For the non-regular ghouls who are stopping by to see how Giants fans are reacting to the news that Bruce Bochy and Brian Sabean have new contracts, here’s a quick primer:
Here’s where the Giants have ranked for the past five years in runs scored compared to the rest of Major League Baseball:
Note that the first three seasons listed were with Barry Bonds. So the Giants' only hope is that Sabean realizes that he needs to change how he evaluates hitters. He failed at his offseason quest to build a better offense, and he failed because his long-held opinions on what makes a good offense were wrong. They’ve been wrong for a while. He needs to completely reevaluate his core beliefs, and he needs to try something different.2005 – 29th out of 30 teams
2006 – 24th out of 30
2007 – 29th out of 30
2008 – 29th out of 30
2009 – 26th out of 30
Sabean needs to have an epiphany and realize that his attempts to build an offense have failed. He can’t be stubborn. He can’t be arrogant.
Oh, and he needs to come to this realization on his own because his vision was just validated and reinforced with a contract extension.
So, yeah. We’re in for a fantastic couple of seasons.
As for Bochy, the thing to remember is that he has no idea how to evaluate hitters. Young players have about 100 at-bats to win him over, and old players get about 2,000 at-bats to lose his trust. Not only did Randy Winn hold on to a starting job throughout the season – if you’ll recall, Winn was the right fielder with two home runs in over 600 plate appearances, poor contact skills, and a subpar walk rate – but Bochy decided that Winn was good enough to take the #3 spot in the lineup. The best way to make Bochy an effective manager is to eliminate any lineup questions. He needs to be given a team with unquestionably good hitters.
So, yeah. We’re in for a fantastic couple of seasons.
Maybe Bill Neukom went to Sabean and said, "Look, your teams haven’t scored runs in five years. Why?" And maybe Sabean gave him an honest, soul-searching answer without using situational hitting as an excuse. And maybe Neukom was satisfied enough with the direction of the farm system and the pitching staff that he accepted the honest answer. Maybe. I don’t know, I wasn’t there.
It’s illogical to assume that, though. It only works as an unlikely hope. The logical assumption, then, is that this is a crazy move made by people who don’t know what they’re doing, and the result is that other people who don’t know what they’re doing get to keep doing a poor job.
So, yeah. We’re in for a fantastic couple of seasons.