Judging by calls to sports talk radio shows, the San Francisco Giants disappointing season is primarily attributable to manager Felipe Alou and closer Armando Benitez. Rarely is their complaint against General Manager Brian Sabean, who assembled the current aging roster and who has presided over baseball’s worst farm system. Many white male Giants fans have still not forgiven Alou for his strong response last year to former KNBR host Larry Krueger’s anti-Latino comments, and see the team’s sagging fortunes as an excuse to demand his firing. But does anyone really believe that Sabean has given Alou the talent to win?

Giants General Manager Brian Sabean has assembled an over-the-hill gang of mediocre pitchers and weak hitters but gets no blame for the team’s failures. That’s certainly the conclusion of Giant fans that call in to sports talk shows, as they see manager Felipe Alou’s poor strategizing as the cause of the team’s problems.

It was not Felipe Alou who signed longtime choker Armando Benitez to a three-year $21 million deal---it was Brian Sabean.

It was also Sabean who paid millions to Matt Morris this off-season, and who previously signed a declining Edgardo Alfonzo to a $28 million, four year deal.

It is Sabean who put together a team so old that the 39-year old journeyman Mike Stanton was recently signed as part of the Giant’s youth movement.

It was Sabean who traded Joe Nathan and Francisco Liriano away to the Twins for a player the Giants kept for one year---many see this deal as the most one-sided of the 21st century.

It was Sabean who felt that Barry Bonds would continue in 2006 where he left off in 2004, despite knowing that the absence of steroids and two additional years would leave Bonds a different player.

Sabean’s Giants have one consistent starter, no steady relievers, and no batter in the top echelon for either power or batting average---yet Giant fans wonder why Felipe Alou isn’t taking this lineup to the World Series.

Sabean and Giants ownership will likely have no choice but to make Alou the scapegoat for its own failure to evaluate talent. They will likely replace him with a good old white man like Bob Brenly, whom, unlike Alou, will be described by fans as “one of the guys.”

Race discrimination kept Felipe Alou from managing until he was in his 50’s, and then it kept him from getting a second job for years despite performing superbly with the underfunded Montreal Expos.

Alou’s strong reaction to former KNBR host Larry Krueger’s racist comments about Latinos estranged him from much of the Giant fan base, and this year’s poor performance---even though Alou has done well given the lack of talent--- will likely end his tenure as Giants manager.

But as good a general manager as Brian Sabean has been, if blame is to fall on a single person for the collapse of the 2006 Giants, it should be on him.

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