I got one of those buttons on my DVD/VCR combo player. Gotta take a piss, hit "pause." Gotta refill the whiskey glass, get some more cookies, gotta settle one of those "is that Kevin Bacon again?" arguments, I'm all over the "still" control. What does this have to do with the MMIX Giants? Uh, well, everything. For starters, there's Dave Roberts. We are paying that guy $6.5 million to be a fifth outfielder. We've got a 6'2'', 215-lb. 25-year old who is out of options and he plays outfield. Ol' Boch is excited that he will be our fourth outfielder. Wow, that's building for the future. We've got the slowest man in the major leagues starting at catcher and pencilled in at cleanup (in 11 seasons he has a .415 SLG, the league average is .432). Does his career OPS+ of 88 excite you? We've got the nation's most exciting catching prospect in our system, and we get another goddamn season of Señor Muy Lento. Can you say space-filler? Placeholder? Ol' Boch loves this guy. Expect 140 starts, 550 PAs, and 400 outs. We've got three youngsters competing for the same job. One of them could play third at least as well as Rich Aurilia, Juan Uribe, or even Joe Crede, but we will make him work for a job that's his to lose. Our third baseman is a catcher who has 154 minor-league games at first. And we don't have a first baseman. But we do have Randy Winn, who plays outfield. His lifetime OPS+ is 102. He's locked in at RF for 2009 (at $8.25 million). The MMIX Giants are like a World Cup soccer team--we'll play real hard not to lose but we just don't have the guns to win. They're like the hors d'oeuvres you get at a fancy restaurant--you don't want to fill up and spoil the expensive meal. I'm not going to cover the ultimate placeholders--Barry Zito and Aaron Rowand--because my VCR "still" button defaults to "stop" after five minutes. By the time these clowns are no longer Giants they'll already be replacing Blu-Ray.
The good news? Our division stinks. A ballclub that can scare up 85 wins could go to the playoffs. And I'm excited, damn excited about the season starting. But 2009 is a space-filler unless we can get a stadium-wide chant going:
D-F-A!! D-F-A!! D-F-A!!
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2 comments:
My goodness, MOC, aren't we grumpy today! I thought at least that the worst fear of internet posters, that Joe Crede would become a Giant, would make everyone happy. (Note that Joe Crede signed a one-year contract, just what the Giants could have actually used because we have no really good prospects at third). (Yes, that includes Frandsen, who I sincerely hope starts for the team at 2nd). Has it occurred to you that there is no reason to release Dave Roberts before the start of the season? Or that the offers for Benjie Molina (if any) are such that they are not worth considering? Or that Sabean is still working trade possibilities? So far, Sabean has 1) not traded away our young up-and-coming potentially hopeful maybe with luck position players; and 2) not traded away our good pitching. Seems like good stuff to me. And Zito (he of the run support that is even worse than Matt Cain's). What if he actually improves this year? Is he still the ultimate place holder? Do you really think that he is incapable of improvement?
God, for me to come off like the optimist in the bunch is downright surreal. It's spring, fer chrissakes. Give 'em a break, at least until opening day.
Sure, I'm grumpy. We are paying for a bunch of STUPID contracts. These "placeholders" barely perform above league-average level and they are IN THE WAY of our youth movement. I wrote off 2009 long before it happened.
That being said, I'm very excited about the new season. I'm stoked about FreddieLew and Pablito and Frandsen and (I hope) Nate Schierholz. Our young arms are VERY exciting and I can't wait to see who will shine this year. The team and the GM stink, but after 2009 (when the sloughing off of the dead weight starts in earnest), things are looking up!!!
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