Bochy to Giants

I'm not sure what this accomplishes. The Giants have already stated, directly to their season ticket-holders, that they're going with youth in 2007, so I don't see where forking over $7 million to a vanilla manager like Bochy really helps them. I guess you could say that at least he doesn't shred young arms, like a certain former Giants manager is known for, and that will be important in the Lowry/Cain/Lincecum era. So that's something.

But I just don't see how this is worth it. Beyond the money, they'll probably have to compensate San Diego for hiring him away (and it would be hilarious if the price was Randy Winn, just so he could be traded for a manager twice). Given the youth movement and the cost, I think it would have made more sense to go with Acta or Wotus or even Girardi.

And then, of course, there's the issue of one Barry Lamar Bonds. The fact that this contract got done so quickly could mean one of two things: either Bochy asked about Bonds and was told there was no way he was coming back, or he said right off the bat that he didn't have a problem dealing with Barry for a year since he was in it for the long haul. I tend to believe the first scenario; I don't see why any veteran manager would want anything to do with Bonds, especially given that he already had an MLB job. Plus, with all of the other turnover, you'd have to think that Barry would be miserable on a mediocre, rebuilding team, and that the Giants would know this (in fact, he's not even shown on the top of sfgiants.com, and fellow free agent Jason Schmidt is).

This move reeks of Brian Sabean hiring a "name" guy just to make himself look good. He can print that he hired the winningest manager in Padres history who's won the division the last two years in all of the press releases and the media guide, conveniently forgetting to mention that he's 24 games under .500 lifetime and hasn't been incredibly successful in the playoffs. That works when you need to cover your own ass in front of ownership, but it doesn't win pennants and develop young players.

TripleSteal rating: Out.