World Series Giants!

Reading USA today gave me an insight of where the two teams in the World Series were made. Baseball has almost always enjoyed a unique position in sports. Early on it was deemed by the courts not to be subject to the antitrust laws that effect businesses and other sports. This means that teams can get together and exchange players and contracts without fear of being charged with conspiring to effect trade. Other sports are not allowed to do this.

Baseball has no cap on collective cost of teams. The New York Yankees can and do spend more than any other team in baseball. It does not always result in capturing a World Series or for that matter even being in one. Sometimes the best players do not yield the best results. Ask the Giants about the history of pitcher Zito. He is one of the highest paid pitchers in the major league baseball and he did not even make the playoff roster.

Each baseball season is a long one. The endless travel and athletes have to work hard to maintain physical abilities to keep them in the premier baseball league throughout the season. Its come down to this. They World Series. Can one team from the National League (the San Francisco Giants) beat one team from the American League (Texas Rangers.)

The Texas Rangers have never been to the World Series. Why? Because Texas as a whole is more focused on football. If you catch the Disney Dennis Quaid movie "The Rookie" the poor kids in small town Texas could not even buy basball socks mid 60s. They certainly have had a beautiful new park since the 90's. Still they were not fielding a competent team for World Series play until now. It takes an owner with clever vision to bring that about. They are here this year after clubbing the Yankees over the head.

So how did the San Francisco Giants and the Texas Rangers get into the World Series. In both cases they traded and acquired a number of players at the trading deadlines and a parlayed them into a winning team. The San Francisco Giants are dependent upon their pitchers and have a park that is very pitcher friendly. the Rangers have invested in offense and scoring many runs with big batters. Their park is a pitchers nightmare but a hitter's delight.

In both cases, both teams traded to increase their strengths and build against their weaknesses.

Here is the rundown on how these teams were made.

Texas San Francisco

Drafted 7 9
Acquired in Trade 13 4
Signed as Free Agents 3 10
Selected in Rule 5 draft 1 0
Signed as amateur free agent 0 1
Claimed on waivers 1 1

Source USA today research


Despite this, the San Francisco Giants and the Texas Rangers take great pride in the number of significant players they have developed through their farm organizations. As USA today notes,"both teams would not be their without wheeling and dealing that continued as long as the rules allowed."

The Rangers acquired high profile pitcher Cliff Lee in early July. The Giants fine tuned their bullpen at the July 31 trade deadline to waiver claims and deals all the way through August. Onlookers to the scene claimed that both clubs were headed to overkill in particular areas.

The major players in this shift and gamble were the Giants Brian Sabean and the Ranger's Jon Daniels.

The Giants manager Bruce Bochy said "I compare them to the Dirty Dozen. That's the way they they play, they've coalesced into a team that goes out there to win. Its nice to have a group of unselfish players who have one agenda and that is to get to postseason. There is no complaining. They have accepted their roles, which they probably were real happy (about).

The San Fransico Giants have won two games in their home park. The question remains can they do it in Texas? Or as my mother-in-law would say can they "mess with Texas."

: ) Pat