McCovey Chronicles: FanPosts

Tim's misdemeanor charges have been dropped

2009-11-06T20:08:55Z

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/giants/detail?blogid=22&entry_id=51146

Forgive me for the length of this post, I caught this article from Henry's fb account plus I'm posting this from my mobile.

I blame Dave Roberts. I blame Dave Roberts. I blame Dave Roberts. I blame Dave Roberts. I blame Dave Roberts.

109 109 109 109 109 109 109 109 109 109 109 109

55 55 55 55 55 55 55 55 55 55 55 55 55 55 55 I blame Dave Roberts

McCovey Awards: Best Non-gameday Image

2009-11-06T19:48:53Z

Here is wave two for the visual portion of our awards.

Pablo meets cake
I don't know whom to credit for this one.

Little Giants

fwoty oz's, um, this thing.

rightcenterfielder's SS Russell Martin image goes here
(I was trying to find it but couldn't.)

Next time, I'm getting people to post or link to the images themselves because searching for them is a pain in the patootie. Or can upload them to the McImages account.

Poll

VOTE NOW!

Human after all (Timmy)

2009-11-05T23:05:59Z

KNBR is reporting that Timmy has been busted for possession of marijuana up in Washington. He was speeding and surrendered a small amount of weed and paraphernalia to the officer who pulled him over.

Really don't have much else to say to fill the 75 word limit. He's a celebrity and part of that is your personal business gets reported in the media. It's unfortunate but whatever. It's just weed. He's young and will make mistakes. At least he didn't steal an officers bicycle.

handful of "puzzle piece" options

2009-11-05T22:00:47Z

Garrett Atkins, Nick Johnson, Adrian Beltre, Chone Figgins, Mark DeRosa, Xavier Nady, Eric Byrnes, and Khalil Greene, are all guys MLBtraderumors.com has highlighted as free agents for this year, and I expect the Giants to take a look at all of them if they hit the open market without vested interest from their current teams. It seems pretty likely for all of them.

These are the kinds of players who could help this team if they were picked up under the right conditions (ie. Greene and Byrnes get minor league contracts like Uribe did last year). I really would like to see Giants pick up somebody like Jason Bay or Matt Holiday, but their cost seems prohibitive when Matt Cain, Tim Lincecum, and Brian Wilson are due raises, and this team really should be looking a couple years down the road to when Baumgarner and Posey are solidified as contributors.

For discussion, which 1-3 of these players would you most like the Giants to sign?

Movember fundraiser!!

2009-11-05T20:55:11Z

Hey everyone! I'm not a regular poster but I've been following on MC for a few years now. I'm living in Prague and decided to do Movember.

So I'm sacking up and growing a mustache. I've never done this before and it's a little scary. But it's not damn near as scary as cancer. Keep that in mind and donate some cash people. If you haven't heard of it yet, check out the website. It's a totally legit fundraiser for a great cause.

Here's my page where you can follow my growth and donations I collect to prevent prostate cancer.

http://ex.movember.com/mospace/327702

Thanks everyone!

Lukewarm Stove: The Beginning

2009-11-05T19:52:38Z

OK, now that we've got that World Series thing out of the way, we can get to the real action. Someone suggested making a thread to collect rosterbation ideas/transactions, so that we won't be flooded with redundant Fanposts. Of course, actual signings by the Giants are fair game, and if you put some thought and research into a good idea for a Fanpost, you're more than welcome to make one. This is more for those random off-the-cuff ideas or "what could have been" ones. For example, the White Sox just traded for Mark Teahen on the Royals. We could talk about that, I guess. But I don't think anyone wants to. So, uh, let's goooooooo!

McCovey Awards: Best Gameday Image

2009-11-05T19:36:50Z

ZITO COMMANDS YOU TO VOTE

satyricrash's WIN NOW series:

http://www.mccoveychronicles.com/2009/10/5/1071735/american-experience-win-now

rightcenterfielder's peek into the dugout:

nostocksjustbonds'(?) Swedish Manager:

I think we all know what the result will be though.

Poll

If I could put an image here, I would.

Poll: Which of the Yankees' free agents....

2009-11-05T16:49:43Z

...will Brian Sabean try to sign this off-season?

