San Francisco Giants Rebuilding: Too Little, Too Late

Everyone knows that the Giants aren't going to make a run this year, even in a weak division. Also, the Giants didn't make a run last year or the season before that.

The Giants should have realized that the time to rebuild was long ago. Back in 2006, the Giants knew the party was over. Their run of contending was over, and it was time to move on.

Despite knowing that, the Giants kept signing older veterans every off-season hoping for a miracle World Series run. With old players comes a time in which the veterans start slipping, and the playing time of the younger players is taken away, stunting their growth.  

That is why they must rebuild, and should have started long ago, to avoid the situation they are in now. The younger players need time and opportunity to shine, and that can only happen without veterans competing with them. 

The Giants claim that they building for the future, and are playing the young players, but on closer examination, that is totally false.

Look at some of the players getting regular playing time: 41-year-old Omar Vizquel (who has already been told that he will see his playing time reduced later), 36-year-old Rich Aurilia, and 36-year-old Dave Roberts (playing after returning from the DL).

The lineup is still old. Randy Winn is 34. Bengie Molina is 34.

Even their "young guys", including Jose Castillo and Fred Lewis, are 27, relatively old in the world of hot prospects, who are 21 or 22.

The solution is get Nate Scherholtz up here and get rid of Randy Winn. Sit down Omar almost all the time and get Velez and Burriss lots of at-bats. Cut Dave Roberts and let Fred Lewis play every day.

The Giants show a few signs of rebuilding. But this could have been done a lot earlier, and a lot better.

The Giants foolishly signed Dave Roberts and Ray Durham to extensions and gave aging Bengie Molina a three-year contract. These mistakes stalled the rebuilding and have make it harder to move into the future.

San Francisco have made mistakes, and could have rebuilt faster and better, but one thing is for sure:

The Giants aren't contenders, and need to move on into the future.