The Giants like Adrian Beltre, believing he would thrive in the more fastball-oriented National League, but a source said they have not exchanged names with the Mariners.

WHAT THE FUCK SABEAN?!?  He has already gone back to his veteran loving ways, obviously not learning from the past.  He’s like the dog that won’t stop pissing in the house no matter how many times you whack him with a newspaper.

So, Adrian Beltre, huh?   The 30 year old that owns a career 107 OPS+, which includes one suspiciously monstrous contract year.  Oh, and we would have to give up something for him in a trade as well AND he’s only signed through 2009, so it would be a one year rental!  AND he’s owed $12million in 2009.  I wouldn’t be so opposed to this if Bill Bavasi was still the Mariner’s GM, because he could at least be fleeced, probably doing a 1-1 trade for Dave Roberts or something.  But, now, seriously, Sabes would probably give up Villalona or something for a one year rental.

The Marlins seemingly would swap first baseman Mike Jacobs for catcher Bengie Molina, but the Giants aren’t interested.

Sure, why wouldn’t Sabean want to trade 1+ years of Bengie Molina rental for Jacobs, who is only slugging .511 right now in an extreme pitchers’ park.  Sure, his OBP leaves much to be desired, but he’s still a huge upgrade over Bowker and would be under team control until at least 2012.  He’s only 27 and ownes a career 110 OPS+.  If he doesn’t work out, guess what, you just don’t offer him arbitration in 2010, the same year Bengie would be walking away anyways.  Meanwhile, you’ve saved a ton of cash and, since young players sometimes do this, maybe find a breakout 1B who can actually hit 30 bombs.

But, no, I guess John Bowker is the long-term solution at 1B…

So, once again, fuck you Sabean.  You are a moron and I hope you get syphillis.

I’m going to Europe until the 28th.  Not like I would have posted much in that time span, though.  Nonetheless, I expect Winn, Durham, Aurilia, Molina and Roberts to be off the team by the time I get back.  You hear that, Sabean?

We’re in 3rd place!  Who cares that the team is like 12 games below .500 and is 25/30 in winning percentage in MLB?  Why would we want to build for the future when this club can OBVIOUSLY contend right now?

Well………..

………..

I’m at a loss.  Reports are saying that Sabean is waving off any trade inquiries except for ones involving Rich Aurilia and Ray Durham.  Because, I’m guessing here, Randy Winn, Barry Zito, Bengie Molina, Omar Vizquel, Jack Taschner, Kevin Corriea, Keiichi Yabu, Billy Sadler, Tyler Walker, Jose Castillo and Eugenio Velez are ALL going to be integral parts of the next Giants’ playoff squad.

Right?

Because why would we want to net any good prospects for Randy Winn when he can just sit there and block Nate Schierholtz for another full season?  Why wouldn’t we demand a king’s randsom for Bengie Molina from any of the catching-anemic teams in the playoff chase?  Why not see if we can strip the Brewers of what remains of their farm system for Jack Taschner?

Oh, that’s right, because Sabean’s a MORON.  Fucking dumb as shit, head-up-hiss-ass, cream of wheat for brains, gonnorrhea infested MORON!

This is another one of those years where there are tons more buyers than sellers.  Let’s let Tampa Bay and Milwaukee get in a bidding war for Tyler Walker!  Let’s see if we can dangle both Randy Winn and Bengie Molina in front of Omar Minaya and Theo Epstein until one of them offers up the next Hanley Ramirez.  Angels want a bat off the bench or reliever?  Sorry, it’s gonna cost you Casey Kotchman!

I know that we’re not going to receive a huge bounty for any of the players I’ve been talking about.  The point is, none of those players will be integral in building the next good Giants team.  Not only that, many of them are blocking players that COULD be part of the next good Giants team.  Even if we just get back a few handful of mediocre prospects, one or two could also end up contributing to the next good Giants team.  It’s not like the Giants farm system is overflowing with ambrosia like Tampa Bay’s.

However, if Sabean grows some BALLS and makes a few shrewd moves, signes our recent draft picks and just accepts another losing season or two, we could actually have a really good team in the future.

Or we could just sit here and wallow in mediocrity for the rest of our lives.

It’s tempting to think the Giants can reach the playoffs.  It’s tempting to visualize us sneaking in while winning only 84 games and having the Lincecum-Sanchez-Cain trio dominate the short postseason series.

But we are NOT, I repeat, NOT, in contention.

The Giants are in 26th place in the MLB.  If the season ended today, the would get the 4th pick in next years’ amateur draft.  They are 25th in runs/game and 16th in runs allowed/game.  That is NOT a team that is going to get hot and sneak into the playoffs, even if we are only 5 games back.

