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Baggs: Sabean says the Molina to Posey transition was the plan from the begninig


Baggs notebook contained an incredibly interesting bit of news about the season. SanFranKid linked to it in one of the post-games threads, but at over 1,000 posts, I'm guessing people are either missing it or having trouble commenting on it (like I am).

Assuming you believe Sabean, and I'm sure there are some here who won't, his revelation that the plan all along was to trade Bengie during the season once they felt Buster was ready serves as a measure of vindication to those that argued that this possibility existed. For those who felt starting Buster in AAA was monumentally stupid, this at least demonstrates that there was a thought process behind the decision, whether you agree with it or not.

Giants GM Brian Sabean revealed Wednesday that he knew from the moment he signed Molina that the club would trade him later in the summer.

"That was rehearsed -- set in stone, really -- once we decided not to start the year with Buster," Sabean told the Mercury News. "Bengie was going to be a bridge, and once Buster was ready, we were going to bring him into the mix and trade Bengie.


While there will always be speculation that there may have been an effort to delay Posey's service clock, the following sure sounds like they didn't think he was ready and wanted the endorsement from Decker:

"That was the plan almost going all the way back to the winter meetings (in December). We were fortuitous that Bengie turned down the Mets and signed with us. But (if not), we would've signed another catcher and lined it up the same way, because Buster wasn't ready."
Sabean said he knew Molina was expendable when Triple-A Fresno manager Steve Decker gave a strong endorsement of Posey, combined with other scouting evaluations.

We'll never know what sort of success Buster would have had if he had started the season with the big club and whether Sabean's "ease him in" plan contributed to the sucess we've seen.

I often feel like a Sabean defender by default; I don't think he's the greatest thing ever, but feel he often gets too much blame and not enough credit here.

Whether each of us likes it or not, the team's success this year ensures that he'll be the Giants' GM at least a couple more years. It has to be at least a little reassuring that he approached this with a strategy, carried it through and it worked well.

Goofus' thought of the day (I only have one each day): This might be the blueprint for bringing up Belt. I could see signing Huff to a 2-year deal with the idea of easing Belt into the 1B role in either 2011 or 2012 depending how he progresses. Since Huff is more versatile than Molina, it doesn't mean they'd need to trade him, but you get the idea.

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