San Francisco Giants' Management Is an Epic Failure

Uhhhhhhh (yawn), where to begin?

Early Wednesday morning, I found out from classmates (who, even in this down economy, have the luxury of an iPhone), that free-agent pitcher CC Sabathia signed with New York Yankees. 

When I heard the $$$$$ and for how many years, my first thoughts were: Wow, I didn't know he was such a sell-out.

But this article isn't being written to bash CC Sabathia, it is in fact meant to bash the front-office of the San Francisco Giants. Why, you may ask? Because they just don't seem to get how to put-together a quality baseball team. They may now how to develop pitching, but even then, other than Lincecum, is their pitching really as great as they claim it is?

Putting together a quality Major League Baseball team requires a combination of two things.

1) A quality farm system,

and

2) Quality free-agent signings and trades.

Now, since their 2002 World Series appearance, the Giants have tried to form a competitive club by solely using one of these options. 

For example, from 2003-2006 not a single call-up from San Francisco's minor league system made a significant contribution to the offense. In 2006, we did see Matt Cain in his first full-season with the Giants, so there is your measly one prospect in four seasons that made a significant impact.

However, the Giants did acquire just a few players during that time. Since the end of the 2002 season (going into 2003) the Giants acquired the likes of A.J. Pierzynski, Steve Finley, Steve Kline, Damian Moss, and Manuel Mateo via trades.

They signed some of the following: Neifi Perez, Marquis Grissom, Ray Durham,  Jeff Fassero, Armando Benitez, Jose Vizcaino, Matt Morris, and Tim Worrell, not to mention the free-agents signed before the start of the '07 season, including Tyler Walker, Dave Roberts, and of course Barry Zito.

Neifi Perez, who? Jeff Fassero, who? Jose Vizcaino, who? Steve Kline, who? Damian Moss, who?

Now, as a passionate baseball fan and a fan of the Giants, I'm familiar with each and every one of these players. However, the casual Giants fan, the one that brings the team money by coming to games when the team is doing good, has NO CLUE who any of these guys were.

Now, for all my fellow diehards out there, I know you may not care which players the "fair-weather" fan have or haven't heard of, but these fans are important. With Barry Bonds gone, are the Giants really going to sell tickets with Tim Lincecum as the sole attraction?

As great as the kid is, do you honestly think fans will still come to watch the team when they are 20 games under.500 or worse?

The reason I have to pose some of these questions is because from the end of the 2002 season until right up to the beginning of the 2007 season, the Giants did not have a single every-day hitter in their lineup come up from the minor-league system.

Luckily, times have changed. If the seemingly mentally challenged Giants front-office can only use one of the two things required to build a quality team, at-least now they are using the better of the two. They are building a quality farm-system.

To go along with Tim Lincecum, the Giants' most prized possession to have come through their system in many years, the Giants have re-tooled their team with a younger presence.

This past season, fans saw an huge influx of young talent from the Giants' minor league affiliates. Fans were introduced to the likes of John Bowker, Eugenio Velez, Sergio Romo, Alex Hinshaw, Emmanuel Burriss, and Pablo Sandoval just to name a few.  

The Giants also have a few, "grade A" prospects waiting to stake their claim to be on a big-league roster. Those include players such as Madison Bumgardner, Tim Alderson, Buster Posey, Conor Gillaspie, and Angel Villalona.

Having all this talent in the farm system is great in theory, but who is to say all these players will pan out quality major-league careers? Relying on the farm system to make-up most of your team in the near future is not the way to go about building a successful franchise.

Especially when your farm system hasn't produced a single every-day player in the past four or five years.

With that said, why can't Brian Sabean and the newly appointed general partner Bill Neukom make some moves that will benefit the team? 

For example, my last article regarding the Giants dealt with three keys that in my opinion, would open the door to a successful offseason.

They were as follows:

1) Don't sign Renteria nor Furcal.

2) Sign CC.

3) Trade Randy Winn to make room for Nate Schierholtz.

Well, since it appears that the Giants will be zero for three when it comes to my keys, (as they don't seem to have any intentions of trading Randy Winn), I am therefore quite disappointed.

Say what you want, these are just the views of a 17-year-old high school student, a kid who has no experience in putting together a professional sports team.

But if according to Bill Neukom, that "money isn't a factor" when it comes to offseason moves this year, then I firmly believe my keys would have made the Giants a quality baseball team. 

For instance, the Giants signed Edgar Renteria to a two-year contract to be their shortstop. Hold the phone.  Was it not just a few months ago that Giants General Manager Brian Sabean said that Emmanuel Burris will be the Giants' starting shortstop in 2009? What, was he just lying? Just putting false hope in the mind of a young player until he found something better?

The fact is that Edgar Renteria is this year's version of Aaron Rowand, a desperate veteran signing to try and re-tool a lineup with more and more complementary players. Well, you can't keep signing complimentary players if they have nobody to complement!

I mean, who are they complementing? Bengie Molina? HA! What are the Giants these days? An improv comedy show or a professional baseball team?

I, however, had a particular player in mind for surrounding players to "complement."  And his name was CC Sabathia. If money wasn't an issue, then why didn't they sign the 28-year-old ace? He had said he wanted to stay close to home (which is Vallejo) and play in the National League so he could hit, well then, where is the closest N.L. baseball team to Vallejo, CA?

Signing Sabathia would have made the Giants instant contenders in 2009, but it didn't happen. Who knows what went wrong. Maybe it wasn't the Giants' fault, maybe it's my fault for believing that a professional athlete would be true to his word and sign for reasons other than money.

Now I'd like to move on to Randy Winn. Sure, Randy Winn is a solid outfielder, hitting over .300 the past two seasons with the Giants but he will be 35 next season and the Giants have committed to going young.

As well as getting younger, in return for trading Winn, the Giants could bolster their bullpen even more than they already have or package Winn and say pitcher Jonathan Sanchez together to try and acquire a legitimate clean-up hitter.

With Winn still occupying right-field, will Giants fans ever get to see what Nate Schierholtz can do with consistent playing time? I mean if the Giants aren't going to build a team to compete in 2009, don't they owe it to Winn to send him to a contending team?

Those are just some of my thoughts I thought I would share with my fellow fans.

Now, to conclude:

Apparently money is a factor when making offseason moves, who knew? Right?

Giants fans better hope the farm system will eventually come through, because until then, the $126 million contract to Barry Zito will continue to prevent the Giants management from putting a quality product on the field, well, at-least until 2013.