The SF Giants are not making any progress (yet) and Farhan Zaidi should be kicked out

SAN FRANCISCO – If my columns had the same shelf life as Farhan Zaidi’s post-market commentary, I’d be out.

Two weeks ago, after a series of questionable moves, Zaidi made two completely absurd claims.

The first reason was that the Giants believed they could still make the playoffs with “the best rotation in baseball.”

The second reason was that trading the team's best power hitter, Jorge Soler, would help the team by allowing top talent Marco Luciano to bat regularly as the team's designated hitter.

These allegations – as dubious as they seemed at the time – seem downright offensive today.

Zaidi manipulated the fan base.

And after years of preaching patience to the club's management and begging an ever-growing portion of the fan base to give the undeniably astute Zaidi another chance to pull the team out of the spiral of mediocrity, I'm out.

Insulting the intelligence of the media is one thing – we are fair game.

But insulting the intelligence of the fan base like Zaidi did?

This is unforgivable.

And in a just world it is terminable.

The “best rotation in baseball” consists of two pitchers.

Yes, Webb and a resurgent Blake Snell are the best one-two punch you can get in baseball. But after that, this rotation is a disaster. The Giants have bet everything on Robbie Ray (who just underwent Tommy John surgery) and youngsters Kyle Harrison and Hayden Birdsong, and traded No. 6 starter Alex Cobb for a talent who will never make the major leagues.

How silly does this look just two weeks later?

In a game he almost had to win on Wednesday, Ray failed to complete even one inning. Harrison, 23, who is playing his first full season in the major leagues, has reached his limits — his velocity and spin rate have dropped significantly in recent starts, requiring him to endure five innings of extremely hittable stuff in each start. Birdsong has a 17.05 ERA since the trade deadline.

Luciano, on the other hand, spent two weeks on the bench, losing his batting opportunities to Jerar Encarnación, who played in the Mexican League earlier this year, and to Mark Canha, a favorite of manager Bob Melvin who took “the keys” of the team to trade him in the final moments before the trade deadline. Today, he is no longer even on the major league team.

Luciano received a total of 21 at-bats after the trade deadline.

Within six months, the Giants' attitude toward the team's top talent went from “he was the shortstop of the present and future” to “he was no longer allowed to play on the field” to “he was no longer allowed to hit either.”

The blame for this ultimately lies with the player – Luciano's weak defense and weak hitting prevented him from making the Major League roster – but it is also due to the Giants' misconduct in recruiting.

Not only have the Giants failed to consistently put Luciano in successful positions, they have also allowed his value to plummet in every transfer scenario.

He has developed into another Quadruple-A player for a franchise that has specialized in such players for the past six years.

I would ask, “What are the Giants doing here?” but I already know the answer: the same damn thing they've been doing for more than half a decade now.

Every four years, the big question in the presidential election is: “Are you better off than you were four years ago?”

I have a similar question for the Giants, who are heading into another season without playoff baseball: Is this franchise in a better position than it was six years ago when Zaidi took over as head of baseball operations?

Zaidi took what I considered to be the worst job in baseball at the time. The major league rosters were reduced to minor leagues.

Now, six years later, the Major League roster is still mediocre – the record doesn't lie – and the farm system, which undoubtedly finished in the bottom third of baseball in 2018, was ranked 22nd by MLB.com on Thursday.

Patrick Bailey and Tyler Fitzgerald (he has just over 200 at-bats in the major leagues) are the only players who were added to the farm system by Zaidi and have developed into regular players.

A mediocre present without immediate hope for a better future?

What is for sale here?

Of course, the Giants had a chance this week to prove that this team isn't the boring, mediocre unit it was for the first 100-plus games of the season. They just got off to a winning streak (they've had a few this season), beating three inferior teams to get over .500 in the standings and within legitimate striking distance of the third and final wild card spot in the National League, with the Braves – the team that has long held one of those wild card spots – coming to town for a four-game series.

The Giants have lost three of four games, with Thursday afternoon's 6-0 win preceded by three embarrassing losses that came on the back of another outstanding performance by their ace Webb.

The series loss puts the Giants at .500 this season, 3.5 games behind the Braves in the standings.

Can anyone ignore the looks, sounds and quacks anymore? Average teams always find a way back to mediocrity.

For those who don't like math, I'll put it this way: This is not a playoff team. It's the same squad as before the transfer deadline, which was nowhere near good enough to compete seriously.

And next year and the year after that it will be the same team.

Of course, there are more than six weeks left in the season and the Giants can still assume that they are “in the mix.” Perhaps my opinion will be as old as Zaidi's.

But when Zaidi took the helm, expectations for the team were still huge – as they always should be with one of the most prestigious sports brands in one of North America's largest markets.

The goal back then was to compete with the rival Dodgers and fight for the World Series title.

Six years later, one thing has changed: Now the best one can hope for—and the only thing the organization seems to be aiming for—is to be “interesting” in September.

It would be funny if it wasn't so sad.

Yes, this team is spinning on the road that leads nowhere. And it is a road that has become well traveled. That is no longer acceptable or forgivable.

After six years of little to no change, we're hoping to see a big change in the offseason.