We still have Jose Castillo eating up at-bats every day.  We still have Bengie Molina as our cleanup hitter.  We still have Rich Aurilia, Ray Durham & Omar Vizquel getting regular playing time.  Those five vets give us a total combined VORP of 26.9 while all ranking in the top 9 on the team’s plate appearances list.

Not only that, it could be argued that guys like Castillo, Molina, Aurilia, Durham, Lewis and Rowand are all playing WAY over their heads.  In addition, while Lincecum & Sanchez have combined for almost 7 wins above replacement, Matt Cain is the only other starter that even has ONE win above replacement.  Walker & Wilson have been steady in the bullpen (1.3 & 3.0 WXRL) but nobody else breaks the 1.0 WXRL mark.

This lineup has no legitimate power or on-base threat.  We may have a ton of arms in the low-minors, but who would you part with for a rental of Adam Dunn?  Would you give up Alderson, Bumgarder & Valdez for a slugger that MIGHT propel the team to a .500 record?

Sorry, I’d rather see Winn, Durham & Aurilia get dealt for midlevel prospects.  I’d like to see Omar Vizquel benched.  I’d like to see Burriss, Denker, Bowker & Schierholtz play ever day.

At the end of the year, that’s the team I’d be satisfied watching.  Not a team that traded prospects for a bat only to end up 5 games out at the end.

Most people don’t think there is a collusion case going on against Barry Bonds.

Most people are overlooking the obvious.  I’m not going to go into how Bonds could help like 20 out of the 30 MLB clubs and could have probably saved Seattle’s season single handedly.  It’s the newest piece of evidence that is most damning.

Ken Griffey possibly being traded to Tampa Bay.

Why would a team stocked with young talent give ANY of that up for an aging, left-handed hitting, primadonna outfielder when it could sign one without giving up ANYTHING?

Argument #1:  Bonds is a bigger clubhouse cancer than Griffey.  False.  Griffey has perks with Cincinnati that would make Bonds’ recliner look like a cheap handout.  The Reds bend over backward to meet Griffey’s every need and he still gets upset.  Remember the hoopla he caused when the asked him to move out of CF?  Both of them will bring hordes of media but Bonds has actually shown to make the young players around him better.  He once spent close to four hours straight working with Dan Ortmeier a few springs back to help him get a hitch out of his swing.  When Frandsen was slumping last year, he took him aside and helped diagnose and fix the problem.  Frandsen went on a tear after that.  I’m not saying Griffey isn’t giving Jay Bruce shaving lessons, but the point is that Bonds can actually help out other players.

Argument #2: Griffey can still play the OF while Bonds is limited to DH.  False.  In hislast 3 semi-complete seasons, Griffey has posted FRAA of -3, -17 & -19 as well as a -10 already this year.  Bonds’ last three complete seasons saw FRAA of -12, -4 & -10.  The answer is they are BOTH below average.

Argument #3: Bonds is a CHEATER!  We’ve been over this.  Why can players like Eric Gagne, Paul Lo Duca, Matt Herges, Jack Cust, Miguel Tejada, Rick Ankiel, Brian Roberts, Paul Byrd, Troy Glaus, etc., etc., all get paid by big league clubs this year while Bonds has to sit it out?

So, yes, I think there is collusion against Barry Bonds.  I think the simple Griffey to Tampa Bay discussion proves this.  I also think 762 SHOULD have an asterisk to denote that the record was artificially kept lower by MLB by banning Bonds after 2007.

OK, so I’ve had a few days to let the idea of Buster Posey being our #1 pick set in.  At first I was a little disappointed at passing up Smoak, but Posey wasn’t even supposed to be around at the Giants pick.  Considering the guy was thought to go #1, I’m pretty stoked that we got him.  The only real negatives I’ve heard about his are that he’s new to catching and scouts only project him to hit 15-20 homers a year.

So we’ve basically drafted Russell Martin.  I think I can be OK with that.  I’d personally like to see Posey eat Martin alive, but we may have to wait for that.

So, seeing that I’m a bit of a dreamer, I’d like to jump forward and take a look at the Giants of 2011.  Cain will be in his contract year.  Lincecum will be in his 2nd arbitration season (unless the Giants got smart and locked him up long term for a fixed price).  Lewis will still be under our control, although he will be 30.   Villalona will be 20 and hopefully ready to break out in an Uptonian like way.  So lets take a look at an optimistic projection:

C: Buster Posey

1B: Angel Villalona/John Bowker
2B: Kevin Frandsen/Travis Denker/Nick Noonan

SS: Manny Burriss

3B: Frandsen/Denker/Noonan/Free Agent

LF: Fred Lewis/Wendell Fairley

CF: Aaron Rowand

RF: Nate Schierholtz/Fairley

Starting Pitchers: Lincecum, Cain, Sanchez, Bumgarner, Alderson, Correia, Sosa, Zito.

