The Giants received their daily drubbing Sunday by the Rockies 10-2.
There weren't too many highlights on the Giants side. Patrick Misch pitched well for three innings before tiring in the fourth inning. Clay Timpner hit a home run in the ninth and Eric Threets pitched an impressive inning striking out the side.
Again, the Giants offense was more offensive than productive. The Giants ended up with two runs on five hits.
Although it is still fairly early in the spring...still, in a little more than three weeks the season will start for real. The Giants need to either acquire some legitimate hitters or realize the inevitable and go with all of their young players. As of the time of this writing, the potential of this team brings back sad memories of the last days of Horace Stoneham and those abyssmal teams of the mid-seventies. Those teams may actually have more overall talent than the Giants of 2008.
Giants management has flown directly against any forethought in their approach to developing a quality and balanced farm system. They have given up high draft picks for the hope that Barry Bonds would deliver them to the promised land. In addition to a flawed (at least in the latter years of Bonds' era) strategy the Giants have concentrated on drafting pitching year after year. Granted, pitching is the backbone of a team; saying this, so is scoring runs for the pitching staff. The strength of the 2008 Giants is their starting pitching. There seems to be hope that Brain Wilson will be able to anchor the closing duties. Middle relief is a major concern. With the possible exception of Aaron Rowand, Randy Winn, and Benjie Molina the remainder of the team is a big question as for its ability to score runs. When the great Omar Vizquel returns, the middle defense will improve.
There seems to be some potential in the lower minor leagues as the Giants change their focus to teams built around speed and defense. Eugenio Velez looks like the real deal. Find him a spot. The real talent coming up in the neglected farm system is in its lower levels.
Brian Sabean appears to be gun shy on making deals. Surely, after making several bad deals, e.g., Joe Nathan, Jeremy Accardo, Francisco Liriano, not to mention Brian Burres (now with Baltimore). Sure, these are all pitchers...the return for these players have not been in kind in trade value.
Sabean does not appear to have a solid plan and it is not certain a trade for Joe Crede will make any difference this year. The Giants need both a third baseman and a first baseman. Daniel Ortmeier does not appear to be the answer until Angel Villanova is ready in two or more years from now.
2008 appears to be a bleak season for fans of the Giants with little potential to get excited about. Maybe it is time for Giants to re-evaluate their game plan. This season could very well be Brian Sabean's swan song...if this season plays as it looks so far this spring, perhaps Sabean should be replaced or bumped up to another level in the Giants hierarchy.
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