Killion: After all this time, Giants should have a better plan

San Jose Mercury News

Sixty-six days until Giants pitchers and catchers report for spring training.

One thousand forty-three days since a 40-year-old Barry Bonds had surgery on his knee.

Somewhere in those combined 1,109 days - between the moment it became clear that Bonds was near the end and the official beginning of life without him - one would hope the Giants had devised a real plan. A blueprint for life after Bonds.

But after the past few rumor-filled yet fruitless days, I'm not very confident of that. The Giants seem to be wandering aimlessly, trying to figure out who they are and what they're going to be.
Tim Lincecum for Alex Rios? Or some sort of trade for 34-year-old, surgically repaired Hideki Matsui? Or an enormous payday for Japanese outfielder Kosuke Fukudome? Is that really a blueprint? Or just desperate grabs at any offense?

For years, General Manager Brian Sabean was collared with Bonds: with his huge salary, with his difficult personality. With the worn-out philosophy of filling in the gaps around Bonds with older players, of selling tickets to see record home runs, of denying that the future would ever arrive.

But it has arrived. For three seasons, since Bonds began to physically decline, the Giants could see this coming. Yet here we are. The future is finally here, and there appears to be no plan.
The Giants as currently constituted have no identity. In the 1990s, even with Bonds on the roster, they were Dusty Baker's team. After the manager left, they were unquestionably, undeniably, for better and for much, much worse, Bonds' team. Now who are they? They have the beginnings of an identity, thanks to their ballpark's parameters and their only decent drafting in recent years. They could be a pitching team. The team of Lincecum and Matt Cain. That's an identity they can build around.

It seems to be an identity fans can accept. Giants fans have been flooding the team's Web site, begging to keep Lincecum. The young pitcher provided the only true, unexpected electricity of the dismal 2007 season.

The fans seem willing to see something built. Whether Sabean can be patient in rebuilding is another story. He has a two-year contract, which means he needs to win in 2009. So he might be desperate to grab whatever offense is available rather than grow with the young pitching staff. The Giants might trade Lincecum. Or they might not. They are on the fence, unsure of which way to go. You can't really blame them for that: If you don't trade Lincecum and he breaks down like Mark Prior, you look foolish. If you do trade him and he goes on to become a stud, you regret it forever.

It's a tough choice. The problem is that the Giants have painted themselves into this corner, where trading the kid is one of their few options.

The Giants are, again, sitting on the sideline watching other teams deal. Detroit not only got the slugger the Giants could use - Miguel Cabrera - but the Tigers also got dynamic pitcher and Bay Area native Dontrelle Willis. The acquisition of Willis could have eased the pain of giving up Cain or Lincecum. But the Giants are incapable of such dynamic deals because they have few young prospects to trade.

One of the reasons is that the Giants didn't have a first-round draft pick in 2004 or 2005. They traded those picks as compensation for free-agent acquisitions. In the 2005 draft, the Marlins took their 22nd pick as compensation for Armando Benitez. That year the Giants didn't draft until the 131st pick, in the fourth round (their second pick went for the rights to Mike Matheny and their third for the rights to Omar Vizquel). In 2004, their top pick was sacrificed for the rights to Michael Tucker.

In retrospect, those were bad decisions, passing on all that young talent. Even worse were the decisions made a year ago, when the Giants not only signed Bonds but also patched the team by giving multiyear contracts to past-their-prime players such as Rich Aurilia and Dave Roberts. While the National League West got stronger and younger and more exciting, the Giants stuck with the same old game plan.

The Giants are paying the price now for their bankrupt philosophy. Will they deal the one player who provided some excitement last year? You would think, that with a 1,109-day head start, they could have come up with a better plan.