20/20 Mad Dog

1. make sabean go back for joe nathan, even though cloverfield is kicking our ass, and make sure he gets bitten by spider bugs
3. put felipe alou on "the apprentice: quasi-celebrity edition" instead of hiring him
4. trade aardsma, jerome williams, and some other douche in 2004 to arizona for brandon webb

Grant, welcome to my world. I begin work at 3am on Thursdays and Fridays. Fortunately, no public transportation is involved in my commute - I pollute all on my own, but don't share the car with any weirdos. Fossil fuels ftw!

1.  re-sign kenny lofton after the 2002 season.
2.  don't trade for sydney ponson during the 2003 season.
3.  sign derek lee when he was a free agent and went to the cubs.  i remember hearing rumors that the giants were interested in him.

If you want to win a WS with Bonds, don't half-ass it. Sign Vlad, resign Kent, do whatever it takes.

Otherwise, don't keep living under the deluded impression that you are one sorry washed up veteran from a return to the post season.

1. Derrek Lee - Snow was great when Kent could pick up the offensive slack for the rest of the infield, but with no Kent, Snow was a liability.
2. Operating under the self-imposed "we can only spend 80 mil" restriction: I would have went after Jose Guillen in 04 to play RF instead of the Tucker/Hammond platoon.
3. After reupping Winn (a light hitting outfielder who is suited to LF (where Bonds plays) or CF. I would not, under any circumstances have signed the 35 year-old Dave Roberts to a 3 year deal.

2 - Mail David Aardsma, Jerome Williams, and a sack full of shiny nickels to Billy Beane in exchange for Eric Chavez, let's say, 2004 offseason-ish.  This also saves us the LaTroy Hawkins 'era'.

3 - Sign Eric Gagne before the Rangers do in '07

Trade Schmidt to Texas for A. Gonzalez, G. Laird, and G. Matthews

Trade Bonds to Baltimore for B. Roberts, D. Cabrera, E. Bedard and BJ Ryan

Trade F. Rodriguez and Ainsworth to Seattle for Carlos Guillen.

• Keep Arrcado
• Trade Linccumm, Hennessey, Lewis, and Sanchez for Dontrelle and Miggie.
• Sign Rowand.

1. First order of business: develop the most aggressive and well-funded Latin American recruiting program in the game. Throw money at Miguel Cabrera, Franklin Morales, Fernando Martinez, Jose Tabata, Angel Villalona, and anyone else who catches the eye of the many Venezuelan and Dominican scouts on the Giants' payroll.
2. After the 2002 season, sign David Ortiz as a cheap first-base solution.
3. After the 2006 season, trade Ortiz to the Red Sox (still looking for that first championship!) for Clay Buchholz and Jed Lowrie. Sign Carlos Pena as a cheap first-base solution.
   

The three moves I would have made were:

.  Retool the scouting and farm systems the day Brian Sabean was hired.

.  Hire Theo Epstein as GM after the 2002 season instead of rehiring Sabean.  Theo made revamping the Red Sox's scouting and development systems his top priority when the Red Sox hired him.

.  Hire one of the several good GM candidates for 2008 instead of rehiring Sabean.  I actually think Brian is going to do OK now, but I don't think it was wise to reward his futility since the end of the 2002 World Series with a contract extension.  Not sure it sends the right message.

My third one is kind of weak, but you've got to admit the first two are pretty good.  :)

Throw a bunch of money at Sheffield.  Sure he wanted to be a Yankee, but money talks, and Kent and Bonds sure proved you could play together without liking each other.  I don't think Sheffield actually hated Bonds at this point, but I could be wrong. (This is me circumventing the no Vlad signing, but it should have been plan B).

Keep AJ.  I will still defend that on the face of it AT THE TIME, this trade wasn't horrible.  But the "Horridnous" was compounded by letting him walk for nothing.  That never ever made sense to me, regardless of how "bad a teammate" he was.

Do not sign Barry Zito.  Yes, he probably won't be as bad in the future.  But there is very little way in hell he ever justifies this salary.  Save the money for those who are worth it, or those who may actually make a difference in the win column for a team like this.

