Baseball Musings: Bonds Back Home

December 08, 2006

Bonds Back Home

Barry Bonds reached an agreement with the San Francisco Giants overnight. He'll earn between $16 and $20 million dollars, depending on what incentives are reached.

I'm a bit surprised he wound up getting that much money. It didn't seem like there was that strong a market for Barry. But the Giants need someone to play leftfield, and they're not much of a team without the slugger.

Ray Ratto puts the deal on Magown's shoulders:

Sabean's signing decisions, to re-up with Ray Durham and Pedro Feliz and scoop up Dave Roberts and Rich Aurilia and Bengie Molina, had been savaged as short-sighted by the kind and a filthy lie by the suspicious. Giants fans had been told by Magowan that a new day was a'dawnin', and that you'd all come to like it.
Only Sabean knew something nobody thought conceivable -- that Bonds still had his hold over Magowan, so much so that the owner couldn't walk away. Sabean knew that the bank had already been spoken for, because he got to be in the meetings where Topic A was discussed ad nauseam, and that Magowan wasn't ready for a new direction at all. There was still juice to be squeezed from this pineapple, and it would end up in Magowan's glass come hell or high water.

It will never be known whether Bonds' agent, Jeff Borris, had another offer for Bonds, one with which he could tantalize the Giants. Borris' work on that secret other bidder had been wholly unconvincing, especially when Bonds decided to go Project Runway through the winter meetings.

But we forgot that Borris wasn't trying to sell us. He was trying to sell Magowan, and Magowan had always been Bonds' ATM.

So Magowan talked tough. He let Sabean make runs at Carlos Lee and Juan Pierre, and enjoyed the Manny Ramirez and Barry Zito rumors. But as we have always known, Magowan was and is the point man on Bonds, and it is Magowan who is responsible for this new bit of mega-largesse.

One more year, at $16 million, plus a potential $4 million in extra candy. Fiscal discipline that, laughing boy.

If you're looking for a new start for the Giants, all I can say is, wait 'til next year.

Posted by David Pinto at 08:50 AM | Free Agents | TrackBack (0)

Comments

Wait, wait, wait. Sabean's choices have driven many of us Giants fans nuts over the last couple of year, to be sure. But, what youth movement was he supposed to snap his fingers and complete this off-season? Seriously? Sign Juan Pierre? Thank heavens he failed to do that.

Bonds, as loathed as he his (rightly or wrongly), is still one hell of a hitter, and readers here and lovers of baseball better understand that. Oh yeah, he's baseball's anti-Christ to many of you readers AND he's one of the games greatest players whether you like it or not.

The youth movement? I think you're seeing it. Bonds is signed for a year with money that can go to a Vernon Wells or Andruw Jones or Adam Dunn next year; the Giants have a bunch of draft picks early--unreliable as draft picks are they'll bring talented youth to the system; our vet contracts are short term right now; we'll see if he does something at the trade deadline next summer.

My point is that the jury's still out on the Giants and the franchise's renewal. The Giants didn't sign sexy players--I can't believe one of the freakin' Molina bros. was signed--but they do have MLB experience and they have played well or okay as of late. I'm okay with Sabean and Magowan this off-season; I'm not okay with the position in which they've placed the franchise over the last couple of years.

This may sound funny, but give me a few draft picks and Dave Roberts over Juan Pierre any day of the week...then you factor in the money that Pierre signed for and I'm even happier.

Posted by: Kent at December 8, 2006 10:45 AM

I have to disagree with your optimism here, Kent. Roberts is far, far better than Pierre, yes, but he's 34 and coming off what is easily his best season. Players don't tend to get better after 34, especially players whose chief asset is speed.
Feliz is terrible and is 31 years old. Molina can't hit at all. Winn is a dreadful hitter. Durham had a fine season last year but I'm not sure, at 35, he can repeat it. Bonds is 42. Yes, one of the greatest ever, but his numbers last season, aside from the walks, were pedestrian for a left-fielder. The real question here is who is going to start? I can't find five starters on SFs current roster, let alone five good or decent ones. And who's going to close?
As far as the argument that the Giants are planning for next season, what's the point, then of signing all these old veterans for this season? The Giants had a losing record the last two seasons, and re-signing the same old vets isn't going to help them out of that rut one bit. I suppose one could argue that the Giants might be stockpiling veterans with an eye toward dealing them at next year's deadline for young talent, and if that's the case I understand, although it seems peculiar. And signing ANdruw Jones next year, when he will be 31 and past his prime, is probably the exact wrong move for the Giants to make.
If the Giants were committed to youth, they would give Todd Linden some at-bats, decide once and for all if he can play. The fact that they continue to sign guys like Roberts and Winn shows that they have no confidence whatsoever in their young players, and therefore no incentive to do anything other than hope for a 500 season with Bonds and his aging band of castmates.

Posted by: david at December 8, 2006 04:39 PM

No problem. I don't particularly like Sabean, but I respect what he's done for what (?) ten years. That's pretty good. Too many eggs in Bonds' basket of late, but, truth be told, that's pretty good. I can't stand Feliz and he was signed for the short term. Winn's never been a dreadful hitter except for last year; he's a decent hitter and a mediocre fielder. Molina sucks and I'd rather not have him. I also agree that Linden should get more ABs, but the Front Office must not have much confidence in him.

Nonetheless, your notion that players decline at a specific point/age is false. In general one could argue that it's true, that players peak around 30 and then decline. In general. But, it's not a fact of life and not always true. To wit: players today (and let's not get into the "steroids" crap for a moment) work out more, take care of their bodies more, have more training aids, have more surgical aids, etc. They do have the ability to play at a longer peak than they likely did in the past. And, while I'm an advocate of a strong farm system to the gems before arbitration, it's far from a sure thing. So, most free agents are around 30 based on when they enter the league. Roberts? I'll bet that his counting and sabermetric stats are at or better than Pierre's for the next three years...for considerably less money.

The youth movement isn't a snap-your-fingers-and-you-have-it kind of thing. And, we'll have to see if Sabean's really on board or partially so. I don't know. I suspect that the Giants believe that their young position players aren't very good and that's why they're not going to play very much. Our pitchers? Well, they are pretty good.

It's early, so early that I'm okay with our current roster and happy that our aging players haven't been signed for very long or for "that much" money.

Looking forward to the draft this season.

Posted by: Kent at December 8, 2006 07:04 PM

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