Massive oil spills with potentially unmeasurable consequences turn me on

it completely relegates them to looking at a lower tier of players when they’re looking to add help

 
How? The team has persued and made offers to several of the biggest hitters on the free agent market, and we’ve been simply turned down.

My favorite part on his stance on Zito is that now he’s saying there was an AL team that was offering Zito EVEN MORE money than we were, and that Barry took LESS to come to San Francisco.

Suuuuuuuuuure, Brian. Whatever you say.

It was? The Giants had a very good to great offense for most of the time Barry was here

On the other hand, given enough time, every team should expect some good developments out of places they don’t really forsee coming, so you could argue they might deserve credit.

That’s like crediting a broken clock for being right twice a day.

Lets be completely clear: The Giants’ lack of success in developing major league position players over the last 10-20 years isn’t just bad, it’s beyond belief. It’s track record so poor that an outside observer would almost have to conclude that they were trying to fail (which they weren’t (which they weren’t, they spent alot of money and many high draft picks on position players over the years). Even by random chance you’d expect more success, it’s like they rolled snake eyes 10 times in a row.

I think it’s a process vs. results question. The process with Sandoval may have been wrong because they didn’t consider him any good, but the results have been just fine and dandy so far. I’ll give them some credit for that, but one developed hitter over the last what, 20 years? That’s bad.

I was listening to KNBR on my drive home, when they said Sabean was going to be on next. I was very excited about that. While I think Ralph is an amazing moron, the one thing he does well is ask Sabean questions that put Sabes’s feet over the fire. I can appreciate that. And I certainly appreciate it more than his “GIVE TEIXEIRA WHATEVER HE WANTS!!!” stance.

For example, trades with another club for top prospects? Or drafting better hitters?

Just who could we trade to other clubs in order to get top prospects in return?

I’ve heard some lunacy out of Ralph, but that lunacy tends to be less “Lets sign Zito!” and more “Lets sign Tiexiera!” Although, the whole damn the pitch count and let Lincecum pitch until the game is over thing is troublesome.

Not that I really think Ralph would be a good GM or anything.

It’s not like Rowand stunk before they signed him, so I suspect that Sabean probably wasn’t against it. As for Zito, well, I can only hope he was (not that it really matters at this point).

to convince ownership it’s not a smart investment on their part and he can use that money in better ways.

I can see why ownership would be less that convinced.

And you explain why it’s stupid, that you don’t want to be the one to do it, that it shouldn’t be done, and they do it anyway? Or a client, same way? “Here are 47 reasons not to do that, don’t do that, it’s not in your best interest”. [time passes] “Uh, hi there, we did the stupid thing you told us not to do, can you get us out of it?”

I think it’s more likely that he picked the bad players and they harrumphed them. But if he didn’t want Zito, he either tells Susan to pack up his desk or he good-soldiers out there and lives to ruin another prospect. I don’t see him having a lot of leverage or FU money to allow him to do that. And more importantly, he owns a piece of the team so I suppose some of the ownership blame is his to share in that way too.

Posey will be up when Sabean needs to save his job. Posey will play with Bochy needs to save his job.

Buster Posey represents what little good will there is left between Sabean and the fan base. This is the Crown Jewel of the organization, carefully placed in bullet proof glass with the label “use only during emergency” on it. When it (believe me, it will) gets that bad in late June, Brian sabean will have no other option than to get Posey up to the majors and remind the ownership group and the fan base that “Look, This is what I have done for this organization. Behold, Buster Posey.”

Then it is up to Bochy to play Buster Posey. When the Giants continue to struggle and Posey rides the pine, he, too, will have to hit the emergency button to try to save his job.

I am not takeing the postion it did not happen. More like look at how moch money was spent on free agents this off season. If Zito’s contract some how managed to less the impact the size of the shopping trip I shudder to think on what Sabean would have done with the extra $18MM.

I think every company in the world would like to pretend they didn’t have to pay salary. “Hey, our profit increased 30% last quarter!” That’s enron-iffic.

Like I’ve been saying, blame Baer/Magowan/Neukom for hiring Sabean and leaving him in his position well past his usefulness, but don’t blame them for the signings. That’s just ridiculous. Sabean is the top baseball man there, and Larry probably also recognizes this. The responsibility of signings, drafting, etc. ultimately lands with the GM. This is true for most teams, it’s true for the Giants.