Why Bring Bruce Bochy Back?

For the past two seasons Manager Bruce Bochy was given a free pass because of the anemic lineup he had to work with. With the exception of Pablo Sandoval, the Panda, there was nobody in the lineup that posed a threat. Pitch around Pablo and let the guy batting after him hurt you. Often that batter was Benjie Molina. And for the most part, since arriving in San Francisco, Molina has put up solid numbers. Unfortunately, because he is so slow afoot, if he led the inning off with a single, chances are it would take 3 more singles to drive him in. And the station-to-station brand of baseball usually doesn't net the best results. Too many times the inning ends with the bags loaded or runners on second and third but no one scores.

The unbelievably consistent pitching of Matt Cain, Tim Lincecum and (late season acquisition) Brad Penny got very little run support. And Barry Zito, who finally came into his own and delivered some stellar outings, would lead the league in least amount of run support. An ominous statistic his fellow pitchers Matt Cain and Tim Lincecum are all too familiar with.

Talk show host, Damon Bruce, rants about how the Giants only seem to be concerned with being competitive vs. doing what it takes to win the division. When you look at their recent history it's hard to disagree with the usually negative Bruce.

Signing Edgardo Alfonso was not an upgrade but rather a far cry from having Jeff Kent.
Signing a broken down Edgar Renteria when it was reported that Detroit had to get rid of him because his defensive skills have diminished to a point where he was a liability. And although Detroit did one of the all-time el foldos in baseball history they were much better in 2009 than they were in 2008 and they'll point to their improved defense with Adam Everett at short and Brandon Inge moved from catcher to third base. And no Edgar Renteria.

Some teams have a way of landing on the luckless side of things. When the Giants acquired Freddy Sanchez from the Pittsburgh Pirates it looked to be a good move for the orange and black. That was until Sanchez spent frequent bystander time on the disabled list. Nobody saw that coming. But it's the kind of thing that happens to the Giants. Can you say Noah Lowry?

This off-season will go a long way to showing the Giant faithfuls of the lunatic fringe just how bad Brian Sabean and his cohorts want to win the National League Western Division. It's a very competitive division with everyone having just as much chance as the others to win the division.

Whoever makes the moves that most improves its roster that will be the team favored to win the division when Spring Training begins.

(thanks to Damon Bruce for his rant on the Giants being satisfied with being competitive)

Kevin Marquez