Deflated Giants face difficult offseason

Tom Goodwin can expect plenty of new faces on the bench next season. AP

By John Donovan, CNNSI.com

ANAHEIM, Calif. -- Brian Sabean reached over to Rich Aurilia, and the two men embraced in a quiet clubhouse. Sabean laid a tight fist on Aurilia's chest; Aurilia gave Sabean a tight smile. And then Aurilia went one way, Sabean the other.

Nobody knows what's going to happen with the San Francisco Giants next year. Heck, nobody knows what's going to happen with the Giants next week. Peter Magowan, the owner, doesn't know. Sabean, the general manager, is in the dark.

Dusty Baker ... Dusty Baker is wondering right there with the rest of us.

The National League champs are one big question mark right now. They're either a one-hit wonder, a big fear of many, or, somehow, they'll patch things together and be a World Series contender for at least a couple of more years.

Where it stops, nobody knows.

CNNSI.com's John Donovan Viewpoint: After a classic Game 6 on Saturday night, Anaheim's Game 7 victory proved to be anticlimactic. A Giant question: If San Francisco is to repeat as NL champions, they might have to do it without Dusty Baker and Jeff Kent. No-name faces Click the image to launch the clip The Angels won the World Series without a superstar-laden lineup. Start Angels manager Mike Scioscia commends the play of World Series MVP Troy Glaus. The Giants face an uncertain future after failing to close out the Angels in the Series. Scott Spiezio says winning the Series is one of the greatest accomplishments of his life. Adam Kennedy believes the Angels' team-first atmosphere was key to the club's World Series win. Video Plus Visit Video Plus for the latest video and audio. HEROES & GOATS HERO GOAT John Lackey L. Hernandez A rookie, throwing on three days' rest, starts and wins Game 7 with five solid innings. Maybe he does lose in October -- twice in this World Series alone. BY THE NUMBERS .857 -- Winning percentage (12-2) of home teams in the past two Series. 10 -- World Series titles won by teams from the state of California: The Dodgers have won five, the A's four and the Angels one. 14 -- Home runs hit by the Giants, most by one team in a World Series. 17 -- Men who have won World Series rings as both a player and a manager, including Mike Scioscia. 85 -- Total runs scored by both teams in this World Series, setting a record. 93 Years since a rookie starter won Game 7 of the Series. Pittsburgh's Babe Adams shut out Detroit in 1909. • World Series records set or tied

"For me, I'm going to go home and spend time with my family," said Aurilia, the Giants' shortstop, one of the key members of the team that will be back next year, "and not think about baseball."

The last thing any of the Giants wanted to think about Sunday, after losing a heartbreaking Game 7 and the World Series to their coastal competitors, the Anaheim Angels, was next year or the year after. The Giants were on top of the baseball world just a few days ago. They were eight outs away from a World Series championship.

Their terrible collapse in Game 6 -- you can call it a miraculous Angels' comeback, if you'd rather -- took the heart out of them. And then, in Game 7, they managed only a run on six hits in slipping quietly into defeat, 4-1.

Still, after the game, dressing quickly to get the heck out, the questions surrounding their future would not go away.

"You wonder," admitted Sabean, whose own future with the team is a little cloudy. "Obviously, if I come back, there's nobody I'd like to work with more than Dusty."

Sabean grabbed Baker shortly after he left the field Sunday. There was not a lot that could be said. The biggest question facing the Giants, of course, surrounds Baker, the deft-handed manager who took a team full of stars, kept them happy (for the most part) and edged them into the World Series. He becomes a free agent in a matter of days, and the Giants -- specifically, owner Magowan -- have not paid him the attention he wants.

Before the game, Baker was asked what he wanted to hear from Magowan or others.

"I don't know," Baker said. "If somebody wanted me back, then they would … a lot of times you wouldn't wait until the last minute to tell them."

Then there's the matter of Jeff Kent, the surly second baseman who served as a set-up man to slugger Barry Bonds for most of the year but who also will be a free agent.

Sabean's contract is up, too. There are others. There are so many questions.

"If you're asking me if I'd like those guys back, of course I would," Aurilia said. "They're a big part of this team, a big part of this whole organization.

"But it's not my decision to make."

In the next few days, certainly into the next few weeks, Baker either will be courted to his liking or he won't. Other teams will no doubt make a run at him.

Kent, though Bonds says the Giants should keep him, may just as likely leave. Sabean has done a solid job, but work on a new contract for him still has to be done.

The questions will all be answered, one way or the other, but it will take a while. It will take a few days, at least, to get over this World Series loss and move on.

"It's rugged," Sabean said. "We all hope to be in this position, and when you get here and get so close and it doesn't happen, it's a gut check. You feel for so many people. The whole organization has put so much into it."

Some teams you know will be back the next year. The Yankees always come back. The Angels, this year's champs, will be back nearly intact next season, though there's no guarantee of anything in the American League West.

No one knows about the Giants. Not yet, anyway.

"I don't know," Baker said after the loss. "There hasn't been time really to think about those things."

And then he said something else. Like so many things about the Giants, though, it was hard to figure exactly what it meant.

"See you guys," Baker said, "next year."

 

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