The Giants opened up 1998 by signing Rey Sanchez and closed it by signing Trevor Wilson. In between, they traded for, among other dim lights, the execrable Alvin Morman. Despite such the acquisition of such questionable talent, they still managed to win 89 games in 1998.

Giant fans started out the year certain that the Marlins' fire sale was helping the competition (especially the Padres) far more than it was helping the Giants. They ended the year gasping in horror at how the spending frenzy taking place in Los Angeles, Arizona and (to a lesser extent) Colorado was going to make it impossible for the team to compete. In between, they still managed to play in a wild-card playoff game.

None of this is to suggest that Giant fans were wrong, or that the team had a really great year. I guess it more points out just what a strange year 1998 was for the San Francisco Giants. Not bad, and yet at times pretty bad. Not great, but for a few moments very great indeed.

Let's hope 1999 is no worse than more of the same. Better would be good, but I'm not sure any Giant fans would be in favor of a clearer, more consistent result if it were going to be a clear stinker, such as we endured in 1995 or 1996.

And for goodness sakes, no more Joe Carter trades.

More significant, at least at the time, was the reaction of the press to the reaction of Barry Bonds to the Kevin Brown signing which we so thoroughly discussed in our last installment. Now, Barry is never one to think before he talks, nor is he ever one to get a fair deal from the local media. Thus, the following from Grant:

"Here's a quote:

"'I think (the Giants') intention is to keep Barry, and Barry's intention is to win a World Series in San Francisco,' (Bonds' agent) said. 'If both sides think it's not possible, Barry will agree to take off his handcuffs (the no-trade clause) for the Giants.'

"Here's the lead for the story containing the quote [in the San Francisco Examiner, by the way -- RB]:

"'Barry Bonds has preached for years about wanting to retire a Giant. Now he's not so sure.

"'Now he's prepared to drop his no-trade clause and play for a team with a better chance for a World Series, his agent said Sunday.'

"I'm rather surprised the headline didn't read: 'Bonds Demands Trade, Burns Orphanage!'"

As the story was more fairly presented in other local media, Bonds did not demand a trade. Instead, he offered to waive the no-trade clause in his contract if the Giants wanted to trade him to a contender. While I'm sure Bonds would have no desire to remain in San Francisco if the franchise was going to tank it and start to dump salaries, that is not what he or his agent said. It is, however, what the Examiner appeared to want its readers to think.

"The lead Grant provides is bloody typical," sniffed Gregg. "Why not just call the guy a traitor?"

Anson pondered the underlying message from Bonds. "I wonder if he really means it. The Giants have sucked ever since after his first year here, and he said he wants to retire as a Giant. Now that the Giants finally put two decent years together and a new ball park about to open, he wants to leave? I think he's just blowing smoke."

Gregg replied "I'm not sure one way or the other. I think that, in a way, he's trying to light a fire under management, challenging them to take some steps to keep up with the other teams in the division. On the other hand, maybe he does want out, and maybe the whole 'You aren't even trying to win' thing is a smokescreen because he knows someone somewhere else will pay him more money. I'd prefer to believe that he just wants to win, but who knows?"

Last year, Barry also attempted to influence front office deliberations when he offered to defer some of his salary into the future if the Giants would spend it on acquiring offensive talent. Sadly, the meaning of the gesture got lost in the reaction to the economics of his proposal (he wanted it all deferred at an interest rate of over 10%, which made it look to some more as if he were running a money scam as opposed to trying to help the team) and nothing ever came from it. But the meaning of his actions at the time, at least to me, was clearly that he wanted the Giants to do whatever they could to win, and he was willing to help them to do so, at least at some level. I think I agree with Gregg that this was probably his goal again this year. In fact, I suspect we will experience these episodes with Barry each offseason until (a) he retires, (b) the Giants win a World Series or (c) they finally do trade him. Hopefully it won't ever come down to (c), and it apparently won't this year because Sabean immediately said that Bonds wasn't going anywhere.

In the meantime, you can always count on some in the media to give Barry a less than fair shake, as Gregg pointed out when he said "Found this somewhere. Here you go."

I DON'T LIKE BARRY BONDS

Some Columnist
Bay Area Newspaper
December 15, 1998

I don't like Barry Bonds. I've never spoken with him or even been within 200 feet of him, but I've never liked him. He's arrogant. He rips the media -- he calls us 'you guys.' He thinks he deserves the world on a silver platter. I know this because I've read it in the papers. I know this because I've written it in the papers.

I don't like him because he's never single-handedly led the San Francisco Giants to a World Championship. I don't like him because he's such a wuss that he'll very wussily hit reasonably well for 162 games (albeit with tons of wussy walks -- swing the bat, you big wuss!), then magically disappear after that. Hey, Barry! Hel-lo-ooooo! Not everybody gets to go home after the regular season's over, huh?

I don't like him because he hits his game-winning home runs in the first inning -- or, if we're lucky, the third, but never the ninth. Game-tying home runs don't count. Game-tying singles? Even worse, 'cause you could have homered, but chose not to. Bases-loaded walk wins the game? Big deal. Only a wuss wouldn't be swinging for a grand slam.

