Brian Sabean

With the minutes ticking away toward the 2010 Major League Baseball non-waiver trade deadline, fans saw the typically violent flurry of activity as general mangers hustled to smooth out the rough edges. Some of the moves look brilliant while others seem to stink of acquisition for acquisition's sake.

Take a gander at the maneuvering that started way back at the beginning of July and decide for yourself:

July 9th —Texas Rangers acquire RHP Cliff Lee from the Seattle Mariners for 1B Justin Smoak, RHP Blake Beavan, RHP Josh Leuke, and INF Matt Lawson.

In some recess of his or her brain, every San Francisco Giants fan is thinking the same thing now that Dontrelle Willis has signed a Minor League contract with the club.

Does this mean someone in the current rotation is on his way out?

It's natural.

Although rookie Madison Bumgarner's name has popped up on the trade radar, it's doubtful the Gents would be interested in moving the 20-year-old lefty, given he's twirled a quartet of blinders since being called up at the end of June.

Here’s an article from Andrew Baggarly of the San Jose Mercury News about San Francisco Giants general manager Brian Sabean and his desire to hold information close to the vest.  It’s in response to an “informal poll” (meaning that not all GMs responded and it’s not entirely certain how many did) by Buster Olney of ESPN.com.

Nobody can accuse me of being hypercritical of the San Francisco Giants' management, including the Bay Area's two most bullet-ridden targets.

For all his warts, I've always believed general manager Brian Sabean's gotten more heat than is justifiable. Meanwhile, Bruce Bochy got the 2009 team to overachieve, which is usually evidence of a good manager.

Consequently, somewhere in Bleacher Report's vast archives, I'm on record as supporting the two-year extensions both men received.

In the world of sports, there are no absolutes. Especially in baseball, absolutes simply don't exist.

Home runs are ruled as ground rule doubles, perfect games are ruined by wrong calls, and strikes are called balls.

Leave the absolutes to the sciences (and vodka, I guess?).

But with baseball? Everything is open for evaluation and change.

Unfortunately, the San Francisco Giants have a personnel team that believes in absolute untouchables.

Or at least they will tell you that is what they believe in.

If you talk to any Giants fan this year, they'll probably talk to you about Aaron Rowand's dismal slump, the equally underwhelming season by Bengie Molina, and the slight concern about franchise players Tim Lincecum and Pablo Sandoval and their sub-par seasons.

You'll hear stories about the lack of opportunity for young guys like Nate Schierholtz and John Bowker and the clamoring for youngsters like Buster Posey and Madison Bumgarner.

And, as always, you'll hear plenty of criticism for San Francisco general manager Brian Sabean and manager Bruce Bochy.

When a team musters just a single run in a three game series, it doesn't take a genius to figure out the offense is struggling.

Essentially, changes to the San Francisco Giants' lineup are a guarantee.

Even if their manager was napping in the clubhouse during the past three games, changes would be made after looking at the final box scores.

Once the manager wakes up after such a dreadful offensive series, he will see 20 straight zeros in the boxscore and will naturally be inclined to shake things up.

Brian Sabean has done some good things and he's done some bad things, but one thing is for sure: He's always done controversial things.

Come on, the guy's first move was to ship off legendary Matt Williams in a trade that (luckily) brought in Jeff Kent!

Sooner or later, the revisionist sharks will begin circling one of their favorite pieces of bait, San Francisco Giant general manager Brian Sabean.

My guess is that they've already started and the first bite is only a matter of time.

Love him or hate him, agree or disagree with his maneuvering, you cannot accuse San Francisco Giants General Manager Brian Sabean of being timid.

Given Sabes' recent run of iffy transactions—the Barry Zito-Scott Boras debacle, prematurely inking Edgar Renteria, the pending merit of the Freddy Sanchez swap, and so on—you might think the guy would lay low for a while. Enjoy the shelter of his new two-year extension.

Guess not.