How to piss off a Giants fan: Do Nothing

Hey people. Sorry for my hiatus.

I won't go into a long soliloquy about the state of things and I can't sugarcoat my feelings:

I AM PISSED.

I am pissed that this organization has made no committment to improvement. I'm pissed that Zito will cost half a million more than he did last year, and I'm pissed that ownership refuses to eat one rough year of payroll in order to be better for a long time.

I really am disgusted.

It's not the fact that they won't wildly overspend on players that upsets me, it's the fact that they won't even try!

They never talked to Jose Reyes, they won't talk to Prince Fielder. They won't even send SO MUCH AS SEND A TEXT MESSAGE to Pujols's sleazy ass agent. There's not even so much as an illusion put forth by management that they are trying to improve the offense.

The Sanchez for Melky trade was okay, you know. I wasn't and still am not thrilled by it. I never liked Melky Cabrera and I consider him to be a fringe starter who had one decent year. I get that he's chasing a contract and yes I've heard that he's in shape, but I really don't care. Free agency may not be over, but Giants fans, if you're expecting anything more than Melky Goddamn Cabrera to help Timmy beat Kershaw, well... you're shit out of luck.

I've defended the Giants' responsible financial approach in the past. I know that their annual operating expenses include a $20MM mortgage payment for AT&T Park. That's $20MM that most other clubs don't have to worry about.

However, most other clubs didn't win a World Series in 2010 and make money HAND OVER FIST EVERY DAY SINCE THEN.

This team has the money, they choose not to spend it. There should be no confusion about that.

And yeah, absolutely, I agree that signing Lincecum and Cain long-term is the priority. Of course I get that. Pencil Cain in for at least $18MM a year and Timmy should get at least $22MM if not more. Pitching is expensive, there's no doubt about it. Pitching is also how you win day in and day out. It's our formula, and it shouldn't be messed with.

One has to think aloud though-- does Tim Lincecum WANT to stay with a team whose best improvement to an anemic offense is Melky Cabrera and a fourth OF like Ryan Ludwick to be named later? Would you sign with a team that gives you no relief from four losses to Clayton Kershaw in one year?

Seriously! Think about it. At a certain point, it's not about money or comfort or how much he likes San Francisco. If the guy doesn't get run support, he's going to lose faith in the organization.

In case you forgot, in 2011, Tim Lincecum faced Clayton Kershaw four times. Three of those games ended 2-1 and the other game was 1-0. The guy battles, and leaves his heart out there every time. What does he get?

Three runs in four games and Melky Cabrera.

With virtually the same team returning from last season, it just boggles my mind that that is an acceptable plan of attack. It was okay at the beginning of last season because we managed to win a World Series. Obviously, that didn't work out so well, and yet we're getting the same thing.

Payroll-wise, there isn't much left under their self-imposed $130MM salary cap. That payroll number, however includes the dead and decomposing weight of Aaron Rowand ($13.6MM) and Dickface Zito ($19MM).

Yes boys and girls, that is $32.6 million dollars to one guy on the road to retirement, and a second whose best accomplishment in a Giants uniform has been getting married.

As sickening as that is, it's almost over.

Rowand's money will be gone after this season. Zito's will be gone after next season. We're almost out of this.

In addition, Freddy Sanchez's $6MM will expire after this season, along with Aubrey Huff's $10MM (+$2MM buyout). As I count it, that'll be about $30MM opening up after this season.

Thirty million dollars.

Then, after the 2013 season, Zito will be gone, opening up another TWENTY million.

Based on the payroll figures and current contracts, there is just no reason why the organization couldn't sign a real hitter like Fielder or Reyes and backload the deal.

There will be more than enough money available annually to sign Timmy AND Cain for 2013 and beyond, if they'd just stomach one season of $150MM.

It's not like the 2013 crop of free agents is better than this year's either. The list is Brandon Phillips, Josh Hamilton, BJ Upton, Andre Ethier and Carlos Quentin. In addition, David Wright and Kevin Youkilis have expensive club options that may get them traded.

Are Sabean and Baer saving themselves for 2013's offseason? I just don't know. I just don't get it at all.

