Giants may have bright future; A's? Hard to tell
By Rick Hurd
Contra Costa Times columnist
10/04/2008


IT HAS BEEN a week since the misery ended. General managers Billy Beane and Brian Sabean have delivered their state-of-the-sorrow addresses. So, only one thing left to ask as we survey Bay Area baseball in 2008.

Which team had a more successful season?

All right, maybe that doesn't seem all that intriguing. A combined total of 147 wins doesn't exactly set the table for ball talk, especially when the desired finish line is a cumulative 32½ games away.

But lost summers go down like tobacco juice, and we here in NorCal have had to stomach two in a row. Not since 1984 and '85 have two successive non-strike-shortened seasons played out like these past two, and only if 2009 doesn't turn into a wasteland will '08 have proven to be anything but a waste.

Which is why the Giants, despite three fewer victories in '08, ought to stick out their chest. Not real far, mind you " improving from 71 wins to 72 is not a bullet point on Sabean's resume " but a touch.

Reason being, the Giants weren't supposed to be that good. Back in the always-optimistic days of March, the Giants were supposed to be on a non-stop collision course with 100 losses. No team looked worse, and the immediate future seemed hopeless.

Fast-forward six months, and things aren't nearly so bleak. The Giants uncovered a perennial Cy Young candidate (Tim Lincecum), finally found a successor to closer Robb Nen (Brian Wilson), discovered a hitting machine to solve their first-base woes (Pablo Sandoval) and transformed themselves from a club that was old and tired to one that is young and energetic.

As a result, they'll enter '09 with Lincecum and Matt Cain giving them a 1-2 punch atop the rotation that many teams would envy. The presence of Sandoval, left fielder Fred Lewis and shortstop Emmanuel Burriss gives them potential pieces to the future puzzle that weren't in place at this time a year ago. And Wilson's presence in the ninth means Sabean has one less area of repair regarding his bullpen.

Oh, and don't forget the coming attractions ��" catcher Buster Posey and pitchers Madison Bumgarner and Tim Alderson.

Does that mean the Giants are a timely move away from being in the mix? Hard to say, but it helps that they reside in the National League West, a division that has been won with no more than 88 wins in three of the past four seasons.

If only the A's could view the landscape similarly. Instead, they are co-habitants with the Los Angeles Angels, one of baseball's big-money juggernauts (except, that is, when they play the Boston Red Sox in October), and one of the best-run organizations in the game.

Thus, Beane is usually left chugging up a huge mountain, chanting, "I think I can, I think I can, I think I can." Whether he did what he thought he could do in '08 will best be judged next season or even 2010, but it's easier to be skeptical than at any point during his 11-season reign.

For one, he reacted to his team's surprising first half by trading his two best pitchers ��" Rich Harden and Joe Blanton ��" in July and essentially calling off the playoff chase. For two, the majority of prospects he compiled in his offseason trades of Dan Haren and Nick Swisher remain in the minors and are unknown commodities. And for three, the prospects who did make their debuts didn't inspire visions of champagne flowing.

All of which wasn't the sole reason for the team's dwindling attendance ��" the A's drew their fewest fans since 1999 ��" but it didn't help, either.

What did help the A's future plans was discovering outfielder Ryan Sweeney, a steady hitter who should only get better; outfielder Carlos Gonzalez, a 22-year-old with impressive tools who probably should've spent the season in the minors; and Greg Smith, a cool left-handed starter with the demeanor of a winner.

That said, the A's puzzle very much remains a big pile of pieces. Across the Bay, it's starting to take shape. Judge that how you will, but in a time when losing has become the norm, where each team stands now is more telling than where they stood in the standings.