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Story by Curtis Steudeman

The San Francisco Giants need to make a lot of changes before they can even begin to think of competing next season. At least the Giants are on the right track.

The Giants decided not to renew manager Felipe Alou’s contract this off-season. Alou had been the San Francisco skipper for four years and did leave an impression.

In his first year with the Giants, Alou led the team to a 100-win season and a wire-to-wire first-place finish in the National League West Division.

Since then, it’s been a bumpy road. This season the Giants finished third in their division with a losing record, 11 1/2 games behind the Padres and Dodgers. Ouch.

The decision to let Alou walk was a good one on the part of San Francisco general manager Brian Sabean. Like Alou, Sabean’s usually known for keeping personnel that are well past their prime.

So the real question now is “Who’s next?” Sabean’s comments have been very broad, saying that nearly anyone is a candidate.

Coincidentally, Dusty Baker, Alou’s predecessor, is also out of a job with the Chicago Cubs. It would be interesting to see if anything materializes with the Giants now.

I think that Sabean will surprise most by either going with someone in the organization (perhaps long-time pitching coach Dave Righetti) or go with someone completely new that’s never managed in the majors before.

This is a gamble that the ballclub needs to take if they want to prove successful in the next couple of seasons. However, this is just the first step the Giants need to take to build a successful team.

After a managerial decision has been set in stone, Sabean and his staff need to start making decisions about the veteran players on the team.

While players like Moises Alou did well with a .301 average and 22 home runs, he was only able to play 92 games. At this point in their career, I doubt that the Giants will be able to get much for these veteran players in a trade, but it’s something that needs to be considered.

It’s no secret that next season the Giants need to go younger.