All I know is that the current roster is unacceptable and I've seen a minimal effort to improve the offense. We deserve more and it's just plain depressing from where I sit.

Sabean cannot stand pat

I like the Beltran move, I really do. He's a real hitter, and he instantly made us better. I'm not going to buy a $35 #15 shirzey or anything, because it'll only get a few wears out of it before it's obsolete... I'm celebrating the move by praying for another.

Our catcher situation sucks, it really does... but there's not a lot that can be done. There's no significant upgrade available, and our pitching staff is doing well throwing to our no-hitting backup tandem of Whiteside and Stewart.

The glaring hole is at shortstop, where the sickening play continues.

The bluntly ugly truth of the matter is that Tejada sucks, Fontenot sucks, and Crawford can't hit.

Sorry. All good guys... maybe Crawford will be a serviceable starter someday, but if we're going to repeat as World Champs, this situation must be fixed.

Crawford must be sent back down. Sorry Stamos, you just haven't been able to adjust to big-league pitching as quickly as we'd all have liked. You'll get another shot in September, but if Burriss gets sent down, you need to too... neither of you are doing anything of note.


Secondly, if I see Mike Fontenot face just ONE MORE left-handed pitcher at ANY TIME, I am going to blow an effing head gasket on my truck and in my brain. In fact, as I'm writing this and looking up his splits, I don't want him facing righties either. How he looks so bad against southpaws on a regular basis (.256 avg) and somehow manages to hit .186 against righties as a full time lefty absolutely boggles my mind.

The man needs to be a pinch hitter and emergency infielder, and THAT's it.

Same with Tejada, the man is a backup at best, and I can't take it anymore.

I know our big deal was Beltran and that the Mets say that they're not looking to move Jose Reyes, but I believe now more than ever, that Sabean can't give up on getting him out of Queens forever.

If the Mets think they can keep him, they're mistaken. They're broke and in disarray. The Giants are one of the teams that can actually pay him long term if they so choose, especially with Rowand's disgraceful contract expiring after next season, Huff's contract expiring after next year, and Zito's albatross expiring after '13.

With all the success the Giants have had recently and the prime pitching staff they have assembled comes in gobs of money. They're not as rich as you think because of unfair revenue sharing and AT&T annual mortgage payments, but they're still doing as well as they ever have.

I know the urge is to keep the farm system intact and keep it rolling into the future, but the truth of the matter is that after Zack Wheeler, the desirable and/or blue chip prospect pool declined significantly.

There is no more Bumgarner or Posey, no Belt or Wheeler down there anymore.

There's speedy and impressive OF Gary Brown, a couple above-average hitting catchers, big hitting 27 year old 1B Brett Pill, a couple under-performing OFs named Neal and Kieschnick, and a surprising lefty starter named Eric Surkamp in AA-Richmond who has 140K's in 114 innings with an ERA around 2.00. And of course the typical list of middle infielders with good gloves and no bats (Adrianza, Culberson, Crawford, Noonan).

Honestly, that's about it right now. The minors ain't what they used to be because we've already harvested our crop down on the farm and sold off a lot of the rest of it.

This is why I say we go for it.

We're already better than we were at this time last season, and we somehow won it all. Filling the gaping hole at short with Reyes, and paying him long-term sounds crazy, but it is the best possible solution to our current problem of TeCrawfenot stinking it up at SS.


Check out Croix de Candlestick's workup on Eric Surkamp before this season started. He was ahead of the curve on the lefty.

There's enough to get a Reyes deal done but barely. They'll want Belt or Jonathan Sanchez, and surely that's in addition to Gary Brown and a lower level prospect like Crawford.

I say do it any way you can without giving up Belt. Do it and do it yesterday, because we have the unique opportunity to win it all again, something that hasn't happened in quite a while.

Lincecum and Cain won't be in their mid 20s forever. The time is now! It can be done without mortgaging the future, especially with an interesting crop of free agents available next offseason (Prince Fielder, Albert Pujols, Reyes, Beltran).

Anyway, sorry about this rambling rant, but I can't rest knowing that Sabean didn't take his best shot at Reyes and a back to back championship.

