San Francisco Giants Baseball-#2: Stats Versus Intangibles

Stats Versus Intangibles

Brian Sabean continued his fine-tuning process of the Giants by acquiring 36 year-old Orlando Cabrera from the Cleveland Indians, yesterday, in exchange for minor league outfielder Thomas Neal, a prospect who has shown intermittent power, but had only two home runs this season.

Already the cry has gone out that the stats for Cabrera, as far as hitting, on-base-percentage and slugging percentage, are the same as the stats for Miguel Tejada.  The fact that Cabrera has been on four consecutive post-season teams, and has seen post-season play six out of the last seven years, does not seem to enter the picture.

The deal would seem to indicate that Bochy has given up on Miggy, and his 6.5 million dollar contract.  The dude brings a lot of intangibles to the field, but the tangibles are too apparent to ignore.  His range has diminished, and in all fairness to Miggy, he probably belongs more in the role of back-up to the Panda at third.

In checking out the comments from the article about the trade on sfgiants.com, the first salvo fired was that Brian Sabean is a dumbass.  I find the comments to be generally negative overall, and specifically critical of Brian whenever he pulls off one of his textbook July trades.  Usually the criticism focuses on the merits of the player himself, but frequently it includes commentary on the player traded.   These bozos who jump first and ask questions later, never remember to go back to the comments to adjust their initial appraisal.

Sabean should not have to justify his actions to anyone;  his track record is indisputable.  I do not know exactly why the deal was pulled, but it is not important that I do.  The only important thing to consider, is that Sabes has proven that he has the know-how, and the gumption to pull the trigger, and we should trust him when he does.