At the beginning of the baseball season, I look at the local Mariners, and I looked at my Giants, and saw two similar teams: Good-to-great pitching and sub-par offense. The biggest difference I saw at the time was in the front office: The M’s had Jack Zduriencik, known as an excellent talent evaluator who was embracing the shift towards pitching, defense, and NL-style play of scratching out runs. The Giants had Brian Sabean…the nemesis. Where Zduriencik brought in Cliff Lee and Chone Figgins, the Giants brought in Aubrey Huff and Todd Wellemeyer; Z swaps all 600 pounds of Carlos Silva and his $48 million contract for boom-or-bust Milton Bradley, Sabean re-signs Bengie Molina.
Fast-forward to August. The M’s have the 2nd worst record in the AL and have canned their manager. Cliff Lee? Gone for prospects. The clubhouse that was so loose and likable? Not so much with the happy. The lauded defense? Tied for twenty-third in the league.
The Giants? Well, this team looks a lot like last years team. Aubrey Huff has worked out quite nicely.
Seriously, how can you not like this guy?
The Buster Posey era has *finally* begun in earnest, and while Tim Lincecum hasn’t had the numbers we’re used to, Madison Bumgarner has picked up the slack lately, and the pitching is, overall quite good. Todd Wellemeyer has been mercifully buried, Bengie is a Ranger, and the Giants are nipping at San Diego’s heels.
It’s quite a bizarro turnaround from my preseason expectations, but sometimes, it’s good to be wrong.
