The Zong

The guys at Yahoo! Sports must really love us poor Giants fans. They’ve had this article up on their front page all week. In fact, it’s the only story that hasn’t dropped from the top all week. My guess is that someone who works there is a real sadist, and wants me to read shit like this over and over every day:

Few in the organization are at all pleased about another year in the clutches of Bonds’ swings of mood and entitlement, particularly as they’ll host a Bonds Watch more bloated than last season’s, which, by bloated standards, was a Pedro Gomez short of full distention.

If nothing else, they’ve put off the decade-long personal services contract – which will pay him $1 million annually – for another year. Who knows what that’ll entail. Maybe they’ll throw in a little more if he promises not to service them, personally or publicly.

Ouchy. In the meantime, the Boston Red Sox are giving a clinic on how to handle a rough offseason free-agent market: Spend money and make smart trades. Am I the only one that is beginning to thing that maybe Brian Sabean isn’t the big fat genius we all thought he was when he got Jeff Kent for a bag of cheetos and a ticket to Beach Blanket Babylon?

The thing about every Giants offseason is, it sucks even more than the onseason. A lot of eyebrows were raised when the Sox put up more than $100 million dollars for maybe the only pitcher in the world who throws the Gyroball. To those eyebrows, I say put yourself on my brow, furrowed as it is, as I watch the Giants trot out a group of has-beens and can’t-bes who make collectively less than that guy’s entire contract.

The Red Sox needed pitching, and so they got a guy who could very likely come in and be a fearsome starter for a brazilian dollars. That’s not really such a bad idea, is it? The Red Sox also needed bullpen help, and so they pulled off a trade for Brendan Donelly and signed J.C. Romero, two serviceable and proven arms who, I would assume, could have been had by any number of teams. Some would call the San Francisco Giants a “team.”

Out here in San Francisco, where the offseason starts in August every year, I’m beginning to thing we need a new vision in the front office.

“I think the lineup is better than OK,” Magowan said. “I think the pitching has a lot of potential, but let’s face facts, it also has a lot of uncertainty, as does the closer situation.”

And yet…

The Giants hope a healthier Armando Benitez, in a contract year, finally can earn some of the $21.5 million the team invested in him.

(Cue the sound of me barfing while trying to scream “Deeds, not words!”)

Maybe it’s too early to start calling for Sabean’s head, but fuck it. If the Giants go into spring training without any major moves or signings this year, this guy will be the first (or maybe third or fourth) one to scream for the hook.

- M.G.