March 27, 2008
Giants Spin
With Barry Bonds now a non-person, the Giants makes promises they can't keep:
"With Barry Bonds gone," Magowan said, addressing the media throng, "this is clearly the beginning of a new era for the Giants."
He promised a "younger, faster, more energetic ballclub."
Magowan noted that last season's Giants were 4-16 in games that were tied after eight innings. Aha, the team had a bad habit of running out of gas. Remember, Bonds often couldn't go nine, and when he didn't start, sometimes he wasn't available for late-game pinch-hitting.
Team vice president and COO Larry Baer promised that this season's team is built "with players that are not only going to play hard, but with a team concept."
Magowan, discussing the projected starting outfield that has Dave Roberts in left and Randy Winn in right, said, "We had a bad defensive outfield last year. ... Winn and Roberts had to play out of position."
Because what's-his-name was moored in left field.
So count on it: younger, peppier, more energetic. But not all at once. Seven of the eight projected starters (once Omar Vizquel returns) have an average age of just under 35.
If you really want a youthful team, you do what Cleveland and Florida did. Trade or release all the veterans and put young players on the field.
Agree...the Giants need to keep one or two veterans, and ship the rest out of there. I'm a D-backs fan, and so I'm actually fine with keeping them old and in last place...but for the sake of their fans, it's time to start over.
Sorry but which vets? - I never can understand why guys like Rowand go from contenders to cellar dwellers.
Wow, sounds like the Giants are really throwing Barry under the bus.
Translation of Ginats statement:
We kept you distracted and attending games with Barry Bonds for years. His power helped us self-finance a ballpark and make us richer than we ever dreamed.
We ignored long-term development of talent while the cash register sang and we drew 40,000 per night.
We will blame Bonds for our decline, but actually we were responsible.
Help me here with meaning of "team concept".
More bunting? More productive outs? Are these the baseball equivalents of setting screens or passing up challenged jump shots to give another player a layup? Not hardly.
Apparently the brain-trust, obviously I use the word brain in a vanishingly small manner, believes that the outfield D will save 5 runs a game. This is important because the Giants are gonna need the opponents to score negative runs to win 0 to -1.
While we're at it, help me with "media distraction." "I would have been concentraing enough to make that catch had those media guys not asked me such tough questions before the game."
When teams talk like this it really means - "We know our team is terrible but please, please still come."
Given the State of this "Youth Movement" (Roberts in Left), they should just bring Barry back - at least he can hit. Young players are fine, as long as they are "promising" young players...
Stengel'ese - That boy out there is 25, and with a chance and hard work, next year he could be 26...
At this point, I suspect that The Barry's asking price for coming back to SF would be substantially higher than it would be to play for anyone else. Not only for the virtually unveiled disrespect from a team he made a lot of money for, but because it's clear that the team is being run by a f***ing moron, and any star caliber player (which Bonds, for all his growing limitations as a player, still clearly is) would be an idiot to want to go there right now given said moronic leadership.
RMT is RIGHT on with that post!
RBJ - thanks for the link!