It's putting the I and F so close together that scares me

Friday the Giants officially announced Brian Sabean’s two-year extension.

Considering I just put down my thoughts on Sabean I’ll keep this brief. But there was one thing that popped up here and here specifically that I wanted to address. From Henry Schulman’s article:

"The hope is we can surprise ourselves with what I think the team could be, led by (our) young pitching staff," Magowan said, "but if in fact we need to develop patience so that we're in a better chance to win and sustain winning in a couple of years or so, we're prepared to do that.

Developing patience and growing a farm system is not an if. It is the smart way to run a baseball team. Having home grown players allows you to move in cheap options who most likely will sign for less than they would get on the open market if you choose to keep them. Look at the deal Travis Hafner got recently. You want to develop players like that yourself because buying them on the open market is nearly impossible to do for nine-spots in the lineup.

Having a roster full of guys making the minimum or below market value allows you to go out and sign guys like, forgive the comparison but I think it fits, Vladimir Guerrero. Right now the Angels have five starters who were either drafted by the team or have never played major league ball for any other club. That has allowed them to go out and get guys like Guerrero, Orlando Cabrera and Gary Matthews (even if they should have passed on that last one). Minimum guys give you flexibility to enhance a contender when the time comes.

A deep farm system keeps you from having to spend millions on average players to fill bench spots. It gives you trading chips if necessary. There are other ways to win, but if the Giants truly want to create a new wave, as Sabean puts it, a sustainable stretch of winning, then that is how it’s done. Look at the Braves. Six of their eight position starters were drafted or came up through the club’s minor league system. Same goes for three of the five starting pitchers. The team occasionally adds a Gary Sheffield or J.D. Drew, but relies mainly on the players they can develop on their own.

So while the press conference talk is nice, I don’t buy it yet. I want to see who Matt Morris is playing for in August and how the roster in San Jose and Connecticut looks before I get comfortable with Sabean Redux.