The Lunatic Fringe

Well, say what you will about the trade deadline, at least we got to watch Jim Bowden implode on Twitter.

Throughout it all, there were a few Giants rumors.  But in the end, there were no Giants trades to sate Giants fans, and there was much complaining.

What, did you expect anything else?  There would’ve been complaining for any realistic trade that could’ve been completed.

Here, however, I’ll give you two reasons that it’s better for the Giants to have sat this one out:

1. This Team Sucks

Well, right now they do.

If you look at the way this team played the last week, can you honestly say that this team deserves an upgrade?  It needs one, sure, but is worthy of it?  And what upgrade is going to fix this team?

The top players on this market were pitchers (at least, they were until Billy Beane decided that Yoenis Cespedes was on the market).  But as rough as the pitching was, this team needed hitting more.  The top center fielder on the market was, uh…Chris Denorfia.  Denorfia has a .319 on-base percentage this season….oh, wait, that’s his slugging percentage.  So, uh, the options weren’t great for center fielders.

The market for second basemen had a better time.  Asdrubal Cabrera was out there, but it took a 24-year old minor league infielder with a .965 OPS and moderate power over the last couple of years to nail him…and the Giants didn’t exactly have a hitting prospect to match that.  Maybe you could’ve convinced them about Hector Sanchez a year ago, but he hasn’t been so hot this year.  And Cabrera still had a .692 OPS.  That’s a lot better than the Giants’ .534 OPS out of their second basemen this year, but worth a middle-level prospect?

Supposedly, Emilio Bonafacio was available as well.  At least he would’ve been a leadoff guy that would’ve let Hunter Pence move back into the middle of the lineup…well, more middle, anyway…but he wasn’t exactly special.  And the Cubs didn’t end up moving him. EDIT: So, apparently the Cubs did move him to the Braves. I must’ve missed that move in all the Price-ness.

There were other hitters.  Amusingly, much of the deadline day, the Giants were rumored to be in on Alex Rios.  The same Rios that was once suggested to be traded for Lincecum straight up.  Rios’ value has oscillated wildly, but mostly, the problem was wondering where he’d play.  He wouldn’t replace Pence.  Michael Morse seems to be coming out of his funk.  And Rios in center is probably a worse idea than Morse out there.  Plus, with Belt apparently close to returning, you can’t move Morse to first.

So, yeah.  There weren’t a lot of great fits.  None that, singlehandedly, would’ve turned this team around.  So why spend the money?

2. This Team Will Suck

This is to say that, the Giants farm system isn’t the best right now.  There aren’t a lot of good prospects down there.  And this manifests into this side of the argument in two ways: the team doesn’t have a lot of prospects to trade with, and they have very few players likely to help them in the near future.

While most of the top hitting prospects seem to be getting their shots to help the big league team now (Welcome to the big leagues, Matt Duffy!), the best prospects the Giants have had are pitching prospects.  After trading the (in my opinion overrated) Edwin Escobar, Kyle Crick looks more and more important down there in Richmond.  Crick is the clear Giants’ top prospect, and he’s really turning it around after a rough start to the year (Until Thursday, giving up four earned runs and going just one inning).

And this all becomes much more important with the recent injury to Matt Cain.  Even with good news, sort of, that he won’t need Tommy John surgery this year, just possibly season-ending surgery to remove bone chips, there’s questions about the rotation next season.  And once again, there are rotation questions.  At the end of the year, Jake Peavy and Ryan Vogelsong will be free agents.  After 2015, add in Tim Lincecum and Tim Hudson.  That leaves Matt Cain (if healthy) and Madison Bumgarner signed for the long term.  Having young pitchers that could come up and take up a spot or two would make a lot of difference.  Trading them away for Asdrubal Cabrera?  Well, that just seems wasteful.

Sure, the Giants’ system is littered with moderately interesting prospects.  Clayton Blackburn is the consistently underwhelming but effective control pitcher, and the best performing of the prospects.  Former first round pick Chris Stratton is the consistently underwhelming power pitcher who gave up a lot of runs but got a lot of strikeouts.  Recent first round pick Tyler Beede just made his debut last night, with one inning that had two strikeouts and two walks.  But you can’t exactly count on all of them making it, either.

With a pretty uncertain present team, and a future that doesn’t have a lot of depth, it might have been better for the Giants to hold pat.

On the other hand, you could be an A’s fan.  I wonder if they’ll look at Addison Russell in three years and have a quiet, painful longing.  Hell, I wonder if they’ll look that way at Cespedes in three weeks.  Imagine if the Giants had traded Matt Williams…but did it in July, in a season they were contending.

Billy Beane better hope his gamble pays off, or else there will be a lot of Russell-less and Lester-less and Samardzija-less and Milone-less years for him to go through.

Don’t worry Giants fans, at least the Dodgers fans are also sitting there wondering why nothing happened.  The Price was Wrong, Bob!  (I’m imagining I’m talking to a Dodgers fan named Bob…)

Also, LOL Phillies.  What the heck were you guys thinking?