Will he sign Jose Molina, re-sign Bengie, and give us 162 games of Molina catchers behind the plate? (Buster Posey could always play at third, or something.) Will he appeal to the Bay Area's large Asian fanbase and invite Hideki Matsui, along with his massive porn collection, to move to the West Coast? Since Fred Lewis is apparently the problem, is Johnny Damon apparently the answer in left field? What about Xavier "OMG LOCAL TIES!!!!" Nady? Or Andy Petitie? He WINZ World Series games, you know.

A cynical fanpost, perhaps, but it's the official first day in more than seven months with no baseball of any sort, and the only thing worse than having to listen to John Stirling's caterwauling call of the final out last night was thinking about how Brian Sabean is probably going to overpay for one of these guys.

Poll

Which Yankee will Sabes try to sign?

McCovey Awards: Most Spirited Poster

2009-11-04T18:26:32Z

I can't really think of anything to write here, so here's a picture of Willie McCovey.

Poll

Who is your choice for Most Spirited?

Realistic looks at the Giants for 2010

2009-11-04T00:11:22Z

How would you realistically like to see the Giants roster look in 2010? What moves should be made?

-Sign Jason Bay

-Sign Adrian Beltre

-Sign Jack Wilson

-Trade Renteria for Willis

-Trade Sanchez, Schierholtz, Garko for Granderson

-Sign Brian Schneider

-acquire Eric Byrnes

-aquire Jermey Accardo

1. Granderson CF

2. Sanchez 2B

3. Sandoval 1B

4. Bay LF

5. Beltre 3B

6. Posey C

7. Rowand CF

8. Wilson SS

1. Lincecum

2. Bumgarner

3. Cain

4. Zito

5. Penny/Willis

Bench:

C Schneider

1B Ishikawa

UTL Velez

OF Byrnes

OF Bowker

Bullepn:

CL Wilson

SU Affeldt

SU Runzler

SU Accardo

MR Romo

MR Medders

LR Benny/Willis

JT20 Dynasty League

2009-11-03T22:52:04Z

I have started started a free fun dynasty league in which each person takes control of a MLB roster & minor league system, drafts, signing free agents....

If this sounds interesting to you, go check out the league message board & league rules and sign up. There is no prize for the winner for each season, it is all just for fun, so join!

http://jt20.proboards.com/

thought people here would be interested sign up soon!

And yes sorry the Giants are taken, but still join! These teams are still available:

Toronto Blue Jays, Detroit Tigers, Kansas City Royals, Los Angeles Angels, Seattle Mariners, Philadelphia Phillies, Chicago Cubs, Houston Astros, Milwaukee Brewers, Pittsburgh Pirates, St. Louis Cardinals, Arizona Diamondbacks, San Diego Padres

McCovey Awards: Most Amusing

2009-11-03T18:49:45Z

Again, please don't rec this Fanpost to avoid knocking off other more deserving Fanposts. Uh... like the other voting Fanposts, I guess. *shakes fist at people who didn't listen*

Secret option: Grant's Boss

Poll

Are you laughin' at me?

So LOL at me for selling my car

2009-11-03T18:30:43Z

As many of you know I live, work and attend school in Philly. When I moved to Philly I, decided to live in the safest neighborhood I could find, the issue is that it also the highest tourist attraction of the city, Olde City. The Betty Ross House, Penns Landing and Benjamin Franklin House are about 1 block away (all in different directions), the liberty bell, constitution center, independence mall, the federal mint, the national Reserve, federal court, Carpenters Hall, Franklin Square and Washington Park are all within 7 blocks as are other sites like the 1st and 2nd national bank and other early central hubs of the government. All these sites mean one thing, lots of tourist and little parking, therefor no street parking for residence. So I sold my car rather than pay $200 each for parking and insurance.

I thought being carless in the city would be fine, as I lived next to a subway station and I would sign up for Zipcar and save TONS of money. WRONG about zipcar, but that story is for another time.

Last night I watched the Phillies and went to bed, expecting to wake up, walk my two dogs and go to work event free. Again, I was WRONG. And about 850,000, minus SEPTA workers and families, people probably felt the same way. SEPTA's, the local transit authority, largest union has been threatening to strike since the beginning of the world series. Both sides said all weekend that the talks have been moving along and that "only the issue of wages" was really a debate now.