Hello Carlos!

The date was July 10th. It was probably sometime around 10 or 10:30pm when they started to board the flight to Sky Harbor. Timmy and Cainer were there. So was Boch and Kung Fu. Ron Wotus and the Flan Man, Righetti and B-Weez. Somewhere towards the back, Ryan Vogelsong was pinching himself, in disbelief of what he was experiencing.

It was a charter flight to Phoenix full of Giants all-stars-- both coaches and players, incredible in its own right.

The only oddity were two guys who belonged in Phoenix for the all-star festivities, but didn't really belong on that particular flight.

One was Jose Reyes, the other was Carlos Beltran.

I'm sure there were plenty of jokes thrown around on that joyous flight. Torres and Beltran were probably talking about Puerto Rico, Pablo, I'm sure, was yukking it up with Reyes, being the goofball that he is. It honestly is a flight I wish I was on. Sounds like a pretty epic scene.

Somewhere though, a bespectacled Brian Sabean was staring a hole through the back of Beltran's seat. If he could have eye-effed the hell out of him, he would have. Like a bar sleaze eyeing his prey, he thought, "I want you, and I'm gonna get you."

Sabean has made some ballsy moves in his day... trading Matt Williams probably being his most brassy balls move. This one is up there though.

The Giants certainly needed something-- someone-- to improve this struggling first place lineup. Yes that's right, a first place, defending World Champ lineup that needs an infusion of energy like a crankhead needs to buy Sudafed from a Tennessee Walgreens to trade to a dealer for a hit of ice.

Is Beltran the answer? Ehh... he's not a savior. He's an all-star hitter, a decent outfielder, and immediately improves an anemic offense. However, he's not a prototypical thumper. On most teams, he'd be a #2 power threat. With the Giants though, he's immediately the best hitter on the team, and it couldn't have come soon enough.

This Beltran deal is either brilliant, or will go down in Giants lore as being a real waste of prospect pitching. Zach Wheeler projects pretty well in the Bigs, and it is difficult to let him go. In addition, Beltran's contract stipulates that he cannot be offered arbitration after his contract expires-- meaning of course that when he leaves after this season, the Giants will receive no compensatory draft picks. He's a Type-A free agent that will net them nothing. They do not pass Go and do not collect $200--- I mean a Sandwich Pick.

This deal is riding solely on Carlos Beltran's shoulders, and Sabean has his fingers crossed that Beltran repeats his 2004 magic he displayed in Houston after being traded mid-season from Kansas City.

The Astros rented Beltran too, and he was worth it. In 90 games, he hit 23HR and drove in 53 with an OPS of .926.

That of course, was the peak of Beltran's solid career-- a contract year-- one that he parlayed into ungodly amounts of cash from the Mets.

Beltran is on the downslope of his career. He's still a great hitter, but is injury-prone and slower than he used to be. Regardless, he will help us exponentially.

The Giants lineup is unpredictable, but I'm assuming that Schierholtz and Torres will be affected the most by Beltran's arrival. I have no idea what they'll do with all this.

I do know that Andres Torres can't hit a lick right handed though. In case this has escaped you, he's hitting .121 against lefties, and I'm at the point where I think he should pull a JT Snow and only hit left handed.

Beltran's arrival means that against a righty, Torres should play CF with Ross in LF and Beltran in RF. Against a lefty, I see Schierholtz, a career .326 hitter against southpaws, playing RF with Ross and Beltran taking up the other two spots.

It is a shame that Schierholtz will lose time because he's been one of our only decent hitters in the last couple months, but he will still be able to contribute.

It's a bold move and a bold statement by trading for Beltran, but if he hits like he's capable of hitting, I don't see why we can't win it all again.

We've seen this movie before, Giants fans

Firstly, apologies for not writing much in the last couple weeks. This whole "job" thing is really putting a cramp in my evening sports watching/writing.