Closer: Wilson

There are a lot of question marks there, but enough options at most positions to make me confident.  The total surplus of starters makes me think we can fill the void at 3B with more than the scraps of the Frandsen/Denker/Noonan logjam.  Plus, with all this home grown talent, the only real money will be spent on the remainder of Zito & Rowand’s contracts, plus whatever it will take to lock up some of the brighter stars long term (pay Lincecum whatever he wants!  Just lock him up through 2020!).

A batting order of Burriss, Lewis, Posey, Free Agent/trade 3B, Rowand, Schierholtz, Villalona, Frandenkoonan isn’t great, but it boasts some high average, high OBP speed guys with moderate pop.   Is asking for Ryan Zimmerman at 3B too much to ask?

Krukow brought up an interesting point during today’s romp at the hands of the Mets:

He claimed that the Giants haven’t hit many homers this year, but they have had a lot of extra-base hits.  Looking to be contrariwise, I decided to look that up.

Seeing that the Giants play in a park that severely depresses home runs (park factor of 0.848, meaning that a team will hit 84% of the homers it would hit in a normal park, 23rd in the league) and Bengie Molina is the cleanup hitter, one would expect that the Giants would be near the cellar in homers.  Indeed they are, ranking 24th in MLB (although I thought they would be either last or 29th).

However, their slugging percentage is at .401, good enough for 16th in the league.  This surprised the hell out of me.  The Giants have a middle of the pack slugging percentage?  With Randy Winn as the #3 hitter, the aforementioned Molina hitting cleanup and almost 600 plate appearances being lost to a void known as the Castillo-Aurilia-Bocock-Velez abyss?

So, that brings up a few questions.  One, is Krukow correct in assuming that the Giants extra-base pop almost makes up for the lack of HR power?  Two, if the Giants have a middle of the pack slugging percentage, why are they 27th in the league in runs scored?

First, the obvious one:  yes, Kruk is correct.  The Giants rank 4th in doubles and 3rd in triples in the majors.  What AT&T taketh away, it giveth back in the form of triples.  The Giants home park has a 1.983 park factor for triples, meaning that teams hit almost twice as many triples here as they would at a neutral park.  However, it is about neutral in doubles (0.975), so the Giants actually do manage to push some balls into the gaps.  So the offense isn’t as abysmal as it would seem.  Sabean couldn’t actually be on to something here, could he?  Nah….

So why are they still 27th in the league in scoring?  Well, the .322 OBP pretty much explains it.  If your team can slug, but it can’t homer, all that slugging is worthless if there is NOBODY ON BASE!  Four Giants regulars have OBPs that I would consider “good:” Lewis, Molina, Durham and Rowand.  Four regulars have OBPs that I would consider “terrible in a Felizian way:” Castillo, Bowker, Aurilia, Vizquel.

Considering that Sabean doesn’t seem to value OBP, I don’t see this problem being solved any time soon.  You would think after watching the most prolific OBP guy in MLB history for the last decade plus, Sabean would have learned the value of a nice, juicy, OBP.

So, middle of the pack in slugging, terrible in OBP, middle of the pack in pitching and terrible in fielding.  That, folks, is your 2008 SF Giants.

They’re not as terrible as we thought they would be…

I’ve figured out what the Giants need to do.

They need to start losing.  I know, I know, they’re already losing a lot, but they need to lose MORE.  They need to lose embarrassing games where Barry Zito allows 17 earned runs and Randy Winn makes 3 errors.  Castillo needs to go on an 0-45 slump with 25 GIDP.  Omar Vizquel needs to demand a trade to Boston.

It’s the only way we can make Brian Sabean realize how bad this team is.  Or, since that is quite unlikely, make Larry Baer realize how insane Brian Sabean is.

Sabean has said he won’t be trading away any veterans.  Why?  As I mentioned in the last post, he thinks this team will be a second half team.  Even IF the Giants are a second half team, why would you want to keep the veterans?  So Winn can block Schierholtz again NEXT year?  So Ray Durham can walk into free agency, have nobody sign him, and have the Giants not even receive a compensatory draft pick?  So Omar Vizquel can actually experience depression?

The Red Sox are inquiring about Omar Vizquel.  Will Sabean trade him?  Probably not.  Granted, it would probably mean more suffering through Brian Bocock some more, but I’ll take that if it means we can get a prospect.

I know it’s wishful thinking that Brian Sabean can ever admit that his obsession with veterans in their decline phase and his Schierholtzophobia are not working.  Maybe, just maybe, if the Giants DO finish in last and lose 100+ games, SOMEBODY in the organization will realize that Sabean’s a fool.

So, with that in mind, I’m doing the only rational thing left: I’m rooting against the Giants.