Last night as I went to bed I thought TWU, the striking Union, wouldn't strike. I wake up and find out the are striking and started striking at 3:50 this morning. I mean WTF, right? I am on fence as far my view of unions go. I know that if they didn't exist workers would be abused but I also don't like the picketing they do when contractors hire non-union workers.back to TWU, why would a Public Transit union strike at 3:50 in the morning, with little or no warning to public? If they want people on their side they need to be courteous, as it is the union, not SEPTA that will get a black eye from strike, this time. That will dwindle public approval and support and eventually lead to a NO vote on future tax measures regarding SEPTA. That could hurt union members future pay.

One group of people enjoying this? Taxi drivers, for me it is about a $15 taxi ride to work. According to google map, I live 3.2 miles from my place of employment and school. I walked it this morning, about 55 minutes, and couldn't find one open cab for the first 35 or so minutes.

Bottom line. I am fucked for the near future. Why is it not illegal for public transit unions to have a full strike? And what are your views of unions? Has a union ever fucked you over, or benefited you?

Whoa, new SBNation layout

2009-11-03T16:14:06Z

Unless I'm completely crazy, all the SBNation blogs just got a new style. Obviously, McC looks the best of the lot, but I don't know if I like the change overall.

Things are a bit more spread out not, and there's a lot more white space. That would be great if our team colors were white and white, but it's kinda thinning out the color spread.

Any other thoughts? Am I crazy? Has it always looked this way?

My All-NL Team

2009-11-03T02:15:13Z

I was just sitting on my couch watching Game 5 tonight. When Chase Utley came to bat in the first inning, I thought, hmm, why don't you hit a homer, Chase? And he did. Crushed. He is easily the most valuable hitter on the Phillies and one of the top three hitters in the NL (it's him with Pujols and Ramirez). Thinking about this got me wondering: if I could construct a 25-man roster made up only of guys who finished the season in the NL, who would I chose. This would be a traditional roster, not an All-Star team, so normal roster rules apply. 25 guys: 12 pitchers, 13 hitters. This team would play from this day forward, so potential matters, as do bench roles. I obviously weighed this past season's performances most heavily. My team, with 2009 WAR, would be:

C: 	Brain McCann, 4.4

1B: 	Albert Pujols, 8.4

2B: 	Chase Utley, 7.7

SS: 	Hanley Ramirez, 7.3

3B: 	Ryan Zimmerman, 7.1

RF: 	Justin Upton, 4.4

CF: 	Matt Kemp, 5.1

LF: 	Matt Holliday, 5.6

BN:	Yadier Molina, 3.4

BN:	Pablo Sandoval, 5.1

BN:	Troy Tulowitzki, 5.5

BN:	Nyjer Morgan, 4.8

BN:	Ryan Braun, 4.7

SP: 	Tim Lincecum, 8.2

SP:	Chris Carpenter, 5.6

SP:	Ubaldo Jiminez, 5.7

SP:	Cliff Lee, 6.6

SP:	Dan Haren, 6.1

RP:	Ryan Madson, 1.9

RP:	Brian Wilson, 2.4

RP:	Jon Broxton, 2.9

RP:	Huston Street, 1.5

RP:	Rafael Soriano, 2.0

RP:	Mike Gonzalez (L), 0.9

RP:	Jeremy Affeldt (L), 0.8

Relief pitchers have a certain element of inherent fungibility, so I went with guys that are good, young, and don't pitch in Petco. Gonzalez and Affeldt had the highest WAR among left-handed relievers in the NL.

Hardest calls:

-Not picking Johann Santana. Obviously, the man is very good, but his WAR the past three years has been under 5, after being 7+ the three years before that in Minnesota. I left Wainwright off because I have no idea what his true talent level is (WAR the last three years: 5.7, 2.2, 3.5). Cain has been pretty stable around 4 WAR, so he's not quite one of the elite elite pitchers in the league. Other candidates as SP: Vazquez, Hamels, J Johnson, Kershaw.

-Leaving off Adrian Gonzalez and David Wright. Both of these guys were robbed by the combination of positional strength and lack of roster spots. I was surprised to see how dominant Zimmerman was this year and Pablo's versatility (and superior 2009 stats) allows me to carry two bench OF. Fielder was also a very close call, but I would have picked Gonzalez due to Petco's disastrous effects on left-handed hitters. Tulowitzki had easily the third-best WAR of middle infielders and could probably play 2B or 3B in a pinch. Other candidates as IF: no one.

