Giants 2008 / 2009

The Giants 2008 season is now officially in the books. We the fans, have had a few weeks to reflect on the entire season. There is no question that William Neukom, the new managing general partner, and the entire front office has much work to do as they begin to focus to improve the 2009 Giants.

In a resent report by Giants beat reporter, Chris Haft, noted that Neukom realizes the impact of free agency for the short term verses investing more in homegrown talent to make the Giants perennial contenders.

With the use 24 rookies this season, and lacking the “big bat” the Giants were 31-21 one run games. Largely impart because of the Tim Lincecum, Matt Cain, and the starting rotation.

The Giants are much better off today going into this off season than we were last year at this time. Granted they have many of the same needs but little was known about the kind of talent Giants organization had in the minor leagues. Often it was said the Giants had mortgaged there future by trading minor leaguers for proven veteran with the hope of “winning now”. That philosophy did not work.

Pablo Sandoval (catcher-infielder), Emmanuel Burriss (infielder), John Bowker (first baseman-outfielder), Eugenio Velez (outfielder), Nate Schierholtz (outfielder), Alex Hinshaw (reliever) and Sergio Romo (reliever) showed there potential. The question is if they will continue to develop. Furthermore, there is still some great young talent still to appear 2009, with the likes of Buster Posey and Conor Gillaspie.

The Giants finished just one game better than that of the previous year, but they appeared to have coalesced as team. This is essential element that seemed to have been missing that past few years. Just look at the 2007 Colorado Rockies and the 2008 Tampa Bay Devil Rays.

Giants have certainly turned the page. Lets just hope Neukom does not resort to the quick and often expensive fix by reading past chapters.

Being a Southern California resident, the most difficult part of this season is that the LA Dodgers are still playing.

On a personal note, I would also like to thank Chris Haft for his outstanding reporting. He has done a great job during this difficult time, the past few season.