I don't like him because I don't buy his act about wanting to retire a Giant. Hey, fine with me Barry -- go ahead, retire now, goathead, because you're an overpaid suck.

I don't like him because he puts his personal goals ahead of those of the team, which we know because of his assertion -- relayed by his agent, whose name isn't Boras but is close enough -- that his primary goal is to win a World Series. I see. So getting that damn ring is more important to you than your team?

[The ultimate Bonds-basher's knock: Barry Bonds puts winning ahead of his own team, the cretin! -- RB]

I don't like him because he causes me to make idiotic, insupportable arguments that result in me looking like a blabbering ying-yang. And now look what he's done: he's made me run out of steam. The wuss!

As you can see, EEEEEE!'s reputation always precedes it.

By the way, this is probably as good a place as any to memorialize the fact that R.E. Graswich is ending his Sacramento Bee sports column. He has now graduated to writing a 3-dot-style column for that bastion of American journalism, which is kind of a bummer for the fine people of Sacramento but a nice thing for Giant fans. Nobody could write worse or more unfair vitriol about Barry Bonds than old R.E. [Which I'm sure Graswich sees as a badge of honor. -- GP], though the San Francisco Chronicle's Bruce Jenkins is surely giving it the old college try.

Julie, who lives in the Sacramento area and thus has had a long-standing exposure to R.E., summed him up: "For me the highlight of the R.E. watch was the time that Olden Polynice, then of the Sacramento Kings (remember the NBA?), whacked him but good in the locker room. Why, I don't remember (O.P. was a bit of a jerk) -- but I'm sure it was just because R.E. was being his usual self. He was just as negative about the Kings as about the Giants (if not more so)."

Gregg noted, "Of course, when I first read [the post with this news in it] I thought, 'Well, who am I gonna complain about?' But then I remembered: R.E., sadly, is just another brick in the wall...."

I'm sure Bob Smizik is out there, somewhere, just waiting to pounce.

"Yet another stunning example of how that selfish Bonds tries to put himself above the team goals," raged Bill. "I tell you, I'm sick of it!

Actually, I was momentarily sort of taken by the vision of Henderson in left, Bonds in center and Ellis Burks in right. That's a far cry from what was patrolling out there with Barry in the dark years of 1995-96. Still, I am not sure I could ever warm up to Henderson as a Giant. Orel Hershiser was hard enough, and I probably have even worse baggage in my feelings about Rickey. [Bear in mind, too, that Hershiser was merely declined arbitration. He's not quite gone yet. -- GP]

Anson wrote "No one should question Bonds' desire to win, but I have to question his judgment, though. He seems to be obsessed with these over-the-hill guys. First Bobby Bonilla [last offseason -- RB], now Henderson. These guys suck and they cost too much."

Brian responded "Anyone who has a near .400 OBP and 66 steals hardly sucks. And the Mets got Henderson for about $2 million, peanuts for a guy that good. Compare to our options and it's a no-brainer."

Well, maybe. However, again, I'm not sure I could stand to see the guy out there every day for a full season, just on general principle. On the other hand, I could get tired of a Bernard/Rios tag team very quickly if neither pans out this year, which is certainly very possible and maybe even likely.

I guess one thing we can take for granted, though, is that Barry Bonds is a complete advocate of Brian Sabean's Proven Major Leaguer theory. Bonilla and Henderson are almost poster children for the whole concept. Heaven forbid that we should ever put someone with mere potential out there.

Grant broke the best news. "This is from Henry Schulman [of the San Francisco Chronicle]: '... the Giants almost certainly will not offer arbitration to Alvin Morman....'"

Ah, an early Christmas present, wrapped in a nice bow and placed right next to the Rey Sanchez-leaving-the-Giants package.

In the Giants newsgroup's fine tradition of taking things well past their logical conclusion, Grant continued: "How would've that arbitration session gone?" He offers:

Giants: We offer him two bags of Doritos to pitch batting practice to Mr. Sabean's nephew.

Morman's agent: Well, he certainly is worth one bag, at least.

Arbitrator: My decision is that Morman will receive no payment, but will be allowed to write a song about Doritos, should he ever become musically inclined, in exchange for his agreement to sneak into the Dodgers' clubhouse and pour Liquid Heat into the jockstraps of the team, a la Revenge of the Nerds.

Erik could not resist the opportunity to draft up a version of the new Doritos song. [Warning -- haiku alert!]

"Cool Ranch or Nacho?
Either way, zesty goodness --
Mostly on fingers.

Perhaps that's the deal
With Morman: zesty goodness
Makes seams hard to grip.

"Yes, that's the same team that swallowed Rey Sanchez," noted Jonathan.

Man, one might conclude that the Royals are going to be a really poor team next year. And a very hard-up team this year.

Anyway, let's see. In the course of one month:

• The Giants successfully dumped Rey Sanchez

• The Giants successfully dumped Alvin Morman

• It snowed in the Bay Area for the first time in over 20 years (well, it did)

This makes me fear that a comet must be about to slam into the Earth and destroy all life as we know it. Otherwise, this many good things could not possibly happen for Giant fans in such a short period of time.

