What the payroll looks like now and through 2014
With all the dough getting tossed around this off season I thought I’d check to see where the Giants stand. We are actually in great shape–at least in terms of controlling our own destiny. Here’s a look at what we owe now through 2014:
http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=t4r9nky1EouVJsFXQlv3FKQ&output=html
There’s nothing on here to sink us (the way Zito has over the last several years). If the Giants want to dump on Timmy AND Cain, they can do that. And with nothing in the system (starting pitching wise) they will have to keep at least one of them at an absurd long term risk. But they’re home grown, I can dig that……
A Place To Talk About Giants Baseball 
I agree Flav. Giants seem to be in control and I don’t think they have any former player(s) salaries on the books anymore. Interesting to me are the contracts longer than three years being the questionable ones. Although the team is reluctant to sign those contracts of 3 plus years now, I’d imagine Timmy, Matt and maybe Panda will test that in the upcoming years.
Tomorrow’s should be a picture of Roger Maris
To me, Timmy, Cain and Sandoval (my wishful thinking here) are the guys you want to sign to the huge, long term contracts. Players with a proven track record in your park, in their mid- to late-twenties. I’ve been looking at that spreadsheet on Cot’s for a while now and I swear that Sabean has dug out of the Zito/Rowand debacle with absolute perfection.
I admit to having called for Sabean’s head in the past – most recently in 2008. But I also worried about what that might mean. Imagine if a new GM had entered the scene in 2008 and had traded Timmy or Cain for more prospects. Things would be a lot different.
Of course, some of the credit for the focus on shorter contracts must be given to Bill Neukom. Clearly, Sabean’s strategy shifted when Neukom came to power. At the very least, Sabean’s mandate from ownership changed – which allowed the team to stop chasing after high-priced FA talent and trades with pitching as bait and instead focus on Sabean’s strength: drafting pitching. As you point out Flav, the team is in great shape and can step back and calmly evaluate which of their youngest players are worth signing to long-term deals and which can be dangled. They should be in contention for the next several years.
I don’t know if anyone is up for a trivia question, but here goes. (I’m only asking because I don’t know the answer.)
When was the last time a team had two 20-game winners?
The Giants with Burkett and Billy Swift???
The Giants had a decade where they contended every year- that was, of course, centered around Bonds. It will be tougher now but the farm is better. Despite the blather about youth, however, no team is successful just from within. Free agents, trades, the minor league system- they all must be utilzed. In 2010 Sabean finaly nailed it. Fluke? Or lessons learned ? Looking at the farm, right now the closest appear to be Belt, Gillaspie, Neal,Crawford, Culberson. ( Kieschnick struggled in AA, then suffered a back injury) No real power threat above A ball-Joseph, and maybe Dominguez.
Edlefsen is a “B” level reliever prospect, for starters Tanner maybe, Surkamp, that’s about it that I see. I’m sure Stix will find a few and disagree about Edlefsen ( my take: control not good enough to atone for average stuff).. all in all, enough in the pipeline for position players, pitching is now the weakest link..
I agree that pitching is the weakest link although I still consider drafting pitching to be Sabean’s strength. Actually, once Belt gets a call up, the Giants’ farm might be in the middle of the pack or even below average. They’ll have to start filling holes via trades and FAs, of course. I also agree that most teams can’t simply do it from within – although TB could be considered an exception to that rule. I like the way that Sabean has taken a more measured approach the past few years. Call it the removal of the Bonds effect, the addition of Neukom or just plain luck. I imagine it’s a combination of the three. Any way you slice it, though, the Giants are in an excellent position moving forward.
pitching is now the weakest link..
———————————————-
Imagine that
Portrait of Zito and caption: Weakest link. (Have you guys seen any of those pics from the fashion shoots Zito did in LA? He’s an asswipe much of the time.)
Fashion xoot?
