San Francisco Giants’ Brian Sabean possesses key virtue of patience

Chris Haft of MLB.com, posted a piece called “Giants in no rush to finish complementing roster,” Wednesday, the same day I posted a piece on possible replacements for Tim Hudson. I was pleased to note that several components of my thought process, in discussing all things San Francisco Giants, were also present in Haft’s piece.

For instance he mentioned the talks with Dillon Gee of the New York Mets, commenting that if the Giants were interested in Gee that they might be better off with Ryan Vogelsong. Haft also tossed Chris Heston’s name out there which makes a lot of sense. The thing that Haft then went on to elaborate on that I especially liked was Brian Sabean’s track record in these exact types of scenarios.

Haft mentioned Aubrey Huff’s 2010 acquisition on January 10, prior to the start of spring training by just over a month, and then the re-signing of Bengie Molina a little over a week later on the 19th.

With Cody Ross and Pat Burrell not on the opening-day roster, it’s safe to say that Brian Sabean did not stop doing his job, simply because the season had begun play.

Even though the Giants were to trade the veteran catcher to the Texas Rangers later that same season, it was not until after

had joined the club and demonstrated that he had the situation well under control.

As always, Sabean had his finger firmly planted on the pulse of the scene, as he undoubtedly does right now. Here’s the deal: Regardless of the Tim Hudson bone-spur-timeframe, the Giants are at least able to field a comparable team to the one that ended last season, if you figure there is still a burly third baseman on the field, a rejuvenated center fielder and the return of the Franchise Stallion (The Horse has been upgraded).

JavierLopez was acquired before the 2010 postseason, and has contributed to three rings so far. Photo by Denise Walos

If it becomes apparent that either the Los Angeles Dodgers, or equally possible, the San Diego Padres, are exponentially soaring upwards, then Sabean would also have to reevaluate his tactics. Past practices would point to such reinforcements having been drawn into the mix, post midseason, as Cody Ross, Javier Lopez and Pat Burrell (2010); Hunter Pence and Marco Scutaro (2012); and Jake Peavy, Joe Panik and Travis Ishikawa in 2014. All were key components to being able to successfully dig for buried treasure and find it.

There are more names that could be included on this list, but just the most casual of glances, shouts out loudly that without each and every one of these additions, way after that point in time when the season-opening rosters were all compiled, and the show well into the middle of summer, there would have been no pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

Therefore, as much as it is human nature to fret at perceived inadequacies on the part of Giants management, the simple truth of the matter is this: If the perceived inadequacies just mentioned actually exist, they are those of the fans and not Brian Sabean.

Indeed, if fans still perceive Brian Sabean to be inadequately prepared for this type of challenge, after having orchestrated the above machinations to net three world series titles in the past five years, then these fans are a special breed of-er, ahem-skeptical.

Giants fans trust Brian Sabean to reel in the perfect catch, and they are willing to fill the stands at AT&T Park to pay the salary of that perfect catch. This is not a case of, “What have you done for us lately?” so much as one of, “You scratch our back and we’ll scratch yours.” 

After all, it takes two to successfully tango.

September 5, 2013; San Francisco, CA, USA; San Francisco Giants second baseman Marco Scutaro (19) hits a single in front of Arizona Diamondbacks catcher Miguel Montero (26, left) during the first inning at AT&T Park. Mandatory Credit: Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports