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Think the division champs didn't make a big off-season move? Think again

By Josh Elliott

As the ace of the Athletics, Hudson will carry a heavy load, leading a staff that's talented but short on major league experience.  Jed Jacobsohn/Allsport ENEMY LINES An opposing team's scout sizes up the Giants "If we're picking teams, and I have one choice of a player, I take Jeff Kent over Barry Bonds . You look at Kent's attitude, what he does as a whole. You have to try to keep him off balance and hope he chases something. If you make a mistake inside, he'll kill you. Bonds is a great player. His problem is his head. He'll never be a good player in prime time because of what's happened in the past. He thinks about it so much. He had the Mets' Bobby J. Jones throwing 86-mph fastballs by him in the playoffs last fall.... Dusty Baker is the best manager in baseball. You can't find a player who wouldn't play for him. He deals with every player as an individual, and he handles the ego of Bonds with a very deft hand. He makes very few mistakes.... The Giants don't have a true No. 1 starter. They have a bunch of No. 3 and No. 4 starters.... Stuffwise, Shawn Estes is off the charts. Great breaking ball, great changeup, solid fastball. But there's no consistency.... It's been sad watching Joe Nathan throw this spring -- 81-83 mph. He has nothing.... I look at the centerfielders around the league, and Marvin Bernard doesn't rate. He isn't a Gold Glove, and he's not a legit leadoff hitter. He's a better No. 2 hitter.... They're gonna miss Bill Mueller at third. He should have won a Gold Glove. Each year Russ Davis has declined defensively.... Robb Nen is so deceptive. Nothing he throws is straight. He has a 91-93 mph slider. That's just unheard of.... Felix Rodriguez would be a great closer. He's 95-96, plus movement. And look at his body -- he could pitch for 15 years."

Sitting silently in his spartan office at the Giants' Scottsdale, Ariz., training complex, Dusty Baker pauses for a long while, thinking of the moment when he ultimately decided to return for his ninth season as San Francisco's manager. "I was visiting my mother-in-law in the hospital, where she was dying of cancer," he says, his face contorting and his smooth voice dropping at the memory. "I stood staring at her, and I thought about my father and my aunt, who were both also very sick at the time, and about my family and my son, who liked it so much here. It occurred to me how lucky I was, to be a part of something special. That same day, I signed my new deal."

While much was made in the Bay Area of the Giants' failure to sign any celebrated free agents during the off-season, this much is clear: Only when Baker decided to return did San Francisco, which had baseball's best record in 2000, become the favorite to repeat as National League West champs. To a man, the Giants admit that without the peerless motivational skills of Baker, the league's Manager of the Year last season, theirs would be a rudderless ship. Still, despite receiving a two-year, $5.3 million offer that would leave him second in salary among skippers to the Yankees' Joe Torre, Baker -- stung by criticism of his strategy following San Francisco's meek playoff showing against the Mets -- was hardly a cinch to come back.

"Dusty was a free agent, and he could've gone anywhere," G.M. Brian Sabean says. "It was a trying time, but it was a relief for the organization when we decided we'd all be pulling on the same rope." Adds shortstop Rich Aurilia, "[Baker] would've been impossible to replace. We've got a great core group here, but to throw a new manager into the mix would've been disastrous."

In returning, Baker faces the vexing challenge of replacing rightfielder Ellis Burks, who departed after the Giants balked at his demand for a two-year deal, reasoning that his already-brittle 36-year-old knees would never hold up that long. By standing aside while Burks signed for three years with the Indians, San Francisco lost a clutch hitter who last season had a .344 average (highest by a Giant in 42 years) and 96 RBIs in 393 at bats; San Francisco was 72-38 when he was in the starting lineup and 25-27 when he wasn't. Not only did Burks provide invaluable protection to Bonds and Kent in the batting order, he also made up for the leadership shortcomings of the frosty duo. "He was one of the best clubhouse guys I've ever seen," says Aurilia. "His void is a huge one."

To fill it, on the lineup card at least, Baker will turn primarily to Armando Rios, who drove in 50 runs in 233 at bats as Burks's understudy last year. That he did so is something of a medical miracle, because Rios played the final month of the season with a torn tendon in his left (throwing) elbow. Stunned doctors, who couldn't believe that Rios was able to throw a ball or swing a bat with the injury, recommended Tommy John surgery two weeks after season's end. "When I heard those words, I went into shock, and I cried a little," says the normally cocky 29-year-old Rios. "I knew Ellis probably wouldn't be back, and I thought maybe I'd just lost my chance." After the surgery and a vigorous off-season of rehab, a lean, fit Rios came to camp a month ahead of his recovery schedule; he impressed the coaches with his arm strength and increased pop at the plate. But because Rios hit just .167 against lefthanders last season and because he still has less than a full season's worth of big league experience, the Giants signed free-agent outfielders Eric Davis (.390 against lefties in 2000) and Shawon Dunston.

If San Francisco stumbles, it will most likely be on defense, where the departure of Burks and third baseman Bill Mueller, who committed just nine of the Giants' franchise-low 93 errors, will be acutely felt. Replacing Mueller will be the stone-handed Russ Davis, though San Francisco hopes rookie Pedro Feliz (33 homers and 105 RBIs at Triple A Fresno) will be ready by midseason.

If Baker's demeanor is a bellwether, there will be no stumbles in 2001. During his press conference the day he re-signed -- just hours after his visit to her -- his mother-in-law died. That also happened to be two days before the start of the World Series. "If we'd made it to the Series, it might've been too much to handle," Baker says, "but that emotional roller coaster made me stronger, more focused. We're ready for this year. Ready for it all."

Issue date: March 26, 2001

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