The initial response of the SF Giants fan base to the Cliff Lee Philly news contained at least one wry and funny line…
Tweeted @gggiants Monday
{Lee} Probably feels better surrounded by other pitchers who lost to the Giants in the playoffs.
LMAO. A’s are headed for the playoffs now. They have reportedly signed to a contract the never-was, never-missed, ex-Giant — the Chulkmeister….
To answer zum’s trivia question, it was Schilling and Johnson for Arizona in 2001. But good guess, San Dog.
And yes, I knew this without having to look it up. No. Really. I did. I knew this. I have these kind of things memorized. Seriously. No lie….
Okay. I looked it up
Thanks Ted—lol. Glad to hear someone else out there was playing along.
Another trivia question….Which 2 teams have never had a 20 game winner in their history?
Both in Florida
I was gonna say Rays and Marlins
Then you would have been right
Vinnie chulk looks like weird neighbor from the burbs . “it came wit de frame”
Phills blogs are saying stuff like the new Phills 4 makes all the difference, puts their staff ahead of the Giants. That though the Giants Pen is better, doesn’t matter, since the Phills starters will eat up so many innings. Not the dumbest thing I’ve ever seen, but close….
No San Dog and Ted you would be wrong,well part wrong
What part?
Answer is…..Drum Roll………Tampa Bay and Colorado
Poor Colorado. Ubaldo came so close this year.
D-Train won 22 games for Florida in 2005.
Oh, Dontrelle. You’re right. And on Colorado as well. But like I said, I looked it up. I probably looked on a website that was shut down in 2003 or something
What the Hell happened to D-Train?
Anxiety disorder apparently
AKA, he can’t find the strike zone…
AKA, the Mackey Sasser Syndrome . . .
Funny he could throw th the pitcher wnhen he was a Giant.
Speaking of backup catchers . . .
He signed another minor league contract. I think it was the Reds.
“Sal” the Jets trippin’ coach just got outed for planning the whole thing. He had a bunch of players line up on the sideline to funnel the Miami gunners. Helps with the trippin. If you look at the youtube replay, yeah, they ARE all lined up like the Rockettes. So, his sad sack apology the other day about it being out of his characters, was, in short, an act. Gotta love that AFC East. Maybe Belichik looked at his secret taping / bugging of the game and Jets coaches and anonymously called it in…
Too funny. Why the hell do I remember Sasser as a Giant? He played all of 2 games, 4 ABs . . .
Heh heh. Another great trade with the Pirates.
Caveman Don Robinson for Mackey Sasser. . .
I musta went to one of those games.
Thanks, Ted and San Dog. I was wondering about that after hearing some more about the four 20-game winners from Baltimore that one season.
What should be the name of the Phillies rotation next year?
The Philly Four
The Phantastic Four
Millionaires Row
Tommy John Waiting Room
TMOP (The Mound of Philadelphia)
Giants’ Biotches
2nd best . . .
Sasser only had 4 at bats? I totally remember that dude— like him playing multiple yrs for us. Crazy mind trick I guess
Yeah what’s up with Sasser? Even the great retro Phil Nastu had 25 hacks for the G-men.That’s 1-25,but hey he knocked in a run and scored!
Yeah, I thought Sasser had at least one full season with the team.
We’re number 2!
stupid wordpress . . .
MLB network is showing the complete TV broadcast of the 7th game of the ’60 World Series right now. Cool stuff. No instant replay, though.
Zum, I don’t get MLB network. When you have a chance, let us know how the game turns out…
Go Pirates! Beat those Yankees!
6 1/2 hours to move Rowand or Pawlie wins the HTPC. Maybe we’ll do another winter contest, I’ll think about it.
Offer Sabes the machine if he’ll move Rohand ASAP…
ROTFLMAO
First impressions….MLB hasn’t changed all that much in 50 years!
u could start one now on where vlad, maggs, beltre and soriano all end up
Kind of cool how fans in those days dressed for the World Series like they were going to the opera.
