What a Joke
Texas spent 500 million dollars on two middle infielders. I’m sorry, but that’s just dumb. It’s a lazy way to try to quick fix your franchise. If I was an owner I’d never support this approach. Build your team with hard work and cunning, not buckets of cash. That doesn’t work. Glad we have a GM who gets it.
A Place To Talk About Giants Baseball 
The Rangers owner does not know how to win. He thinks making a big splash is how you get attention in a town dominated by Jerry Jones and the Cowboys and then Mark Cuban is the next big dick in that town. The Rangers owner is the little dick and all he wants is to be thought of as being a bigger dick….
Exactly. It’s a PR move that dumb Texans lap up. But that fades from the headlines soon enough.
LMAO…but this is a spot-on analogy.
Nothing wrong with trying to improve your team. Rangers are trying to bring fans into their new yard, which is more pitcher friendly, so they go get couple very good hitters.
The A’s let Semien walk, and replaced him at SS with Elvis Andrus. How did that work out?
The Giants actually won the off season year ago with under radar moves like adding in DeSclafani and Wood, but also put $19 mil QO on Gausman. At same time they went into season with slew of high priced aging vets such as Posey Belt Longoria Crawford and Cueto, but keeping them around instead of dumping them off paid off handsomely.
I don’t disagree that other objectives for a team is revenue, attention but winning also brings both. Random hundred million dollar signing don’t bring championships. Baseball championships are built on pitching and defense and I think that is what Farhan ultimately wants to build and it took completely revamping the farm system to build a long term winner and get rid of dead contracts. Ownership still loves the idea of bringing back the Brandons and such but I again think this is going to be an assessment year not a rebuild or competitions year. Also Yaz must prove his worth this year if he is a bug leaguer. Any buzz on Suzuki?
I think they would not be too surprised or especially disappointed if they wound up spending the latter half of the summer taking stock of how to set themselves up for 2023. When you win 107, there’s both the taste for further validation of your genius and the understanding that a season like 21 isn’t likely to be repeated immediately.
Oh, and I don’t think it’s ownership that loves the idea of the Brandon’s — it’s Zaidi and Co. The lesser Brandon especially, because he is the player that exemplifies what they’re looking for. Under appreciated, good D, and smarts at the plate, i.e., don’t swing at crap or pitches you can’t hit.
ownership LOVES the idea of the Brandons, are you kidding? They think that’s the main reason people come out to the yard. And in some ways, they aren’t wrong.
Z loves the 3-2 counts and all those walks . . . .
The Brandons have Larry Baer’s lips all over them. It’s Baer’s marketing wet dream…
Keep deflecting . . . the beloved Z man, Giants FO, and coaches encourage exactly the approach that Belt has been criticized for over the last 10 years. The 8-pitch AB that ends in a called third strike? Good job, dude.
Definitely agree the Brandon love is all Larry Baer…
The Rangers finished first in attendance and last in runs scored. Management has decided to reward the fans with a little more offense after the loss of the Great Gallo.
“nothing wrong with trying to improve your team”….lol, are you serious? They spent 500 million dollars on 2 middle infielders and their pitching still sucks. GH is right, this is nothing more than an owner trying to one-up the *main* Texas owner. It’s a terrible way to build a team and it isn’t going to work.
Rangers aren’t trying to win this season, just be better until their prospects get to ML level. It’s not my $$ or yours, why would anyone care when player gets lifetime deal, especially likeable local guy like Semien?
I think Boras is right about too many teams tanking, though certainly it involves getting his clients paid. As I said, the A’s dumped off a guy they could have kept and he had great season that helped Toronto almost get to playoffs, and will now likely help Rangers. While A’s are stuck with Elvis Andrus and finished 3rd behind Seattle. If they had paid Semien they would be a better team, and Texas should benefit from Seager and him.
The A’s have a limited income stream and a fan base that’s rightfully deserted them. It’s their MO to trade guys nearing FA. How could they have paid/kept Semien on a salary that would be at least half of the entire team’s payroll?
