"Wake Up Henry Wake Up" "Hello who goes there?" "Barry........Bonds" "O Mr. Bonds it's been so lonesome without you, the times are troubling the Giants are at a stalemate rebuilding while signing unesecary veterans (yes Zito and Rowand I'm talking to you) that don't seem to play an integral part in our future and don't justify their robust contracts by their performance." "Henry, let me talk to you son when I was a free agent in 1992 and signed with the giants do you know what their record was the previous year?" "Why yes the Giants went 70-92 just like the 2008 Giants and finished fourth in the division also just like the 2008 Giants." "Well Henry you took the point of the story right out of my mouth adding a bona fide slugger or ace never hurts, you know we ended up winning 102 games the following year" "Why gee thanks Mr. Bonds!" "Don't mention it"
It's finally happened the giants have finally pushed that red shiny button, the one that you see in Austin Powers to release the shark's with laser beams attached to their heads. So what exactly are we getting ourselves into? Or what are we getting ourselves out of?" Before you utter a word from your quivering lips imagine a rotation of: Lincecum, Sabathia, Cain, Sanchez and the other guy........Zito. This rotation would feature 3 cy young award winners. Three pitchers under twenty six that have the potential to be at least number 2 starters. This would be the best rotation in baseball for many years to come. This rotation would greatly compensate for our troubled offense and put less pressure on our suddenly formidable bullpen. In 2008 the San Francisco Giants threw the fourth fewest amount of innings in all of baseball.
In 2009 the San Francisco giants very well could throw the least amount of innings in all of baseball.
To sign Sabathia, or not to sign Sabathia that is the question. C.C Sabathia over the last two years combined sports a 36-17 record with a 2,95 era and 460 k's in 490 innings. The 6'7 250 native of Vallejo is the definition of a workhorse and an ace. He also is only going to be 28 all of next year so assuming we sign him to a six year deal we will have him for his prime seasons. (Normally ages 28-32) We all know C.C is a great baseball player a true staff ace and if you pair him with Matt Cain and Tim Lincecum the trio would wreak havoc on the league, at the same time should we really allocate 126 million dollars for yet another pitcher when we did so two years before? And the returns thus far have been short of inspiring? Lincecum and Cain are going to go through arbitration soon and must be locked up to long term contracts.
The 2008 San Francisco Giants have 57 million dollars currently dedicated to the 2009 payroll. (according to Tom Hardcourt of jsonline.com) Most players on the team are making around league minninum due ti service time besides Zito, Rowand, Winn, Roberts, Molina and Afeldt. Also, Roberts, Molina and Winn contracts come off the books after next season so there's 20 million right there. The Giants would still be with Rowand,Zito and Sabathia for the next four years at an anually average of 51 million dollars per year and they have also told Sabathia's agent they plan to go after free agent shortstop Rafeal Furcal even if they sign the burly lefthander. At the same time I find it quite troubling that the Giants could seemingly have so much money invested in 3 players. Which would leave them with little roster flexibility or in the future could prevent them from signing homegrown players to long term contracts. At the same time the Giants are finally out of the red (from the ballpark) and have began to make large amounts of profit that coupled with the fact that they only had a 76 million dollar payroll probably saved them at least 30 million dollars. Assuming they made more than 10 million in profit and the fact they usually have around a 95 million dollar payroll. Which would also cause one to believe that there payroll can be substantially higher than it has been in the past because our debts have been paid off.
Without a doubt in my mind signing C.C Sabathia could transform us into an immediate contender next year as well as the next couple of years. We figure to have the best rotation in baseball, with the most upside a decent bullpen and an improved but still well below average offense= a winning team. Our pitching will keep us in every game if we sign C.C and the addition of Furcal maturation of Lewis a bounceback from Rowand and a year with Pablo "thinder thighs" Sandoval in the year equal a much improved offense that could produce more runs than one would think.
Now time to put myself on the spot "Henry would you make the deal?" Had you asked me earlier in the offseason I would have answered with a resounding no , however given some logical thinking I would now resound with a resounding yes!" Let's face it I HATE LOSING so much that I have come to trick myself that losing is acceptable as a way with dealing with the current situation which is probably why I have become so obsessed with the minor leagues to distract me from the fact that we have been pounded by the likes of the dodgers for the last four years in the row. I have also come to the realization that given the Giants resources and amount of talent in the minor leagues we can be a sustained winner and we could afford to make these types of moves even in the midst of mediocrity. We are going to be good very good, very soon once the likes of Buster Posey, Madison Bumgarner and Tim Alderson arrive we will be able to make a claim that we have the most talented home grown ML tema in the entire national league. With a rotation that consists of C.C Lincecum and Cain we could win the Nl West with that type of a pitching staff we could win the world series as soon as next year.
1 comment:
hen, your point of cc making the rotation better is moot, everyone wants him for that reason, signing cc doesn't at all help the giants most glaring need....offense, yes offense, you need some to win, my exampes are the blue jays and the angels and to a lesser extent the A's, blue jays: blue jays had the best pitching in baseball and were a good team playing in a tough division, there hitting was in the bottom third and their terrific pitching couldn't overcome their offense's shortcomings, again the angels, best record in mlb (attributed to the division they play in) great pitching staff, but they weren't a balanced team, even with tex their offensive shortcomings proved deadly in the playoffs...you get my point, yes pitching does when championships, but offense should not be neglected, if the giant's get cc they will be paralyzed by their payroll (you want lincy over cc in the future), losings tough and it can blind you much like it has blinded mike, but you above anyone else knows the value of patience, signing cc would be a mistake, if you were to use that money on a player his name better be teixeria as that wil prove to be more beneficial to the giants, its evident from the last few world series winners, phillies, redsox, they had good pitching, but more importantly they were balanced teams all around, patience dear henry, patience
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