Carbon copy Giants can't get complacent

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One of the things that has always motivated baseball teams when they go to the winter meetings is, “When can I get the hell out of here?”

In other words, urgency is high early to accomplish the things on the bucket list, so that by mid-week they can be at the airport. I mean, Nashville’s a nice town and all, but for as much as baseball people see of it, it might as well be Cedar Rapids.

So it is that the Giants had a great winter meetings. They got their two wish-list items fulfilled – Angel Anthony Pagan and Marcos (yeah, with a –s) Scutaro – and so their work is done.

[RELATED: Giants bring back Pagan | Scutaro signs for three years]

Plus, they did it while Brian Sabean was home miserable with what the team described as a respiratory problem. It’s probably that bastard flu that’s been going around, but far be it from us to pretend to be a doctor to a patient we haven’t seen.

Now turn your head and cough.

Sorry. Got lost for a moment there.

What they did was fill the holes they could fill. What they didn’t do, though, is make many changes in the team that sprinted best to the finish line in 2012, and therein lies the burning question, “Is this team too much like the last team?”

This was a problem in 2011, when several members of the All-Parade team didn’t stop celebrating when the streets were cleared. While most folks believe that Buster Posey being knocked into fresh angles was the thing that undid the season, the Giants turned out to be substandard at almost every everyday position, in part because their offense became a lethargic, out-of-shape mess.

There is no metric for it, trust us, but self-satisfaction in several places manifested itself as poorer numbers, with the result being a team so offensively deficient that it was a testament to Bruce Bochy’s skill that he could choke 86 wins out of it.

Sabean swore he would not do that again if he could help it, but the 2013 team looks remarkably like the one that finished 2012, and no, we don’t have any delightful alternatives to that result. We merely point out that the 2013 Giants start out as the 2012 Giants, and this was something the organ-eye-zation had hoped to avoid. But let's compare:

 2012  POS. 2013
 Buster Posey  C  Posey
 Brandon Belt  1B  Belt
 Marco Scutaro  2B  Scutaro
 Brandon Crawford  SS  Crawford
Pablo Sandoval  3B  Sandoval
 Gregor Blanco  LF  Blanco
 Angel Pagan  CF  Pagan
 Hunter Pence  RF  Pence

 

Oh, and the rotation will be the same, too. Maybe in a slightly different order, but the same five gentlemen will take the ball.

If there is still some tweakage to come, it will be subtle, maybe even imperceptible. Maybe they bring Brian Wilson back at a reduced salary and restore him to the closer’s role (why else would you bother?), and maybe they trim the branches on the low end of the bullpen tree.

And there is the matter of depth, which is always going to be an issue. Hector Sanchez and Joaquin Arias, sure, but Blanco will probably need a co-equal in left, and a power-hitting pinch-hitter who has not yet manifested himself would be a nice touch.

But for the most part, those Giants are these Giants. Rosters are not set in stone, and we have seen how midseason course corrections have helped them win two World Series, so this isn’t a crisis.

The lesson that needs to be imparted, repeated and hammered home to any and all is that 2011 happened because such a chunk of the roster was so happy and secure after 2010. The urgency that helps create great teams had gone, and even had Posey not been freight-trained in May, this was too flawed a team in too many places to make the playoffs again. They got, ultimately, what they deserved.

Thus, the Giants will have to be particularly vigilant this winter for signs of sloth, because those who enjoyed the fruits of victory are the same ones they will see come February. If this wants to be one of those teams with dynastic aspirations, it cannot lose a sixth of its offense as it did in 2011, and it cannot keep the party going forever. Winning requires many numbers, but it also demands a keen edge that the 2010 and 2012 teams developed and that the 2011 team never achieved.

And the first test of the 2013 Giants has begun – how to remember the day when 2012 ended, and not try to recreate it in all the ways that turned 2011 into a such a slovenly mess.

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