That’s totally not true, Snarkk. The A’s can spend as much (as little it turns out) as they want. They choose not to. They choose to dump stars 2 years ahead of free agency and draft well. That they find so many stud players is a testament to their scouts, but if they had done anything to keep even half the guys they drafted, they’d be WS contenders instead of hovering around the WC.
Chuck, sure, if their billionaire owner decided to spend, he could out of his pocketbook. But, they don’t get butts in seats, their radio station is on the internet for Pete’s sake. The business itself doesn’t generate much income compared to other MLB – pretty much by design. In 2020, the Covid year, A’s were next to last of all MLB clubs with $104 million, Giants were 4th with $151 million. In a regular year, the amounts are different, the ranking is same. Other teams with more revenue may not be as financially strong with more debt, but that’s not my point. The A’s business model doesn’t do that and hasn’t for decades. They just aren’t going to spring for massive contracts on young players hitting FA…
i care because i think it’s funny and a pathetic way to build a team and it’s one less team the Giants have to worry about (though admittedly I don’t think we are playing them next year). I also hate GM’s who lazily try to build a team by just handing over buckets of cash. It doesn’t work. Why is that so hard to understand?
Bullshit,Snarkk. That doesn’t include the revenue sharing money or the TV rights money. If they generate 100 million, then they are fine spending what with the 200 mill they get from the revenue sharing/TV money.
Chuck, yes, the A’s get a ton of revenue share money from their share of the local TV money pot from all clubs, and rev share of the national TV pot. I get that. My point is that more than probably any other owner, Fisher runs the franchise like an investment, not a baseball club. He’s not forking out high salaries for good players since he rightfully figures that won’t generate a lot more operating income from the team compared to just paying bare bones payroll. The A’s fanbase is pissed off and won’t show up much, even when they’ve got a good product. Why pay more to get the same result? That’s bad business. I’d have to think the A’s share of their local TV revenue on NBC California that they don’t have to put into the MLB rev share pot is among the lowest amount of local TV dollars of all teams, but its still there. The ROI he must be getting on his initial investment, without paying much to enhance the product, must be huge…
Well, it wouldn’t be coming out of his pocket to pay Semien.
Rangers significantly upgraded their infield defense where their SS & 2B had OPS of .657 combined to now .866 by adding Seimen &Seager.Do they need more? Absolutely,especially pitching, but they added 2 key foundation building blocks to start adding on to going forward with an owner that’s not afraid to improve then to rebuild..
They and the Angels will battle for the cellar of the AL West.
would have liked this guy. Has sneaky power AND is married to Atlee’s daughter.
All kinds of ways to build a successful team. Dodgers acquired all the following: Chris Taylor Max Muncy Justin Turner A J Pollock Trea Turner Mookie Betts, who oh btw makes ton of $$, so “it doesn’t work” just isn’t true. All of above are high quality players added in from outside, not drafted by LA. That’s how they’ve built most of the better position players on their roster and Scherzer did very well for them last season. Blake Treinen was a very good get, another guy A’s let walk and they got Joe Kelly as FA.
Z/H have their own approach. I’m concerned with how they intend to replace top end talent whom they’ve lost, w in Posey Bryant Gausman, until farm can help out 2023/2024. And address weak spots in LF and 2b.
the point that you don’t seem to be able to grasp is that SIGNING 2 guys for 500 million is a stupid way to approach a rebuild. Taylor, Turner and Muncy were under the radar stud signings. Not 500 million dollar signings. The Rangers will be terrible again this year, fucking book it.
I like the way the Z man does thinks, tries not to over pay and no long contracts for older players. I doubt the Giants will win 107 games next year but I think they will make the playoffs again. Optimism is a great thing. 😃
The As are still waiting for their 97 03 Miami Marlins moment.
They can’t even get an ’08 / ’20 Rays moment.
I think Chuck mentioned Kevin Brown as a cautionary old pitcher tale after the Sherzer signing. Brown actually pitched very well for the Dodgers 4 of the five years on his contract, although one of those years he logged only 115 innings. He was excellent in the final year. I’ll bet the Mets and Toronto would be ok with that percentage from their recent signings.