Anson asked "So maybe you can say Sabean has been a great GM."

Well, I doubt if he had much to do with the snow. Plus, the fact that he sought out those two idiots is one of the biggest reasons I've been so down on him in the first place.

Anson replied "Well, Morman was just a tag-along in the trade, and Sanchez seemed like a decent prospect at first, decent defense at least. As far as the snow... he did re-sign him, didn't he?"

The "snow" line was funny enough that I would let Anson have the last word of this exchange, except for that comment about Sanchez. As Jesse so aptly responded "Rey Sanchez -- redefining 'Prospect'!"

[Let me mention here that Osvaldo eventually signed a minor league deal with the Giants -- RB]

[No. This is my website, so you're not allowed to mention it. -- GP]

"Goodbye Brian. We won't forget you. Two great months, and most of all one of the greatest moments in baseball history. First pitch, 12th inning.

"He's a reasonable player, and could easily wind up with a few more productive years somewhere, although I think Sabean is doing the right thing. But we'll miss him.

"Good luck, Brian Johnson."

Jon R. added, "And don't forget the dramatic homer he hit against the Rockies. You may remember... it was the last game of the road trip following the homestand with the two-game Dodger series. As a longtime Giants fan, that Dodger series and all the rest of the remaining '97 games (I think there were about nine of them) were some of the most memorable baseball moments for me. The Giants pulled it off, while the Dodgers went into the tank the last week and a half of the season; Brian Johnson was a big part of the whole thing."

This is sad to me. First of all, those were two wonderful moments. We all remember where we were when Johnson hit the home run against the Dodgers, but for the Rockies game, I actually took a radio into a meeting with one of my consulting clients and was listening to it while we worked. As it got more intense, I finally bagged working and walked out to my car, arriving just in time to hear Johnson's homer. A real thrill, and the exact moment I actually began to believe the Giants were going to pull the 1997 season out.

But this is also sad because after providing some real hope, Johnson appears as though he will end up being yet another catcher washout for the Giants. This position has not been well manned for quite a while now. However, Jonathan continued, "Putting on my analysis hat instead of my sentiment hat... I'd rather go into the year with [Brent] Mayne and [Doug] Mirabelli than Mayne and Johnson. I'm assuming the salary difference is on the order of about $1.5 million; that's a guess, but otherwise I would think he would have stayed.

"I think Mirabelli is the best hitter of the three. If he isn't, and he stinks as of June 1, then dump him and trade for a $3 million catcher on a team that's out of it; that should yield an overall better result. Jesse Levis got picked up, so I'm not aware of any guys I like out there. Alas, Terry Steinbach is available, and I'm afraid that he's a Sabean type. Johnson's better than Steinbach."

Well, I guess I'm kind of expecting the Giants to re-sign Johnson. They can still negotiate with him (unlike Orel), and who is going to drop big bucks on him after last year? I figure after a month or two, they'll fall back into each other's arms. Whether that would be a good thing is still to be determined.

Gregg was not as optimistic about Doug Mirabelli's offensive prowess. "I'm just not sure the guy can hit at all. He sounds a hell of a lot like Kirt Manwaring to me, really. I mean, Mirabelli seems to have more power, but heck, Manwaring shoulda had more power, given his build. The most amazing thing to me is that Mirabelli is substantially slower than Manwaring, which is impossible."

However, Jonathan said "No, he's not a Manwaring. He's a low-BA, good secondary skills hitter. His last three minor league seasons:

      AVG     OBP      SP
     .295    .419    .521
     .265    .384    .419
     .260    .386    .468

     .214    .313    .357

[Quick note: Not to dispute or otherwise take issue with the numbers Jonathan provided for Mirabelli's PCL days, but I am curious, with the Triple-A ranks having been restructured, if we'll be able to make the same generalizations about the PCL, which includes lots of teams based in cities nowhere near the Pacific Coast -- even more than usual. -- GP] Well, there is always the future. Gregg wrote "Jack Hiatt was on KNBR a couple Saturdays back, talking about the minor leaguers (since this is his job). Raved about Giuseppe Chiaramonte, whom he called 'Gino.' Didn't mention Yorvit Torrealba."

Of course, only Yorvit has made his way onto the 40-man roster.

In a less serious vein, several members of the Giants newsgroup speculated that the Giants might want to solve the catching problem by bringing back Terry Kennedy, who recently was named a minor league manager in the Montreal system. Jesse speculated on the negotiation between Montreal GM Jim Beattie and our own Brian Sabean that might lead to this:

"Jim Beattie: Hello?

Brian Sabean: Hey.

JB: Oh! (excited)

BS: It's Brian Sabean.

JB: Yeah. I guessed. (Grinning in anticipation)

BS: So, we're looking for a proven veteran. A major league talent. At catcher.

JB: How about Terry Kennedy?

BS: I dunno, Jim.

JB: I'll tell you what: he's so experienced, we made him the manager of one of our minor league teams!

