Sabean Isn’t Spending Wisely on The Giants

Last month the Giants re-signed outfielder Hunter Pence to a five-year, $90 million deal. This week Sabean re-signed starting pitcher Tim Lincecum to a two-year, $35 million deal.

For his seven-year MLB career, Pence is a career .285 hitter as he has averaged 25 home runs and 94 runs batted in per season. Pence is 30-years old and he can still be extremely productive in the near future for the Giants, but I believe that Sabean might have outbid himself to retain the services of Pence. With a weak crop of free agents heading into free agency, Sabean panicked as he was extremely worried about losing Pence which resulted in the outfielder getting $90 million to remain in the Bay Area.

For Sabean he didn’t learn his lesson from last year. After the Giants won their second World Series Chamionship since 2010, Sabean re-signed outfielder Angel Pagan to a four-year, $40 million deal. Pagan was coming off one of his best Major League Baseball seasons as he posted a batting average of .288 batting average along with 8 home runs, 56 runs batted in, and he led the National League in triples with 15. Pagan’s downfall during his 8-year MLB career that has previously seen him play for the Chicago Cubs and New York Mets is the injury bug. Pagan has never appeared in all 162 games in a season and 2013 was a clear example of that as he was limited to just 71 games while dealing with several injuries.

For Lincecum his career record as a starting pitcher is 89-70, but at 29-years of age you have to wonder if his best seasons in MLB are in the rear view mirror? Lincecum is a two-time NL Cy Young Award winner, but he has not has finished the season with a winning record since 2010 which was highlighted by him winning two games in the World Series that year.

Lincecum has been able to remain healthy, but his velocity appears to be down on his pitches. In the past two seasons Lincecum’s record is 20-29 with an earned run average of 4.77.

Lincecum has gone from being a top of the line starter to a man that is now relegated to the end of the Giants rotation. Sabean, along with Giants manager Bruce Bochy and pitching coach Dave Righetti are optimistic that Lincecum will be back on track to being one of the game’s best pitchers in 2014 as they feel that his mechanics were adjusted enough during the season which included him throwing a no-hitter on July 13 against the San Diego Padres.

Lincecum struggles as of late have coincided with the Giants starting pitching that suffered setbacks as well overall. For the past several seasons the Giants team earned run average was one of the best in baseball, but in 2013 their 4.00 team ERA this season was 13th in the National League. Prior to the start of the 2012 season, Giants starting pitcher Matt Cain received a five-year, $117 million extension from Sabean. After helping the Giants win the World Series in 2012, Cain suffered his first season in 2013 with a losing record since 2008 and it was also the first season since 2006 that he posted an earned run average of at least 4.00.

If the Giants are once again going to become playoff contenders in 2014, it will be because Lincecum and Cain have regained their form on the mound while Pagan can hopefully stay healthy at the age of 32 while Pence doesn’t begin to slow down.

This past season offensively, the Giants were fourth in the NL in batting average (.260), but they were 10th in runs batted in (596), 13th in extra base hits (422) which included only 107 home runs which was 14th.

With the Giants National League Western Division rivals in the Los Angeles Dodgers freely spending in the efforts to claim a World Series Title, San Francisco is attempting to keep up in the spending; albeit they have claimed a pair of titles since 2010. The Dodgers don’t appear to be turning backwards in the NL West as far as being contenders. The Giants don’t want to fall back from Los Angeles, but at what cost?

Source: Baseball-reference.com