FanPost

Sabes on XM

Brian Sabean phoned in an interview with XM's Baseball this Morning and as, I don't believe they archive any of their baseball channel shows (and it was about 5:00 a.m. SF time), I thought I'd jot down a few of things he had to say before I forget it all.

  • Sabes is currently on a scouting trip, preparing for the June draft. The team's scouts and player evaluation team have by now come up with a list of "6 or 7 guys" they feel are solid for the #5 pick and Sabean wants to see all of them play in person "at least twice" before the end of the season. Last night he caught Gordon Beckham, in sadly an uninspiring performance ("I saw the wrong game, in scouts' lingo") and today he'll watch HS SS Tim Beckham play. Then he's off to Nashville to catch a UGA/Vandy tilt that will feature both G. Beckham and Pedro Alvarez. Sabean doesn't believe Alvarez will still be available at 5, but the hamate injury could concievably cause him to fall.
  • Dick Tidrow was ga-ga for Tim Lincecum. So convinced was Tidrow that Lincecum was far and away the number 1 talent in the '06 draft, he spent much of the run up to the draft trying to figure out other team's draft strategies, obsessing over the idea that Timmy might fall to us (pretty funny story the way Sabes told it). He even convinced Sabean NOT to go to Washington to watch Lincecum, because he didn't want other teams to know how interested the Giants were.
  • Matt Cain was also a Dick Tidrow call.
  • Brad Hennessy apparently has yet another medical issue. Sabean opined that the reason for his fall in performance is "he's lost a bunch of weight this year and he just can't seem to keep any on him." They sent him down to Fresno, but Sabean suggested that what they really want to do is run him through a battery of tests to try to find out what's going on inside him. Sad. Poor Brad's body has been through enough.
  • Alex Hinshaw has "an electric arm -- you'll see him in SF soon."
  • Sabean's love of experience and moxie doesn't stop at the playing field.  Describing the front office reorg that went on this winter, he said "the great thing is we now have a whole room of veterans -- guys who've been around the block." One of those veterans Ed Creech (former Director of Scouting for the Pirates) was directly responsible for bringing in Jose Castillo, who the Giants are very happy with.
  • Surprisingly, Sabean seemed to place a lot of faith in Lowry's role in the Giant's rebuilding process over the next couple of years. Lowry's "a proven winner who we're really missing right now" and who's return will make the team much better. (Personal aside, that strikes me as crazy talk in several different ways).
  • Sabes thinks the Giants are the most improved team in baseball right now (from ST to now, I'd assume he meant).
  • Though he grew up in New Hampshire, Sabes was raised a Dodgers fan by his fundamentals lovin' Dad (UGH!)

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