Kiddie Corps
Hard to believe, but Giants’ GM Brian Sabean actually acquired a player south of thirty this winter. Barry Zito is a mere 28 years old, making him one of the more junior members of the team. Compared with Steve Kline, Rich Aurilia, Ryan Klesko, and the re-signed Barry Bonds and Ray Durham, he’s practically a teenager. One can only hope his older teammates treat him better than high school upperclassmen treat incoming freshmen.
Amazingly enough, the Giants roster hasn’t gotten appreciably younger in the four years since Dusty Baker left town. You may recall that the preferred script of that day was that Dusty Hates Young Players™. Oh, who the hell am I kidding? It’s still the preferred script to this day.
At any rate, a particularly virulent Dusty hater went on and on about how Baker hamstrung the Giants all those years by not playing any of their prospects. Me, being a curious guy, actually looked back, and saw that the Giants haven’t really had a lot of good young prospects. And the GM wasn’t shy about picking up Proven Veterans™ when the opportunity arose.
When I mentioned this to the Dusty hater, his response was, “Well, the reason the Giants haven’t had many prospects is Baker’s fault. They don’t put a lot of effort into their farm system because he’s not going to play the kids anyway.”
I’ll pause a moment to let the ridiculousness of that statement sink in.
Now the Giants are four years into the post-Dusty era. The team is as old as it’s ever been. And the farm system still isn’t highly regarded by many of those in the know.
I ran into the Dusty hater at a holiday party and mentioned that, even without Baker, his team was still old and nearly prospect-less.
His response to this: “We need a veteran team because we’re trying to win now. The window of opportunity for Bonds and the other guys is closing. We can’t afford to go through rebuilding now.”
Ah, I see. It’s always fun to see how our scripts change, even when the situations remain the same...
Amazingly enough, the Giants roster hasn’t gotten appreciably younger in the four years since Dusty Baker left town. You may recall that the preferred script of that day was that Dusty Hates Young Players™. Oh, who the hell am I kidding? It’s still the preferred script to this day.
At any rate, a particularly virulent Dusty hater went on and on about how Baker hamstrung the Giants all those years by not playing any of their prospects. Me, being a curious guy, actually looked back, and saw that the Giants haven’t really had a lot of good young prospects. And the GM wasn’t shy about picking up Proven Veterans™ when the opportunity arose.
When I mentioned this to the Dusty hater, his response was, “Well, the reason the Giants haven’t had many prospects is Baker’s fault. They don’t put a lot of effort into their farm system because he’s not going to play the kids anyway.”
I’ll pause a moment to let the ridiculousness of that statement sink in.
Now the Giants are four years into the post-Dusty era. The team is as old as it’s ever been. And the farm system still isn’t highly regarded by many of those in the know.
I ran into the Dusty hater at a holiday party and mentioned that, even without Baker, his team was still old and nearly prospect-less.
His response to this: “We need a veteran team because we’re trying to win now. The window of opportunity for Bonds and the other guys is closing. We can’t afford to go through rebuilding now.”
Ah, I see. It’s always fun to see how our scripts change, even when the situations remain the same...
posted by Bob at
5:18 PM
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