Nov 11th 2008 3:30PM by Matt Snyder (author feed)
New Giants managing partner, William Neukom, has reportedly pushed general manager Brian Sabean to field a much more competitve team. If that means opening the pocketbook to bring in big names, so be it. Obviously, the subject of Manny Ramirez qualifies. When asked about him, Neukom replied: “I can’t say there is no possibility.” Of course, later he raved about the shape of their outfield and said that shoring any part of it up was not a high priority.

The bottom line here for Giants fans is that this sort of talk is a good thing. Management is obviously planning on increasing the payroll, which means signing a few offensive weapons is a definitey possibility. “Player payroll is going to depend on two things,” Neukom said. “First of all (is) the best thinking of our baseball guys. What does that optimal 2009-and-beyond roster look like? How do you build that roster? That’s going to have a price tag to it. The other major influence is, what can we afford?” I know what direction I’d go. There’s no reason to start dealing in the trade market when you can throw some money around, and this shows the Giants aren’t afraid to. It might not be Manny, but Mark Teixeira and several other big bats are out there. We’ll see how the Giants work.