[OutsiderFan]

So, Outsider tell us,  what were the offers?  Unless you know, you have no basis for claiming Bum and Smith “should have”  been traded 

Something is better than nothing. They would have received more than nothing. I understand ownership wants to play meaningful games in September, and that the remaining players would have been upset if the team threw in the towel seemingly so close to contention by trading its most valuable assets, but I’m fairly confident the baseball people knew the July run run was iron pyrite and fully expected regression to the mean with this team. The realities were staring them in the face, and the odds were heavily stacked against the Giants even with Bumgarner and Smith. FZ and his team knew this more than any fan.

This isn’t some hindsight position I’m taking. It would have been a really hard decision to trade them, but the talent gap between the Giants and Dodgers, Padres, D-Backs, Braves (to name a few in  the NL) is so big that it requires every opportunity the Giants have to close it. The Dodgers in particular are just ridiculously loaded and need to be attacked by getting better in any way possible. The Giants haven’t been willing to make the tough decisions. This is a big reason why the hole they must get out of is so big. 

The Giants traded OF Bryan Reynolds and P Kyle Crick to Pirates two years ago for Andrew McCutchen. Crick stinks, but Reynolds is now Leading the NL in batting this week. No guarantees on trades, but it seems highly unlikely the Giants wouldn’t have made themselves better by trading Smith and Bum.

[OutsiderFan]

So, Outsider tell us,  what were the offers?  Unless you know, you have no basis for claiming Bum and Smith “should have”  been traded 

Something is better than nothing. They would have received more than nothing. I understand ownership wants to play meaningful games in September, and that the remaining players would have been upset if the team threw in the towel seemingly so close to contention by trading its most valuable assets, but I’m fairly confident the baseball people knew the July run run was iron pyrite and fully expected regression to the mean with this team. The realities were staring them in the face, and the odds were heavily stacked against the Giants even with Bumgarner and Smith. FZ and his team knew this more than any fan.

This isn’t some hindsight position I’m taking. It would have been a really hard decision to trade them, but the talent gap between the Giants and Dodgers, Padres, D-Backs, Braves (to name a few in  the NL) is so big that it requires every opportunity the Giants have to close it. The Dodgers in particular are just ridiculously loaded and need to be attacked by getting better in any way possible. The Giants haven’t been willing to make the tough decisions. This is a big reason why the hole they must get out of is so big. 

The Giants traded OF Bryan Reynolds and P Kyle Crick to Pirates two years ago for Andrew McCutchen. Crick stinks, but Reynolds is now Leading the NL in batting this week. No guarantees on trades, but it seems highly unlikely the Giants wouldn’t have made themselves better by trading Smith and Bum.