Giantsblog

The Giants and Barry Zito agreed to a huge seven year, $126 million deal yesterday and with Zito passing the physical today, all of the i’s have been dotted and the t’s have been crossed.  On the face of things, I should be happy because the Giants have a stud pitcher.  For some obvious reasons though, I’m not happy.

For one thing, it never seems like the Giants have a plan.  Both the Zito and Barry Bonds signing make the Giants better, but we also lost Jason Schmidt and Moises Alou.  So going into 2007, Bonds will have no protection and I don’t really think Zito will be that much of an upgrade over Jason Schmidt.  In fact it wouldn’t surprise me if over the next five years, Schmidt ends up having the better numbers.

So while adding Zito is definitely a positive as it stands, I don’t think it’s enough to put the Giants over the top so why spend all the money right now.   Maybe Brian Sabean has a long term plan nobody else can see but based on past seasons, I’m thinking not. 

The Giants signed first baseman Ryan Klesko to a one year, $1.75 million deal.  They’ll probably work out some kind of platoon situation between Klesko and Aurilia.  I guess I like this signing.  Klesko didn’t play hardly at all last year after shoulder surgery and he’ll turn 36 during the season, but he’s a patient hitter with some pop.  He has a career 771/1009 walk to strikeout ratio and he has a career .372 OBP.  His best years are behind him but he should give the Giants a nice left handed option at first base.

My name is Andy Monaghan and I’ll be covering the Giants for the Baseball Historians network.  It’s been tough being a Giants fan.  They’ve never won in my lifetime, had a chance in 2002 but didn’t come through, and I’m not very optimistic about 2007.  Regardless, the Giants are my team.  My dad grew up in New York and has fond memories of the Polo Grounds and his love for the team was contagious.

My favorite player growing up was Will Clark and I have fond memories of those teams that Roger Craig managed.  If I had to pick a favorite player on the 2007 team, I’d have to say Matt Cain, who I think has a bright future.  There are a lot of great Giants blogs out there, but my personal favorite is Only Baseball Matters.  John blends a nice combination of good writing and passion into each of his posts and you can tell he really cares about his team.

I’ll also be going back and examing the Giants past and what a  past they have.  They made their National League debut in 1883 and they’re the only team to refuse to play to in a World Series (1904).  They won their last World Series in 1954 but their brightest period was the 1920s when they won four straight pennants and two straight World Series.  I’ll go back and look at some of these historic teams and I’ll also being doing a year by year retrospective of Willie Mays.