Giants better off without Bonds
Posted: Wednesday, July 02, 2008 11:26 AM
It struck me while recently watching the Giants in person in San Francisco. Left field looked different. No Barry Bonds. No larger-than-life presence on the field. No at-bat that commanded everyone’s attention and riveted eyeballs for an inning.
And the Giants are better off without Bonds.
In fact, they should have cut bait with the controversial slugger two years earlier.
Look at the NL West. If the Giants had started to rebuild two years ago, they could well be in command of a mediocre division this season.
Among the lessons I’ve learned from successful managers and coaches in various sports through three decades include that it’s better to cut a player a year too soon than a year too late (Bill Walsh) and each year a team keeps a player beyond his time costs that team two years to recover.
The Giants refused to accept those “transactional” costs and are now stuck in an awful limbo. They have bright young starting pitching (Tim Lincecum, Matt Cain and Jonathan Sanchez), an emerging closer (Brian Wilson) and a surprising group of position players of promise (Fred Lewis, John Bowker and Emmanuel Burriss). But they also have unnecessary players like Ray Durham, Rich Aurilia, Randy Winn and even Omar Vizquel. These veterans could help contenders but on a team in transition they simply slow the process of rebuilding.
The best move the Giants made was turning down the proposed Lincecum for Alex Rios deal. Agreeing to that trade could have set them back another three years.
The worst move the Giants made was signing Barry Zito as a free agent in December of 2006. That signing was a response, poorly conceived, to some fan backlash over the re-signing of Bonds for 2007. Seattle, against the wishes of most upper management, offered Zito six years. No other team came close to that. And the Giants gave him seven years with an expensive buyout for year eight plus a full no-trade provision.
What the Giants need to do:
ALL KIDS ALL THE TIME: Lewis must be the full-time left fielder so it can be determined whether he will hit lefties and improve his defense. Burriss brings a spark at shortstop and Bowker has more pop in his bat than any Giants first baseman since J.T. Snow’s better years. The veterans should play only when necessary, except for Winn.
MOVE WINN: He must accumulate numbers to attract the interest of a contending team. Winn is a good player who is overpaid and his lack of power handcuffs the Giants. They have Nate Schierholtz sitting at Triple-A waiting a chance in the majors through a trade of Winn.
BE PATIENT WITH ZITO: The best outcome is likely two years away when enough money on Zito’s deal has eroded to allow the Giants to find a deal in which they can swap bad contracts. Just look at Dontrelle Willis. If the contracts of these two pitchers were more even don’t you think the Tigers and Giants would discuss a “change-of- scenery” deal? It will probably be 2010 before dealing Zito is a real possibility but the Giants should fish around for any interest in him in the interim.
DON’T TALK TO AGENTS: The Giants should determine their own course and forge ahead. They shouldn’t listen to agents peddling clients as short-term fixes. That’s precisely what helped bury San Francisco.
HONOR BONDS: His career with the Giants needs closure. In 15 mostly spectacular years he helped get the Giants to a World Series and he helped the team get a new ballpark in downtown San Francisco – as improbable as that once seemed.
Bonds can’t come back to play but there should be an official ceremony to pay the man his due. When he will agree to such a night is unknown but the Giants need to try and arrange it. It is strange to talk about closing the book on the game’s greatest home run hitter but the Giants have already seen the beginning benefits of moving forward. They need to accelerate the pace.
