When It’s Time For a Change

At the outset of the Aaron Rowand deal I was not pleased. Basic arguments applied. Money spent on an aging, mediocre player at a position the Giants were already stocked at seemed unnecessary at best and financially irresponsible in almost all cases.

Those things may all still be true but right now the Giants’ offense is basically Rowand and nothing more. In terms of batting runs above average the Giants have seven players in the black but only four in the top 50 in the NL. Two of those happen to be the recently resurrected Omar Vizquel (welcome back Dreamy!) and backup catcher Steve Holm (did you know he’s from Sacramento? teh cool!!!).

Still, Rowand’s BRAA of 7.36 isn’t fantastic. It’s great to have on a team but the Diamondbacks and Pirates each have three players above Rowand. Even at that if you remove his contribution from the lineup it moves the Giants from competing with the Padres for the worst offense in the league to easily the sorriest lineup in the NL. Rowand’s WPA of 0.6 suggests he’s already added at least a win to the team’s record.

But is this a good thing for the Giants? Is the $12 million going to Rowand a year worth making the Giants on par with the other terrible offense in the division instead of historically bad?

Really, despite the fact that Rowand has been the best performer on a terrible ofensive club, I don’t think so. Yeah, it’s cool the the team is only six games under .500 than eight, but in the long run that doesn’t mean anything. Even if Rowand is the difference between a 100-loss and 98-loss season the money and lost roster spot isn’t worth it.

I had a long conversation with a co-worker a few weeks ago about whether it was worth it to let Zito stay on the team and hopefully work out his problems are just cut him and eat the deal, assuming you could pay it off over the length of the deal.

He said you had to get rid of him because it was making the team worse and you couldn’t afford having him on the mound every fifth day. I argued that Zito wasn’t the difference between a good team and a bad team, so what’s the point?

All in all there aren’t enough decisions for this club that could make it good. Playing Zito doesn’t matter, playing Rowand doesn’t matter. So yeah, Rowand is far and away the best hitter on the Giants and has obviously made the offense better. But that doesn’t mean it was a good idea to bring him in.