BS: How's his intangibles?

JB: Great!

BS: Clubhouse presence?

JB: Off the charts!

BS: What do you want for him?

JB: I dunno. What about Julian Tavarez?

BS: No. I saw him on TV one time, in the World Series with the Indians, you know -- John's team?

JB: Yeah.

BS: Yeah. Nice guy that John, he bought me linguini one time. He sent me an "I Know You're Not An Idiot" card. Traded me a relief pitcher with closer make-up. That table guy. Anyway...

JB: How about your entire farm system?

BS: All of it? I don't know about that, Jim.

JB: I'll throw in Ken Oberkfell...

BS: We do need a proven veteran bench guy... you've got a deal!

JB: Great!

BS: Great!"

The Giants avoided arbitration with Rich Aurilia by signing him to a two-year contract.

Jonathan noted "This is good news. They should've gone three or four years (and then let him walk), but at least we'll get his peak cheap. If he's allowed to play."

Earlier, John G. had culled the following from The Sporting News, which had honored Wilson Delgado as the Giants' Minor League Player of the Year:

"SAN FRANCISCO GIANTS: Wilson Delgado, SS: Wilson Delgado has always been known for his defense, but this season began to display some offense at Class AAA Fresno. Delgado hit .277 and set career-highs in runs (87), hits (142), homers (12) and RBIs (63). Delgado is a switch-hitter and showed improved discipline at the plate by increasing his walk total from 24 to 52. Delgado is a smooth fielder with excellent range and an above-average arm. He will likely be San Francisco's starting shortstop next season."

"Frightening. I guess Aurilia can't play here if he doesn't have some ex-Cub to beat out," Gregg grumped.

[Boy. Earlier I "sniffed." I guess this works out okay, though, 'cause I've been suffering a bit from allergies and/or a cold, so I've been sniffing and grumpy lately. -- GP]

Well, I don't have anything against Wilson Delgado, but I do hope this contract now means that Aurilia will be given the shortstop job for the next year or so. Or, at least, that he gets a chance to hold down the job before they try to give it away to some low-ability player like Rey Sanchez or Shawon Dunston once again.

There was quite a lot of movement of recent and former Giant farm hands. The Diamondbacks signed Dan Carlson and Desi Wilson to minor-league deals and the Royals (again!) signed pitchers Ricky Pickett and Joe Roa to minor-league deals.

Gregg said "I didn't know Roa was out."

Neither did I, but as Jonathan noted "Carlson and Roa are exactly replacement-level fifth starters, far as I can see; no harm in losing them, but good pickups for invites. Roa was out as a six-year free agent, I believe. The two guys we got [Greg Hansell and Bronswell Patrick] are just as good as either of them. Brock too. As near as I can tell, they all are pretty much the same; none are going to be stars, but any of them could have a couple good years, and there's no way to tell in advance which will make it and which won't."

Roa, of course, came over in the Matt Williams trade. It always seemed like he should have gotten a better shot at making the big leagues than he did, though in fairness, he didn't do all that much when he was here.

And man, what is up with the Royals? They must have the worst farm system in baseball if they are stocking up on our rejects.

To complete the trade for pitcher Felix Rodriguez, the Giants sent pitcher Troy Brohawn and outfielder Chris Van Rossum to the Arizona Diamondbacks.

This surprised me a bit, because I thought Brohawn was in the Giants' plans. However, John Sickels, in his recent evaluation of the Giants' farm system for ESPN.com, did not mention Brohawn at all (the top four pitching prospects he mentioned were Jason Grilli, Scott Linebrink, Joe Nathan and Nate Bump), so perhaps he wasn't.

Ron, the self styled "Fresno Grizzlies Know-It-All" said of Brohawn, "he seemed to be an up-and-coming pitcher [who] had a decent season at AAA and was on the 40-man roster."

"I saw Brohawn pitch on a televised Fox Sports broadcast last year," countered Daniel. "He looked pretty average. His stuff was a lot like Alan Watson's, only he didn't throw as hard. The reason they wanted Rodriguez is because he throws 98 miles an hour. That's a steal in my book."

Let's hope he's right.

After getting pretty close to arbitration (something the Giants have not done much of in recent years), the team re-signed John Johnstone to a one-year, $692,500 contract.

I am not a big fan of Johnstone, but I will admit that he did have a pretty good year last year. Early in the year he was close to untouchable, but he came back down to earth fairly hard as the season rolled on. No doubt much of that stemmed from Dusty Baker's usual practice of riding a hot reliever until his arm falls off. In 88 innings over 70 games, he was 6-5 with a 3.07 ERA and 86 strikeouts against 38 bases on balls, so this is probably a wise signing.

This news was brought to us by Henry, who is the same Henry who covers the Giants for the San Francisco Chronicle. He wrote "Sorry I haven't taken part much here [in the Giants newsgroup] lately. Toward the end of every season I get so sick of baseball I try to avoid it as much as I can (outside of what I have to do to get a paycheck, of course)."

