Things ended today for two former Giants who at the time of their arrival in San Francisco were thought to be great additions. During the Barry Bonds era, Randy Winn and Pedro Feliz were both thought to be pieces that would fit around the slugger perfectly. Both could play defense, both had power potential, and both had a much smaller ego than the middle of the order.
Fast forward to today and the Orioles decided to part ways with Winn and the Royals gave up on Feliz. I wrote on the day the Royals signed Feliz to a minor league deal, that the former gold glove caliber 3rd baseman for the Giants had hit his low point. I was wrong. The only thing worse than being forced to sign a minor league deal with the Royals is being released by them before the season even starts.
I feel worse for the former Santa Clara Bronco and basketball teammate of Steve Nash. Winn never got credit for doing his job here. He was never a power hitter, and he was never a gold glove in the outfield, but he was brought in to be a reliable bat in the lineup and play the vast AT&T outfield and he did that. He played all three outfield positions for Felipe Alou and Bruce Bochy and he batted everywhere from 1st to 8th in the lineup around the biggest bat the game has ever seen. Winn was a quiet leader and hopefully will end up back in San Francisco helping us behind the scenes the way that Shawon Dunston, J.T. Snow, Mark Gardner and Will Clark have recently.
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