In a season defined by standout performances from their biggest stars, the characteristically steady managing of Bruce Bochy and, most recently, one of the great heroic blasts in postseason history, it's not easy to pick a definitive unsung hero of the 2014 San Francisco Giants.
But here's an idea: How about the guy who made them?
How about Brian Sabean?
By now, everyone should already have built-in respect for baseball's longest-tenured general manager. Sabean doesn't have a spotless track record—see the contract of Zito, Barry and the trade for Beltran, Carlos—but his Giants have won four National League pennants and two World Series. A defeat of the Kansas City Royals in this year's Fall Classic would make it three, all within five years.
That's dynasty-level awesomeness, and it's all the more remarkable in the context of the task Sabean was facing at the end of last season.
The Giants went from spraying champagne at the end of 2012 to a 76-86 record and a third-place finish in the NL West in 2013, at least in part because of how Matt Cain joined Tim Lincecum in the "Past Their Prime Giants Pitchers Club."
With homegrown products Buster Posey, Madison Bumgarner, Pablo Sandoval, Brandon Belt, Brandon Crawford and Sergio Romo alongside strong supporting characters, Sabean still had a good core to build around for 2014. But as he (rightfully) saw it, there was work to be done.
“It just didn’t work for a lot of reasons,” Sabean said shortly before season's end, via Henry Schulman of the San Francisco Chronicle. “It’s safe to say the window for that group at hand is closed. We’ve got to create a new window immediately, and that’s the task at hand.”
And with that, Sabean indeed proceeded to go to work immediately.
One of the hallmarks of Sabean's regime is his preference to put a premium on familiarity, paying good money to retain his free agents rather than being gung-ho about searching for new toys.
To this end, it was business as usual when Sabean inked pending free agent Hunter Pence to a five-year, $90 million extension before 2013 was even over to keep him patrolling right field at AT&T Park. He then inked Lincecum to a two-year, $35 million contract before the end of October. Lefty specialist Javier Lopez got a three-year, $13 million contact in November. In December, it was Ryan Vogelsong's turn to come back on a one-year, $5 million deal.
As per usual, when Sabean pays good money to retain his own guys, the reactions to the deals were mixed. But in 2014, the only deal that didn't work out was Lincecum's. While he struggled his way to a 4.74 ERA and, eventually, the bullpen, Pence, Lopez and Vogelsong all did their jobs.
Lopez did his thing by holding left-handed batters to a .538 OPS. Pence's .277 average and 20 homers helped him finish the year as one of the top 15 outfielders in the majors, according to FanGraphs WAR. Before a rough month of September, Vogelsong was rocking a 3.73 ERA.
Mind you, Sabean eventually did go out and find some new toys over the winter. And in the end, the two main ones he brought aboard paid big dividends.
The first new toy to come aboard was veteran starter Tim Hudson in mid-November on a two-year, $23 million deal. Signing him meant banking on him bouncing back from a rough 2013 that ended early thanks to a grisly ankle injury.
FanGraphs' Dave Cameron argued the Giants were right to do so rather than bet on other veteran free-agent starters:
The Giants chose to bet on a quality pitcher recovering from a fluke injury and continuing his 15 year run as one of the game’s most effective and consistent starters. I’d take that over a bet on Bronson Arroyo’s magical hit prevention or Dan Haren’s xFIP being more predictive than his recent results.
Sabean's gamble worked like a charm. Though his season was also marred by a poor September, Hudson made the National League All-Star squad and the 2.90 ERA he had at the end of August helped the Giants win 17 of his 26 starts.
The other thing the Giants needed aside from a starter to round out their rotation was some power in left field. For that, they inked Michael Morse to a one-year, $6 million contract.
Morse was coming off a season in which he only hit 13 homers with a .381 slugging percentage. But since Giants left fielders only hit five homers with a .337 slugging percentage, anything even remotely close to what Morse did in 2013 would be a huge upgrade.
Morse provided said upgrade with 16 homers and a .475 slugging percentage. And though he endured a rough end to his season too, his ability to play first base was a big boost during Belt's injury absences.
You might also have noticed Morse's powerful bat coming in handy in Game 5 of the National League Championship Series.
With the exception of Lincecum, Sabean's offseason shopping for 2014 was thus very much a success. He hit on five of the six big contracts he handed out, a success rate not unlike the Ben Cherington shopping spree that enabled the Boston Red Sox to win the 2013 World Series.
But Sabean wasn't done scoring when the offseason ended. His good work had an impact during the season too.
The Giants got to enjoy two more fruits from Sabean's farm system when a couple high 2011 draft picks arrived on the scene: Joe Panik in June and Andrew Susac in July. Susac took Hector Sanchez's place as Posey's backup and hit .273 with a .792 OPS. Panik made good on his 2011 first-round selection by filling the Giants' second base hole with a .305 average in 73 games.
Oh, and he also set up Morse's big dinger in Game 5 of the NLCS with a big dinger of his own.
At the trade deadline, Sabean responded to the Giants' need for a starter by snagging Jake Peavy in a low-risk trade with the Red Sox. Though Peavy had a 4.72 ERA at the time, the Giants liked what they saw.
"They all recommended that we trade for him," Sabean said of his conversations with his scouts, via Alex Pavlovic of the San Jose Mercury News. "He's still a solid fourth starter in the big leagues."
It was indeed easy to see Peavy working out for the Giants, but he ended up being far more than a No. 4 starter. He posted a sterling 2.17 ERA in 12 starts and seemed to flirt with a no-hitter in half of them.
Just as his decision to keep Lincecum is the exception to the rule of Sabean's offseason shopping list, Sabean didn't completely nail his in-season shopping list. At the least, there was that time the Giants took a flier on Dan Uggla only to release him after four hitless games.
But maybe even more so than offseason moves, in-season moves are about taking chances. And if we have to mention Sabean taking a big chance on Uggla and whiffing, we certainly have to mention the even bigger chance he took that just put the Giants in the World Series.
When Travis Ishikawa was released by the Pittsburgh Pirates in April, he didn't call the Giants. Rather, Tom Verducci of Sports Illustrated says that Ishikawa's former team actually called him, with the idea being to stash him at Triple-A Fresno and see what he could do.
It turned out he could hit a solid .271 with a .795 OPS. His production continued once he got the call, hitting a nearly identical .274 with a .731 OPS. It also turned out he was willing to play left field after the Giants were forced by Angel Pagan's season-ending back surgery to play Gregor Blanco in center field full time.
Ishikawa didn't look like a natural left fielder early on in Game 5 of the NLCS, nor is he likely to look like one any time soon. But his solid regular-season hitting was a prelude to his .385 average in the five games against the St. Louis Cardinals.
The final act of which, of course, was Ishikawa's Bobby Thomson moment.
"There's been times when I've thought about retirement, trying to figure out something else where I could make money and be home every day to be with my family,'' said Ishikawa, via Jorge L. Ortiz of USA Today. "Thank God I stuck with it, and I thank the Giants for this opportunity.''
More specifically, Ishikawa can thank Sabean for the opportunity. Sabean first drafted him back in 2002, and he's the guy who made sure Ishikawa got the chance that would lead to him becoming a part of baseball lore.
While Ishikawa's at it, Giants fans and all other fans who've enjoyed watching them carve their way through the 2014 postseason can thank Sabean too. He built the foundation for the 2014 Giants, and his savvy craftsmanship once again took care of the rest.
Dynasties aren't built very often. But when they do happen, Sabean is a reminder that they aren't built by accident.
Note: Stats courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com unless otherwise noted/linked.
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