First!

Third!

But I wanted to be a cavernous hole! So I guess that leaves Zito unclaimed … alright.

Zito!

If your dog has one of those ID microchips, does the credit card get de-magnetized?

is obviously because it was my birthday. Did I not mention I’m buddies with Sabean and Castle’s DFA was my one birthday wish he promised he’d fulfill? You’re welcome, McCoven.

“not unsuccessful”

Also, I would like someone to look up the 2008 Zips+ other projections and compare the Giants actual numbers to them. Even cooler would be to use MLEs for the minors.

not great, but not binge-drinking-inducingly bad. and i’m so glad we got an extended look at Travis Denker, especially when pretty much the entire 40-man roster was up at the end of this season. oh wait

More people need to read that sentence about Chet Lemon.

but what really sways me are the emergences of burriss and sandoval (on top of flew’s already solid work to start the year). we wanted one marginal prospect to step forward and look like an everyday player or at least a potential everyday player. we got three.

lincecum and cain’s continued awesomeness, romo’s emergence, and wilson’s string of not-quite-blowing it were also quite good to see. Add in the fact that Schierholtz hasn’t failed yet as a prospect (he hasn’t really been given the chance to succeed either) plus a seemingly solid draft minor league season for a lot of guys and I’m pretty happy with the way things worked out.

Of course, moderation in all things, especially when those things are good and we’re talking about the Giants. There were also some major downers over the course of the season:

1) Rowand… please, please, please don’t become Zito-lite

2) Zito

3) Sanchez’s maddening inconsistency + shoulder injury makes me very nervous about his longterm future. I’d dangle him in trades now except I doubt any sane GMs would want him (QUICK! Dial up the Nationals!).

4) Correia doesn’t even really look like a very solid 5th starter anymore… not that him not pitching well is some kind of huge disappointment, but more a statement on the current state of the high minors where we really don’t seem to have any adequate replacements waiting. Basically, if the Giants want to fix the bottom half of the rotation from within the organization, it seems like they’ll just have to wait for Bumgarner and Alderson, which could still take a couple of years.

5) Dave Roberts is still on this team… ugh. nothing against the guy, but he’s got no business on a rebuilding roster.

6) Rumors of Cain trades persist, and I have to think it has something to do with his horrific luck. Look, unless some team offers us the moon, we have to keep the two really good young pitchers we have— if Cain had won 15 games this year (and even last year two) would he really be the object of so many trade rumors? I don’t think many think of it consciously, but I have to believe that his bad luck plays a role in his perceived availability.

That’s my final verdict on the season. Bo. Ring. Aside from Timmy starts, I rarely enjoyed watching the team play. I’m not saying it would have been better to trainwreck toward 120 losses or anything, but my primary objectives as a Giants fan are something like 1) Feel what it’s like the moment your favorite team wins a World Series, and 2) enjoy the day in/day out of the season. There was no enjoyment for me. I mean, this team needed a late rally in game 162 to avoid scoring the fewest runs in baseball. Sure, there was a spark of hope in the last 2 months seeing some young(ish) players who might be something someday, but I’m not saving up my pennies to buy an Ishikawa jersey just yet. So I’m going to watch the playoffs, and then take a winter’s dose of football and college hoops to forget this season ever happened. Maybe next year will be more fun.

We were pleasantly surprised by the symbolic honor of winning one more game than last year.

A look at our Pythagorean numbers tells a different story, though:

2007: 77-85
2008: 68-94

Essentially, we subtracted Barry Bonds from the lineup, a few young players picked up a little of the slack but not all of it, and everything else stayed the same.

I’m still happy with the season as a rebuilding season, but we did get worse.

‘in the first year of rebuilding’

I’m still digesting the season. On the one hand, we got a look at some new kids who might be able to contribute. On the other hand, we got a look at some new kids that can’t contribute, but might still show up on next year’s roster anyways (I’m looking at you Eugeni-NO). On another hand (obviously I’m using a non-human species to keep track of my ramblings), we spent too much time with Castillo at the corner – he may have succeeded at not being Pedro Feliz, but he failed at being a decent player. We should scrounge up yet another hand to note that we did find some nice relief pitching in the end, to offset some horrific starting pitching and Tyler Walker (and does anybody even remember Vinnie Chulk? Seems so long ago).

My major pluses for the season:

- Timmy! (‘nuff said)
- Pablo! (’nuff said)
- A last season to enjoy Omar (gonna miss that defensive wizard)
- F-Lew
- DFA of Castillo
- McClain’s first major league HR (the guy deserved the chance, just by sheer determination)

Minuses?

- Rowand proving unworthy of $60 mil (we all suspected this, but he was REALLY not worth it, not just kinda not worth it)
- Bengie batting clean-up (I continue to be frustrated at the front office’s inability to sign a good power hitter, both when Bonds was still on the team and especially now)
- Only 94 HRs for the entire team on the season
- Velez’ defense (ack!)
- Poor Cain having the worst frakkin’ luck of any pitcher on the planet – he pitched much better than his record shows (I’d almost let him get traded just so he can maybe find a team that can score a damn run for him occasionally – he deserves it)

Anyhoo – I’ve got tons more bouncing around in my head. I’ll probably have to actually do something drastic like update my blarg with it as I can set it down in good writing words.

Yes, it was a successful season. Reader-friendly bullet points:

— The Giants acquired some promising young hitters, including Buster Posey, Conor Gillaspie, Rafael Rodriguez, etc.

— The top prospects either held steady or boosted their stock. Bumgarner had a breakout season, Alderson was pretty damn good and Villalona held his own. Noonan got great scouting reviews, even if his numbers weren’t.

