Giants prepare extensions for Sabean, Bochy

The San Francisco Chronicle is reporting that the Giants will re-sign both GM Brian Sabean and manager Bruce Bochy to contract extensions. Both are being rewarded for the Giants’ turnaround from a 72-90 team in 2008 to one that remained in contention until the final week of 2009. It’s a definite case of good timing for both, in that their contracts came up after this year. Bochy is still just 229-254 in his three years at the helm of the Giants. Sabean benefitted from having one of the best players ever for the first 11 years of his reign, yet his teams advanced past the NLDS just once, losing to the Angels in the World Series in 2002. Giving Sabean and Bochy three-year extensions isn’t something the Giants will want to do, but it’d be tough to do shorter deals without undermining them. This is a huge offseason for the team, what with Bengie Molina and Randy Winn coming off the books and Tim Lincecum ready to discuss an extension. The Giants simply must upgrade the offense and they have the flexibility to go about it in any number of ways; Pablo Sandoval and Aaron Rowand should be the only locks for the 2010 lineup, and Sandoval could play either third or first. Unfortunately, finding productive hitters is far and away Sabean’s biggest weakness and the Giants could be setting themselves up for another fruitless run by relying on him again.