-The entire OF was hard to call. There just aren't many dominant outfielders in the NL, especially from the left-side. This was definitely where I had to balance potential against production. I mean, Jayson Werth had a higher WAR (4.8) than Justin Upton. And who would have thought that Morgan would have the highest WAR of all NL-only qualifiers in LF? Other candidates as OF: Ibanez, Cameron, Pence.

Anyway, this was just an exercise as some of these players will change teams and/or leagues in the offseason. I was surprised to end up picking four Giants among the league's top 25. Who would have thought that before the 2009 season started? I mean, Brian Wilson had the second-highest WAR among NL relievers and Pablo had the second-highest among third-basemen. I already mentioned Affeldt. Those three hugely exceeded expectations. Combined with Timmy (ridiculous) and Matty (very, very good) and that is a damn fine nucleus. So, who would be on your team? And, while we're at it, does anyone have an AL team?

Abreu

2009-11-02T22:35:33Z

Why do people not really talk about Abreu being a real option for the Giants? He would have to switch to Left field, and he would be a joke out there, but no worse than Barry Bonds was for about 5 years, and his offense would make up for it. He hits around or over .300, always battles, is almost impossible to strike out, and although he doesnt have as much "pop" as he used to, he can drive in a ton of runs if the .300 hitting Sanchez (God willing he stays healthy) gets on in front of him, and he will be protection for Pablo.

This would also allow us to keep Posey in the 5 spot and have a wicked 3-4-5 spot going into next year, both average wise and RBI wise. We still wont add to our Homerun total like we might if we added Jason Bay or Matt Holliday, but he will come cheaper, and he will come for less years.

We could get him for 2 years/18 Million Dollars and have enough to get another Starting Pitcher (Bring back Penny?) and maybe even sign Chone Figgons or bring in JJ Hardy like some analysts think we will.

What say you?

McCovey Awards: Most Informative Poster

2009-11-02T18:30:14Z

It's time to vote for the category of Most Informative poster on McCovey Chronicles. These people would be able to come up with all sorts of great stuff to write in a Fanpost to get it past the 75 word limit. As you can see from the list, I am not one of them. Uh... make voting get now!

If you haven't voted for the Newcomer award yet, be sure to check the past Fanposts for that and RAWK DA VOTE. And again, don't rec this Fanpost to avoid knocking out more deserving recommended Fanposts since there will be a few more of these voting ones.

Poll

Who is your choice for Most Informative Poster of '09?

The problem with Sabean

2009-11-02T00:31:45Z

When I first got to Vietnam in ’62 I was surprised at who were the top management there. I had worked with all of them in Iran. We were about to become perhaps the largest civil engineering/construction organization in history and the project manager was an ex-mechanic. That would have been OK if he were a good organizer and delegated to the right people who knew what they were doing. That wasn’t the case here. His top assistant was his best friend, also an ex-mechanic. To complete the triumvirate, the project engineer was a mechanical engineer. This would have worked great if all our problems were mechanical. I was a civil engineer. There was no one I could talk to. Plans to management were like kryptonite to Superman. Open a set of plans and they were out the door.

I think this is similar to the Giants organization. Sabean is an eyeball scout. He only believes what he sees. He doesn’t trust numbers. “Don’t talk numbers to me, I know what I see.” He only hires eyeball scouts. Bochy is an eyeball manager. They all talk the same language. “He swings reeeeel good!”

This seems to work great for pitching. Sabean is a great judge of pitching talent. Bochy was the best handler of pitchers in the NL this year. It doesn’t work for hitting. To properly evaluate hitting you need numbers. You have to evaluate what the hitter has done over an extended period. That will show if he has any plate discipline. The Giant organization has come up way short in that area.

The Giants minor league system had an incredible .603 winning percentage this year. The Yankees were second at .554 and 34 games behind. But take a look behind those numbers.

The top farm team at Fresno was 14th in a 16 team league in drawing walks.

The AA team was dead last in walks in a 12 team league.

In the Arizona Rookie League they were 10th in an 11 team league

Do you see a pattern here?

Some other teams in the Giant system were near average but none were above average.

Top prospect (until…problems) Angel Villalona drew 9 walks in 310 PA. That’s less than 3%.

Third round draft pick this year, Christopher Dominquez, drew 9 walks in 198 PA. That’s less than 5%.