I am always tickled by people who feel the need to apologize when they don't post regularly. Of course, I do the same thing whenever I go off on vacation, but it does beg the question of, Why?

Anyway, Clayton noted, "Especially given the end of this last season, I would think any rational being would want to give it a rest for a while. But alas, the price of being a Giants fan was never cheap (to liberally paraphrase somebody)...."

With this, I heartily agree. 1998 was not an easy season for Giant fans or followers to take. I'm not sure I have yet recovered.

[Note: Henry has revealed in the past that he grew up dreadfully misguided -- i.e., as a Dodger fan. -- GP]

First question: Okay, how many teams have two players who go by their initials (J.T. Snow being the other)?

Seth said "Is BFS just stocking up on spare outfielders, or does he have a destination for Javier in mind? Anyway, F.P. is a switch-hitter already on the wrong side of 30, doesn't hit for much power or average (his OBP is respectable in relation to his BA; he does seem to know how to take a walk). I thought he played some third base and first base as well -- if so, perhaps [Charlie] Hayes is on the way out."

Brian responded "This one is kind of bizarre. He's not even a PMLV (MLV yes, but hardly P). He was a rookie in '96 (at 28?) and finished fourth in the Rookie of the Year vote with a .277 BA and a few home runs, but has gotten worse each year since (.214 with 4 home runs in 122 games in '98) and may have bad knees. How can he be any better than any of the guys likely to lose their jobs to him?"

As to those knees, F.P. had them operated on and is now supposedly pain free. Of course, most baseball players are pain free in December.

Ben F. observed, "He is a switch-hitter, has some speed, and plays outfield, second, and third. One thing I noticed about him is he is willing to take one for the team. 23 hit-by-pitches last year (in over 300 at-bats) and 25 the year before (also in over 300 at-bats)."

This is kind of interesting, and explains Seth's OBP observation. As Gregg noted, "In about 250 plate appearances, 20 hit-by-pitches would be about 80 points in OBP." This is Ron Hunt-like in scope and would be an interesting skill to have on the Giants (assuming these continual beatings are not the reason he has been so injured in the first place).

Jesse was pretty upbeat about this move. "Santangelo supposedly was pushed too far last season -- too much playing time, a couple injuries, and his performance suffered. Assuming that this was the case, and last year wasn't indicative of what we can expect next year, this is a good signing.

"Why? Santangelo is about the best 25th man you can get. He plays every position, he isn't an awful hitter, and he gets on base. His teammates love him by unanimous consent, and we only signed him to a one-year deal at pretty dang close to what a replacement level player would get."

[Ominously, this signing suddenly reminds me of the aborted Rex Hudler experiment from a couple years ago. Hudler, no doubt, would've been a fine addition, had he not been hurt, lost playing time in the spring, and gotten canned. -- GP]

Jonathan analyzed it this way: "If he's the same player he was in 1995-1997, this is an excellent signing; not quite Steve Reed-ish, but the next tier down. The question is whether a 31-year-old coming off a miserable, injury-plagued year is more likely to return to his 27-29 year old level, or just keep having more injuries and misery. From what we outsiders know, there's really no way to tell. As a guess, I'd think it's more likely that he'd bounce back than that Benard is for real; since he costs us nothing, it's an excellent gamble.

"Some more stuff: yes, he's a CF-LF-RF-2B-3B. Or at least was, prior to injuries. Last year, he was mostly in left, but played 23 games in center, 35 at second. So, while at full strength he probably should be the starting center fielder, if he's only declined a little he makes (as Jesse said) an ideal 25th man.

"He's a switch-hitter. Last year he couldn't hit righthanded pitching at all, but in 1995-1997 he was pretty much identical either way, so there's nothing up there.

"The STATS computer, which doesn't know about the injuries, thinks he's washed up. When a young player has a one-time injury, that makes me think that we should toss out the projection (see Aurilia, Rich); that's not as true with an older player with possibly chronic injuries. Also, my guess is that even if he resumes hitting at full strength, the only way to keep him that way is to reduce wear-and-tear, which means not using him at second base, especially. Of course, if Kent stays healthy, that's not so much of an issue.

"More bad stuff. He has a huge home/road split over the last four years. He stinks outside of Montreal (during his good years, 1995-1997, he had a .333 OBP and .304 SP on the road). So we have to factor that in, too; if he can return to close to 1995-1997, and he can hit in the U.S., then he's a great 25th man."

[Heck, even if he can only hit in Canada, that still puts him one country up on Alex Diaz. -- RB]

"It's more of a stretch than I first thought... but it's certainly not a Rey Sanchez-type signing (in other words, no realistic upside at all)."

In some respect, though, Edith had the best take on this whole subject when she said, "The whole F.P. signing breaks down to two clear positions for me:

"1. POSITIVE: Have you ever heard the Spanish broadcast of an F.P. Santangelo at bat? It's fabulous! When he teamed up with Mark Grudzielanek it left me praying for a mid-game trade that would bring Jorge Fabregas into the lineup.

"2. NEGATIVE: That's Jeff Huson's role on the team he'll be filling! Now I'll never get him to San Francisco!"