— Several young hitters made the majors. Pablo Sandoval and Travis Ishikawa pretty much came out of nowhere. Manny Burriss really came on at the end of the year.

— Tim Lincecum and Matt Cain led the rotation. Jonathan Sanchez maintained a good strikeout rate in a whole season of starting.

…I had no idea it would come true!
I really feel bad that Correia regressed , and I’m certain some stathound will point out that Zito sucked worse this year than last – but didn’t he have a couple of masterful performances?
(Granted , that’s a couple dozen too few…)

Here’s hoping that after the league adjusts to Sandoval…Sandoval adjusts back!
And I’m still waiting for whomever posited that catching will preserve his knees to expound on that…

I hope for a longer string of flashes of brilliance next year.
And that we trade Cain so we get the NO RUN SUPPORT monkey off our backs.
Jeez , Matt , you really suck!

So, did I coin the term “semi-prospects?” Probably not. But I did start using it without having ever seen it before. It’s just such an apt description…

So as I see it,

Positive:

Lincecum
Cain
Lewis
Bumgarner
Alderson
Burriss
Sandoval
Sanchez (yes, even with the second half)
Winn (a very insignificant positive)
Wilson (regardless of naysayers)
Romo
draft

Negatives:

Hennessey
Misch
Zito
Lowry
Correia
Walker
Chulk
Velez (mostly)
Rowand
Aurilia sticking around
Castillo
Bowker
Frandsen

So, overall, there were more negative seasons than positive ones. But Lincecum/Cain/Bumgarner/Lewis/Sandoval were such good positives that they outweigh the negatives in my mind.

Therefore, this season was a positive one. And, let’s face it, the past several years had been such a waste because of delusions of contention that the modest gains made in this season look fantastic in comparison.

Still, even with being aware of the preceding facts, I’m happy about this season.

“The 2008 Giants season was a successful season for a rebuilding team to have.”

I disagree, but it’s definitional quibbling rather than with any of the positives listed above. I think the 2008 season was a successful season for many of the the individual players, but it wasn’t for the team. The random shuffle of players from A-ball finally posted a couple of positives, but the team didn’t make moves special to a “rebuilding” team that would make it a successful season. Plus some sucky things happened this year that balance against the positives many people have been noting. I’ll try to discuss failures at the individual level and team level.

The negatives:
- Position players: At the individual Franny loses a tendon, and a season of development. The team misses out on evaluating him for the 2nd/3rd baseman job, and can’t be sure he will live up to whatever promise he had after missing such a vital year in his learning curve and coming off his end of 2007 success. Also, remember Ortmeier? Rajai Davis? Those two guys we thought might maybe perhaps be something. What now?

- Corriea, Misch, Lowry, and Hennessey all have season dripping in stink, for various reasons, putting them all into the “reclamation project” zone. The Giants’ depth at SP goes in the dumps, with no organizational relief in the pipes for next year. All four have had trade value in the past, and might have brought something back if they had a decent year in 2008. The only one that will be on the team next year for sure is also the only one that may never pitch again (which suck ‘cause he’s a personal fav): Lowry. The others might not even get offered arbitration.

- No trades that brought back prospects we’re excited about. In 2007, Sweeney netted Denker. In 2008, Durham got us Hammond and Ford. Maybe, I’m a bit excited for Ford, and maybe I’m forgetting someone (very possible). Winn did his average, undervalued roll player dance up to the trade deadline then decided to hit .350/450/550 or whatever for the rest of the season. Roberts decided to take a DL vacation. As noted above, potentially trade-worthy pitchers wrecked their value (also see Walker, Chulk, and other relievers.) Now, I don’t blame management and Sabes for not trading Winn, et al – it very well could have been that partners were not offering the snazzy prospects or proper value, and the road taken was the wiser choice. We can’t know for sure. But from a rebuilding team perspective, I want trades “rebuilding” the team. I didn’t see that.

- Bochy. Can we at least see if lefties can hit lefties. If it hurts the kid’s feelings to strikeout three times versus the Old Unit, take them out for ice cream after the game like in little league. Can we see Denk, Rohl, Gill, Burr, play? I’m not convinced he is the guy to lead this team through a rebuilding phase.

2008 saw a strength – middling prospects and cheap young guys filling out the bottom end of the rotation and spots in the bullpen, go to a gapping hole, even as middling prospects emerged in the everyday player roles, and couple of relievers established themselves. Some guys we were excited about at the end of last year are gone or big quiestion marks for next year. Nothing really got done via trades.

All the same, some of the players given a shot this year did well and show promise. The front office, participated in the draft, and scouted Domincan players, and grabbed some exciting guys. Not only did Lincecum and Cain stay healthy and perfrom, but so did MadBum, T2, Noonan, AnVil. But that could have happened for ANY team. The only thing that marks the above as a “rebuilding team” is the 5th pick of Posey, other than that we could be talking about a team that won a lot of games last year, and a bunch of games this year. But at the major league level, the team took a step forward (for the most part, position players) and a step back (pitching + Fran, Ort, Davis). Yeah, Sanchez showed his stuff too, but 4 4th-5th starters (and Lowry was once a top of the rotation guy but not going into 2008) would have given the Giants a foundation from which to deal. For me, losing that is the biggest negative in 2008. For me, the team maybe made a little progress, but has mostly tread water.

Still, from a rebuilding team perspective the season isn’t quite done. Trades could still be made. Winn has had a hot end of the year. He is a solid cog in any lineup and a star in the Giants’, and that makes hims the most obvious target. I think now is the the time to take and make offers.