Suppose you did get Sabean's job.

You’re making an awful lot of sense. I could see some degree of success with your suggestions.

You know, I honestly wouldn’t mind Molina and Rowand both coming off the bench. That’s a lot of bench money, but whatever. When rested, I think Molina is a better asset than Whiteside. And Rowand has some value with the bat and brings good defensive value off the bench. Not panicking about moving those two could buy you some time to squeeze something out of their trade value. I don’t think there’s any reason to just cut bait completely as long as you’re willing to let them ride pine. Fine backups, the both of them.

I’m 100% with you on number two. DeRosa needs as much recovery time as possible. Get the damn surgery. Get it last week, already.

I don’t care about Wellemeyer. He probably has no place on the team, but I prefer him on the roster to rushing Bumgarner unnecessarily. I honestly wouldn’t be surprised if the 20 year old with one pitch and two week old velocity was worse for us than Wellemeyer in the short term. I don’t see the benefit. It seems bad for his development, and it seems bad for the team this year. If Wellemeyer on the roster means Bumgarner in Fresno, that’s what I want. However, I don’t really care if Wellemeyer goes away and Joe Martinez or Eric Hacker (preferably YEAH JOEY). Joey can fill in as a fifth starter, and transition to long relief later if need be. It would be win/win.

For number five, I don’t know how you get that. I have no problem with dangling some chips, but we really don’t have that many. Get lucky in a trade? Get lucky in the draft? I guess you just have to kick some tires and see what’s up.

I think most of your moves are pretty agreeable, though. Really, I just wouldn’t panic to SUNK COST DFA Molina or Rowand. Both can sit on the bench just fine for lack of a better player while you take your sweet time trying to find a new home for them.

a couple disagreements though: I think Wellemeyer is fine as a long reliever-I’d call up Joe Martinez at the expense of Bautista/Jairo and move Wellemeyer to the ‘pen. I’d also keep MadBum in Fresno, until at least July and maybe even August (or beyond).

I find it significant that you have a list of seven items, as seven is a number used in the Bible to symbolize perfection. I don’t think that is a coincidence.

The only thing I am puzzled by is the fact that Renteria is still the starting SS. Shouldn’t he be DFA’d?

I’d make sure Blockhead never again starts Molina and Rowand in the same game until they both start hitting. And I’d absolutely keep him writing in Torres until the shiny wears off. It’s either Posey-Huff-Torres-Rowand-Scheierholtz or Molina-Posey-Huff-Torres-Scheierholtz the rest of the way. “Third place is: you’re fired” if you don’t mind a movie quote.

Keep Wellmeyer. He’s a fifth starter, but we knew that. He wasn’t supposed to be this year’s guy who does better than Zito so we can all hurr-durr… Let him eat innings now and hope the bats come around. In late July if we’ve taken a nice lead he’ll be taking a load off other arms. If we’re actually in a tight pennant race later, start skipping his starts.

DeRosa. Surgery. Now. Isn’t there a clause in every player contract that you can fire him if he refuses team medical advice? There’s no Schilling-esque bloody sock-and-staples approach that will fix him this year.

Send down John “AAAA” Bowker. It’s just not going to happen. Burrell up as soon as he’s got his stroke.

Play Fresno Express with the bullpen.

Kick the crap out of the trainers and/or the groundskeepers. WTF is up with all the hamstring and groin pulls? Either the warm-up is wrong or they’re playing on clay.

Wait and see what’s on the waiver wire next month, and don’t be shy about paying a little extra for one player who could put this over the top.

I don’t really see the point of DFAing Rowand. If nothing else, I think he has some value to us as a backup.

But I mostly agree with the other stuff. I’m not itching to rush Bumgarner just yet, but if he keeps pitching well, it doesn’t have to be long.

1a. Fire Bruce Bochy. Hire Andy Skeels. Enough said. You have to have priorities.
1b.. John Barr named Director of Scouting, with total authority.
2. Tell Mark DeRosa to have the surgery yesterday (assuming that’s what the second opinion recommended). Enough said.
3. Excise Bengie Molina. He’s made it clear he’ll be an unhappy camper as a backup. I appreciate the warning: he’s gone. A trade for a organizational soldier would be fine. Buster Posey becomes the regular catcher, with Whiteside as a backup. Huff returns to 1B. Burrell gets called up, and is told explicitly that he’ll be a PH and occasional LF/1B.
4. DFA Aaron Rowand. Oh sure, explore trade options. A ham sandwich in return would look pretty good right about now. Tagg Bozied for Aaron Rowand? Done! Andres Torres is the regular CF. Bowker starts in LF. Schierholtz starts in RF.
5. When Renteria returns, he’s the SS backup for Uribe.
6. Wellemeyer gets 2 more starts on the road. If there’s no improvement, he’s replaced by Kevin Pucetas.
7. Grant is hired as the head of Public Relations, in charge of all media responsibilities.
8. BruteSentiment is hired as SF’s website director of content (reports to Grant).
9. The baroness is hired as website co-director (also reports to Grant).
10. Xanthan is hired as Statistical Analyst/East Coast scout.
11. I appoint Evan as my successor as GM, then resign after appointing Roger and myself as heads of the video production department (newly-created, if necessary).
12. World peace ensues. Giants win championship in 2014.

Get a good, solid, young—just ready for the bigs—outfielder. Do this by trading a real-value correspondingly young pitcher; the starting staff is set for a while, so a Wheeler or a Maday can be let go if corresponding value is gotten back.

