I read the news today ... oh boy

They failed to sign Bryce Harper, they failed to sign Giancarlo Stanton and now Judge, in addition to the tons of other players who have said, “thanks, but no thanks” to the Giants.

You should have seen this coming. Signing blockbuster free agents is not how Giants president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi operates. Never has. The resume he built with the Los Angeles Dodgers was not one based on wild free-agent spending. It was building through the farm system and hitting on a ton of talent that has made the Dodgers one of the premiere teams in MLB. Say what you want about the Dodgers’ “bubble championship” in 2020. LA has been the cream of the West Coast crop of baseball for the last decade. Zaidi had a big hand in that.

Zaidi is much more comfortable finding guys on the fringes — the Mike Yastrzemskis and LaMonte Wades of the world.

And speaking of the Giants’ farm system, when will these “prospects” we’ve heard so much about be ready? We’ve heard for years now about the cavalry coming. Where are they or are they finding out these “can’t-miss” guys actually might not be as good as the Giants claimed they were. Does the name “Gary Brown” ring a bell?

The question shouldn’t be why didn’t Judge come to the Giants. The question should be: why would Judge WANT to come to the Giants? Judge was going to get paid huge money wherever he went, so money wasn’t the problem.

The biggest issue for judge had to be: who am I playing with? And when he saw he was going to be surrounded by a bunch of no-name guys who can’t even start on a daily basis, he must have thought: no thanks.

The Giants didn’t fail because they didn’t sign Judge. They failed because they did nothing to indicate that they are trying to build a winning team. The Giants lineup would have been Judge and … who? With the Giants, Judge probably would have broken the single-season walks record because opposing pitchers would pitch around him all year long without anyone in the lineup to protect him.

The Giants continually swing and miss on big-ticket players and yet still consider themselves among MLB’s elite. Heck, they can’t even compete in the National League West, where they run a distant third to the Dodgers and San Diego Padres.

So the Giants will continue to lean on their “three World Series in five years,” which is well in the rear view mirror. They’re content to sell their soggy, gross garlic fries and $22 beers, tell you the lie that help is coming from the farm system and continue to rake in money from the casuals.

Hardcore Giants fans? They’re ready to burn this organization to ground.

But, hey, free agency hasn’t been a complete bust. The newest member of the Giants’ platoon crew? Mitty’s own Mitch Haniger. A nice ball player, sure, but he won’t make anyone forget about Judge.

Now that the Judge sweepstakes are over, what will the Giants do next? That is the biggest question because there is still time to make an impact in free agency. They apparently have close to $400 million to spend, why not go out and sign four, $100-million players?

They better figure it out fast. Free agents are starting to drop like dominoes. They’ve already missed out on Justin Verlander and Jacob DeGrom, among others. Carlos Rodon is still available. Why not throw some money at him?

They better figure it out quickly or else Giants fans are looking at another season of, “Hey, we found this guy on waivers. Hopefully he can get us past the Rockies this weekend.”

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Woke up at 6:50 Wednesday morning and flipped on the television like I’ve done for the last three weeks to catch the latest World Cup action. Imagine my disappointment when I realized we’re done with daily soccer. As the tournament enters the final stages, games will move to the weekend.

But it’s not a completely barren soccer day. College soccer recently crowned national champions and San Mateo County is actually very well represented.

The UCLA women’s soccer team, which knocked off North Carolina 3-2 for the Bruins second Division I national championship Monday night, had three county players on its roster. Maya Evans is a junior defender who played at Mills. She started her career at Cal before transferring to UCLA this season. Evans appeared in 18 games for the Bruins this season, starting eight.

Kathryn Kelly is a freshman defender who played for Carlmont, while Peyton Marcisz is a freshman midfielder from Hillsdale. Neither appeared in a game this season.

Meanwhile on the East Coast, 2022 Burlingame grad Ella Macko helped Johns Hopkins University to the NCAA Division III championship, a 2-1 win over Case Western Reserve University.

The freshman defender appeared in 18 games for the Blue Jays this season, including a cup of coffee in the national championship game.

Nathan Mollat can be reached by email: nathan@smdailyjournal.com or by phone: 344-5200 ext. 117. To report scores or tips, email sports@smdailyjournal.com.