It's an important time of the season for the San Francisco Giants; the trade deadline has come and gone, the dog dags of summer are here to stay, and the games get more important with every passing day. General Manager Brian Sabean went on 95.7 FM to talk some shop with John Lund and Mychael Urban on their radio show The Wheelhouse on Monday, covering a number of various topics such as the trade deadline, the status of Barry Zito, and possible waiver claims on their radar. Make the jump to check out what he had to say.
First off here's the link to the entire interview.
With the deadline over, Sabean talks about his feelings about how he felt the Giants fared:
I think we were fortunate that we had some willing parties that we were able to do business with, as it turns out Keppinger takes the place of Sanchez in some form, we saw that the middle of the order really sorely needed someone to replace Posey and we have high hopes on the Beltran situation and the fact that he's a switch hitter and he's been around the block and then most recently we've just really had kind of a black hole at shortstop and to be able to get a Cabrera really at the last minute not knowing if whether we could try to improve that position at all I think we should consider ourselves fortunate...I think the blood letting was at the minimum.
The 'blood letting' Sabean speaks of is the amount of talent let go for these various trades, with the biggest hit coming in Zack Wheeler going to the Mets for Carlos Beltran. Losing Thomas Neal in the Orlando Cabrera trade was a bit of a let down for die hard Fresno Grizzlies fans but wasn't as big a deal long term as losing Wheeler.
Here's what Sabean had to say about Barry Zito:
Haven't spoken to Bochy... after yesterday's game, last night, or even today, obviously I don't think it's helped his situation as we could turn to Sanchez... I do know one thing, it's going to be a long two months, and how we use the perhaps sixth starter or even six guys will be a juggling act.
Juggling act indeed.
Sabean is looking forward to the trade deadline, a time he can always seem to find solid talent:
Well, you always play the waiver game and we'll continue to monitor some of the things we couldn't pull off, but you are subject to how the claiming process goes, to answer the real question, we're going to have to get better with the people who have already been here. Huff's going to have to step up... and we're going to have to get more production out of the leadoff spot
Lastly here's a blurb from what Sabean had to say about how the team will handle the shortstop position from here on in:
Our two shortstops, one Fontenot who was signed as a utility type of player, and Crawford who quite frankly probably belonged in Double A, we actually plucked him from A ball and we know that his bat isn't ready, and those guys kind of looked overmatched and the play became a little spotty, so you know we're rolling the dice on someone like Cabrera who is rested having played second base, and not overtaxed, and kind of his base hit bat can contribute more on both sides of the ball and we'll find out as he's going to get a lion's share of the playing time here.