Shaun Anderson struck out seven in his five-plus innings but was tagged for four runs. Trevor Gott got the other. The lineup had a tough time again, managing only one run. Hits have been scarce for the Giants in San Diego.
Tomorrow Madison Bumgarner takes the hill and a month ago I would have said this would be his last start in a Giants uniform. The team's winning ways since then have forced me to re-think that.
The narrative is Buyers & Sellers. If you think you will make the post-season, buy the guys you need to make a real run for the title. If you are out of it, sell the few assets you have and hope to hit the franchise reset button. This binary thinking is great for journalists, blowhards, bloggers and the poor, suffering fans who have to put up with all that hot air and spilled ink.
Through it all we have our very own PoBO, Farhan Zaidi, who always seems to be eager, curious, and positive. For a high-energy guy in a competitive business he is surprisingly serene. Most successful people view problems and dilemmas as opportunities and relish the creative and analytical challenges. I don't think FZ sees The Trade Deadline as a binary exercise. Trade player X, Yes/No? That's not how he rolls. He is on a mission to improve the club and win ballgames. Sounds like a truism, I know, you expect all GMs and PoBOs and whatnot to approach their jobs that way.
FZ isn't going to view July 31st in black-and-white terms. Sacrifice the future to win now! Sacrifice now to win in the future! That's not how his head works. He's capable of operating on several timelines simultaneously and can see winning now and rebuilding as the same, multi-faceted operation. I know I'm making him sound like fucking Yoda, but I have to say he really does come across that way, and I'm happy to let him do what he wants to do.
Giants fans are a bit spoiled, and whiny, and there are a heap of geniuses out there who know what's best for the club. They aren't going to be happy with what FZ does. Buy, Sell, Buy-and-Sell, Stand Pat--it doesn't matter. There will be plenty of bitching to go around.
It seems to me a lot less likely they will trade Bumgarner. Only two or three teams could use him and they won't spend the resources the Giants would want in return on a rental. That's cool with me. I want the Big Fella to stay. They can make him a Qualifying Offer at the end of the season and see how it plays out. Or sign him to an extension. That would be a chunk of change, but we are talking about Madison Bumgarner. Fans love MadBum. Keeping fans happy is good. He's proven he is still a good pitcher, a valuable teammate, and a great performer. Having a star player who shows up on highlight-reels is a lot of fun.
The Big Three (Dyson/Watson/Smith) might get broken up. Or, FZ might surprise us and trade a young arm (Black, Coonrod, Moronta, etc.) because teams really like cheap, controllable assets. The Giants might get some prospects in trade and then turn them around and buy a starter or a power bat to help the team immediately. I've no idea, but I'm not expecting anything too dramatic. FZ likes the incremental approach, but he could certainly surprise us.
The Giants played decent ball in June after a terrible start and have played great ball so far in July. I want that to continue. If the team plays good baseball then good things will happen. I just want to focus on the day-to-day and watch the club grind out wins and sustain the winning energy and culture that's been missing the last two seasons. The biggest thing the Giants will do this year is not going to happen this week but in October when they say goodbye to Bruce Bochy and get themselves a new manager. They will be doing that whether they finish strong or not, and after 13 seasons and three World Series wins, that will be quite a change!
So relax and enjoy the baseball. That's my advice. Don't sweat the trades. We can't make 'em, so we have to trust the guys in charge. And I feel pretty good about that.
GO GIANTS!
--M.C.
2 comments:
When FZ took over, I thought, "If the Giants are a strong, competitive team in 5 years, he's a genius and if they aren't in 10, he's a failure. Anything in between and he is.....in between." But now they are competitive, although how strong and sustainable remains to be seen. I don't think we can assign him full credit, after all, some of the Evans signings are finally showing signs of life. But maybe the nibbling at the margins has done more than it might seem, maybe the youthful energy that guys like Diekman and Yaz have brought has lit a bit of a fire under the old horses. I have another theory that I will reiterate in a post later today.
I was wondering as the deadline approaches whether FZ would turn out to be a market guy or a baseball guy. A market guy wheels and deals, using your assets to get different, hopefully better, but the deals the thing. A baseball guy looks at an 18 - 5 streak and wants to ride that pony as long as he can. I'm not ready to assign FZ the genius mantle, but I'll give him credit so far. The "who will Madbum be traded for" thing came from the press, especially our own cheap-shot-artist brand of journalism Chronicle, not FZ. He didn't commit to NOT trading Madbum either. Such is one mark of a good GM, keeping your cards close to the vest. And at least so far, he looks like a baseball guy.
It is interesting to me that FZ's formative baseball experiences were with the small-market Billy Beane A's and the big market Andrew Freidman Dodgers. The Giants are somewhere in between, but more big-market than not. I expected lots of "nibbling at the margins" like Beane, and am waiting for the bigger, splashier, LA-type moves that a rich franchise can pull off. But I'm not in a hurry. These things take some patience. The fact that the team is playing better makes it way more fun, of course.
I really hope the Giants can play .500+ ball the rest of the way. I want to see the roster and the system improve and I know that will require lots of different moves, big and small. I'm willing to cut FZ plenty of slack because, despite the recent run of good play, a lot needs to be done to have a truly competitive team again. I think the ride will be an enjoyable one.
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