Sabean makes GM moves; Beane runs a clearinghouse

My kid and I write a blog together. In our latest offering, we argued who's a better general manager, Brian Sabean or Billy Beane, and I chose Sabean, although Beane is very good.

I'm lucky no one caught up with me in person, because I would have been stoned to death for proposing such an unpopular opinion. My kid and PD readers and even my friends thought I was off my rocker, so I want to say a few things about Sabean/Beane and then move onto today's real issue -- why Sabean lost respect and how he can regain it.

Sabean got the Giants to the World Series in 2002, and Beane never got the A's to the World Series, and never will. I don't think Beane even cares about the Series. He wants to do pretty well, wants to keep up appearances, wants to claim he's a poor small-market GM and, gee, not arriving at the ultimate destination -- the Series -- isn't his fault even though he's brilliant. So please don't blame him or expect too much of him. He has a built-in excuse.

Sabean made the daring, unpopular trade of Matt Williams for

Jeff Kent, which set up the Giants for years. Beane never makes trades like that. One reader pointed to Beane's Mark Mulder for Dan Haren, Daric Barton and Kiko Calero trade as proof Beane can deal like Sabean. Please. Haren already is gone. All Beane's good young guys already are gone -- Tim Hudson, Nick Swisher, Miguel Tejada. I could go on.

The A's aren't a baseball team. They're a baseball clearing house. In and out. In and out. As far as Daric Barton goes, well, in the first place, who the heck is Daric Barton? He is someone who may be, could be, perhaps, will be good. And if he becomes a standout player, it's, "Hey, Daric, you're out of here" -- perhaps to Kansas City for four no-name players Beane will trade down the line if they achieve anything worthwhile.

That's how I feel. But, I can't ignore reality -- no one defends Sabean, his reputation is in the dumper. It's in the dumper even though he was under orders from up above, I believe, to patch together a team around the grumpy power-hitting left fielder because while the grumpy power-hitting left fielder was here, fans would not accept young players and rebuilding.

And that's what Sabean did. He patched. You can question his guts -- interesting because his persona is Mr. Tough Guy. He could have fought back or even quit -- people do quit. He didn't show mondo guts allowing the Barry Bonds cronies and that one drug dealer to lurk in the clubhouse. Those are strikes against him.

Sabean has other strikes against him, lots of crummy free-agent signings -- Armando Benitez, Edgardo Alfonzo, Ray Durham, and yes, Barry Zito. He is notorious for one stinker of a lousy trade -- Joe Nathan, a terrific closer, and two other players for -- hold your nose -- A.J. Pierzynski.

After Dusty Baker left, Sabean hired Felipe Alou, who was too old, a guy the players couldn't stand. And now he has Bruce Bochy, who's shown no aptitude to rebuild a team that desperately needs rebuilding.

The Giants' farm system has been a joke, nothing like the A's -- this is a positive Billy point here. The only productive player the Giants' farm system produced in the current century was Pedro Feliz, and he wasn't all that productive.

Sure, these are lots of bad marks against Sabean. If we were writing his report card in grade school, we'd say "Needs improvement." And he does.

So, what can he do? Well, he needs to peel away the veterans like layers of an onion. Any team that depends heavily on Durham, Dave Roberts, Rich Aurilia and even Omar Vizquel is a team going nowhere. He needs to find out if his young guys can play. Amend that. He'd better pray his young guys can play -- Eugenio Velez, Dan Ortmeier, Brian Bocock, Fred Lewis and Rajai Davis. Aside from Velez, I don't feel confident about any of those guys. Do you?

To his credit, Sabean has strong starting pitching -- strong, not great. He has reasonable relief pitching. The batting order does not have power. It is a single/doubles club, not a home-run club, and that needs to change.

Now that he is free -- finally free -- to make a real team, Sabean has to show he has a vision for his club and knows how to bring that vision to life -- not this year, but certainly in 2009 and after. I have defended Sabean, but now it's up to him. He has to defend himself.

You can reach Staff Columnist Lowell Cohn at 521-5486 or lowell.cohn@pressdemocrat.com.