If there are any Spanish-language broadcasts of the Giants next year (they have at least been severely curtailed), I will have to listen to a few of his at-bats thereon. And I pledge this as someone who doesn't even speak Spanish.

Jesse (who noted that "My Christmas Wish Finally Came True!") wrote "Exciting, breathtaking news! "Yes, boys and girls, look forward to that familiar grimace on the 3Comdelstick mound this April. According to Rotonews, Trevor Wilson has signed a minor league contract with the Giants! Yes! That Trevor Wilson! I don't know about you guys, but I'm excited. I love Trevor Wilson!"

Tim I. had a slightly different outlook. "What's with the Giants these days? Apparently their quest for pitching has become so desperate that shortly after signing Osvaldo Fernandez [to a minor league contract -- RB], they go and reacquire Trevor Wilson.

"These guys are 'Proven Major League Walking Arm Injuries.' I have a feeling that the medical treatment for the arms of these guys will cost the Giants more money than their actual salaries."

Talk about coming out of nowhere. If you had asked me to list unlikely pitchers the Giants might try to resurrect, I probably would have come up with J.R. Richards (to continue to build towards an all-initial lineup) before I thought of Trevor Wilson.

And yet, although I usually put Wilson in the same category with Atlee Hammaker and William VanLandingham, this probably isn't fair. As an AP report summarized, Wilson was 41-46 with the Giants, with a 3.87 ERA between 1988 and 1995. He was 13-11 in 1991 with an ERA of 3.56. He lost most of his last years with the team, as well as 1996 and 1997, to injuries, primarily a torn rotator cuff. Last year, Wilson came back to pitch a lot of innings in the minors, them pitched 7-2/3 innings in 15 games with the Angels.

Seth noted "Ol' Trevor was healthy all last year. Certainly healthy enough to throw 180 innings in Edmonton, plus his stint in Anaheim's pen. He was effective in both places.

"Hell, if our fifth starter threw 180 innings and had an ERA around 3.6 or 3.8, I'd be pretty happy with that. [Well, we all would, but is that really likely? -- RB] But now that he's back with the Giants, his entire left arm will fall off or something (it's been 10 years since Dravecky, so I figure we're due again).

"Seriously, though: I've always liked Wilson; he's always one of the Giants pitchers who I rooted especially hard for some reason. Perhaps it was the flashes of brilliance between countless injuries and stretches of ineffectiveness, perhaps it was that weird, toothy 'grin' he has on the mound."

Jesse noted "That grin always reminded me of the victims of the Joker in the Tim Burton Batman movie."

Seth concluded "I'd still rather have somebody who's a bit less of a 'long shot' for the fifth spot in the rotation, however."

David G. grumped, "This scares me. If Wilson is Sabean's answer to a fifth starter, 1999 is not looking good. Wilson was never that great to start with, and now he is old and has had arm surgery. He better have been signed for the league minimum or else I will be pissed."

Gregg countered, "I think we really need to know whether this is a major- or minor-league deal. If the latter, no worries, because it's roughly the same as a spring training invitation. If the former, well, I just don't get it, plus it would be a frightening trend, given that the wretched Greg Hansell signed a major-league deal of his own."

Well, USA Today said it was a one-year, $350,000 contract, which is close enough to the minimum that I doubt it matters.

Dave F. said "It sounds like a good signing to me. Will he make a big contribution to the Giants next year? Probably not, but he might and given the contract, it's certainly worth a shot. For that price, even if he just works a few games in long relief, it's a deal."

Woody noted "This is Sabes' way of telling us all we can turn up at spring training to try out -- regardless of our ages, abilities, or life-threatening handicaps -- and not risk looking stupid. When I read Wilson's signing in the Transaction section of the paper, I was sure they'd either screwed up the name or else relied on a four-year-old wire item. Alas....î Earlier, I mentioned J.R. Richards as a possible tongue-in-cheek signing. Continuing with this theme, Woody said ñThink that's bad, wait till they sign Bill Swift, then coax Salomon Torres back with promises of daily shrink sessions and free home delivery of [a particular, well-known religious periodical that I choose not to name in order to avoid the nasty letters that should instead wing their way Woodyward -- GP] (as if it doesn't come that way, hugely unwanted, already...).î Actually, I thought the Giants would try to sign Bill Swift, so that shows what I know.

Gregg countered "Well, I was going to post something to the effect of the Giants signing pitchers Joe Roselli, Joe Gibbons, Don Carrithers, John Cumberland, and Skip Pitlock to one-year major-league deals, but you've already pretty much made that point, so I'll just be redundant instead."

Woody was just warming up. "Hey, just an idea, but how bout the Giants one-upping their 'all (Alou) brothers outfield' lineup by tempting Milt May out of retirement to catch a rehabilitated, pitching Roger Metzger? Might be billed as the 'first battery in pro baseball requiring upper body prosthetics'. Okay, okay. It was just an idea."

That was Woody, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you very much.

(Other than dump the incompetent Alvin Morman, that is. And in a perfect world, we wouldn't have had him around in the first place.)

