And We're Baaaaaack!!!!!

It's been awhile and I've stepped off the ledge from the firey mess that was the SF Giants 2011 season. No need to go into last season. Poor offense, poor coaching, poor GM'ing and poor front office performances were the norm. But, we're done with that. Over. Finished. I put the starting lineup card, a lock of Buster Posey's hair, Panda's wrist brace and Sabean's turquoise bracelet in a pot and burned them while reciting some ancient Sumarian curse lifter for the upcoming season.

Now onto what has been an underwhelming (see, pathetic) offseason. Now I know you think I'm going to lambaste Sabean for his short comings here. But alas, he gets a semi-pass. The ownership is slowly becoming the laughing stock of the baseball world. A huge market/fan base, a recent World Series Title and the best pitching staff in the league should be the beginning of an uptick in payroll. Now, maybe their payroll has grown in the last few years, but nowhere near what it should be. The way baseball is now, there's really only 10-12 teams that can win a world series. Those are the teams that throw money, wisely, at problem areas of a roster. Look at what the Angels, Rangers and Miami Marlins have done in the offseason. I'm not saying shell out $100 million for Reyes/Pujols/Prince but signing a guy like Beltran (2 yr/$26 mil)or Cuddyer (3 yr/$33 mil) or Rollins (3 yr/$33 mil) could have been done. So let's take a look at the moves done this offseason:

Melky Cabrera for J. Sanchez

Loved this deal. In Cabrera we get a plus outfielder, a switch hitter that can be a quality 2 hitter but is perfect at 6th or 7th in the lineup. He'll most likely hit around .270, steal a bag here and there and can play all 3 OF spots. One drawback is he doesn't get on base as much as he should but that's a common theme amongst Giants hitters. In this trade, we also get rid of The Great Potential. We've all heard how great Sanchez can be, and we've seen glimpses (the no-no he threw and without him down the stretch in 2010, the Giants don't make the playoffs). But I'm glad to be rid of him and won't miss every one of his starts where (fingers crossed) he goes 4 1/3, walks 5 and gives up 3 runs.
Grade: B

Angel Pagan for Andres Torres and Ramon Ramirez

Now, I'll be the first to say I hate losing Torres the person. Great story, great energy and had a huge year in 2010. That said, he was putrid in 2011 and would not have played this year. Ramirez was a solid arm in 2011 but if there's one area that the Giants can afford to pick from, it's the bullpen. With B Weezy, Romo, Affeldt, Javy and Casilla, they're set so Ramirez was expendable. And Pagan is a guy I've liked for 3 years. If you'll remember, he was one of the guys I mentioned late last year as a possible signing for the Giants in the offseason (6demonbagsf.blogspot.com/2011/09/playing-out-string.html 4th paragraph down). Pagan is a very good center fielder, can leadoff and will steal 30+ bases. While he's been injury prone, he was healthy for the last 4 months of 2011 and was productive. So you're going to get solid production for a guy who was going to be cut and an expendable arm. I like Pagan more than most, but his speed is something the Giants haven't had consistently for a while and the dude can flat out play.
Grade: B+

The "Signings" - Fontenot, Mota, Whiteside and Burriss

Now I used parentheses for the word signings because they were atrocious. I realize that Sabean was hamstrung from the higher ups as far as payroll but come on bro. Fontenot over Keppinger makes zero sense to me. I see everyone writing that Keppy was so bad defensively but he was going to be a backup to SS/2B. He's serviceable on D and the dude can hit. They've decided that Crawford is their SS this year. I'm fine with that. But he's a lefty. Shouldn't his backup offer something different. So if the Giants are facing a nasty lefty (Kershaw, Cory Luebke from SD, Pomeranz from COL), they just replace Crawford with Fontenot, another lefty? I realize Fonty is actually better vs. leftys than righties but still, nonsensical to me. Grade: D

Whiteside? Seriously? Not to mention the fact that they have Stewart and Hector Sanchez (who should hands down be the backup C. Posey catches a max of 120 games so Sanchez would get AB's). But one of the amazing Molina brothers (yes, that Molina. Bengie's younger brother Jose) was available. He's a proven backup, can hit for a backup and P.S. led the league in % of runners thrown out. He must have cost too much right? Yup, he signed a 1 year deal for $1.5 million. They signed Eli for $425k to a Major League deal (which almost guarantees him a spot on the roster for 2012). So for $1 million more, the Giants could have solved their backup C problem and let Sanchez play in AAA for the entire year. Grade: F-

Manny Burriss is back. I like his speed, like his versatility. Hate him as a player. While he won't see a ton of AB's, he really offers nothing. I guess he can steal a bag. Maybe this is the last chance for him, I don't know. He's been highly thought of from the Giants brass for years. I hope he can contribute but just don't see much upside here. Grade: C-

Mota! Mota! Mota! As you can tell from the picture to this blog, I LOVE Mota. He can easily step into Ramirez's role if needed or conitinue his role as the stabilizer during a typical Zito start. He'll routinely be called on in the 3rd or 4th inning every 5th day. Perfect. I think Zito/Mota is a great 5th starter. Grade: A+

So that's a "brief" recap of the offseason. Could have been worse (not really) but it's not all Sabean's fault. 2 good trades, 3 bad signings and exactly ZERO game changing moves. Who's to blame? Not Bill Nuekom. He got forced out by the "Executive Committee" because they didn't like the way he communicated with them. Seriously, look it up. That's why. He'll be missed. You'll see.

I'll be back periodically hopefully until Spring Training when I'll be going full bore again. And maybe I'll discuss our GS Warriors as well in the coming days.