A Radical Idea - A Rant
Posted by Keenlow - 15/11/06 at 01:11 amSo, I was sitting in my corner, mumbling something semi incoherant about Soriano and Home/Away splits when a rather radical idea crossed my mind about the Giants and their new found and much heralded off season cache of doh-re-me, aka moolah.
HOW ABOUT NOT SPENDING IT!
This year is set to be a free agent nightmare as exemplified by Mark Derosa cashing in on a 3 year 6 mil per. deal with the ill run cubbies. Soriano will likely cost a billion dollars, Sabean’s left arm and a ham sandwich and the Red Sox just payed (potentially) 51 million dollars for the rights of negotion with Matsuzaka. It is increasingly evident that the Giants woes can only be solved through careful trade, investment in foreign scouting and signing and good draft picks.
In my humble opinion the Giants should follow suit in what the Yankees did this last draft and pay above slot money for later round picks. I would rather have the Giants pay 2 million on a potential phenom than 20 mil a year on an overpriced (though talented) major leaguer.
I have no problem with the Giants pursueing potential bargain players, some of the Japanese players not named Matsuzaka, maybe Wolf or Meche or Dave Roberts but names like Mathews Jr., Soriano, Zito, Pierre should not garner more than a passing thought from Sabean.
Hell, the money would be better put to use in a regular ol’ savings account. Sabean, I implore you; take the money to the bank (preferably in those cool tan moneybags with the big green dollar sign I always see in bank heist flicks), put it in a savings account and let it sit until next off season when the money might be put to better use. And you know what? Even if you go on a spending spree next winter, you might just have a little left over because of the interest.
Anyway, now that my rant has concluded I will now return to my corner, next time I will unviel the MLB executive I blame for the return of players earning ridiculous A-Rod money, thank you.
November 15th, 2006 at 9:36 am
I’ve sure this is what you meant, but the Giants should only spend extra above-slot money on players WORTH spending extra on. They have a history of doing spending more later, with Ishikawa as one best example, Sanders as one good example, and Jeremey Luster as one bad example. This depends on players falling down the draft because it is believed that they will go to college, else you are just throwing money away.
As my study of the draft suggests, the talent becomes needle in the haystack bad by the time the 20th pick OVERALL comes along (about 1 in 10 to find a good player), let alone later round picks. So you basically need high school players who are telling all teams they are going to college because the draft and follow behavior has been eliminated in the latest CBA. Plus, you basically need them to say that to everyone AND not mean it, meaning basically that he has already told your team that he will brush off all other teams strongly, you can draft me later if you pay me accordingly.
At least, that’s the only way I can understand how a team can draft a player so late - and have other teams pass him up - by lying about their intentions to all other teams.
The Giants have to make the good front that they are trying to win in 2007, else even if they sell the tickets, there will still be a lot of empty seats.
The better bet is for them to spend money on one year contracts - Bonds, maybe Durham, Maddux?, whoever - so that they will have that money to spend again next off-season. They already have about $15M coming off the books with Benitez, Vizquel, Matheny, and Worrell, plus whoever they can sign to one years this year. Let’s say Bonds get the $10M many say he will get and Durham gets that 1 year $10M contract rumored on MCC and $8M that Maddux asked for. That plus the other money adds up to $43M coming off the books next season, plus raises for Lowry and Cain, so let’s put that at around $40M then. That would be more than enough to pursue the big hitters we want/need, like Vernon Wells and Andruw Jones.
Maybe you aren’t familar with interest rates right now, but even if the Giants saved half that amount, or $22.5M, and they got the 5% I’ve been seeing on some 1 year CDs, that’s only $1.1M, or about $750,000 after taxes. Not much good you can get for that.
November 15th, 2006 at 10:43 am
A good point about interest rates ogc, you caught me as I really don’t know much about about it.
We were speaking along the same lines about the draft, however I believe Sanders was a Draft and Follow which allowed the Giants to draft him in a later round because he was still under club control. This last year I was speaking primarily about players like Matt Laporta, who was drafted late by the Sox but returned to college when his financial demands weren’t met. With the farm system starved for hitters he would have been a nice pick up, even at the 1.5 million he most likely would have commanded even after dropping to the second day of drafting.
I’m all about going after players like Vernon Wells but the linch pin in getting him is more a question of who are we going trade rather than how much money will we send the Jays. Andruw Jones Im less sold on because of his high K’s and the bad habits he’s fallen into like going down to one knee on swings (though its worked well so far).
And on one final note, If Durham came back for 1 year it wouldn’t send my life into a tailspin because I do rather like him. However, he won’t; Durham is looking for a multi-year deal, probably at least 3 years or even 4.
November 15th, 2006 at 11:34 am
You don’t get any of those players for a 1 year contract. You’re deluding yourself. Even if you could get them on a 1 year deal, signing Bonds, Durham & Maddux is just a delaying of the inevitable of the rebuilding of the Giants. The sooner they get on with that project the better.