The 2011 season was a failure for the Giants. No way around it. But just because that failure was in large part (though not entirely) due to injury does not give the front office the excuse to turn in a failure of an offseason. Baseball's Winter Meetings closed today, and it was the most exciting one I can remember (but that's because I never remember any Winter Meetings once they've been done for a week). Unfortunately, the Giants' contribution to that excitement could be described by any of a number of words-that-aren't-really-words-describing-indifference. I'm gonna go with..."bleh".
Giants fans mailed their offseason wish list to the North Pole the day after the World Series ended. (In this metaphor, the North Pole is actually AT&T Park--did your head just explode?). We were hoping Santa (that's the Giants' Brass) would bring us a shiny new Lincecum contract extension. Or a Carlos Beltran, which we would absolutely love. Or a new Cain contract to play with. But when we excitedly opened up our presents, the reaction was about on par with Tim Whatley opening up his label-maker from Elaine. "Oh...an Angel Pagan...thanks."
The Giants decided "well, we can't afford a real middle-of-the-order hitter. I know! We'll fill the lineup with lesser hitters to justify hitting Melky Cabrerra 3rd. Easy!" It seems as though our fears of this new ownership are coming to fruition. Melky Cabrerra and and Angel Pagan probably do make the Giants a better team. But they came in trades. There was no way the Giants were going to make a splash in free agency because ownership set a payroll ceiling that was easily met with the raises coming to existing team members. (Those raises for the bullpen lefties, which I was initially in favor of, are looking increasingly unjustifiable by the day. I whiffed on that one).
What it comes down to is this: it's actually only now that the Zito and Rowand contracts are coming back to bite them. You could've said the same thing during any recent offseason (I'm certain CC Sabathia would be a Giant right now if Zito wasn't). But they got by because their other pitchers were good, and they were cheap. Now Lincecum, Cain, B-Weezy, and the like are actually making what they deserve, and Zito/Rowand/Huff fill up the rest of the payroll. Still, to not even make a real move for Beltran is incredibly frustrating. I get that the Giants are not the Yankees. I don't even really want them to be the Yankees. But why not increase the payroll this year, and then have it go down in the next couple years as Zito, Rowand, and Huff come off the books? The Giants have incredible pitching NOW. A short-term commitment to Beltran would make the offense average NOW. We've all rejoiced in what that combination yields. The team has a young, cheap core of hitters in Sandoval, Posey, and hopefully Belt. It is poised to make a dynastic run if they can round out the offense and keep the pitching in tact. As I've said before, the window is open, and it could slam shut if Cain walks after this season.
Which brings me to my next point. Why are they not working day and night to lock up LinceCain to long-term deals? As McCovey Chronicles pointed out, that sort of thing would not even increase this year's payroll much, if at all. If they're not going to extend them now, and if they're not going to splurge on Beltran, well then they better effing splurge when those guys actually do reach free agency. Or they will feel the ultimate wrath of my keyboard. Mark my words.
Oh, and also, Brandon Belt is totally getting screwed again. More on that later I guess.
*Update*: Andy Baggarly of the SJ Mercury News wrote this excellent article on the contract discussions with LinceCain. To their credit, it looks as though the Giants' front office is working hard towards extending them. I made it sound like since deals didn't get done at the Winter Meetings, they wouldn't get done at all. But we should keep following the ongoings through Spring Training. Be warned: reading that linked article has a downside -- you'll find out that Cain's camp is probably in the $150 million range (not a big surprise, but just...big), and Lincecum's camp could be looking for 8 years (oof!).
No comments:
Post a Comment