With tonight's 11-inning loss to the Reds, the Giants dim hopes for a playoff birth are effectively done. It's time for a thorough housecleaning, and they should start with GM Bobby Evans. He has done a terrible job of acquiring players who can help this team. Among his flops are:
Jeff Szymardzija
Andrew McCutcheon
Evan Longoria
Johnny Cueto

The only players worth holding on to are Bumgarner, Posey, and Crawford. Although it's a small sample size, Dereck Rodriguez shows promise, and I'd keep him. Hundley is a decent backup catcher. Everyone else should be cut, traded, or allowed to exit via free agency. It's time to start rebuilding from the ground up. If only Billy Bean were GM of the Giants; what he has done with one of the smallest budgets in baseball is truly amazing.

Jeff Szymardzija and Jon Lester broke the back of the A's 4 years ago when the team rented them for the last couple of months of the season. Lester sh@t the bed against KC.

I would have said this team looked like a .500 team heading into the season and it is basically that. If things had broken their way in terms of injury luck, etc., then maybe they could make a run at the playoffs. Those things did not break their way.

It's hard to evaluate Evans. Big free-agent signings are usually not considered the optimal way to build a championship team in baseball, but coming off the titles of 2010-2014 there is clearly a desire from ownership to keep supplementing the (aging) championship core with veterans who can help "win now" and keep the gravy train rolling. Brian Sabean was in a similar bind late in the Bonds years, and people called for his head at the time too. Then when he had a chance to actually build a team of young players from the farm system they won three titles. Could be that Evans would do the same, if given a chance to focus on a full rebuild.