Baseball Economics

While home over Thanksgiving break, I was listening to KNBR when Ralph Barbieri raised a very interesting question that I'd never really considered. He asked why we, as fans, care about how much money our front office spends. Shouldn't we be happy when our management shells out the big bucks to obtain players they think will help us win?

The answer is that every fan feels like he can run the team in his own way, and often make better decisions than the current GM in place. This is definitely not true, especially if you're a fan of say, the Oakland Athletics. I guarantee you that you could not run the team any better than Billy Beane has magically run the squad. The man is simply a genius.

On the other hand, while I'm not naive enough to think I could run the Giants any better than Brian Sabean, I do have to question the current plan of action. It's fairly apparent that the team has been morgaging the future for the past 8 years in an attempt to win now with Barry Bonds. After all, the Giants farm system has been completely gutted of the few prospects it hass had (Jason Grilli, Kurt Ainsworth, Boof Bonser, Francisco Liriano, etc.) . The last homegrown everyday position-player Giant (until Pedro Feliz this season)? Bill Mueller, who conveniently retired this offseason. Yikes.

So while it's easy to see that a team of 40-somethings really cannot be counted on to lead a team everyday, the bigger issue is where the direction of the franchise is headed. The Giants have done everything possible to distance themselves from Barry Bonds this offseason - throwing over $100 million to Carlos Lee, $50 million to Gary Matthews, Jr., $34 million at Juan Pierre - only to be rebuked each time. Luckily, Sabean has gotten bailed out each time from making a stupid decision; he's gotten lucky each time not to commit a large chunk of money to players that just aren't that valauble.

That's the dangerous proposition with this year's fairly weak free agent class. Adam Eaton, he who has never won more than 11 games in a season, just picked up $24 million over 3 years. Juan Pierre, a singles hitter with declining wheels just received a five year contract at $9 million per. Gary Matthews, a perennial underachieving bust, had one great contract season, and was able to rake in $10 million a year until he turns 37. And while Carlos Lee is a one of the most underrated bats in baseball, the Giants offered him more money than they ever paid the most dominant player of the modern era (a certain #25).

The bucks don't stop there. Utilitymen Frank Catalanatto and Mark DeRosa each raked in $13 million contracts that extend until their mid-30's; Alex Gonzalez, he who cannot hit, pulled in a similar deal ($14 million for 3 years). Randy Wolf, who hasn't been completely healthy in a good 3 seasons, picks up $8 million for a year of service. This is simply disgusting.

The Giants will probably end up signing Dave Roberts at ~$5 million a year for 3 seasons, which will give them both a poor man's Randy Winn (Dave Roberts) and a poor man's Dave Roberts (Randy Winn). They will also probably sign Rich Aurilia to a short contract to shore up the infield, and continue making a ludicrous run at Manny Ramirez. What the hell is going on?

Basically, I've supported Sabean the past 8 seasons or so because he really didn't have the flexibility to look towards the future with the Bonds anchor parked in McCovey Cove. Now that the Giants have to face the reality of no #25 in the long-term plans, he's lost his best tradeable pieces (Ray Durham, Jason Schmidt) to free agency and his best future pieces (Liriano, Bonser) to bring in the guys who he can't trade anymore. Sabean stayed the course, stuck to his gameplan, and we Giants fans were lucky enough to root for some excellent teams. But the times have changed, and here's my plan to fix the Giants.

1. Resign Barry Bonds for one more year
While it's obvious that Bonds is a shadow of his former self, he's still a menacing presence in the middle of the lineup if he can be had for around $10 million a season. At the very least, he deserves to be in San Francisco, with the only fans who can truly appreciate his talents, as he makes a run at 755. Barry deserves it and we deserve it. Oh yeah, lest you forget, he had a .999 OPS last season, good for 4th in the NL last season.

2. Give the youngsters a chance
Eliezer Alfonzo, Todd Linden, Kevin Frandsen. These three have bounced between the big leagues the past couple of seasons, but now is the time for them to earn and hang onto their jobs. You can't develop without at-bats, and these three have shown enough potential to earn them. I'd like to see some other young bats get a chance; the problem being that there aren't any.

3. Save money, restock prospects
The details on the free agent market are simply grotesque. The Giants should not get involved with an ugly weight on their payroll similar to the ones given to former players (i.e. Edgardo Alfonzo). Remember the Cleveland Indians of a few years ago? When they sensed their fall was coming, they shipped players like Bartolo Colon and stockpiled prospects like Grady Sizemore. Now they're reloaded and ready to contend in the mighty AL. The Giants need to refrain from quick-fix, big money solutions, and attempt to stockpile young talent instead. How they will obtain such young talent, I have absolutely no idea, since they have no tradeable pieces left.

Yes, these will bring some ugly times. But as the Giants will need to face the light sometime, and they can continue to develop the arms that will help make this rotation one of the best in the NL in a few seasons (Cain, Lowry, Sanchez, etc.) . And saving money now will enable the Giants to actually sign their own players worth retaining (Cain, Alfonzo, etc.) as well as making serious runs for players that actually are worth the money.

Just don't spend the money on the Adam Eatons of the world. That's the easy way out.