“You’re seven games under .500. That’s where you don’t want to be, but I really feel good about the energy around the club and I feel good about some of our choices. We’ve now got a solution at first base. We’ve got a solution at third. We’ve gotten Omar (Vizquel) back. Freddie Lewis has come into his own and (Emmanuel) Burriss has been a real factor lately.

Those, my friends, are the words of our esteemed general manager, Brian Sabean.

Those are the rantings of a madman.  While, yes, the Giants do look better than anyone could have predicted, I would hardly say we’ve found any solutions.   Fred Lewis is a wonderful surprise, but looking at his insane BABIP rates, it looks like he’s hitting a little over his head.  Same goes for Aaron Rowand.  Randy Winn is barely hitting above replacement level.

Oh, and the third best hitter on the team, in terms of VORP, is Matt Cain.   The third best pitcher: Keiichi Yabu.

So, yeah, I guess you could say the season has been a bit of a surprise.

I’m assuming the solution at first Sabean is referencing is John Bowker, a hitter who has looked so good some times and so terrible other times, it makes me think we’re just seeing the latest in the Lance Neikro, Todd Linden, Damon Minor mold of the Giants’ farm system.  An impact player beyond 2008?  I have my reservations.  The solution at third?  I’m still lost as to what that is.  Jose Castillo has been more painful to watch than Pedro Feliz, and that’s saying something.  Rich Aurilia?  His .245/.321/.367 line is well below replacement level for a 3B.

Big Money Molina?  Yeah, he’s clutch, but a .304 OBP is NOT what you want from your #4 hitter.  Manny Burriss is a factor?  A speed guy who gets on base at a .302 clip is not a factor.  I like the kid’s potential, but he’s in over his head.  He’s just Brian Bocock with more speed.

As for the pitching, other than Tim Lincecum, it’s been pretty disappointing.  Matt Cain has been solid, but he has to get that ERA below 4.  Jonathan Sanchez has been Jonathan Sanchez.  Lowry & Correia, shelved until further notice.  Zito…. well, the less said the better.  The relief corps looked solid at the beginning, but shitty management has flushed that down the tubes.  It looks like our only reliable relievers right now are Taschner & Wilson.  Oh, but Bruce Bochy won’t use Tasch for more than 2 batters at any one time.

Which brings me to my NEXT gripe.  If Brian Sabean has represented utter lunacy, Bruce Bochy has represented complete ignorance.

We’ve been over his abuse of Matt Cain & Tim Lincecum in terms of pitch counts.  So, on top of that, he makes a move that rotoworld called, “disgusting.”  After Merkin Valdez (who is fresh of Tommy John surgery) felt a little discomfort in his elbow, what did Bochy do?  He sent him to the hill the next day, only for Merkin to get blown up.  Only after that, do they decide to DL him and treat us all to Alex Hinshaw (did Erik Threets die or something?).

On top of that, he insists on putting our best hitter in the #5 slot, behind the anemic Randy Winn (.283/.320/.370) & the human continental drift.  He never gives Dan Ortmeier, who is actually hitting a respectable .292/.393/.417, ANY playing time.  He is frequently out-managed by the opposition, depleting his bench and forced to make ridiculous substitutions late in the game.  In short, this is a team that was designed by a lunatic and is being run by an imbecile.

Say you worked for a company and were put in charge of purchasing a company car.  You were told to splurge a little and get one of the best damn cars out on the market.  You then proceed to drop, say, $126,000 on a top line Maserati.

Then the Maserati starts to break down.  After a year, the car won’t even run anymore.  It’s simply parked in the company garage, occasionally used to the boss can bang his secretary in the back seat, but never driven.  Your company still owes about $112,000 on the car, but want so badly to unload it, that they will listen to any offers for it.

There happens to be one company so STARVED for cars that they offer to take the car off your hands, but will only pay about $30,000 on the remaining loan.  The rest is up to your company.

So there you are, contemplating spending around $80k on a car that nobody in your company will ever benefit from again.  Essentially, flushing $80k down the toilet just to free up the parking spot.

Being the person who negotiated the deal for the car in the first place, do you think you would still have your job?  No?  What about if you multiplied all the above figures by 1,000?  Think you’d avoid criminal prosecution?

OK, enough with the damn metaphor.  According to Jayson Stark and his superfluous “Y,” a pitching starved team has offered to take Zito off our hands if the Giants will pick up $80 mil of the $112 mil still owed on his contract.

That presents the following questions:

Should the Giants just cut bait and sell on Zito, knowing that his value really couldn’t get any lower?

Should the Giants try to hold on, hoping that Zito can rebound slightly and be unloaded for a little better deal down the line?

Why, exactly, is Brian Sabean even allowed to make that decision when it was his move to sign Zito in the first place?!?

Is $20mil a year really too much to be paying for a LOOGY guy who can’t even get lefties out?