Thursday, October 21, 2010

In a Silk Suit Trying Not to Sweat, Hittin' Somersaults Without the Net


Just as I foretold, the entire baseball world (outside of Bitterton, PA) is completely enamored with the San Francisco Giants. As they well should be, the Giants are amazing. From ballpark to blogosphere, they do it right. Except in the innumerable cases in which they don't.

The great and wonderful Tao got me thinking with a tweet last night, remarking that the Giants were in complete disarray just two seasons ago. This should, of course, provide hope for desperate souls wondering the Blue Jays wilderness waiting for their own blue and grey kitty adoption drive.

If you read me at Walkoff Walk, you know I'm slightly obsessed with the Giants. Having written about them so many times over the past two years, I can't say I'm anything other than flabbergasted they're one win from the World Series.

The Giants are having a magical season in which everything, every last required detail, goes right. It's an amazing thing to watch. That doesn't take away from the sheer volume of questionable moves made by their front office. Playoff Hero Cody Ross? A puzzling pickup who would have a nice warm seat on the bench if initial puzzling pickup Jose Guillen hadn't injured his right arm. Found money Pat Burrell? At home drinking Schlitz if free agent Mark DeRosa isn't nursing his rotten joints at home.

Which is to say nothing of the gift from heaven in the form of Tim Lincecum. Passed over by The Freak's hometown Mariners (in favor of Blue Jays stud Brandon Morrow - synergy!) basically saved Sabean's job.

Giants GM should be praised for getting a huge return on his tiny Aubrey Huff investment and getting something — anything — in return for Benjie Molina after re-signing the big catcher solely to milk Buster Posey's arbitration clock.

But this is still a team that hit every note this season, most importantly a little something called the historic collapse of the San Diego Padres. Again, I love the Giants and do not wish to diminish their accomplishment in any way. But if the team leading the AL East falls on its face, their are two other beasts (aka not the Rockies) waiting to slip into their place.

Which brings us back to the Jays and, incidentally, the Rays. The aforementioned Tao tweet provoked a response from author and general baller Jonah Keri. Jonah noted the same charge (team in disarray) applied to the Rays just three years ago. And look at them now! It is from this example, not the Giants Good Times Freak Out to the Promised Land, that we Jays fans must draw inspiration.

Because with AA at the helm and a solid pitching foundation in place, I feel a lot better about the Jays chances — the Jays process — than hoping a handful of beans turn to a golden beanstalk. Alex Anthopoulos's stewardship aims to put the Jays in a position to succeed year-in and year-out, not hoping for career years from Andres Torres and Sergio Romo.

Love the Giants, but they aren't playing the same game. Hope springs eternal but luck runs out. Building foundations out of sand and assorted cliches. Just keeping working.

Getty Images photo courtesy of Daylife.

19 comments:

  1. I won't like them and you can't make me!

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  2. I CAN AND YOU WILL.

    Look at Timmy's punim. Look at it! Look at Matt Cain's hair. The roundness of the Panda will hypnotize you!

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  3. GLOAT GLOAT GLOAT GLOAT (Me, not you Drew. Well, you too.)

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  4. Punim was the word that got you lost in Urban Dictionary, wasn't it!

    I WON'T! I hate Brian Wilson and his beard, too!

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  5. The giants are having happen what JP ricciardi hoped would happen. Solid pitching foundation with a spare parts offense.

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  6. Don't even bang unless you plan to hit something!

    I acknowledge fully that the Giants' method of building probably wouldn't work in the AL East or anywhere that real baseball is played. Still, I kinda love how Sabean pulled together scraps from hither and yon and made a ball team out of them.

    If Cody Ross or Pat the Bat had made their way to Toronto, there would have been cries of "Mencherson!" and riots in the blogiesfear.

    Mind you, I don't know how much of this is by design, and how much is pure happenstance, but given my general distaste for Brian Sabean's signings (Aaron Rowand has yet to force me to eat my bacon), I'm assuming the latter.

    And I actually disagree with Keri...I think that people saw the Rays as a team headed in the right direction for the past five or six years...The Giants? I would have figured them for last in the NL West.

    So what does this mean? Your 2013 NLCS winners are the LA Dodgers. Book it.

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  7. Sabean should get credit, like Dayton Moore, for nailing their high draft picks, but they got those high picks for sucking royally.

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  8. Shitty teams making World Series runs, while we toil away in the AL East makes me ill.

    Aside from Posey, Lincecum and Cain, this team has nothing (except luck).

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  9. LOL!

    Other than my charming personality, money, good looks, youth and numerous friends, really what do I have?

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  10. MadBum is good, Affeldt is good at his job. Huff was huge this year. Andres Torres too. Jonathan Sanchez is also awesome.

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  11. Good luck riding the likes of Huff, Burrell, Torres, Uribe, Rowand and Schierholtz to any prolonged success.

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  12. That's kind of what the post is about, isn't it?

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  13. Drew, yes. I believe so.

    I was a little confused with you seemingly taking issue with my post. I'm usually an NL West supporter in the playoffs, but I think I've grown tired of magic-in-a-bottle teams miking runs while we build solid teams that can't get a sniff of a pennant race.

    I'm bitter and may have no objectivity when it comes to the Giants though.

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  14. We build solid teams that can't get a sniff of a penant race because it's always something different with the Jays. If the pitching is okay the hitting sucks (OPB). If the hitting is good, the pitching is subpar or injured (2008). We play well against the best teams in baseball but shit the bed when playing the Indians and Twins.

    Part of being a good team is consistency, and just because Beyond the Batters Box cooks some numbers to suggest the Jays are the 3rd best team in baseball doesn't make it so.

    Look at the Red Sox this year, a team absolutely devastated by injury yet still won 89 games this year, yet the Jays were essentially healthy and finished with 85 wins.

    My point is, I wouldn't characterize this team as solid by any stretch of the imagination.

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  15. I think the team is on solid ground, building toward the future. I would not have said the same about the Giants at any point over the past 4 years, including today.

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  16. Wow. What a game. I was really invested emotionally in the Phillies there down the stretch, but now I can say that I truly hate them again. It feels good. Go Texas!

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