[DC 86]

It has occurred to me that two things may be happening in Giants land:

1. Farhan is legitimately seeing this as a year where he thinks the best reinforcements are coming from prospects.

2. They have figured out that the best plan is to stay in contention until they can pick up a couple of really good rent-a-players at the deadline; maybe with luck, they get someone where they have team control for 2022-23. It's possible that this approach gets you a better player and ends up being cheaper because you are capitalizing on some tanking team's misfortune.

But good teams with adequate resources do everything; one approach doesn't preclude another. The Giants main competitors are active in all areas every year. In any case:

1. Of the Giants top 10 prospects only one (Ramos) has played above A-ball. He's really the only possible reinforcement currently in the system, and it's quite optimistic that he's already a superior player to available free agents.

2. Deadline acquisitions are indeed frequently better players but they come at a cost, usually highly ranked prospects. So a rental may (or may not) be cheaper in terms of salary but will ultimately be more expensive because you give up valuable player capital. Because of expanded playoffs there is now a surplus of contenders vs tankers, which is why in recent years tanking teams have had the leverage to negotiate strong prospect packages in return for veterans that they make available. It's still often worthwhile to act in this market, but a high revenue team such as SF has to weigh acquisition cost in the rental market against the purely financial cost of signing free agents.

The Giants are doing a good job developing their farm system, and they should be opportunistic at the trade deadline, but those are not substitutes for acquiring talent through other means, they're supplements.

[DC 86]

It has occurred to me that two things may be happening in Giants land:

1. Farhan is legitimately seeing this as a year where he thinks the best reinforcements are coming from prospects.

2. They have figured out that the best plan is to stay in contention until they can pick up a couple of really good rent-a-players at the deadline; maybe with luck, they get someone where they have team control for 2022-23. It's possible that this approach gets you a better player and ends up being cheaper because you are capitalizing on some tanking team's misfortune.

But good teams with adequate resources do everything; one approach doesn't preclude another. The Giants main competitors are active in all areas every year. In any case:

1. Of the Giants top 10 prospects only one (Ramos) has played above A-ball. He's really the only possible reinforcement currently in the system, and it's quite optimistic that he's already a superior player to available free agents.

2. Deadline acquisitions are indeed frequently better players but they come at a cost, usually highly ranked prospects. So a rental may (or may not) be cheaper in terms of salary but will ultimately be more expensive because you give up valuable player capital. Because of expanded playoffs there is now a surplus of contenders vs tankers, which is why in recent years tanking teams have had the leverage to negotiate strong prospect packages in return for veterans that they make available. It's still often worthwhile to act in this market, but a high revenue team such as SF has to weigh acquisition cost in the rental market against the purely financial cost of signing free agents.

The Giants are doing a good job developing their farm system, and they should be opportunistic at the trade deadline, but those are not substitutes for acquiring talent through other means, they're supplements.