1. Resign Bill Mueller after the 2002 season, sure, it likely wouldn't have meant us having a 20+ home run/year guy at the hot corner, but we would have had a good defenisve player over at 3rd and a had a really good backup in Pedro Feliz (dont discount the fact that Pedro actually has had some of the biggest home runs since 2000, namely the grand slam off of LA in 2004 to keep us in contention).
2. Keep Kurt Ainsworth. Think about it, right now, if we still had Ainsworth and he was in good shape (both physically and mentally) we would have the best pitching staff in the last decade (yes, that includes Glavine, Maddox, Smoltz, and insert names here)with Cain, Lincecum, Lowry, Zito, and Ainsworth. Plus, we would have never recieved the bust that is Sir Sidney. We would have won the second game against the Marlins and would have won the NLDS because Schmidt would have won game 5.
3. Resign Jeff Kent. Yes, I hate the fucking prick! Yes, I am a Barry Bonds fan (mainly because he kept us competitive over the last decade or so)! Yes, I hate any man who decides to play in Dodger Blue after playing the Orange and Black! And I will never forgive ANYONE for perfering Los Angeles over San Francisco (even if LA is a superior city to Oakland)! However, had we kept Kent, we right now wouldn't have a delemma at second base, we would be wondering who would take over in a year or so when Jeff retires. We would likely have won a World Series by now, because to tell me Kent+Bonds+AMAZING PITCHING STAFF THAT WAS INVISIBLE DURING 2003=a better team than Boston in 2004, Chicago in 2005, St. Louis in 2006, and possibly Boston in 2007. I think we would have a competitive team this year which would include Kent, Feliz, Vizquel, Rowand, and a good pitching staff, with a possibility of Bonds also.

1. Although somewhat against the rules, avoid signing any hyped type A free agents (cough MICHAEL Tucker cough) and use your first round draft pick on  talent each year.
2. Schmidt for Hanley would have been enough
3. Establish yourself as a leader in the Dominican, Venezuelan market, and throw money around there instead of wasting it on over the hill veterans.

1. Keep Dusty and make sure he doesn't yank Russ in the 7th of game 6 of 2002 WS.
   
2. Spend the Barry Zito money on Latin American scouting since the Giants royally screwed the pooch when their #1 scout south of the border got in trouble for molesting players
   
3. Give the Rangers anyone they wanted (not named Matt Cain) for Soriano in Dec. 2005.

1. Don't take until June in 2004 to realize Neifi Perez isn't good enough to be a starting shortstop.
2. No intentionally jettisoning draft picks to sign mediocrities like Michael Tucker and Mike Matheny.
3. Don't sign Chan Ho Zito.

1.  Re-sign Jeff Kent after 2002 WS for 6yrs and $66M instead of signing Ray Durham and Egardo Alfonzo for a combined 8 years and $55M.
2.  After the 2002 WS Trade Kurt Ainsworth, Jessie Foppert, Jerome Williams, Benito Santiago, Yorvit Torrealba, and Rob Nen to the Pirates for Jason Kendall and Aramis Ramirez.
3.  In the middle of the 2006 season keep Jeremy Accardo.  Do not trade for Shea Hillenbrand and Vinnie Chulk.  

A.  Eliminates the AJ trade since we don't need a catcher to replace the expiring contract of Benito Santiago after the 2003 season. Jason Kendell's contract still has five years to go.

B.  Eliminates the Russ Ortiz and Livan Hernandez trades since we don't have the starting pitching depth (no AFW) to give up these two starting pitchers.

C.  Never need to sign Brett Tomko, Armando Benitez, Mike Matheny, Omar Vizquel, Moises Alou, Matt Morris Jemey Wright, Barry Zito, Bengie Molina, or Dave Roberts.

D.  Don't have Damian Moss and Kurt Ainsworth to trade for Sidney Ponson, Jerome Williams to trade for Latroy Hawkins, Jessie Foppert and Yorvit Torrealba to trade for Randy Winn, Egardo Alfonzo to trade for Steve Finley, or Matt Morris to trade for Rajai Davis.

E.  Since we spend most of the non major league minimum salary dollars on the core players of Bonds-LF, Kent-2B, Ramirez-3B, Kendell-C, Aurilia/Feliz-SS Schmidt-SP, Ortiz-SP, Hernandez-SP, Nathan-CL this encourages the  Giants to let the contract of Kurt Rueter expire after 2003 as they did with Rich Aurilia and Tim Worrell.

