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.