Brian Wilson: Blackbeard and Blue Bastard

I wish I didn't care... I honestly do. I wish I didn't form attachments to players and memories and things like that, but unfortunately, that's just the way I operate. Some people are able to be far more rational and detached when it comes to sports, and sometimes I envy them for that.

For me, the news that Brian Wilson chose to sign with the Dodgers of his own volition was really disturbing.

Boo this man!

For me, it felt like a personal attack, as if he himself was trying to get back at me by doing what I would hate and despise the most. Obviously, my reaction proves that I'm either way too sensitive, obsessed with hating the Dodgers, mentally ill, or a little bit of all three.

Regardless, it was just horrible news to most Giants fans.

This was a dude we embraced and celebrated, even though towards the end, he was getting too weird to defend. He was a big part of two of the biggest highlights of my life as a Giants fan-- getting both outs via strikeout to beat both the Phillies in the NLCS and the Rangers in the World Series back in '10. There are also pictures of me celebrating from that November night in 2010 with the piss-poor dyed black imitation rally beard I'd grown for the playoff run indelibly grown onto my face.

These types of memories for people simply can't be erased, and remain so etched in peoples' minds, that even though he's basically been gone for two seasons, it's still upsetting to see him signing with LA.

I wish there was some sort of loyalty in sports today in the era of free agency and everything else, but you rarely see it. As many people pointed out, the Giants didn't owe Wilson anything, and he didn't owe the Giants anything. It's a business, someone offered him a job, he took it... bla bla bla, cliche, cliche, cliche.

I get that players and teams shouldn't give a damn about each other, but how about the fans? Without fans, there is no fame and fortune. God, would it have really been so hard to become a real Pirate in Pittsburgh with your stupid beard and a a chance to part of their first winning season since 1992? Of course not. He had to be in LA.

In the end, it's all business and what's best for the player. I get all that. I just wish it hadn't have gone down this way.

Maybe it's convenience because he lives in LA, maybe it's because he yearns to be back in the spotlight, and maybe it's because the Dodgers are the hottest team in baseball (BARF), but he just made the call that made this season just a little more unbearable for me.

The chances of him being anywhere near to his '09/'10 form are slim to none... few players have even attempted to come back from a second Tommy John surgery, and even fewer Giants have been good after leaving San Francisco and joining the Blue Bastards (Schmidt, Boo-ribe, etc.). It's just the imagined principle of the thing that gets me-- and yes it's imagined, because apparently there are no principles in baseball anymore.

Or so I'm told. Just ask Wilson's new BFF Puig about playing with principle.

As inconsequential as the move may be in the grand scheme of things, it just feels like an unnecessary poke in the ribs; ribs already sore from being punched repeatedly throughout this abysmal championship defense of 2013.

I'll get over it soon enough. After a good two hours of Twitter rants earlier, I'm now able to accept the fact that him pitching in a Giants uniform is just a distant relic of the past-- something I'll be able to look back on in 20 years and remember more fondly than not, because he won't amount to anything close to substantial in Los Angeles.

Because after all, Los Angeles is a place made of little to no substance, and never will be-- especially on the baseball field.

Beat LA.

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.