Success Comes at a Price–Looking Back on What Happened to Our World Series Heroes
When you think about the guys who brought the 2010 World Series to San Francisco you probably think of an unlikely bunch of guys. Baggs called his book “The Band of Misfits”. Of course, it takes surprises and multiple career years from players to win a World Series. We definitely got that in 2010. But it’s truly mind blowing how to go back and look at their follow up years. Man, talk about falling off a cliff. Here’s the box score for Game 5 of the Series:
Torres: He had a terrible year that started off with an injured calf. He never got it going in 2011 ultimately getting traded for Angel Pagan.
Freddy Sanchez: injured, surgery, etc.
Posey: injured, surgery, devastating……
Ross: a guy known for his hot streaks never got in one in 2011. Giants didn’t even offer him a deal, now he’s a Red Sox looking to re-start his career.
Uribe: He had an abysmal year for the Dodgers. Another guy who was hurt most of the year. His OPS was .749 for us. It was .559 for the Dodgers.
Pat Burrell: career ending foot injury in 2011
Huff: Similar drop in production without the injury. HIs 2010 OPS was .891. In 2011, it was .676.
Edgar Renteria: He actually didn’t have a very good 2010 but it doesn’t matter because he hit the home run that won the World Series for us. Still, 2010 was not kind to Edgar, his .707 OPS in 2010 dipped to .654 last season. Unable to find a job in 2012, he has retired.
I’m not including Rowand or Panda who didn’t have that much to do with the success in 2010.
The pitchers largely held up in 2011 except for Brian Wilson……..
But when you look at those 8 position players, and if you had to list off 8 who were most critical to the 2010 season those would be the 8 that came to almost everyone’s minds first, it’s unreal to see how they all fell off a cliff together like a herd of brain dead lemmings.
We got our World Series. But looking back on it, what weird price did *they* pay to get it?
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Timing is everything…..
“We got our World Series. But looking back on it, what weird price did they pay to get it?”
Memories for a lifetime and the adulation of a city forever.
So well said, so well said. And so true.
The injuries and hard times that befell the Champs only underscore the beauty that was 2010. With the the opening day 2011 line up spending 25% of the sesason on the DL, finishing 4 games out of the playoffs was a miracle.
I changed it. Just a typo.
Was the typo “2010 was not kind to Edgar”? WTF’s the difference? 2010 or 2011 regular season, either one was not kind to Edgar. BUT Edgard was KIND TO US AND TO FATE in the 2011 postseason.
You could also talk about the amazing contributions from guys that had been let go from other teams and were readily available due to past shortcomings. torres was brought up on the last thread, and you can add in what cast offs Burrell, Huff, Ross and Uribe did for the team that year.
You could also include Affeldt and the r/l combo sabes picked up to bolster the pen depth. Any GM could have had any of these guys on their team with a minimum investment. And while rent’s contract was an issue from day one, the pay off in that box score is priceless.
I’d pay the Lord for one extra day- the 20th anniversary of the World Serires win when Edgar, Vungo, Timmy, Wilson..take the field to the love that will follow…
4 of the guys in the lineup that night had World Series rings for other teams already. We had poked fun at Bochy earlier in the season when he had defended Renteria by saying he was valuable because he had won a World Series with a clutch hit.
Adding Lopez, that’s 5 that had won a World Series previously. 6, if you count Benjie for the first part of the season. Am I forgetting anyone?
6 brain dead lemmings? With Rowand that would be 7. Didn’t he win one?
I counted Rowand, so I’m missing someone else. Uribe, Rowand, Renteria, Burrell, Lopez, Benjie, and….?
I dare say the Giants experience in 2011 is typical for a post-WS team. Many things intervene to prohibit a repeat. Many factors. I heard from a Phillies phan phriend last night that Charlie laced into his guys for not HAVING FUN and for not getting pissed when they lose. Delicate balance. The Giants in 2010 had the right blend of passion, insouciance [love that fecking word], drive, faith, whatever. Can’t just duplicate it the next year, if for no other reason you can’t, cannot, ignore the history of your success the year before. That changes things, in some good ways, some not-so-good ways. STAY THIRSTY, Gigantes.
I’m thirsty!
What weird price did they pay? Well, in Huff’s case certainly it was complacency. The rest was injuries . . .
Pawlie said it best: *you can’t ignore the history of your success the year before.”
And Chuck’s word *complacency* also nails it. All 8 of those guys had something to prove (well, maybe not Posey). It was like they played with a chip on their shoulder (I know they had a ton of fun but they also liked the fact that nobody believed in them until they finally won the Series).
