I'm dismissing all the talk that the Giants can right the ship and still make a run at the postseason. It's not going to happen simply because the Giants are their own worst enemy. No team wastes a season's worth of stellar pitching like this Giants team. No team becomes worse with runners in scoring position like the Giants.
I'm so tired of Mike Krukow and Duane Kuiper talk about how hard the Giants battled, and that they should be proud of their effort. Baloney! These players in a single season make more money than most of us will see in our lifetimes, and we're now supposed to evaluate their effort? In any professional setting, you are judged solely on your performance, period. And that's the way it should be. When the time came for the Giants to do their jobs, which they're paid so lavishly to do, they failed.
It's true that no one expected the Giants to be playing meaningful games in the thick of the wild-card race in late August. Owner Bill Neukom publicly declared that the goal for this team was a winning season. Even when the Giants fail to reach October, this season will not have been a failure by any stretch. But Major League Baseball is not like the NBA, where over half the teams make the postseason. In baseball, there's no guarantee whatsoever of making a run towards the playoffs, as only 8 of 30 teams reach the postseason (see the 2005 Giants). Thus, when the opportunity to make the postseason arrives, you have to seize the moment, no matter the pre-season expectations. Instead of rising to the occasion, the Giants have lowered their quality of play.
I will watch the rest of the games, because I watch no matter what. But I've already started looking at the 2010 Free Agent Class.
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