Two big differences in the style of play. Batters rarely stepped out of the box in those days, and at-bats went quicker because there weren’t so many 3-2 counts because of a combination of pitcher and batter aggressiveness.
I didn’t know the centerfield camera was already being used in ’60 to show at-bats.
I’ll get one up tomorrow, sounds good. This will be a “basic” PC, I’ll put the specs up when I do the contest.
I’m watching, too. First thing my daughter said was, “Why aren’t they wearing helmets?”
As someone once noted, good thing that ’60 series wasn’t stroke play..
My son said, “where’s the score?”
He also noticed the attire. He said no one’s wearing their team’s hats.
One thing that adds a little more drama to the TV broadcasts these days is those closeups of the pitcher’s faces as they peer into the catcher for the sign.
It was an era of no-frills play-by-play broadcasters. Just the facts, ma’am.
Always liked the bold stats of the player on the screen…Average,HR’s RBI’s shown across their jerseys.
I remember watching Sasser on TV once catching a game for the Mets. I think David Cone was pitching. He would constantly double pump throwing the ball back to the pitcher to help overcome his issue with making that simple throw.
I think the pitcher for the Pads Clayton Richard has a bit of that as well. He’s fine throwing to the plate, but his throws to the bases can be a mess. I’ve never heard anyone mention it, but I think he has a touch of “the thing.”
Trips me out. I feel for those dudes who struggle like that.
I forgot this was the game that Kubeck got hit in the throat by the bad-hop grounder. It was a pivotal play.
Huge play. I knew there wasn’t going to be a replay, and yet I kept expecting to see one.
How about the people watching in the theater with Bob Costas, giving the elderly Hal Smith a standing O for his big homerun in the 8th inning. Very cool.
YANKEES LOSE! THEEEEEE YANKEES LOSE!
John Sterling in retro reverso!
Hilarious postgame interviews. Bob Prince is a ringmaster with those interviews. Each interview lasting about 15 seconds.
sitting in a dentist’s office today, I read in SI that Gil McDougald, who just died, went deaf in ’55 from a BP liner; later in life hearing restored via cochlear implant; he was on that Yanks’ losing team, was he not?
Great stuff. That last player said it all: They broke all the records, we won the game.
fabulous account of this game in David Maranniss’s “Clemente” — did you see Twin and his Mom and the drink being spilled?
what if Rowand gets traded or released at 01:59 EST but 10:59 PST???
Then we’re all happy….
Yes, McDougald played in Game 7, which must’ve been the last game of his career.
Bob Feller dead at 92. Excellent obit by Marty Noble over at MLB.com.
I’m still pissed about this fucking December 15th phantom deadline! If rowand is off the team on Opening Day, I win. End of story……
Greedy greedy…and I posted it 2 or 3 times.
Feller was more than a bit of a pissant and crusty old coot in later life, but my mom is almost 92 so I know how that works. None of that takes away from his bona fides as an all time great and HOFer. Never in the minors, 4 years in the Navy in WWII and in many naval battles, made it up to CPO. 266 wins nic those 4 years in the Navy means he probably would’ve been at around 330+ wins without the military service. Definitely in the top tier of the HOFers….
And a legendary deadbeat. He’d bounce five buck cheks.
and a cheapskate, charging for autographs
“Trying to sneak a fastball by Ted Williams was like trying to sneak a sunbeam by a rooster in the morning,” Feller said in a videotaped interview that accompanies this obituary [nytimes.com] online.
Rowand.
Yes,…..Rowand
Gonna watch, whilst I have dinner,
Goodnight, gentlemen (question mark)
Rowand.
Yes,…..Rowand
Gonna watch, whilst I have dinner, NIGHT OF TERROR with Bela Lugosi
Goodnight, gentlemen (question mark)
Okay.
Twice
Nice spread sheet Craig. Sick to think 33 mil tied up in Zito and rowand