Why the 2019 San Francisco Giants are eerily similar to the ‘Moneyball’ A’s

At 2.5 games out of a wild card spot, the San Francisco Giants are playing at a level seen relatively similar to their bay bridge rival of years past.

Farhan Zaidi might be the greatest thing to happen to the San Francisco Giants in 2019, but it was by far the hardest change to accept.

Zaidi was brought in and was immediately assumed to tear down and start over with a team that had three World Series titles far in the rearview mirror.

But that is just the way of baseball right? Win a whole lot with a young core that is developed in your system and when the core gets too old, shed the payroll, draft new guys and start over.

Consider the Houston Astros, who won a world series in 2017. Houston was last in that spotlight in 2005. It was the Killer B’s; a core of Craig Biggio, Lance Berkman and Jeff Bagwell that held together a grab bag of misfit starters. They were swept by the eventual champion White Sox.

Between 2005 and 2017, the Astros were bad. By all means, they were a disgrace to the National League Central. Their record in the years before their eventual move was 502-631 with no postseason appearances. They were such a disgrace they immediately volunteered to switch leagues, and they became the AL West darlings we know today.

Jose Altuve became the centerpiece of a solid core of drafted talent like George Springer, Alex Bregman, and Carlos Correa. Backed by veterans and a very lucky waiver trade deal for Justin Verlander, the Astros won it all for the first time in their franchise history in 2017.

Now back to the Giants; whose core is centered around their backstop Buster Posey. In fact, their whole infield was their own product. Brandon Belt, Joe Panik, Brandon Crawford, and Pablo Sandoval propelled the Giants to their historic run of three titles in five years. But now five years removed from glory, there is a giant question mark over the team’s future.

Madison Bumgarner, the 2014 NLCS and WS MVP has been the topic of trade discussion since April. On the final year of his contract, and the most valuable piece the Giants had entering this season, Zaidi has been most certainly fielding calls for requests of the lefty’s services.

But then, tragedy struck. The San Francisco Giants began winning.

The reason why, however, is due to Zaidi.