The day the West got weird

Laughter and giddiness, excitement and joy.

Those are typical behaviors of a fan whose team just swung the biggest deal of their lifetime.

The only thing is, that was MY reaction when I heard the Blue Bastards were on the verge of landing one star player and two former star players.

I wasn't the only one overjoyed.

Giants fans all over the place were rejoicing over the possibility of the Dodgers adding Adrian Gonzalez, Josh Beckett, Carl Crawford, and Nick Punto. It seemed on paper to be the exact opposite reaction of what one would expect, but hey-- most of the time your first reaction is the correct one.

Did the Bums get better in the short term? Sure. Adrian Gonzalez is a stud. He's thrilled to be back in SoCal, and he'll piss us off for years to come. That sucks for us and I'll admit it. I was fired up to see him leave the Madres after his contract expired, and I'm not happy to see him back in our division.

Beckett? I'm fired up about him. When he's focused and healthy, there are few pitchers whose clutch ability and past performance can match that of Beckett's. The past two years however, have been nothing but a black stain on Beckett's permanent record. Instead of rehabbing, he plays golf. Instead of watching the game, he eats KFC and plays NCAA football in the clubhouse. He's one of the top 10 most destructive clubhouse presences in this league when he's unmotivated and unhappy-- on the very same list as new teammate Hanjob Ramirez.

Carl Crawford? Awesome player... 3 years ago with Tampa Bay. Now, he's a shell of himself-- a guy who just underwent Tommy John surgery and put up a paltry sub .300 on base % in two injury-riddled seasons in Beantown.

I stole this from ESPN. 

Now comes the really juicy part.

Guess how much money these guys make. Seriously. Guess how much money the Dodgers just took on in order to land Adrian Gonzalez.

Two hundred sixty-two million dollars.

$262MM. Simply incredible.

Obviously money is no object to the new idiots in charge of the Dodgers. That's fine. Money was no object to the Red Sox either, and look what happened to them.They're languishing around the bottom of their division, still saddled with John Lackey's corpse and alienating their obnoxiously devoted fans on a daily basis.

I know it's not the same situation or the same team, but I think history needs to be learned from, and the Dodgers are a little too eager and foolhardy to make the same mistakes Boston has made in the past 5 years.

Fine with me.

SB Nation estimates that the Bums will be right at or slightly above the luxury tax level of $178MM next year, and that their actual payroll will be around $160MM. The reasoning for this is that the CBA takes into account the average annual payout of players' contracts rather than the actual number per year.

All these reasons are why we're so excited as Giants fans. They have more money than God, but so do the Yankees. And you don't see the Yankees just doing whatever they want to excess. They didn't sign Prince Fielder to play alongside Mark Teixeira. There are limits, and it comes down to profitability.

The capitalists that bought the team only care about money. They'd sell their own mother to make a buck, and will run the team that way. They have a plan-- and that plan is to buy high profile assets (they see players as things, not people), raise their profile on ESPN, and attempt to rejuvenate a fanbase whose primary objective is to drink a 12 pack of Corona on the way to the game and not get arrested.

It's about money, and once these contracts begin to balloon and become dead payouts (Crawford, Kemp, Gonzalez annual contracts all balloon to more than $20MM later in contracts and Kershaw will have a similar number with a new contract), they'll be sorry they did this.

The still have inferior pitching to the Giants, and will continue to suffer the results. It's a joyous day for Giants fans, because we know that they've irreparably saddled themselves with dead money and poor clubhouse attitudes for years ahead.

We all know it'll come back to bite them sooner rather than later, and that, folks, is something to be excited about.

More questions than answers

How quickly a week changes things, huh?

This is just a perfect example of why you just can't react to every little thing during your team's 162 game season. Where were we last Thursday? We were five losses lighter, that's where we were.


Look, it's just a matter of peaks and valleys, and this team doesn't appear to be one of those smooth sailers. I mentioned in my last post on Monday, that it was gut-check time, and that this Padres series would be a solid indication of where this team really is.

With the smooth sailing of the few series in the review mirror, it was time for the Gyros to step up-- on the road, without Rowand and a healthy DeRosa, and after a devastating loss to their arch rivals. A couple guys showed up in the San Diego series, namely Cain, Sanchez, and to a lesser extent, Uribe, but it just wasn't enough. This of course is saying something, because the Giants were swept by a final score of 9-4. No, that wasn't the final score of Wednesday's game, those were all the runs scored the entire series.

I believe this 2010 team to be different from last year's model, because up until this grisly San Diago disaster, I saw a vastly improved team. Hell, even in the Eckstein game, Juan Uribe donged one off of one of the best closers in the game in Heath Bell to tie up the game. That was huge, and it just wasn't something we saw last year.

