William Neukom will have many important items on his agenda when he becomes the Giants' managing general partner Oct. 1, but it appears his to-do list will not include a general manager search. Numerous team insiders say they expect Neukom to retain Brian Sabean for the final year of his contract.
They stressed that no decisions have been finalized ahead of Neukom's official ascension to the No. 1 chair, but he is leaning strongly toward retaining Sabean for a 13th season as general manager.
The Giants have 10 games left in their fourth consecutive losing season. They stand 68-84 after a particularly painful 7-6 loss to Arizona on Wednesday night. Jonathan Sanchez blew a 3-0 first-inning lead, allowing Brandon Webb to earn his 21st victory and gain more footing in his race against Tim Lincecum for the National League Cy Young Award.
"That's big," Sanchez acknowledged. "I wanted to beat Webb to make it easier for Timmy."
The Diamondbacks withstood a three-run ninth inning that included a two-run Omar Vizquel triple and cut their deficit to 3 1/2 games behind first-place Los Angeles in the West. For what it is worth, they also eliminated the Giants, making it five years without a trip to the playoffs.
That might make some teams lose patience with their GMs, but this situation is unusual. The Giants' downfall after eight straight winning seasons stemmed from an overplayed strategy of building around Barry Bonds. Those above Sabean in the front office were culpable, too, so the blame cannot fall entirely on the GM even if he made some poor choices along the way.
Meanwhile, Sabean has done precisely what ownership demanded when it awarded him a two-year extension in July 2007. He expanded and bolstered the front office with strong people who can spot position-playing talent, particularly special assistant John Barr, and oversaw what is universally viewed as an excellent 2008 draft.
Those close to Neukom describe him as cautious and deliberate, not the type to walk into a new executive position and clean house before he gets the lay of the land.
Even the recent improvement on the field might be swaying Neukom. The Giants are a marketing-driven organization with roughly 13,000 season tickets up for renewal this winter in a tough economy. A handful of fans have written The Chronicle, saying they will not renew if Sabean is retained.
But one front-office source said that gripes from season-ticket holders, which were on the rise early this season, diminished once Sabean and manager Bruce Bochy decided to play the kids following the July 31 trade deadline.
Those kids joined with some of the old-timers to pin three first-inning runs on Webb. Pablo Sandoval and Bengie Molina drove in two on back-to-back swings for a double and a single. Dave Roberts launched the rally with an infield hit.
The Cy Young race was on everybody's mind.
"It's like the elephant in the room," Roberts said. "These are the two guys who are the front-runners and you have a chance to do something about it. More in the beginning of the game, this is your chance to pick up your guy and try to get Brandon the loss. We started out according to plan early. It kind of changed real quickly on us."
Sanchez allowed a run in the first and was one strike away from getting out of the second. He was ahead of Webb 0-2 when he tried to get the pitcher to chase at an eye-level fastball, but the pitch was not high enough and Webb cranked it into left-center for a two-run double. The floodgates opened, and Arizona scored five in the inning.
"Sanchez had a rough start," Bochy said. "He had trouble keeping the ball down. Webb has killed us with his hitting this year."
Webb was a .131 hitter, but the double made him 4-for-8 with six of his nine RBIs against San Francisco.
Stephen Drew followed with an RBI single and Justin Upton a two-run homer. David Eckstein added a home run against Kevin Correia in the sixth.
Webb put a clamp on the Giants after the first inning and did not allow another run through seven. He has two starts to go. If he wins both and finishes 23-7, he will have the upper hand. The last pitcher with 23 victories not to get the Cy Young was Arizona's Curt Schilling in 2002, but he lost to teammate Randy Johnson, who won 24 games.
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