What a bright sunshiny day in Giants land. Our boys push the Dodgers further down in the NL West race with a huge sweep, and Matt Cain finally gets his first win against them. I'm very giddy right now, but I confess that for most of the day it's a Pittsburgh Pirate that's been on my mind.
John Bowker is a popular guy among Giants fans, and at first I was upset about seeing him and Joe Martinez go to Pittsburgh and seeing Pirates reliever and Javier Lopez come through the door. I looked past Javier's shoulder, but to my disappointment nobody else was behind him. I was not too disappointed about Martinez being traded, because in my mind he doesn't have a lot of upside. But Bowker had the promise of power, something which, as a Giants fan, I salivate at the sight of. As a bullpen lefty, Javier Lopez does fill a need. And he did what he was supposed to do tonight. But bringing him on for the short term doesn't seem to be worth the departure of Bowker's long term bat.
It is easy to second guess a GM who has a track record of bringing in the one missing piece that ends up not fitting. However, since we can't predict what going to happen, I don't know if I should be more worried about the state of our farm system when we need offense in the future, or the state of our bullpen right now during the crucial months of August and September.
Long Term Me is arguing with Short Term Me about whether I'm justified being really upset about this trade. It's not an argument about whether or not this was a good trade. It wasn't really good because it's not an upgrade. It addressed the bullpen issue (possibly), but took away the solution to another need (possibly). Too much is up in the air, so the argument turns into whether we should smash things in in frustration or relax and let the chips fall where they may. Let's let Long Term Me and Short Term Me decide.
Long term me: Horrible trade. One of our best hitting prospects and a guy who could fill the 5-spot in the rotation in an emergency for a questionable middle reliever.
Short term me: WE SWEPT THE DODGERS!
LTM: Is that all you care about?
STM: YES!
LTM: Okay, good point, but weren't you just saying that we should fix our problems from within? We've been needing an offensive boost for years. Bowker could be that bat we need someday and he's gone. And would you stop writing in all caps and exclamation points?
STM: Fine, sorry. But why should I care about whether or not Bowker is not involved in this division title run we're in the midst of? He hasn't been involved so far and we're within striking distance of the Padres. Can you smell the title? It's right there in front of us! Especially now that we SWEPT THE DODGERS!
LGM: Bowker hasn't been involved because he only got 82 plate appearances and got sent down. He's going to be a 25-30 HR type guy someday. You watch. Once again, we're squandering our future for an non-guaranteed playoff run.
STM: Please, you said the same thing about Fred Lewis and we're fine without him. You want to know what's not guaranteed? John Bowker hitting 30 home runs. I know it's a shame he didn't get much of a chance, but look, it just wasn't going to work out between the two sides. Accept it. It's like a breakup - it's not you, it's me, blah blah blah. And besides, WE SWEPT THE DODGERS!
LGM: Yeah? Well what if we don't win the NL West or the wild card? Then, we've lost some potential power and you're going to come crawling back to seeing things my may.
STM: What if we don't? We still have some good pieces in place. It's kind of dramatic to say we're totally devoid of any prospects now. We have Brandon Belt and Thomas Neal waiting in the wings to give us that offensive boost. Belt will probably make you forget all about Bowker during his inevitable September call up. Also, I don't know if I've mentioned this, but, WE SWEPT THE DODGERS!
LTM: I'm not saying we're devoid of any prospects now. My issue is that we gave away something and got virtually nothing. And speaking of those Dodgers, they just had a better trade deadline than we did and that worries me going into the home stretch.
STM: You always worry. The Dodgers still have plenty of problems they haven't addressed. Plus, they had to get rid of their best catching prospect to make those moves you seem to envy. You need to chill, dude. Our first playoff appearance in six years might happen and you won't even enjoy it.
LTM: Well, I care about our future and it might be at risk. As far as the playoffs? We'll see.
STM: We'll see.
Nice post. Not sure if the Padres will hang on and I am not sure if the Giants will continue their series streak. However, one thing I am sure is that the Dodgers have been beating up on the Giants like a middle child and now have become too complacent or prideful and are starting to look like Achilles...
ReplyDeleteAs far as the trade: Not bad, but not great and you don't know about Bowker doing well. He was optioned to AAA anyway. As for the Dodgers are concerned, they've hit bottom and they can fall into last if this continues. Baseball is a funny game. As my grandmother used to say, "the ball is round."
I think the Giants have a nice solid young team, as do the A's. Baseball is looking good for the Bay. However thing I hate most about baseball is after all the trades are done the Yankees have once again bought a solid shot at another WS. If they don't make it then another big spending team like the Rangers probably will. Until there is a cap on spending hard working teams like the A's and Giants will not get a shot. I mean sure every now and again that won't be true but be a team like the Yanks or Braves who is there every year your owner has to spend like there is no tomorrow. With salaries get more and more out of hand I feel like things are going to get uglier before they get better. At least the giants will spend unlike the A's.
ReplyDeleteP.S. Tell the Giants to pull the stick out of their ass and let the A's take SJ.
Once the Giants hire me on as a consultant like they should, I will tell them! Then... I will probably be fired.
ReplyDeleteHey Mick - I don't know if Bowker would've done well or poorly. I know he was able to make adjustments and improve consistently in AAA, and I felt like he might have been able to do the same in the bigs had he gotten more of a chance than 82 plate appearances while platooning in the outfield. The Giants obviously didn't feel that way. I think they'll be fine this season and have a good chance at the playoffs, but Bowker is someone I was looking forward to watching develop into some long-term success on the team
ReplyDelete