Secondly, the last post was about the "Dynamite" video with Keenan Cahill, Weez, and Boss Ross. I'd like to clarify:

Before that video, I'd never heard of Keenan Cahill. Secondly, I didn't watch the video all the way through to see the fundraiser thing at the end. I honestly thought he was a funny little 10 year old kid. Swear to God. So, if anyone was offended by me calling him a "chubby nerd", I hope you understand that I had no clue the kid had a disease or that he was an internet sensation. Obviously I should do more research on amusing internet videos. Now that that's out of the way...

The Giants, are well... still the Giants.

As the title says, we've seen all of this before:

-- Our proven veteran SS sucks major ass (Tejada instead of Renteria)

-- DeRosa's wrist is hurt (although he's in Tuesday night's lineup)

-- Pablo's contributions are missing (this time due to injury, rather than retardation)

-- Highly paid players struggling to start the year (Huff)

-- Zito contributing absolutely nothing in exchange for the Gross Domestic Product of Micronesia

-- Unexpected contributions from players expected to do nothing (Rowand, Fontenot)

-- A total random career minor leaguer making a major impact (Vogelsong instead of Torres)

-- Timmy is Timmy

-- A bunch of improbable comeback wins out of nowhere

It honestly goes on and on, and frickin on.

But hey, this is why we watch, and why we love these guys.

With a sweep of Colorads this past weekend, I really think things are starting to get better... at least I feel like consistency is setting in.

The early injuries to Brian Wilson, Sandoval, DeRosa, Ross, and Torres have really thrown a crazy ass monkey wrench into the unpredictable, yet well-oiled machine that is the San Francisco Giants.

Ross's Sunday offensive outburst and Wilson's rediscovered groove only lend credence to my theory.

Throw in Bumgarner and his last three starts (5 ER in past 3 starts after 16 ER in his first 4), and I think this team is trending in the right direction.

Huff is still struggling, Buster hasn't hit his stride, and Burrell is still a massive question mark, but overall, this team is making me feel more comfortable about life.

The emergence of Mike Fontenot as a serviceable SS and bizzarely-- as a decent 3rd place hitter, means the totally washed up Miguel Tejada can now join Mark DeRosa on the bench as one half of the righty-righty, sub-par backup-infielding $12.5MM combo known as DeJada.

Suddenly this whole Jose Reyes for Zach Wheeler nonsense sounds better.

Speaking of which...

Myke Urban single-handedly blew the Reyes "interest" and "internal discussion" thing totally out of frickin proportion.

I have had internal discussions about marrying Scarlett Johansson and taking Taylor Swift out to dinner too.

The point being...

OF COURSE THE GIANTS BRASS HAS TALKED ABOUT JOSE REYES. HE'S IN THE LAST YEAR OF AN EFFING CONTRACT AND HE'S A TOP 30 PLAYER. HE'S A WELL-DOCUMENTED TRADE PIECE OF A BANKRUPT, USELESS TEAM.

That being said, excellent job getting your name out there Myke. And I really do like him as a Bay Area sports personality... but look...

Jose Reyes is an injury-prone, money-hungry luxury item. Not only does he run on premium fuel, but when you buy him, his warranty only lasts 12,000 miles, you pay a $6,000 gas guzzler tax, his floormats run $600 apeice, and they nail you with a bogus California emissions fee.

It's like yeah, I'd love to buy a 500hp, $200K Aston Martin DBS convertible, but if I have to give up my high speed internet, and DVR service (Zach Wheeler) and have no guarantee of keeping the car long-term, I'm gonna opt for a $43k Dodger Challenger with 470hp.

You catch my drift?

Anyway, as I said, we've seen this all before, and we can't freak out about anything. This is a slightly different version of the same team we know and love. The frustrations will be there, the illogical struggles and surprising comebacks will continue.

As I said so many times last season: just sit back, and enjoy the ride. It's gonna take a while.

Uribe now dead to me & a look at SS

I don't even want to write about this... I really don't.

What can I say, there is no honor among thieves and no loyalty in professional sports. I'm not just talking about the players either. There is a lack of loyalty at the management level as well.

As the hangover from our World Series victory begins to subside, we've experienced our first wakeup call. It was one of those shrill hotel room wake up calls that angers the hell out of you because it's just so goddamn unpleasant.

