Sixteen years into Brian Sabean's run as San Francisco Giants GM, I went over his five worst moves and now I will go over his 10 best moves. His run has been extremely successful and I am hopeful that we will see more deals added to this list over the next decade plus. Aside from the Felipe Alou era, his entire run heading the Giants has been successful. The current roster has a lot of youth and I really feel good about the future of the San Francisco Giants. With no further ado, here are my ten favorite Sabean signings and deals. For the record, this does not include draft picks. It is exclusively trades, signings and releases.
10) traded Tim Alderson for Freddy Sanchez
9) Claimed Cody Ross off waivers in August of 10
8) traded John Bowker and Joe Martinez for Javier Lopez trade deadline of 10
7) Traded Armando Rios and Ryan Vogelsong to Pittsburgh for Jason Schmidt and John Vander Wall trade deadline 2001
6) signed Aubrey Huff and Juan Uribe in January of 10
5) Signed Ryan Vogelsong in January of 11
4) traded Andres Torres and Roman Ramirez for Angel Pagan in December of 11
3) Allen Watson and Fausto Macey for JT Snow November of 96
2) traded Charlie Culberson for Marco Scutaro and cash trade deadline of 11
1) Signed Bruce Bochy as manager in October 06
I am glad that I decided to do these articles because I gained much more appreciation for what Sabean has given us. Of course, I remembered every awful signing or bad trade but I forgot that the Rockies paid the majority of Scutaro's contract this year. It was crazy to see Vogelsong on this list twice. Sabean is the best in the game and the research for these posts reminded me of how great he is.
Let me know if I missed anything and share this with your fellow Giants fans. Hat's off to Sabean for all he has accomplished.
Don't forget one of his first moves. That move was one of his best ever.. That was the move to trade Matt Williams to the Indians for Julian Taveraz, a shortstop named Jose Vizciano (who was with the Giants in 1997 only) and Jeff Kent. This move probably helped the Giants more in getting to the series in 2002 and being a contender from 1997-2003 than any other move that year.
ReplyDeleteYou are correct, I could not fault anyone else for including that one in their list. However, I grew up a Matt Williams fan and sided with Bonds in the Kent/Barry feud. Certainly some bias there but Kent more than out-shined Williams from that point on. Good call
ReplyDelete