Brisbee: The unlikely perfection of Madison Bumgarner’s career with the Giants
From SABR member Grant Brisbee at The Athletic on December 16, 2019:
There’s still a lot to unpack about the new front office and what Farhan Zaidi and Scott Harris have in store for the Giants franchise. But it’s also possible to condense the whole story into one paragraph.
The Giants are expecting to win soon. Just not in 2020. When they do win, Zaidi and Harris will have a lot of money to spend, but it’s not like they’ll have an unlimited budget. An $85-million pitcher whose value is more in line with a $75-million pitcher (or a $65-million pitcher, or a $55-million pitcher, or …) wouldn’t help those efforts. So if they didn’t view Madison Bumgarner as an $85-million-type pitcher over the next five years, they had to move on. They certainly weren’t going to come over the top with a lot more money if Bumgarner wanted a change. It was just cost-benefit analysis, unburdened with nostalgia.
I could write another six articles that expand those sentences out to 1,600 words. Instead, take that paragraph and just imagine the dumb jokes that could have been.
Today, I want to appreciate that Bumgarner existed at all.
Read the full article here (subscription required): https://theathletic.com/1464594/2019/12/16/the-unlikely-perfection-of-madison-bumgarners-career-with-the-giants/
Originally published: December 19, 2019. Last Updated: December 19, 2019.