Why Uribe? Why the Dodgers? WHY! WHY!

I mean, yes, the money was excessive, and yes the Dodgers will regret giving him 3 years and $21MM, but the fact that we lost a key player to our hated, disgusting arch rivals is just unacceptable.

The Giants get a compensatory draft pick out of it because they offered Uribe, a Type B free agent, salary arbitration, but that doesn't lessen the sting of losing such a well-rounded player.

He is an above-average shortstop, an above-average hitter, and is the type of lineup and clubhouse glue that got us our first World Championship in San Francisco. He was just nearly as important as Aubrey Huff, who in my opinion got $2-3MM more per year than was necessary.

I understand why Uribe took the money. Money is good, and this will be his last chance to score a multi-year deal like this, I just wish the Giants would've tried harder to keep him. To me, it just sounds like they let him go... and that's a tough pill to swallow for fans like me who become so attached to players.

Now we'll have to see our beloved Uuuu-Ribe do his patented jazz hands in Dodger Blue, a thought that makes me seriously nauseous.

It's not quite Johnny Damon bolting Boston for Pinstripes but that's what it feels like. The last such thing we saw was Jason Schmidt signing for huge dollars with the Dodgers... a move that hamstrung them for years.

I will never be able to root for Uribe again, which is unfortunate. In addition, he will suffer horrible effects from the traitor's curse he brought upon himself. Like Schmidt did, Uribe will toil in both injury, mediocrity, malaise, or all 3. It is not that I wish this on him, it is just what will happen. His fate is sealed, and there's nothing he or anyone can do about it.

As for our shortstop options now... the market is not very attractive, hence the big contract for the newly hexed Juan Uribe. Here are the available shortstops, thanks as always for the ever-handy MLB Trade Rumors

Orlando Cabrera (36) - Type B, not offered arb
Juan Castro (39)
Craig Counsell (40)
Bobby Crosby (31)
Adam Everett (34)
Cristian Guzman (33)
Jerry Hairston Jr. (35)
Cesar Izturis (31)
Derek Jeter (37) - Type A, not offered arb
Julio Lugo (35)
Nick Punto (33)
Edgar Renteria (34)
Miguel Tejada (37) - Type A, not offered arb

That, my friends is one ugly list. The only people on that list that deserve a starting role are Derek Jeter, Miguel Tejada, maybe Nick Punto and possibly Izturis simply because of his defense.

Derek Jeter's agent has been contacted by the Giants, but he will not be signing with us. If Jeter and his camp even entertain a phone call from Brian Sabean, it will be solely to drive up his price with the Yankees and it will turn into a one-sided pissing contest. So forget Jeter. It's not worth thinking about.

Tejada is old balls as well, and although he can still hit, I wouldn't want him necessarily as an every day SS at age 37.

Basically, our options are in house guys like Manny Burriss (not a viable option), Brandon Crawford (who hit .241 in AA and is not close to being ready with the bat), or to make a trade.

See, this is why I wanted Uribe back... it's ugly out there.

The trade options include Jason Bartlett, who the Giants have discussed with Tampa Bay, and possibly Jose Reyes of the Mets, who will be an unrestricted free agent next summer. Bartlett is the more likely scenario, but he's only a slightly above average player.

Bartlett will likely make $5MM via arbitration this year and Tampa has little use for him at that salary with Reid Brignac ready to step into a full-time gig.

There are other teams eying Bartlett, but that probably won't drive his price up too much. He is a good defender, gets on base at a decent rate, and won't hurt you, but he also can't hit it out or do anything spectacular. Although he a Bay Area native with ties to Mountain View and Stockton... so there's that.

As for Jose Reyes, he's a name I've heard floated recently. The Mets, who've dealt with Reyes's creaky hamstrings, occasional brilliance, and general disappointment, perhaps are ready to move on... especially with his pending free agency in '12 and totally new regime in place.

With Jonathan Sanchez likely available, this may be an intriguing deal to explore... And in case you're wondering, Sanchez becomes expendable due to the fact that Dan Runzler is being groomed as a starter.

Anyway, that's pretty much what we're looking at.