Bay City Ball

Everyone’s favorite GM, Brian Sabean, sat down on Monday to chat with fans about the Giants and their upcoming 2008 season. Let’s see if we can try to make sense of some of his answers.

DannyN: Are you going to offer Omar Vizquel a contract?

Sabean: Vizquel’s situation will be addressed shortly, as we’re considering his talent vs. the free agent field. But we still think he can contribute on the field and in the clubhouse for our organization.

Read: We’re going to sign Vizquel to a 3 year deal worth $55M. He fits perfectly into my delusional idea that mainly speed and defense win games!

Steinbeck: In your opinion, who was the Giants’ 2007 MVP?

Sabean: Bengie Molina.

Now we’re just getting absurd. I’m not sure if Brian knows this or not, but MVP stands for Most Valuable Player, not Most Likely to Eat an Entire Chicken and play crappy defense. I enjoyed Bengie’s season, it was one of the few bright spots on a bad team, but to consider him the Giants MVP is borderline crazy. Yes, Molina hit a few HRs, something that we can’t say for past Giants catchers (Matheny, etc.) but his overall approach at the plate is Felizian. Consider that Pedro Feliz actually walked almost twice as much as Molina (29 to 15 BB’s) and you’ve an idea of Molina at the dish. He swings at everything. Defensively Molina isn’t much either, this is his 3rd straight year with double-digit passed balls and his total of 16 this year tied him with Miguel Olivo for the most in the majors. MVP?

Surely Brian Sabean doesn’t undervalue Barry Bonds does he? It’s scary to think that he does. Once again Bonds was the best hitter on the Giants and especially this year it wasn’t even close. Check out the top 5 VORP scores for Giants hitters.

1. Barry Bonds 55.2
2. Randy Winn 26.4
3. Bengie Molina 14.4
4. Dave Roberts 8.6
5. Rajai Davis 7.2

When Dave Roberts and Rajai Davis crack your top 5 best hitters you should probably throw away the speed and defense mantra right now. Bonds was above and beyond the MVP of the Giants in 2007. His bat was the life preserver that kept afloat the S.S. Can’t Hit For Squat aka YOUR 2007 SF GIANTS!

Next question.

Steinbeck: The top four starters seem pretty obvious for next year. What are the plans for the No. 5 guy? Are you looking to give Kevin Correia or Hennessey that spot or maybe aquire another arm?

Sabean: Correia and Sanchez will be given that opportunity.

This is one of the few answers that Sabean made that didn’t make my eyes bleed. Good. I’m glad that he’s put Sanchez in the discussion for the 5th starter spot and I think he could be great in that role. Then again, I’m a big Sanchez supporter. Corriea had a nice run as a starter this year but I still prefer Sanchez to Correia.

natomas33: Are Matt Cain and Lincecum “untouchable” as far as possible trades in the offseason?

Sabean: Probably.

Ooooh-boy. If this doesn’t make Giants fans a little nervous, I don’t know what will. It only makes me nervous because Sabeans recent trade record over the last few years hasn’t been so sharp (The trade we won’t discuss, Accardo for Hillenbrand and Chulk) and seeing Cain or Lincecum traded away in a poor trade would be awful. The only way I would ever consider dealing either Cain or Lincecum, is if I were to get back two legit major league ready hitting prospects for each, and I don’t think teams are going to give up that much. I’d much rather try to spin off Lowry or even Sanchez than I would Lincecum or Cain, both are just special pitchers.

Dogbone111: Speed and defense are essential. However, don’t you need power next year to compete in the small ballparks?

Sabean: Frankly, the parks in our division are considered pitchers’ parks. The only club in our division that has bona fide power is Colorado. As Bruce has said on occasion this season, “speed doesn’t slump.”

Oooh-boy again. The fact that Sabes is quoting “Speed Doesn’t Slump” is like when Dusty Baker was talking about how walks are terrible because “They Clog Up Bases” neither makes an ounce of sense. Speed doesn’t slump? You can’t steal first base! Hah! Take that, I countered your crappy phrase with one of my own. As a tool, speed is nice but I think the ability to get on-base consistently would outrank just being a fast dude. The MLB is full of speedy guys that are poor players. The repition of speed and defense is really starting to sound like the Giants are going to play baseball like a team from the Dead-ball era. God knows we will probably hit like a team from the Dead-ball era, we’ll just be really speedy!

merizobeach: Sir, how happy are you with the Rajai Davis-Morris trade?

Sabean: Very happy.

Duh!

Sam_K_: How important is situational hitting to the Giants’ new direction? Can this be taught?

Sabean: Situational hitting is one of the fundamentals that we will strongly emphasize in Spring Training.

Unlike the other fundamentals, like, not swinging at everything pitched to you. Believe or not, you can do this weird thing called taking a pitch? I know! It’s so weird!

Sabean: Thanks, everyone, for your time. I’m sorry if I didn’t get a chance to answer your question, but I would have been here until Spring Training answering the more than 1,000 questions that were submitted! It’s always a pleasure to interact with our fans who have hung in there with us despite our unacceptable results over the last three years.

No, thank you Brian, for giving me this opportunity to sob uncontrollably during the offseason. Enjoy the break, Bri-Bri!