You want to trade Maday for a “good, solid, young—just ready for the bigs—outfielder”? Try to trade him to the Cardinals, I hear they’re also interested in trading Pujols for Velez.

I look at Alex Gordon and the cluster that the Royals call a front office and I see oppertunity.

If Posey became the everyday catcher, everything becomes clearer. Bowker should be playing ahead of Rowand. Molina and Rowand are acceptable backup players, and Wellie is an acceptable 5th starter, though I’d trade them (with money) if I could get a hitter or even a good reliever. Downs should be on the team.

a lot. Make it so.

However, Welly, Cassy, and Bauty are all A-OK with me for the nonce.

I would cycle Martinez, Hacker and Pucetas into the 5th spot and hope one of them pitches adequately. I think Bumgarner needs a full year in Fresno.

Everything else was right on.

Generally I agree. I would not, however, bring up Bumgarner. I’d leave him in AAA all year, and I’d tell him that his concern is developing pitches, not getting into the big leagues. He’ll be up soon enough.

I’m not sure what Rowand and Molina could bring in trades, but I’d see. I’d keep both on the roster though. If they’re unhappy as back-up players, then they should learn to suck less.

1. Yes
2. Yes
3a. Meh. I’ll give him a few more starts before I declare him a bust; he’s been awful on the road, but excellent at home. If he can show a little consistency he could be a good #5. If not, Hacker/Pucetas gets the call, Bautista gets sent down, and Wellemeyer moves to long relief
3b. No. Bumgarner is not ready for the bigs, and I don’t want to waste service time on him learning things he should be learning in Fresno.
4. Yeah
5. I don’t know who you have in mind, but acquiring a good, young centerfielder who is just ready for the majors is going to require quite a bit. More than just Wheeler or Maday, who are both at least a couple years away and therefore have serious potential for derailment. Personally, I’m happy with a starting OF of Bower/Torres/Schierholtz; solid to excellent defensively, streaky but potentially excellent offensively. Basically, rotate them with guys like Uribe through the middle of the order depending on whether they’re on a hot streak or cold streak.
6. Bochy yes, Flannery no (why?). I’d give the interim manager position to someone based on the results of a test involving the questions: who should start, Rowand or Schierholtz? Is Renteria better than Uribe? etc.
7. Already sent Bautista down for Hacker/Pucetas to replace Wellemeyer. Casilla can stay; I like his secondary stuff and he seems to have decent control and he’s striking everybody out (7 of 9 outs via the K).

2. Tell DeRosa to have the surgery now. A healthy DeRosa in 2011 is a needed asset, because this organization has no worthwhile position-player help in the near pipeline (if any anywhere) and few trading chips of any value.

This is what really baffles me about the DeRosa situation. I could understand if it was a one-year deal and they were trying to ride him in to the ground… but they have him next year, too! If he’s broken next year, they’ll look just as stupid, or worse if he sucks this year AND he’s broken next year…

And I disagree with the Bumgarner thing. YEAH JOEY or my boy should get shots first.

Look at the name listed between Bowker and Velez

the inevitability of the inevitable

There’s honestly not much I would do differently then Sabean at the moment. The bed has already been made in the offseason, there’s not much to do other than lie in it. I especially don’t care for the idea of firing a manager mid-season. Most managers are full of bizarre favorites and counter-productive in game tactics. There’s no need to possibly make life miserable in the clubhouse just to change the nameplate on the door.

I would be looking for ways to quietly kick Molina to the curb, if only because he’s the one with a ready replacement.

If I were Sabean, I’d probably be working hard to manufacture a plausible “injury” to get Rowand on the 15-day DL a la Fred Lewis.

I can’t think of very much else to do. As oldjacket said, at this stage there’s a much greater impact to be had replacing the manager than the GM.

Surgery now for DeRosa sounds fine, I guess.

I’d also send down Buster Posey for 2-3 weeks and then call him up for good. No jerking, no retarded decisions re: service time.

What else… I prefer Pucetas or Yeah Joey! as 5th starter.

Now that posting has dried up, let me wrap it with a few last thoughts. These reflect some changes from the original post ideas and some comments on some other proposals in evidence.

Bumgarner : OK, I am willing to accept that he still needs development work, and would be willing to accept Joe Martinez as the 5th starter. Whenever Bumgarner is ready, whether later this year or not till next year, he becomes the 5th starter and Martinez either sticks in the bullpen or is gone, depending on what he does this year.

The OF : If Burrell can still hit, something we should know fairly soon (I knew that one game was as much as he was going to have to wait before being a starter), he can take the role assigned to Bowker in the rotation-use table atop this post; if not, bring back Bowker. If Burrell does make valuable enough contributions to mitigate his glovework, then let’s see if Bowker again tears up the PCL. If so, while it still doesn’t prove anything, I’d bring him back as soon as Rowand can be disposed of.

Otherwise, I see no reason to change anything from what I first set forth. Please note that in no case of a player to be disposed of—Molina, Rowand, Wellemeyer—do I suggest that they have any real and definite trade value: that was the point of the opening sentence about sunk costs. Rowand will probably have a hot streak at some point—soon, we hope—and bring his stats up to the level Bochean types like, at which point he is disposed of for as much—or as little, who cares?—as the market will bring. You might be surprised what some of these guys might fetch from somewhere: un sot trouve toujours un plus sot etc. etc.

I am more convinced than ever that none of the three mentioned above has any value for the Giants in any capacity whatever.

And I still expect Casilla and Bautista to torch the joint given time and gasoline enough.