Hot 21-year-old prospect, Francisco Pequero, hit 353 in low A. He drew 8 walks in 328 PA. That’s worse than the others. He’s a singles hitting outfielder. What a waste of talent. Unless someone can teach him what the strike zone is, he’ll be worthless to the franchise.

So the Giant system has hackers at the top, hackers at the bottom, and hackers all through the organization. Remember how frustrated you got with all those wild swingers this year. Well there’s a lot more on the way. Those are the type of hitters the Giants look for. “He swings reeeel good.”

I think the problem is numbers. Numbers are to the Giant management as construction plans were to the mechanics in Vietnam or kryptonite to that guy in tights. They don’t like ‘em; they don’t want ‘em; they don’t understand ‘em. As the Mexican bandit said,”We don’ need no stinkin’ numbers!”

When Giant scouts look at pitchers prior to the draft they can see which ones are hopelessly wild and pass on them. But hitters who are hopelessly wild swingers they seem to love. “See that? The pitch was a foot over his head and he hit it out. He swings reeeel good.” Him they sign.

But the numbers would tell the story. They need to hire a few numbers freaks. And they work cheap. There are basement geeks reading this right now who would work for practically nothing. Maybe one payroll check which they would frame and never cash.

Take this guy Dominquez, mentioned above. He was the highest position player signed from this year’s draft. His line at Louisville U. in his last college season was 345/441/698. See anything wrong with that? Okay here’s your last clue: he was hit by the pitcher 14 times in about 305 PA. If the red flag hasn’t gone up for you, then you’re not a numbers geek. He hit 25 homers and drew only 32 walks including intentional walks. I couldn’t get the figures on intentional walk but he probably hit more homers than he drew non-intentional walks. Those numbers are freakish. But, “He hits reeeel good.”

The guy is a hacker. Very likely that’s a wasted draft pick and wasted money because hackers seem to be hackers for life. Any numbers geek could have seen that. So how did he do in his first season in the pros? In rookie and low A he had 263/311/456. Funny how that looks somewhat like they hit on the parent club. That is no coincidence.

The Giants Picking Barry Bonds in the 1982 Draft

2009-11-01T20:05:42Z

Here's a little tidbit from the What Might Have Been Files, taken from a Glenn Dickey column in the San Francisco Chronicle of July 4, 1988. The headline: "Picture Giants With Bonds And Incaviglia":

ONCE AGAIN this past weekend, with the Pittsburgh Pirates in town, I thought how nice it would be if the Giants had Barry Bonds. The Giants drafted Bonds, remember, in 1982, their second choice in the draft of high school and college players. They couldn’t sign him because Tom Haller, then the general manager, wouldn’t go past $70,000. Bonds, the son of former Giants outfielder Bobby Bonds, wanted $75,000. When he didn’t get it, he went to college instead.

In that same draft, the Giants also selected Pete Incaviglia. He wanted $15,000 to sign. The Giants offered $8,000 and lost him. The Giants’ No. 1 pick that year was Steve Stanicek, who had been a designated hitter in college. They did sign Stanicek, one of only two in the top 10 draftees they signed that year, but he never made it to the majors. Now you know why Giants President Al Rosen emphasizes both good scouting and signing the players the club drafts. You won’t see a repeat of the ‘82 disaster with Rosen in charge.

A New Idea for the General Manager's Position

2009-11-01T01:31:23Z

So there’s pretty much a universal feeling of anger and frustration and sadness here regarding Sabean’s retention, mostly deserved. The man did engineer quite a few winning teams and pulled off several good trades, but the former were mostly the result of having one of the game’s all-time best players and the latter were overshadowed by the myriad of awful trades and free agent signings that marred the team and pushed it into several years of suck. Most of the blame for this period falls on Sabean (with a little distributed between various managers and owners), and again, there’s good reason for that: he’s the GM, probably the most powerful voice when it comes to who to sign and who to trade for and who to hold on to. This got me thinking: why are we entrusting this one man with the future of the team?

I’d like to suggest a fairly radical idea: replace the solitary GM with three co-GMs, a triumvirate whose decisions as a body will require the assent of at least two members (it has to be three if not one; two GMs would result in frequent and unproductive dissent). With one general manager, too much of the team’s direction is placed in one man’s hands; sure, he has plenty of scouts, assistants, and the manager giving him advice and altering his direction, as well as an owner who overrules him, but ultimately I feel the single GM has too much control; to say he holds the team’s future in his hands is a pretty accurate assessment. You don’t have to go far to find idiot GMs on failing teams (Dayton Moore, JP Riccardi until a month ago, Walt Jocketty, etc) or great GMs building contenders (Theo Epstein, Andrew Friedman, etc).

