Following the 2001 baseball season the San Francisco Giants faced a challenging problem: how to retool a 25 man roster that had a solid core of talented players but still lacked a number of critical pieces.
That Giants team
also had a recent history of success, making the post season twice in the previous five years.
In 1997 the Giants lost the League Division Series 3-0 to the Florida Marlins, and in 2000 they again lost the LDS, this time 3-1 to the New York Mets.
That’s when General Manager Brian Sabean did something the San Francisco Giants rarely ever do: he acknowledged the team’s needs and signed several free agents (along with making several trades), going all in with the goal of playing in the 2002 World Series.