by Gregg Pearlman
A longtime
occasional contributor dropped in on the
Giants newsgroup toward the end of the season to ask if it was still our
practice to bash Brian Sabean. This seemed to be his way of chiding the many
of us who sorely ripped the man around the time of the Matt Williams and J.T.
Snow trades... and frankly, he's got a point.
I am not a 100-percent believer in the acumen of Brian Sabean as a talent judge. It's still hard for me to completely believe that he didn't just get lucky, like Jed Clampett shootin' at some food. However, it's wrong and unfair of me not to give him the credit he deserves. I mean:
Did Brian know?
He's found ways to fill gaps, if only temporarily, and his long-term moves have, in large part, worked out famously. Yes, I said it a million times, especially back in late 1996 (and I still think it's a good rule of thumb): The best predictor of future performance is past performance. However, I'll have to admit that either there are sizable holes in that theory, or that I didn't interpret the past performance correctly. Or both. I mean, is there any reason to have suspected that Kent would, essentially, go off as a Giant? Even the Joe Carter acquisition turned out to help, and the guy was clearly through as a player... and yet he really muscled up in those last few weeks.
I'm still at a point where if I hear trade rumors or discover that some "Proven Major Leaguer" has been cut loose, I start to worry, but that may be reflex as much as anything else. I mean, I'm so used to the Giants making moronic trades that to the Giants fan in me, there's practically no other option.
I've been going through my 1996-97 notes and articles on EEEEEE!, and I'm kind of ashamed at the abuse I heaped on Sabean, whether in my words or those of others. At the time, I derided the notion that you have to give trades time to pan out -- to me, it always sounded like front-office double-talk designed to cover the appropriate butts. But I've sure learned that you do have to give trades time. If you plant a radish, you'll get a radish -- but it won't pop up out of the ground the next day, juicy and delicious. You have to nurture it and give it the right amount of time and care, not to mention fertilizer. For instance, I rolled my eyes whenever he talked about his "master plan," because, at the time, it seemed as though this plan meant "turn the Giants into crap."
Now, I wish I could say that I'm never again going to just knee-jerk-react to future trades -- sure I will. I'm a fan. But I hope I'll be able to look at things more rationally in the future. After all, I need only remind myself of trades, even before Sabean's time, that I thought were stupid but weren't. For instance, I actually cringed when I saw that Al Rosen had sent out All-Star third baseman Chris Brown, damn near a Rookie of the not long before, as well as the perenially promising Mark Davis and Mark Grant, and endearing comeback story Keith Comstock, and all we got from the Padres were so-so swingman Dave Dravecky, nothing-special reliever Craig Lefferts, and can't-find-a-position Kevin Mitchell. I mean, I couldn't believe Rosen could be this stupid.
And when he traded Mitchell, only two years removed from his MVP, and long-awaited former No. 1 pick Mike Remlinger, who'd only thrown a four-hit shutout in his debut, to the Mariners and got nothing in return but three journeyman relievers, I just about went ape -- not knowing how much they'd help in 1993, when the team won 103 games.
For some reason, though, I still had faith in Rosen. Maybe that's because of the attitude he and Roger Craig instilled from the moment they arrived in late 1985. Maybe he just talked a good game. Either way, I bought his act. Still, I wasn't ready to give him immediate credit for knowing what he was doing, if for no other reason than because it was so ingrained in me to be suspicious of any Giants trade. Or free-agent signing, for that matter.
When the new regime came aboard, and Rosen left, I bought into Bob Quinn right away, because (a) the Reds he built had just won a World Series in 1990, and (b) he said that one of the reasons he got the Giants job was that he'd suggested signing Barry Bonds. Man, that was good enough for me.
Then he started doing things like letting Will Clark go and not replacing him, and rapidly I lost faith. And when Brian Sabean came to the forefront, well, he was Quinn's boy, right? How could anyone have faith in him?
I liked the deals Sabean made to get rid of Kirt Manwaring and Mark Leiter -- we got half a terrific season out of Rick Wilkins, and Kirk Rueter's still around, going strong. I even liked the Mark Carreon-for-Jim Poole trade (though it took me several days to warm to it) -- Poole was terrific for us (albeit in a terrible season, and then terrible in a terrific season).
So I should've been prepared to cut Sabean some slack -- at least as much as Rosen. But I didn't. Now, I'm not going to chronicle all his maneuvers, but with very few exceptions, they looked like they'd stink on ice:
Sure, you can rightly pick apart all my protests on the above deals:
But taken at the time, there was every reason for every Giants fan to go, "What on God's Green Earth is this nutball doing?" And indeed I did.
But either Sabean is a man of tremendous vision or he is extremely lucky, and I'm willing to budge enough to give him at least some credit for both.
Though the Giants, as always, failed to go all the way, I apologize for my rather rancid treatment of Brian Sabean in these pages over the years, and not just because his moves ended up working. Most of the rude stuff was said in anger, and that's just not the best circumstance under which to write. In future I'll try to look at the upside before getting angry.