The Giants downed the Modesto Nuts 8-2 to complete a sweep of the Northern Division final and propel them into the California League Championship against the winner of the Rancho Cucamonga/Lake Elsinore matchup:
Jose Flores- 4 for 5.
Brandon Crawford- 2 for 4.
Ehire Adrianza- 1 for 3, HR, S.
Michael Sandoval- 3 for 4, HR
Johnny Monell- 1 for 4, SF.
Kyle Woodruff- 5 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 5 K's.
Ryan Verdugo- 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K's.
Hector Correa- 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 2 K'.s
Adrianza played SS while Crawford played 3B. Hector Correa moves up from Augusta for the playoffs.
I guess I'm rooting for Rancho Cucamonga to win the Southern Division series. It's a bit easier to get to the Epicenter than The Diamond for a game.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
rancho gets in...im gonna try to catch a game
ReplyDeleteand as for the response to my last post...ya, maybe the regime change pushed out those who were not interested in using the farm system for development....which means that the sabean philosophy will no longer be in use.
what im hoping is that more clubs buy into their farm clubs, and do things like raise the salaries of those in aa and lower, improve training and nutrition....development should not be survival of the fittest.
on a bad note....bochy is playing rowand tonite
i just dont get it
sunday's game was not showing a guy who was just rusty...it showed a guy who cant hit a major league fastball anymore
i just dont get it.
1. I believe Brian Sabean's true philosophy is to build from within. That's what he did when he was scouting director for the Yankees. I believe the lost year's from 2004-2006 were him trying to accomodate an ownership philosophy of doing whatever it took to win one for Barry Bonds.
ReplyDelete2. I have no problem with starting Rowand against a LHP. Against RHP's? Yeah, shouldn't happen.
Will have more comments in tonight's Game Wrap.
For all the complaints about Sabean and the farm system, they always forget that the Yankees built their dynasty off the prospects that Sabean dug up while he was their scouting director and that in the time he has been GM, the Giants have not traded away any prospect who looked like they were sure things, he kept them all (Francisco Liriano has been and continue to be a huge question mark physically; we all saw what dealing with that costs a team with Durham and even Bonds when he couldn't play every game anymore).
ReplyDeleteSabean has his faults, to be sure, but the farm system is certainly not one of them.
The only reason, imo, why people label him with this label is because of the loss of picks by signing free agents early, costing them picks, particularly the Michael Tucker signing.
That just incensed people to no end because they did not realize that this was not much different from someone deciding not to buy a raffle ticket. Most people are not used to situations where there is a low probability of success, and just make the mental link of "draft = only way of acquiring talent", which, while true, is much closer to an oil company drilling in a field where there is a 10% chance of striking oil and 90% chance of a dry hole than, say, flipping a coin.
Sabean (and the Giants) took a slight business risk in not contributing their $1M to the draft lottery and instead used it to acquire a free agent who could produce at the major league level. Odds are that the pick would not turn out, it is just that low in the last third of the first round. That is life in the business world, where you have to take calculated risks here and there to pursue your strategy, because there are no sure bets and limited funds, typically.
And the strategy, as DrB noted, was driven by Magowan's drive to win one with Barry Bonds.
I would also add that it was driven by ownership's unwillingness to finance even $1M in draft bonus, I have read of reluctance to invest more into the team, and in fact, they had no interest in the team, as this was the period in which Neukom was buying out investors and building up his share of the team.
If the Giants had a billionaire owner like the Angels, who could easily cover losing $5-20M in a season (pocket change for him, really), Sabean wouldn't have had to trade off Ortiz, maybe could have afforded to make Kent an offer he couldn't refuse, wouldn't have been put in a position where he had to chose between a draft pick and a cheap free agent.
They could have picked up someone better before Sept 1st off the bench in 2002 to be DH, instead of being forced to use Dunston, Shingo, Feliz, etc. during the series. Right now we have a number of great choices should we make the World Series. They could have also picked up another reliever who could come in should Nen fall apart physically. The money that would have cost should be peanuts for a major league owner, particularly one in one of the top 5 markets in the US, but the team was penny-pinchers during the mid-2000's.
Neukom at least is willing to look for additional funds if a good baseball move is placed before him by Sabean.
I guess I was one who went nuts when Sabean dumped the draft pick to sign Michael Tucker. It wasn't so much the dumping of the pick, but for Michael Tucker? I know the bottom third of the draft is a crapshoot, but that's where the Giants found Matt Cain. Let's see, would you rather keep Michael Tucker or take your chances with pick # 22 or whatever. It might be a bust, but it also might be the next Matt Cain. Personally, I'd take the chance that it's the next Matt Cain.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, it's water under the bridge to me. Sabes has largely rehabilitated himself in my eyes with a string of great drafts and at least the appearance of a renewed commitment to building from scouting, draft and the farm system.
DrB, what people don't realize is that to get to your Matt Cain, you have to go through about a decade of picks like Arturo McDowell, Nate Bump, Tony Torcato, Boof Bonser, Noah Lowry, David Aardsma, Brad Hennessey, Wendell Fairley, and Tim Alderson. But you just don't know which surprise you will have when you pick in the last third of the first round, where all the playoff contenders pick.
ReplyDeleteIt was this same phenomenon that took away Beane's crown of draft genius and forced him to trade away Haren for a boatload of prospects in order to refill his depleted farm system.
Yeah, ideally your team is not so penurious to force the GM to make such a decision, that it would find the means to allow him to pick a prospect plus sign a better player, even picking up Reggie Sanders again would have been better. But when the ownership is forcing the GM to make penny ante decisions like that, what can the GM do?
That is the immediate plus I found when Neukom took over, there is a budget, but if Sabean can bring a good baseball deal to him, don't worry about the money, let Neukom see what he can do.
But even before Neukom, it was the move to being a player in the international free agency market that pleased me (though the fruits are getting moldy now with Villanova, RafRod, and the other misses they have had; at least they are trying, per your point about it being better to take the pick just in case it is another Cain).