Bridge Ball

Money money
Sportline 680 host Larry Krueger on KNBR was going off last night about how the Giants are spending $100 million on the club. He came up with that magic figure by combining the $80 million budget with the purported $25 million balloon payment the club is making on SBC Park this year. Now it comes out that the Giants also had to pay $13 million to the league in revenue sharing. Soon enough Krueger will be talking about the team's $113 million nut.

Sure, they're paying that much, but the stadium fee and rev sharing is the price of doing business. The Giants have a $80 million payroll, which is very healthy. But it's not in the Phillies ($93m), Cubs ($93m) or Cardinals ($92.8m) neighborhood, let alone Red Sox ($131m), Angels ($117m) or Yankees ($183m).

Still $80 million for that club is pretty weak. How are they paying that much? We'll you're paying Barry Bonds $16 million, which is a bargain. But Brian Sabean seems to have been wasteful with some of the bigger contracts he’s shelled out of some folks that he’s brought over.

1. Neifi Perez $2.3 million (.512 ops)
Value comparion: Deivi Cruz $320k (.661 ops)
Perez performance level is just around someone that you’d pull off the scrap heap, like Deivi, for example. Not worth $2.3 large.

2. Edgardo Alfonzo $6.5 million (.711 ops)
Value comparison: Joe Randa $3.25 million (.785 ops)
Consistent, solid third basemen don’t grow on trees. But generally they don’t get $26 million contracts, either.

3. Ray Durham $6 million (.791 ops)
Value comparison: Mark Loretta $2.5 million (.780 ops)
Ok, ok, Durham *is* a good leadoff hitter. I’ll give you that much. But he’s not a dominant player. And since the Giants have been looking for someone to hit behind Bonds, giving a leadoff hitter $27.1 million seems Yankee-like, instead of Giants budget level.

4. A.J. Pierzynski $3.5 million (.605 ops)
Value comparison: Yorvit Torrealba $300k (.667 ops)
Not quite a fair comparison. Pierzynski had an OPS of .824 last year in Minnesota. Of course that was his career high. If he can come out of his slump and hit that number again, it might be worth the money.

5. Felix Rodriguez $3 million ( 2.79 ERA)
Value comparison: Tim Worrell $2.5 million (3.20 ERA, 2 Svs)
Rodriguez has been outstanding this season. His homers allowed and opponent’s batting average are down considerably. However, there are many guys who can do this job and generally for a lot less money than F-Rod is getting.

The fact is that replacement level players can do the job of many folks they signed for large dollars. Although this year is probably a washout, the team has a chance to turn it around, if Sabean can extract top grade prospects for some of the overpriced usable parts around the trading deadline. Durham, F-Rod, Alfonzo, and even Rueter need to move for guys that might fight for jobs next year.

Addendum on Krueger: His point is that the Giants's ownership is spending big money to bring the city a quality team and the finger should be pointed directly at Sabean for the failure of this team via poor trades and, even moreso, horrible drafts. As per usual, Krueger has salient points with sound logic, but, as always, he seems to take the most unusual leaps of logic and bending of the facts to prove his point.

The fact is the Giants have a healthy payroll. Does it prove his point to add $25 million of stadium debt to the payroll figures? Additionally, I find Krueger's consistent baiting of his colleagues at KNBR as brownnosers rather offensive and besides the point. By stooping to argument ad hominem to prove his point he not only runs down his station, but also himself and his arguments.