So, is there hope for the Giants in 1999? Not much, according to the ESPN Hot Stove Heater I warned about in the last installment; they picked the Giants to finish fourth in the division with a 76-86 record.

However, after all the hysteria about the Kevin Brown signing died down, some cracks started to appear in the "Dodgers will win the West in 1999" bandwagon. Since I think most Giant fans are really mostly worried about the Dodgers going into next year (something we hope isn't just a brave front relative to the Diamondbacks and the Rockies), these cracks are something that we will all want to follow closely. Accordingly, here is an article written by Thomas Boswell of the Washington Post on December 16, 1998; it passes on a message we all hope is true.

Something Old, Something Blue, Something Inept

By Thomas Boswell
Wednesday, December 16, 1998
© Copyright 1998 The Washington Post Company

Throughout baseball, tears are being shed and hands wrung over the bleak state of the game in the wake of Kevin Brown's $105 million contract.

"I'm in mourning for the game," said Padres President Larry Lucchino after losing Brown in a seven-year deal to the freeway rival Los Angeles Dodgers. "Tell me how there is supposed to be competitive balance.... At some point, you cross a line where only the... largest revenue clubs can compete."

[I suppose I should feel sorry for the Padres, but of course I don't. Maybe for Tony Gwynn, but somehow every time the Padres are involved in a fire sale (either as the seller in 1993 or the buyer in 1998), the Giants get screwed. So, I hope they finish fourth, right above you-know-who. -- RB]

"There's going to have to be a change in the dynamics of the industry," said former Oakland general manager Sandy Alderson.

[As a complete aside, I read in today's paper that Alderson is about to become the Commissioner of Umpires. Talk about some dynamics needing changing. -- RB]

Save the agony, please. We should be laughing.

The Dodgers have just used Rupert Murdoch's checkbook to sign the dumbest $100 million contract in pro sports history. By comparison, those NBA abominations, such as Kevin Garnett ($126 million), Shaquille O'Neal ($120 million), Alonzo Mourning ($112 million) and Shawn Kemp ($107 million), are models of logic. Even the Wizards are off the hook for the Juwan Howard ($101 million) fiasco. The Dodgers are now the new standard for historic incompetence.

Every shred of baseball history says that the Dodger brain trust, if that's not an oxymoron, has just swapped a year or two of being a borderline contender, thanks to Brown, for about five seasons of being dragged down by a $15 million-a-season obligation to a pitcher who'll be lucky to win 10 games.

[As Woody, who found and posted this article said, "Oh please, oh please, oh please." -- RB]

Yes, baseball has become dramatically and annoyingly imbalanced. But the Brown signing isn't an illustration of it. Instead, it's an example of how the obnoxiously greedy can screw up on a grand scale despite their wealth. By agreeing to an insane deal, the Dodgers have taken tens of millions of dollars of their "unfair" advantage and, in effect, built a cash bonfire at the pitcher's mound and burned their dough in public view. The very money that should have been buying them pennants in the early 2000s is going up in smoke.

As Ted Turner and George Steinbrenner learned long ago when they first arrived in baseball -- with big wallets and no baseball judgment -- giving market-busting, long-term contracts to old pitchers is a guaranteed disaster. Not for baseball. But for the nouveau riche clubs who don't have a clue. Kevin Malone and Davey Johnson must be rolling their eyes. They know what the top Dodger brass has done. But why tell 'em?

[Yeah, right. I'm sure Kevin Malone had no interest in signing Brown. Here's hoping this deal goes so far south that Malone (who will of course take all the blame regardless of whether he deserves it) is fired and Tommy Lasorda comes back to reassume the Dodgers' GM mantle. -- RB] [And rejoins the team on the field as manager. -- GP]

Kevin Brown will be 34 in March. For their $105 million, what are the Dodgers likely to get? Have they bought the future? Or mortgaged it?

Let's examine the career of top pitchers since World War I who, at the age of 33, had a season comparable to Brown's 18-7 year with the Padres. What did they do over the next seven seasons? Would their performances in today's market be worth $105 million?

At the age of 33, Grover Cleveland Alexander, Bert Blyleven, Jim Bunning, Lew Burdette, Steve Carlton, Mike Cuellar, Paul Derringer, Bob Feller, Whitey Ford, Bob Gibson, Lefty Gomez, Lefty Grove, Ron Guidry, Carl Hubbell, Tommy John, Walter Johnson, Jerry Koosman, Bob Lemon, Juan Marichal, Christy Mathewson, Jim Palmer, Gaylord Perry, Allie Reynolds, Red Ruffing, Nolan Ryan, Tom Seaver, Warren Spahn, Don Sutton, Luis Tiant and Early Wynn all had fine years comparable to Brown's. Their average mark at 33 was 20-10 (603 wins, 303 losses).

That's the whole list of comparables: 30 of them. The cream of the cream. These guys are, as a group, much better than Kevin Brown, who's won 20 games only once and, at 139-99, is not a Hall of Famer by a long shot.

