Family Value

An old man and his father: a triumph of familial relations

Apparently Moises Alou is taking less money to play for his father. Yet, assuming he doesn't mean compared to the Yankees, it's not really clear what less is supposed to be.

How many dads, after all, give their offspring the best part of $7m per year? Alou’s two-year, $13.5m contract, far from resembling a family discount, bears the mark instead of a team that has run itself dangerously out of escape routes. Felipe himself, not one for missing an opportunity for irony, joked about the unlikelihood of his son playing in San Francisco, chirping “if he were five years younger, I would have brought up his name myself.” Now, less than a week later, Moises has suddenly become the answer to the Giant’s misconstrued offensive woes -- if not their fragility in the outfield. The additional (and inexplicable) loss of the durable Dustan Mohr only adds to the strain that will see Alou switching to right field, where he be forced to contend with all the nooks and crannies that proved the death of lesser predecessors like Jeffrey Hammonds. Yet even in his natural position, left field, Alou has only a .982 career fielding percentage. In the last four seasons he has averaged .974. In 2004, he placed 20th among starting left-fielders with .967 – behind, of all people, Manny Ramirez.

Thus the Giants outfield in 2005 – totaling some 117 years (almost twice the age of the D’Rays, at 65) – will be, quite literally, overstretched. Alas these veterans, for all their wisdom, cannot catch the balls they cannot reach. The off-season intention, made clear by the club, was to add a center fielder to relieve Marquis Grissom of his gruelling patrol of the gaping chasms of SBC Park. The management passed on Scott Posednik, albeit wisely, and vigorously pursued Dave Roberts, but in the end the club's unwillingness to part with any of their younger pitching nixed any potential trades. They spoke to Jeremy Burnitz for the third time in two years before swooping, in a fashion both prodigal and mystifying, for Alou.

As it stands -- no pun intended -- not only does the San Francisco outfield lack mobility, it lacks depth as well. Michael Tucker who is not bad as supporting member of the cast, will spell at all three positions; but he offers little other than a left-handed bat that the starting trio does not possess. Mohr at least represented a defensive upgrade, if not a sizeable injection of hustle -- something every team, especially an aging one, could do with. In 2005, with three members of the Giant’s projected rotation (Jason Schmidt, Brett Tomko and Noah Lowry) being fly-ball pitchers (not to mention most of the bullpen), the leaky outfield is poised to flood with bloop singles and line-gappers.

We all hope that the combination of an infield over laden with gold-gloves and Alou's bat – through its timely potency – will offset the extra runs that opposing teams will score as a result of the Giant’s leaky outfield. For his part, in 2004 Alou’s .919 OPS ranked him fourth among major league left fielders. He was 2nd in RBIs, 3rd in runs and 4th in slugging. With his addition, the Giants will in all likelihood score the 2nd most runs in the league, as they did in 2004. Alou will slide either into the No.5 hole, (in an attempt to offer Bond’s some protection) or, being a fastball hitter, will bat third, where he will live on a steady diet of fastballs. Assuming he stays healthy, he will certainly drive in and score 100 runs, much to the merriment of the fans, who will toast to Sabean's genius -- until the post-season, when a ball at the right-field wall comes crashing down.