F.  Still have enough dollars left for the various PMV CF/RF/1B combos (Grissom, Cruz, Snow and Galarraga in 03, Grissom, Tucker, and Snow in 04 and 05 (but no dollars for Alou in 05), PMV1, PMV2, and Sweeney in 06 (but no dollars again for Alou), and Klesko and Sweeney in 07 (but no dollars for Roberts).

Resulting LineUps:

2003
Cruz-RF, Grissom CF, Kent-2B, Bonds-LF, Ramirez-3B, Snow/Galarraga-1B, Aurilia-SS, Kendall-C

2004
Grissom-CF, Tucker-RF, Kent-2B, Bonds-LF, Ramirez-3B, Snow 1B, Feliz SS, Kendall-C

2005
Grissom/Ellison-CF, Tucker/Linden-RF, Kent-2B, Ramirez 3B, Snow/Niekro 1B, Feliz-SS, Linden/Ellison/Ortmeier-LF, Kendall-C

2006
PMV1/Ellison-CF, PMV2/Linden-RF, Kent-2B, Bonds-LF, Ramirez-3B, Feliz-SS, Niekro/Sweeney-1B, Kendall-C

2007
Ellison/Lewis-CF, Linden/Schierholtz/Ortmeier-RF, Kent-2B, Bonds-LF, Ramirez-3B, Klesko/Sweeney-1B, Feliz-SS, Kendall-C

Resulting Rotations:

2003 - Schmidt, Ortiz, Hernandez, Rueter, Jensen/Correia/Hermansen

2004- Schmidt, Ortiz, Hernandez, Hermanson, Correia/Lowry/Hennessey

2005 - Schmidt, Hernandez, Lowry, Ortiz/Hennessey/Cain, Correia/Liriano

2006 - Schmidt, Hernandez, Cain, Lowry/Hennessey/Sanchez, Ortiz/Liriano/Bonser

2007 - Hernandez, Cain, Bonser, Lowry/Correia, Ortiz/Lincecum/Sanchez

Resulting Big3 Relievers:

2003 - Worrell-9th, Herges-8th, Nathan-7th

2004 - Herges-9th/7th, Nathan-8th/9th, Eyre-7th/8th

2005 - Nathan-9th, Eyre-8th, Walker-7th

2006 - Nathan-9th, Correia-8th, Accardo-7th

2007 - Nathan-9th, Accardo-8th, Hennessey-7th

Finally, we could then just re-sign Barry Bonds and Pedro Feliz for 2008 and have the following team to compete with:

LineUp:
Lewis CF
Frandsen 2B
Kent 1B
Bonds LF
Ramirez 3B
Schierholtz RF
Feliz SS
Alfonzo C

Bench: Rodriguez-C, Valez-IF, Ortmeier-1B/OF, Ellison OF, Linden OF

Rotation: Cain, Liriano, Lincecum, Lowry, Bonser

BullPen: Nathan-9th, Accardo-8th, Wilson-7th, Hennessey, Correia, Walker, Taschner    

Ain't Hindsight Grand!  

1. Hire Bonds.  Hire Tidrow as GM.  Never touch Sabean.
2. Keep Torrealba and die happy.  No AJ.  No Matheny.  Draft pick in 2005.
3. Keep Nathan/Liriano and die happy.  No Benitez.  More draft pick in 2005.

And lord, I hate Sabean's free-agen signings.

1. trade schmidt to the red sox and get Hanley Ramirez when we could have
   
2. Dont trade accardo to the blue jays.
   
3. Dont sign benitez

Noah Lowry for Lastings Milledge

Jonathan Sanchez for Delmon Young

I would love love LOVE to watch a Young, Milledge, Schierholtz outfield

It's hindsight so...

1. Sign Bill Mueller to 6-year extension for '01-'06. We get his best years, and 3B is not open for Fonzy. The Finley trade isn't made. We also save money on David Bell. Bill is overtaken by ARam (below) and doesn't retire a Dodger.
   
2. Keep Russ Ortiz and Livan after WS. Before '03 deadline, deal Russ to Pirates for ARam and Ian Snell.
   
3. Extend Kenny Lofton for '03, '04 seasons. No Cruz in the playoffs, no Mohr, no Tucker to punt a pick. No Grissom.

Hopefully the chain reactions continue, and we have no need to sign Durham/Feliz/Aurilia after '06, etc. etc.

We should also go back and give the Rockies something shiny for Matt Holliday, and break him in while Barry's down in '05. Mostly because I don't want the Rockies to have him.