Your San Francisco Giants
So, the Giants swept the D-Backs last weekend. Abby and I took in our first game, which had Barry Zito throwing seven shutout innings and Barry Bonds hitting a second inning HR for the only run of the game. I have to say it looked like impressive ball, and it’s amazing what three games will do for the way one views their team.
All that being said, it’s impossible to spend too much time looking at this roster and feel it’s truly good. What is redonkulous is that the best “young” hitter on the team is Todd Linden who doesn’t have a starting gig and is likely up with the team at least as much because he’s out of options as because he’s earned his place in the show. Take a spin just through the NL West and you’ll see a litany of good young players – offensive players – that Brian Sabean hasn’t been able to develop. Note that these are promising and or established players UNDER THE AGE OF 30. Not too unreasonable to expect a few of these on your team:
Arizona: Stephen Drew, Conor Jackson, Chad Tracy, Carlos Quentin, Chris B. Young.
Colorado:Chris Ianetta, Garrett Atkins, Troy Tulowitzki, Matt Holliday, Jeff Baker, Brad Hawpe
Los Angeles Dodgers: Russell Martin, Wilson Betemit, Andre Ethier, Matt Kemp -- and frankly, Rafael Furcal and Juan Pierre qualify as well.
San Diego: Josh Bard, Marcus Giles, Adrian Gonzalez, Khalil Greene, Kevin Kouzmanoff.
The only offensive players at ALL on the Giants under the age of 30 are…
Eliezer Alfonzo, Lance Niekro, Todd Linden. Perhaps Niekro and Alfonzo are the equivalents of some of the names I’ve posted from other teams above. Certainly all those names won’t pan out to be studs, and some very well might be out of the league sooner than later. But all of these teams (and again, this is just the NL West but it’s the Giants, not the division, that’s the outlier here) have young hitters with promise. Regardless of what happens this season, being a D-Backs fan right now has a brighter future than being a Giants fan…and that’s just wrong.