Let's talk Wellemeyer for a minute.

Todd Wellemeyer is not the good version from two seasons ago. This is a "Spring Training Superstar" who's lost his marbles and his command. This quote from Baggarly via Twitter doesn't make me feel good:

"I didn't think Todd Wellemeyer could punt his rotation spot on the basis of three starts. This first inning is making me think otherwise."

You know when a non-knee jerk baseball authority is freaked out, it's time to really freak the eff out.

You don't need to see any stats to know that the dude is off his rocker, and is walking waaaaay too many dudes. But hey, people like stats, so let's look at how gross they really are. The guy is averaging almost 7 walks per 9 innings, an obscene 8.16 ERA, and a a WHIP just below 2. It's just fugly...

It's not like the guy is just giving up Texas Leaguers, seeing-eye grounders and running into bad luck. He's allowing more baserunners than should be legal, and is paying dearly for it.

Let's assume worst case scenario here for a minute, and that the guy needs to be replaced. There are a few options: Kevin Pucetas (AAA), Joe Martinez (AAA), Pedro Martinez (Free Agent), Jarrod Washburn (Free Agent).

None of them are particularly attractive to me, but hey, we're talking 5th starter here. We need a guy who won't pitch us out of ballgames. While the Pedro/Washburn route is certainly intriguing, it's unlikely. Pucetas is likely the guy, since he did indeed have solid spring.

However, Pucetas has given up 17 hits and 8 walks in 16 innings (3.94 ERA) so far in Fresno, which is certainly not something that makes me feel a whole lot better. After all, T-Dub's problem is baserunners, and that's the last thing we need while the offense struggles.

Joe Martinez, on the other hand is 1-0 with a 0.90 ERA in 10 innings thus far.

To be mentioned also is that there's some dude named Eric Hacker in AAA that is absolutely beasting around. Truth be told, I've never heard of the guy before, but he's 3-0 with a 1.10 ERA, 0.80 WHIP, and 16 K in only 16.1 innings. So for what it's worth, we've got this 27 year-old unknown down there mowing down the PCL.

Whatever the decision is, it probably needs to be made quickly, because we've got the Cards, Phils, and the damned dirty Rockies coming into town beginning on Friday.

Other random thoughts:

-- Is it possible that the Padres are a better team than they appear to be?

-- I bet the Gyros don't get swept by the Madres if Zito plunked a Dodger, resulting in a bench clearing confrontation

-- Velez is not a good outfielder

-- If Bruce Bochy refuses to play Bowker every day, how will we ever know if the guy can play every day? How do we know he really can't hit lefties? He's only gotten 3 ABs against them this year. Yes, he's gone 0-3 in those AB's, but it's like come on dude. If he was like 0-20, against lefties, then I'd say, "Okay, I understand."

This is the same confidence-shattering crap that we see time and time again from this organization. Stick his ass out there, and let him effing play. If he sucks after 150 ABs, then fine, do something else. God, I'm so sick of this.

-- My buddy proposed a hypothetical trade today. Assuming Madison Bumgarner stops sucking so bad and regains trade value... would you trade him for Carl Crawford, assuming we could sign Crawf longterm? He's eligible to be a free agent next season. Food for thought. That would be a lottaaaaa triples.

-- If you're like, "We'll sign a big bat this coming offseason." Let me tell you now, that you're dreaming. Here's the list of 2011 free agents. There's Carl Crawford and a whole lotta nothing.

Anything we get to improve this offense in the long term will have to come via trade, at a steep price. This is why there is such a high premium on great young hitters.

-- I hate the Dodgers all over again...

-- Is it possible that we suck on the road? Yeah we swept a terrible Houston team in Texas, but, yeah... we haven't done well since then outside SF...

-- If you're not on Twitter, I think you should, especially if you like venting frustrations during games. It's almost like a Giants chat room at times. I like to talk Giants a lot, so obviously it works for me.

-- Here's a great example of Twitter can be cool. I had this "conversation" with Nick Mangold, starting center for the New York Jets:

The Dodgerhater: PETA freaks protesting outside the KFC in San Rafael. This may be a perfect time to try that new Double Down. Haha! @NickMangold is down.

Nick Mangold: @TheDodgerhater where do I sign up?

The Dodgerhater: We could organize an eat in. Gotta check to see where the PETA jerks are going, then march an army of dudes into the KFC.

Nick Mangold: I like it dude

Shut up! How many starting NFL players did you talk about KFC and PETA with on Twitter? Hmm? Oh zero, that's what I thought!

-- Go Giants, Go Sharks.