So here’s what you do: you replace the GM with the GMs, three equal individuals, each from a different perspective. One sabremetrician, one experienced scout, and one “baseball executive” (I’ll define that more later). This will balance theoretical and experiential knowledge to best judge which players are worth it and which players are not.

The sabremetrician is a pretty obvious role: one guy who knows what all those obscure, yet highly important, stats mean, how to calculate them, and how to apply them. This is the guy that reminds you not to sign Player X despite his coming off a career year, because his HR/FB rate is inflated and his BABIP is 50 points above his career average. It’s the guy that explains Matt Cain was a good pitcher last year, but he wasn’t 2.89 ERA good, he just had a crazy LOB% and generally got lucky. This helps guard against the eyeball signings and using irrelevant stats to evaluate players.

The scout is the guy who spent twenty years in the minor league system and can tell you the entire roster of every affiliate and what flavor ice cream they like most. He can tell you if a guy is going to go the Mark Prior route or the Tim Lincecum route (hopefully). The sabremetrician can tell you that Prospect X looks great because he posted a .250 ISO and a .400 wOBA in college, but the scout can point out that his swing has got holes in it, he can’t hit a curveball (ok, so the sabremetrician could figure that out too) and whether he’s a guy you can fix or a lost cause. This is an important role mostly for the draft and minor league system, but also for knowing which young guys you want and which ones you don’t (for trades/non-tendering), and which guys are ready for the big club and which ones need more seasoning. He’s the guy that will tell you Tim Alderson looked good, but he was generally overvalued and therefore expendable (but he still should’ve fetched more than just Freddy Sanchez).

The “baseball executive” is the negotiator, veteran player expert, and the guy who knows how to work the system. The scout and the sabremetrician aren’t going to be very useful when it comes to determining market value and swapping players; you need a guy who knows a bit about the farm system, and a bit about the stats, and a lot about what makes a player want to come to a certain team. He’s also going to be the authority on free agents, ideally in-between the sabremetrician and the scout. The sabremetrician would say to Lincecum, “We’re prepared to offer you $20 million a year because Fangraphs values your performance at $35 million and your FIP was this and your BB% was this and…”. The scout would say to Lincecum, “We’re going to offer your $2 million because that’s a big raise off you’re $400,000 salary and we’ve got these great prospects coming up and they’re going to be cheap and amazing and you’re replaceable” (Ok, so they wouldn’t be that extreme, but you get the drift; the scout, being focused on the farm system, would undervalue an established major league producer and overvalue the prospects). The “baseball executive” would say to Lincecum, “Look, we know you like San Francisco, and we would love for you to stay here. We also know that you’re really the first guy to put up numbers like this in his first year, but you have to know that we’re weighed down by the Zito and Rowand contracts, and we don’t have that much payroll space. We also have to be careful with pitchers, because they tend to be more unpredictable than other players. But you’re still going to get a great deal, because we realize how special a player you are we’d really like to lock you up long term. We can offer you Contract X based on what Cole Hamels and Zack Greinke got and where we feel we are as a team and where we think we’ll be in a few years.” He’s going to go the middle route between scout and sabremetrician, ideally be a guy who’s worked in baseball operations for a while and knows the business and knows the agents and knows the other executives, like Brian Sabean without the stupid. The “baseball executive” is a bit more difficult to define, but it’s certainly an important role.

I know the scout and the sabremetrician already exist within the system, and I know the “baseball executive” is essentially the current GM (he’s supposed to be), but this would put all three on an equal playing field, and force them to listen to each other and find reasons for their decisions. They’d have to justify themselves not to a possibly ignorant owner, or underlings who can be pushed aside, but to two equals who have the power to overrule them if they’re not providing a good enough argument. Yes, this system could end up being problematic (especially if personal issues arise), but I think it’d be a lot fairer and produce better results than what we’ve got now. The three perspectives need to be equal, because their importance is equal; Sabean’s “baseball executive” doesn’t do any better than Billy Beane’s “sabremetrician” because there is no balance in their roles within the Giants or A’s organizations.

Thoughts?