Sure, except for the fact he missed about a year’s worth of starts in his 5 years. OK, Jason Schmidt is a better example. Or would you believe Brian Wilson?
Definitely no way to know in advance what you’re going to get health wise. The disasters do tend to overshadow the relative successes.
Not with Schmidt. Even Wilson was iffy before he left.
Sometimes ya gotta pay to play.
Adding two middle infielders that hit 61 HRs and drove in 159 RBIs last year sounds like a pretty good add to me. Texas is going into a new ball park after losing 100+ games so they had to pony up some bucks. Paying those two just under $60 mil next year still leaves them $70 odd mil under the current cap.
I’m reminded how everyone here complained about our huge contracts and couldn’t wait for 2021 to end so we could dump them. Now, 3 of those 5 will still be playing for us in 2022 and it would have been 4 if Posey hadn’t retired. So ya never know how those deals in Texas will pan out over the years, but the fans are gonna love it this year.
Until they crash and burn.
All I could think about a year ago was when, where and how they could unload the Brandons…
Exactly.
2001 Mariners: 116 Wins
2002 Mariners: 93 Wins
Nice!
the pennant is now ours….
Yep, onto the Series now that Brebbia is on board…
Accept no substitutes.
He showed flashes of brilliance.
Might surprise…
also another important thing to note: Now that all these teams have spent all their money, after the CBA is agreed to there will be a shitload of middle tiered free agents that Z will be able to scoop up any way he likes. He’s waiting and it’s the right thing to do….
I know very little about the Rangers but it sounds like they must have some pitching in the minors ready to contribute. It doesn’t matter much how many runs you score if your pitching sucks. You certainly wouldn’t go far in any playoffs. I hope it works out for them. Someone mentioned it earlier but i think Gomes would have been a good pickup. I am curious to see who we target for that. I am also with willie on that I don’t care how much anyone makes especially for another team. The only time it matters to me is if the Giants end up spending foolishly. I wonder what the union is gonna ask for this time and what the owners are trying to get away with. It might be a smart idea to hold off on any major decisions until the cards are on the table.
Strange, for 60+ years I thought it was “uh oh”…
And Nightingale . . . seems to have a problem with his vowels.
Frank Messer’s homerun call backs you up, Snarkk…
lol
Long bathroom break?…
Free agent front oddly quiet today after yday’s flurry…
I agree with BF that after all this top dollar contract madness is done on a relatively small number of players, there will be a lot of mid-level players still out there. That’s when Farhan will get down to business. Next year won’t be 107 wins, that is a once a generation or more thing; but 90 wins seems doable, at the moment…
Odd that there has not been a peep out of the Red Sox and nothing much from the Yanks. Stroman I could see with either but surprised the Red Sox are all over it.
Did the Mets really ever talk to Sabes about being GM?
Maybe they did and he said after Zito, he’d never sucker spend like the ex-Angels guy on the other line will, and that wasn’t the right answer…
Blown away by the Seager deal. Hurt al the time it seems. Trout Harper money for him is nuts!
Can’t wait for that Cobb/Webb rotation to kick off the season
Nice!
One year deal for Lefty Jarlin Garcia .$1,725.000
One year deal for OF Austin Slater…185K Back to having a good Stanford man on board again..
Seager will get paid nearly 2X as much per year as Craw.
I don’t think he’s twice as good…
Seager long term may be three times better…
Or he may be hurt for half the time.
Alex Cobb come on down. Would expect a similar $10 mill/yr for 2 years for Cobb. Just need a fifth now and still looking for Suzuki.
Alex Cobbles up a 2 year deal for 20 million for 2022-2023
Giants have a 10 million option for 2024 are a 2 million dollar buyout..
Z/H going the small potatoes route again which is fine, it’s sure worked out last year..
Z continues to cobble together a starting rotation:
Steph and Dray are great but they must have 18 turnovers between them tonight. It’s ok to get beat but when you have 23 turnovers you ant gonna win
And Steph looked pretty disinterested in it all.