What did Lefty and Whitey, The Big Train and The Big Six, King Carl and Tom Terrific do after the age of 33? They went 2,365-1,786. Or 80-60 per man. In other words, an annual record of 11-9 -- barely an average big league starter.

[Mind you, Brown has some advantage over these guys in that he will likely be recording a 4-0 record over the Giants in each of these next seven years. -- RB]

Out of all 30 of these greats, only one would clearly have been worth the $105 million the Dodgers just gave Brown -- Warren Spahn, who won 20 games in six of his next seven years. He's the exception that proves the rule. You might also have gotten your money's worth out of Wynn (125-86), Carlton (123-79), Perry (121-92) and Old Alex (113-74).

But that's it. Out of this list of the greatest pitchers who hadn't blown out their arms by 33, only five won as many as 105 games in the next seven seasons. In Dodger terms, that means $1 million per win. Conversely, look at the disasters among superstars who blew up at the same age as Brown (and the Big Unit). By their 35th birthdays, Bunning, Burdette, Derringer, Feller, Gomez, Hubbell, Marichal, Mathewson and Palmer were on their last legs.

[Hey, don't be dissing our Juan that way. Although I suppose by that time he was soon to be a Dodger. Never mind, then. -- RB]

In baseball, even young pitchers are ridiculously fragile. Old ones might as well be held together with string. If you like dark humor, look up the records of recent standout pitchers Orel Hershiser, Frank Viola, Mark Langston and Rick Sutcliffe. They were all Kevin Brown. Stop at a top season around age 30 when they were The Man. Then see what happened to the rest of their careers; they all became Mr. 11-9.

[As for Orel at least, boy, isn't that the truth? -- RB]

Over the past 20 years, baseball has seen a succession of teams that have -- for one season or even a few in a row -- been willing to blow out the game's salary structure so they could try to Win Now.

However, when those teams have fallen on their faces with extravagant rock-headed free agent signings, they have had the decency -- or perhaps the sense of shame -- to stop spending at some point.

The real issue is not that the Dodgers have spent $105 million for a pitcher the rest of whose career will, at best, probably look like Carl Hubbell's over the same age span: 22-8, 13-10, 11-9, 11-12, 11-9, 11-8, 4-4.

The question that has hung over baseball for 20 years has always been the same. What happens if the game ever gets an owner who is utterly shameless, totally amoral and absurdly rich?

In a year or two, if the Brown signing works out as badly as it should, then we may find out if Rupert Murdoch is that owner.

The discussion on the Brown signing has continued on over the past few weeks, but I think we got a good sampling of all that in the last installment. Two Dodger fans weighed in with their perspectives on the Dodgers, with which I will close out this whole discussion. Cal said, in response to my surprised observation that there were still some gloomy Dodger fans "Those of us into stats realize that while the starting pitching should be very good, the Dodgers have done next to nothing to improve on an offense that scored 669 runs last year. If Hundley doesn't return to his 96-97 form, there's no reason to expect them to score any more than last year, and that's not going to get it done."

On the other hand, Tjames noted "I know it's nice to keep the Giant fans soothed down around here [Damned straight. -- RB], but let's face it: for all their problems, the Dodgers only finished six games behind San Francisco last season (and were within a couple games late in the season). They're going to be significantly better next year. I'm not going to go predicting titles or anything, but it's not like LA didn't improve themselves over the offseason."

Yeah, we know. And as for the Giants; well, we do have Trevor Wilson once again.

I'm not sure what I expected when I signed up to do this, but the job of reporting on the activity in the Giants' newsgroup was easier than I expected, mainly because the participants in the group really do do most of the work, and they do it amazingly well. The hardest part of recapping it all was trying to figure out which themes were important and which really weren't. Once I got that straight in my mind for a particular installment, it was a simple matter of picking out the most interesting messages for each subject and stringing them together in a way that flowed smoothly. Time consuming, but not particularly hard, and there was always a lot of good material to work with.

(Well, it actually was pretty hard covering the discussion of the Kevin Brown signing because there was such a huge quantity of posts, but even then, the problem there was having too much good stuff to summarize as opposed to trying to make something out of nothing.)

There was also the challenge of trying to include as many different people's thoughts as possible, but again, most of the participants in the Giants newsgroup made their presence felt to the extent that this was not hard. Over the course of the three installments, I believe (and hope) I eventually got to everyone (except for the odd Dodger troll, of course).

If there was one downside to writing this (other than the not-inconsiderable amount of time involved), it was that in reporting on the doings of the newsgroup, I started to have a pretty hard time participating in it. Eventually, my output of posts shrank to nearly nothing, which may have generated a number of grateful sighs from other participants but which was nevertheless out of character for me. I'm not sure why this was (during the Kevin Brown onslaught, I started to suspect it was a desire to do nothing that would generate more posts, and therefore create more work for me to do to summarize it all), but I look forward to having things go back to the way they were before.

Thanks to Gregg for offering the opportunity to write these installments. Thanks also to Gregg for taking the responsibility back. And here's a toast to the Giants in 1999; may they have a really great year.

Or, at least, not a terrible one.

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