The news from Arizona has been consistent, cold and ominous, like the drum of desert rain when the storm really begins to blow.

Omar Vizquel gets hurt. Replacement Kevin Frandsen gets rejected. So there is chaos for the Giants at shortstop, among many other spots.

Eric Chavez is still hurt. Bobby Crosby has lingering pain. Rich Harden is still . . . Rich Harden. So the A's remain in typical limbo.

Barry Zito (shaky) and Noah Lowry (set for surgery) are in separate states of exasperation. Joe Blanton and Huston Street might soon be in separate states (with new teams) entirely.

Let's hope Billy Beane and Brian Sabean, and A's and Giants fans, were braced for rough weather and the likelihood of challenging the worst combined season in Bay Area baseball history. That's where all this is headed in this Season of No Resort. You knew that, didn't you?

In awful, historic 1979, the A's were 54-108, the Giants were 71-91, and the 125 combined victories remain the lowest for a non-shortened season since the A's joined the Giants out West in 1968.

Can the A's and Giants, who won a combined 147 games last year, eke out 126 this year? Probably, but it might get interesting. I expect the Giants to lose 100-plus in the tough National League West and the A's to lose 90-plus in the tougher American League West.

At the least, the two Bay Area teams probably will record the second-worst combined total, displacing the 62-100 (Giants) and 77-85 (A's) disaster of 1985.

Of course, Beane intentionally deconstructed the A's roster (goodbye Dan Haren, Nick Swisher and Mark Kotsay, for a horde of prospects) because he decided he no longer could count on Crosby, Chavez and Harden to be healthy or good. Beane tossed away 2008 to prepare for 2009 and 2010, and things look bright for that daring plan.

The Giants, meantime, always believe they're better than they really are, had nobody good to trade, and their only meaningful discard was Barry Bonds.

You know, if Bud Selig truly wants to punish Sabean and Peter Magowan for their Bonds misdeeds, he shouldn't suspend them — Selig should force them to endure every miserable moment of 2008, on site and in psychic pain.

The Giants' lousiness was sadly unintentional, largely the result of Sabean's inability to produce position players and his conviction that Vizquel, Zito, Rich Aurilia, Ray Durham and others could turn it around. Sabean messed up 2008 the same way he messed up 2006 and 2007. It's the same way 2009 and 2010 already are inalterably messed up, unless chunky, super-talented 17-year-old Angel Villalona and the rest of the young Augusta GreenJackets roster can save the Giants a few years from now.

That's a long wait.

Still, I am not here to bury 2008 for the A's and Giants, although I just spent the previous paragraphs doing precisely that.

Let's offer up a few areas of competition for these terrible teams; let's make sure A's and Giants fans have more to follow than Bonds' potential traipse through Japanese League ballparks this summer.

—First, we have combined wins, which I previously outlined. If the A's and Giants can get more than 135, there's a relative victory right there.

—The A's have only one 100-loss season since moving to Oakland. In that time the Giants also have only one. Can both teams avoid the triple-digit debacle?

—Along those lines, the Giants' 62-100 mark in 1985 was the worst in franchise history in terms of losses. I don't think they want to make history that way this year.

—Since 2000, no team in baseball has scored fewer than the Dodgers' 574 runs in 2003. Can the Giants, who (with Bonds) scored 683 last year, and the A's, who had 741 (with Swisher), beat the 574 line?

I would bet the Giants fall below. Maybe far below. (The Giants' S.F. full-season low: 556 runs, in 1985.)

—Can the A's keep anybody healthy? Since hardly anybody else matters, can the Giants get through this season with Matt Cain and Tim Lincecum healthy?

—Will Beane stick out the A's dramatic rebuilding process? Will Sabean survive the Giants' lack of a rebuilding process?

And there it is. I'm sure Sabean and Beane have their own goals, but these are the best measuring sticks I can suggest amid the omens, the surgeries and the impending sense of repeated defeat.