San Francisco Giants: Frenzy continues as LA joins hunt for Jon Lester

The price of poker just went up-again-for the San Francisco Giants, as reports surfaced Wednesday that the Los Angeles Dodgers had joined in the hunt for the same tantalizing prize as the Orange and Black and three other teams: Jon Lester. Whether the Dodgers and their crew of newly-hired front office personnel are serious in their efforts, or whether it is just Lester’s savvy agent drawing out the drama to extract every dime out of the process, has yet to be determined.

Whereas it is difficult to imagine how much more “drawn out” L.A. can get than the 138 million dollar offer already presented up by the Chicago Cubs, in their effort to continue clawing their way back into contention, Giants fans have already seen Deep Pockets Dodgers ownership dig a cavernous tunnel into its vast treasure trove, with no light on the other end to indicate that funding has been cut off.

That, Giants fans, is why Brian Sabean no longer has the luxury of allowing failure to prevail: he must undermine the Dodgers’ efforts to reel in Lester, or be faced with the prospect of returning to the dock empty-handed.

Expect the victor in the feeding frenzy to rake in the chips at the end of the season.

What initiated as an effort to one-up L.A, has become a desperate tug-of-war between the two National League powerhouses for one particularly appealing prize.

The pressure is on Brian Sabean to not let Jon Lester get away. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports

Pitching ultimately dictates the difference between success and failure in the postseason, as the just-completed 2014 World Series illustrated, and both the Giants and Dodgers are already well-stocked with this commodity. However, in an ongoing series of some-is-good-more-is-better applications, Jon lester has become the bait that the two hungry sharks are chasing.

Though Sabean has the option of pursuing a different free agent should the Giants lose out to LA, such as Max Scherzer, it then becomes a matter of playing “catch-up” again, instead of playing “follow the leader.”

Not only are the Giants faced with the prospect of losing the bait on the end of the fishing line if they lose out to LA, they are in danger of ending up treading water behind the floating battle ship known as the Dodgers. Damn the torpedoes, Brian Sabean, full speed ahead!

Otherwise take a seat and watch the Giants’ vessel be swamped in the wake of one powered by the duo of Jon Lester and Clayton Kershaw.