It’s too late for Burrell and Renteria, and probably Uribe, Huff and Sanchez too. I just can’t see any of those 3 re-starting the engines for one more run at a career year. Maybe Ross, he’s in a great spot to do so this year, if he can. And definitely Torres. It’s make or break for that guy in 2012 but I could see him having a nice bounce back year. Posey, too, of course…….
Great teams can ignore it. Anyone hear can probably rattle off a dozen of ’em in 30 seconds flat.
Well I don’t think anyone ever suggested the 2010 Giants were a *great team*. They got hot at the right time and rode it all the way. They had a great pitching staff of course. The batters were good, not great. They DID have a timely way with the long ball from September 1st onward…..
They were 51-30 second half, hardly just a hot streak. Doubt that many of Loo’s great teams would overcome what SF did in 2011. But if anyone can “rattle off a dozen of ‘em in 30 seconds flat”, Loo is the man. We start by notinbg that one NL team in 90 yearss repeated, so we’ll need 11 AL teams.
My comment was not intended to knock the 2011 Giants and was not an exclusive reference to baseball. Just pointing out that countless teams in all sports have been able to either ignore or use their prior year’s success and repeat it. The 2011 Giants had other problems…
Injuries are just the facts for the 2011 version.
And the Giants’ “other problems” were mostly injuries. And I know they are part of the game and are a major part of why teams DON’T repeat their previous success.It took the Colts just one injury to faceplant.The 2011 Giants made a gallant effort to return to the playoffs, mostly on the back of Pablo Sandoval and the stellar pitching staff..
Just finished some work, and found myself relaxing reading Glanville’s decent piece on Braun and baseball on ESPN.com. Which then made me look up Glanville’s stats, sparking me somehow to look up Gary Matthews’ stats, and finally on to Garry Maddox. The latter two were some of the first players I followed as a young Giants fan. Although the baseball-reference stats don’t show it, I recalled that Maddox served in Vietnam. I then found this article summarizing ballplayers who served in Vietnam: http://tinyurl.com/VNplayers. A little evening reading for you all…
With Posey and Fruckie back and Melky and Pagan supposedly so much better than the departed lemmings, I am surprised everybody isn’t all over SF to win the West.Is it Eli?
I’ve been kicking around my NL West predictions. Unfortunately, I think the Cahill pick up is going to be a big one for them (his underlying saberstats last yr say he was the same pitcher as he was in 2010). I also could see them bringing Bauer up, a dude I blogged about here about a year ago when NO ONE knew who he was after watching him make shredded meat of the Cardinal hitters—he could be a mid season *Tim Lincecum* call up.
And their offense is just significantly better than ours (and yes, I’m not comparing last year’s squad’s, I’m comparing my projections for each 2012 squad). Upton is going to explode this year. He’s likely your NL MVP. GOldschmidt is more of a reach but he could be a 30-40 HR guy this year. I’m not sure if THIS is the year for him but it’s coming real soon. I’m in the minority on this but I’m also predicting a big year from Aaron Hill. Watch it happen. Chris Young is a crapshoot but he’s probably good for 20/20 at least, and how many Giants do we have on a crap shoot that are *good* for that?????? Montero is an excellent, underrated offensive catcher.He will put up numbers this year that could easily match of exceed Posey’s. I like that Drew is coming back. Disappointment, thy name is Drew……But otherwise, Arizona has some bullets in that line up.
I’ll say this, I’m glad we picked up Pagan and Melky and we have a healthy Buster coming back (I’m not counting Freddy till I see him hold up for a few months). That should at least give us a chance…………
I bought several of the 2012 baseball preview magazines. About half of the pundits in the magazines are picking the Giants to win the division.
well, I think they are right there if Brian Wilson’s elbow hold’s up and Voggy turns in a *ballpark* year to 2011. I don’t think Arizona is a 100 win team but it could happen I guess. Unlikely. Either way, mid 90’s (at least) is gonna be necessary to beat them.
We’ll see how well AZ pitching holds up, esp the pen. As Twin has pointed out their O was about the same as 2010 in terms of runs scored, they just pitched better. Golds Ks a ton, he could be the next adam dunn. Hill had a great couple months out of last couple seasons of mediocrity for the Jays. FG site panned the kubel signing as a waste, as he is a platoon guy who is terrible anywhere you play him. Cahill isn’t pitching all year in spacious oaktown, and he will notice how differently the ball carries in AZ, like into the pool.
They will be tough, but I think SF will be hungrier and better managed, and the better PS.wins.