Friday, March 19, 2010

Half full, half empty

Dave Cameron over at FanGraphs profiles the Giants in the on-going "Organizational Rankings" series. We come it at #23. Seems low, even for a skeptical fellow like me. But you should give it a look nonetheless. Marc Hulet chimes in a with his take on our "Future Talent." It's not a particularly positive spin, but worth a read. It never hurts to have some glass-half-empty folks question the wisdom of the glass-half-full crowd, since most of this is guesswork anyway, at least for us amateurs.

THE GIANTS ARE ON TV TOMORROW! Looking forward to that--baseball on the vernal equinox. Now if we can just get Spring Training over and done with and get on with the season I'll be even happier.

--M.C.

4 comments:

Zo said...

Well, this: "They don’t have a GM that has shown he can make shrewd, low cost acquisitions, and they lack payroll flexibility" is really the nut of it, isn't it? I'm not questioning the accuracy of the statement, it is just that it has become dogma. I have reached the conclusion that, if the Giants do better than last year, or even reach the playoffs, there will be a lot of deeply disappointed people who won't admit it because it would refute the hypothesis. It wears. I am enjoying reading the Chron's "puff pieces" from people who have the fortune to actually observe spring training. It is not better analysis, but is a hell of a lot more enjoyable.

M.C. O'Connor said...

I don't know, I don't think anyone--who's a fan, that is--will be "disappointed." Hell, we ALL want the Giants to win. I suppose, though, I can only really speak for myself--if the Giants are winners I WILL BE THRILLED. I may think Brian Sabean is a shit-brain, but what I think has a wee lump of gobshite to do with the end result.

Anonymous said...

That Dave Cameron sounds like he knows what he's talking about despite giving no numbers of any sort to back up the article. I mean, I know the numbers but still (1st in pitching, 30th in hitting = 15th?) 23rd seems a tad low. I mean, put into consideration the great pitching, now closer to average hitting, and possibly slightly above average defense, we look at least as good if not better than the D'Backs (plus their ace is hurt again). I really can't imagine the Giants faring that bad. I mean, 88 wins was an awful lot for the worst team offensive-wise last year. Yes, some players seemed to play much better than expected but I'd say that an equal number did worse than expected (like Edgar Renteria worse). I still feel confident, if the new guys don't cut it, just put back the ol' squad that had 88 wins! Oh back to Edgar, I recently stumbled upon my baseball card of him back in his Cardinal days. It was an All Star game version. It even has a piece of his jersey in the card from the game. I don't know what to do with it. Any ideas?

Daveinexile said...

I see that was a lot of discussion about the value of the farm and I think that is a good thing. In this case I think the discussion gets mired down in the classic debate of is a few high upside guys better then more guys but with a moderate ceiling. That are always interesting but misses the key point: the man that would be using the farm talent in that next 18 months is Sabean.

Sabean lacks the will to use his non pitching farm talent for anything other than trade bait or a filler for playing time tell a veteran can be acquired. If the young player goes all Panda he might be left alone in his slot for a bit but otherwise he only seen as tradeing chip or bandage to be used as last resort. Because of that mind set what is good on the farm will have its impact severaly limited. What are the weaknesses of young players will end up more often in situations that highlight those weaknesses.