SAN FRANCISCO – If my columns had the identical shelf life as Farhan Zaidi’s post-market commentary, I’d be out.
Two weeks ago, after a series of questionable moves, Zaidi made two completely absurd claims.
The first reason was that the Giants believed they might still make the playoffs with “the best rotation in baseball.”
The second reason was that trading the team's best power hitter, Jorge Soler, would help the team by allowing top talent Marco Luciano to bat usually because the team's designated hitter.
These allegations – as dubious as they seemed on the time – seem downright offensive today.
Zaidi manipulated the fan base.
And after years of preaching patience to the club's management and begging an ever-growing portion of the fan base to provide the undeniably astute Zaidi one other likelihood to tug the team out of the downward spiral of mediocrity, I'm out.
Insulting the intelligence of the media is one thing – we’re fair game.
But insulting the intelligence of the fan base like Zaidi did?
This is unforgivable.
And in a just world it’s terminable.
The “best rotation in baseball” consists of two pitchers.
Yes, Webb and a resurgent Blake Snell are the very best one-two punch you possibly can get in baseball. But after that, this rotation is a disaster. The Giants have bet the whole lot on Robbie Ray (who just underwent Tommy John surgery) and kids Kyle Harrison and Hayden Birdsong, and traded No. 6 starter Alex Cobb for a talent who won’t ever make the most important leagues.
How silly does this look just two weeks later?
In a game he almost needed to win on Wednesday, Ray failed to finish even one inning. Harrison, 23, who’s playing his first full season in the most important leagues, has reached his limits — his velocity and spin rate have dropped significantly in recent starts, requiring him to endure five innings of extremely hittable stuff in each start. Birdsong has a 17.05 ERA because the trade deadline.
Luciano, however, spent two weeks on the bench, losing his batting opportunities to Jerar Encarnación, who played within the Mexican League earlier this yr, and to Mark Canha, a favourite of manager Bob Melvin who took “the keys” of the team to trade him in the ultimate moments before the trade deadline. Today, he is not any longer even on the most important league team.
Luciano received a complete of 21 at-bats after the trade deadline.
Within six months, the Giants' attitude toward the team's top talent went from “he was the shortstop of the present and future” to “he was no longer allowed to play on the field” to “he was no longer allowed to hit either.”
The blame for this ultimately lies with the player – Luciano's weak defense and weak hitting prevented him from making the Major League roster – but it is usually resulting from the Giants' misconduct in recruiting.
Not only have the Giants did not consistently put Luciano in successful positions, they’ve also allowed his value to plummet in every transfer scenario.
He has developed into one other Quadruple-A player for a franchise that has specialized in such players for the past six years.
I might ask, “What are the Giants doing here?” but I already know the reply: the identical rattling thing they've been doing for greater than half a decade now.
Every 4 years, the massive query within the presidential election is: “Are you better off than you were four years ago?”
I actually have an identical query for the Giants, who’re heading into one other season without playoff baseball: Is this franchise in a greater position than it was six years ago when Zaidi took over as head of baseball operations?
Zaidi took what I considered to be the worst job in baseball on the time. The major league rosters were reduced to minor leagues.
Now, six years later, the Major League roster continues to be mediocre – the record doesn't lie – and the farm system, which undoubtedly finished in the underside third of baseball in 2018, was ranked twenty second by MLB.com on Thursday.
Patrick Bailey and Tyler Fitzgerald (he has just over 200 at-bats in the most important leagues) are the one players who were added to the farm system by Zaidi and have developed into regular players.
A mediocre present without immediate hope for a greater future?
What is on the market here?
Of course, the Giants had a likelihood this week to prove that this team isn't the boring, mediocre unit it was for the primary 100-plus games of the season. They just got off to a winning streak (they've had just a few this season), beating three inferior teams to recover from .500 within the standings and inside legitimate striking distance of the third and final wild card spot within the National League, with the Braves – the team that has long held one among those wild card spots – coming to town for a four-game series.
The Giants have lost three of 4 games, with Thursday afternoon's 6-0 win preceded by three embarrassing losses that got here on the back of one other outstanding performance by their ace Webb.
The series loss puts the Giants at .500 this season, 3.5 games behind the Braves within the standings.
Can anyone ignore the looks, sounds and quacks anymore? Average teams all the time discover a way back to mediocrity.
For those that don't like math, I'll put it this manner: This isn’t a playoff team. It's the identical squad as before the transfer deadline, which was nowhere near adequate to compete seriously.
And next yr and the yr after that it can be the identical team.
Of course, there are greater than six weeks left within the season and the Giants can still assume that they’re “in the mix.” Perhaps my opinion will probably be as old as Zaidi's.
But when Zaidi took the helm, expectations for the team were still huge – as they all the time must be with one of the prestigious sports brands in one among North America's largest markets.
The goal back then was to compete with the rival Dodgers and fight for the World Series title.
Six years later, one thing has modified: Now the very best one can hope for—and the one thing the organization appears to be aiming for—is to be “interesting” in September.
It could be funny if it wasn't so sad.
Yes, this team is spinning on the road that leads nowhere. And it’s a road that has grow to be well traveled. That is not any longer acceptable or forgivable.
After six years of little to no change, we're hoping to see an enormous change within the offseason.
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