 |
| "Looks like the Dodgers really had their way with 'em, the poor bastards." |
It is the process of bleeding and subsequently dying from said blood loss.
Right now, I feel like the Giants are lying in an alley somewhere south of Market, bleeding slowly while people shuffle by and step over us, thinking we're just another passed out wino with last week's Chronicle over their face.
What happened in this Dodgers series was nothing short of a massive wake up call to everyone-- the type of bad dream that jolts you awake at 3am in a cold sweat.
It was angering, it was frustrating, and it whipped Giants fans into a panicked frenzy. Right now, people are doing the equivalent of running through the streets, leaving their cars in traffic, and looting grocery stores for survival supplies. Of course in this scene, there's a nut with a sandwich board yelling, "Repent! The end is near!"
Human beings have this little thing called the "fight or flight" response-- something that we really can't turn off. It's meant to keep us alive, but sometimes in our relatively safe lives, our impassioned love for our baseball team becomes a sort of life or death scenario.
Hey, it woke us up didn't it?
There we were, happier than a stoned teenagers crushing Jack in the Box tacos at 2am. We had our little three game lead in the NL West, and we thought we'd turned the corner...
...then we circled the block.
That seems to be the Giants' M.O. this year. Turn the corner, then instead of going straight, we circle the block like someone trying to park their Silverado on the street in the Richmond District.
The problem with this team is not a new one-- we just can't hit and we need an impact bat. Same as it always is. The other problem lies with ownership refusing to acknowledge that it needs to spend more money to correct past mistakes.
You look at our $131MM+ payroll and just wonder how in the hell that kind of money can be spent while simultaneously being so desperate for impact hitters.
Well in a way, that money was spent in a panicked fashion to bring in supposed impact hitters, just as we want to be done now at the trade deadline.
Check this out:
Aubrey Huff, $12 Million
Freddy Sanchez: $6 Million
Aaron Rowand: $12 Million
That's why we can't have nice things. Couple that with Zito's $19MM, and it's enough to make you sick.
That's $59MM of virtually dead money and the reason that we can't have nice things. It's is the reason ownership won't take on the contracts of Aramis or Hanley Ramirez. It's also the reason that the Giants are unlikely to add the impact bat that we so desperately need right now.
I refuse to defend the complicated web of random rich white people that collectively form Giants ownership. There are literally hundreds of people that own the team, and not one of them wants to spend more money to correct previous mistakes.
Therein lies the problem with our type of ownership. There are too many people involved, and most of them don't own big enough stakes to be able to call the shots. It's more of a goddamn mutual fund or bond investment than a damn baseball team sometimes, and that is what's preventing us from getting significantly better in 2012.
It's not as if Brian Sabean doesn't know that we need Josh Willingham, Shin-Soo Choo, Corey Hart, Shane Victorino, Aramis Ramirez, Chris Perez, and the rest of the people we've been connected to. Oh he knows alright.
He's part of the reason that we're in the mess.
The problem is that he's handcuffed by a mediocre farm system devoid of major prospects and saddled by a conglomeration of investor-owners that don't know their ass from a hole in the ground. But you can bet they know their ass from their pocketbook.
The reality is, that the only way to significantly improve this 2012 Giants club is to take on a bad contract and/or give up our only desirable prospect, outfielder Gary Brown.
While our knee jerk reaction is to say, "Screw it, trade Brown.", that wouldn't be the wisest thing to do.
The only logical thing to do is to take on a bad contract, just as the Blue Bastards did with Handjob Ramirez.
They became instantly more formidable with that acquisition, as would we with a similar move.
I won't go off on a hypothetical trade tangent, because we could talk all day long, but it will take some serious and immediate flexibility from ownership to get better... and I don't see it happening.
What is most likely to happen is that we'll struggle but stay afloat until Sandoval gets back, and likely acquire a late innings bullpen arm to give us an upgrade over Kontos (who needs more seasoning in my mind).
Guys like Willingham or Choo would be an incredible addition, but let's not hold our breath, guys.
This isn't a horrible team, and we still have the ability to win the West, but we need to get some momentum again-- just like we had heading into the Dodgers series. The best thing to do right now is to step back from the ledge and not expect any shiny new toys under the Trading Tree on Deadline morning.
If you don't get your hopes up, you can't be disappointed.
No comments:
Post a Comment