The Giants Are Farm Grown

The 2012 Giants were a farm-grown team, loaded with talent drafted and cultivated by the organization, and poised to be perennial playoff contenders. I’m a firm believer that a championship team cannot be purchased through free agency or assembled through mega-deal trades. Baseball is unique in that it is equally an individual performance sport as well as it’s a team sport. Chemistry is essential in the clubhouse and on the field. It requires a special kind of personality in a manager to harness the tremendous egos that clutter a clubhouse on a mercenary squad.  Only a few skippers have managed to do so. A special kind of manager is also required to lead a young team built from the ground up. It takes a specific mindset to shape young talent, patiently develop them, and then trust them enough to keep them on the field to fight through slumps, and to perform in high-pressure situations. Today teams are as easily disassembled as they are put together. Both the Phillies and the Red Sox were rapidly dismantled in 2012. However, it takes years to assemble a team through the farm system, and there are no guarantees the prospect talent will live up to the manager’s expectations. But if you’ve got money growing on trees like the Dodgers and the Yankees, why wait? Buy your team today. Good luck with that. The World Series champion Giants won their title with an amazing foundation of homegrown talent. Here’s a chronological list of the keystone players they’ve drafted over the last decade. On this list are the 2012 World Series MVP, a two-time Cy Young winner, the 2012 All Star Game winning pitcher and a perfect gamer, two All Star closers, and the likely National League MVP for 2012. Matt Cain                        – Drafted 1st Round (25th Pick) 2002            Debut 8/29/05 Pablo Sandoval              – Drafted amateur free agent 2003                Debut 8/14/08 Brian Wilson                  – Drafted 24th Round 2003                             Debut 4/23/06 Sergio Romo                   – Drafted 28th Round 2005                            Debut 6/26/08 Tim Lincecum                – Drafted 1st Round (10th Pick) 2006            Debut 5/6/07 Hector Sanchez             – Signed amateur free agent 2006                 Debut 7/15/11 Madison Bumgarner    – Drafted 1st Round (10th Pick) 2007          Debut 9/8/09 Brandon Crawford        – Drafted 4th Round 2008                              Debut 5/27/11 Buster Posey                   – Drafted 1st Round (5th Pick) 2008              Debut 9/11/09 Brandon Belt                  – Drafted 5th Round 2009                               Debut 3/31/11 Because of the quality drafts and sensible stocking of the farm system the Giants don’t have any major issues in building the 2013 team.  Their entire top-notch pitching staff is nearly locked up. Their starting rotation that shut out the Cardinals and the Tigers in the playoffs is signed through the next few years. The Giants World Series winning bullpen is cinched up, with the exception of reliever Jeremy Affeldt, who is expected to be resigned without trouble this winter. The only similarity between the 2010 championship team and the 2012 version is the pitching staff. Not a single position player started on both championship teams, except for Buster Posey. On the list of Giants home-grown talent is their infield. Sandoval on third, Crawford at shortstop, and Belt at first will be the Giants solid defense for years.  They will each earn a gold glove or two over their careers. Posey is the obvious cornerstone of the franchise. With hard work, luck, and injury free seasons he will be an immortal Giant the same manner as Willie Mays, Juan Marichal, and Willie McCovey. When guys are brought up and cultivated within an excellent program, from single-A ball up to the big leagues, they tend to play as a team when they finally arrive to the show. They are prepared to excel in the big-league manager’s brand of baseball, where they generally play more effectively. This, at least, is what is occurring in San Francisco. Not to mention it makes fiscal sense to build from within. You can hold on to your key talent for six years for a bargain. And when your own guys enter free agency for the first time, you’ll know exactly what you’re buying, as in the case of Matt Cain this year. The Giants do not go out each winter and purchase big names for big dollars. They’ve been burned by loaded contracts in years past, so they avoid that trap. The Barry Bonds era still casts a dark shadow over the franchise. His notorious legacy of being a selfish, inaccessible player has left a mark on the organization that shapes its team-first philosophy today. They seem to build teams, favoring healthy clubhouse chemistry. They also place a premium on validating the manager’s authority within the organization. No player can go over Bochy’s head, or even would.  Nor will any single player be handled in the gratuitous way Bonds was coddled by the organization. Because of all of this the Giants are positioned to contend again in 2013. No dissent rots the team mindset. No egos fight over their roles on the team. And from the top to bottom the organization is reputed to operate as a close-knit family, with the proper respect given to those above and below.  They sign their homegrown guys who have worked out for them, and they treat them right. Those homegrown guys, like Matt Cain, Sergio Romo, and Pablo Sandoval end up winning World Series titles, in turn. The post The Giants Are Farm Grown appeared first on Bay Area Sports Nut.