing I've experienced in my life. This team has a lot more to prove going into 2011 than they did at the start of the 2010 season and I just don't think Sabean has done enough to make it happen again and that has a lot to do with the happy to be here mentality I spoke of earlier. When your franchise breaks a 53 years stretch without a world series ring, do you want them to chase another with all they've got or are you satisfied with the 2010 ring and not really concerned about when you get the next one?