Ugh. The A’s are a lot better than us. I hoped we’d win the Gausman outing, and it was a tense, well-fought battle until the cobbled-together outfield, created from the absence of Alex Dickerson (paternity leave) and Mike Yastzremski (calf injury rest), DROPPED THREE FLY BALLS and Sam Coonrod imploded. The Giants lost 0 – 6.
The A’s shut us out twice by six runs. ugh.
Hopefully, Kapler, Anderson and the boys can steal a win today. That’s right Tyler Anderson will be starting in Jhonny Cueto’s place today, as Kapler has decided to push Cueto to the Colorado series.
Gabe Kapler has grown on me. Initially, during the period of leading the league in errors and failure at extra innings rules and late-inning bullpen implosions, I called him “Gabe Kaplan, cause he’s a joke.”
But I was totally wrong. The turnaround was incredible. Until the rhythm was shattered by the false positive Covid-19 test and Toxic Air Quality week, Kapler showed me so much. His in-game decision-making has been necessarily experimental and thus subject to throw-away circumstances, yet, he has shown at critical moments a willingness to be flexible.
See, I’m Tamil, so I can handle the whiplash.
Oh what? Did you think you were the only one enduring the stark rapidity of change that has snapped your head on a swivel from Bochy to Zaidi/Kapler? Oh no, there’s millons of us. I’ve felt like the heads of some old-school friends of mine might explode watching them look at these shifts.
But I like that Kapler shows flexibility, and that things are mutable for better or worse. The changeability is like the ocean. It can have waves of success.
The fact that we are within spitting distance of a playoff position and not sitting in last place with the D’Backs and Rox is due to that great run from August 23rd to September 15th. It is pure testimony to how Kapler has looked at the 60-game season as a whole and how he has managed issues within it.
Sure he has been granted a smaller park and a line-up of suprisingly good bats, but that’s just credit to Zaidi.
Zaidi and Kapler have also used this period to ease out veteran players who were hangers-on of The Bochy Era, aka The Championship Era. We gave Hunter Pence and Pablo Sandoval a last chance to be in a Giants uniform, even though we couldn’t do it in front of fans, which is what they truly deserve.
By contrast, Brandon Belt and Evan Longoria have proved their staying ability and worth. Brandon Crawford remains viable. It feels good that management understands what he is to the organization.
Management has also found gems that will be incredibly valuable in winter. It will hurt the Comcast Authentic Fans when we deal Yazstremski to Boston, because they cannot consider what his worth is to that town and Mr. Zaidi has its value down to a dime.
They may not want to say goodbye to Solano or Dubon or Flores, all of whom have hit like solid major-leaguers, but they should comprehend the management toward victory more clearly.
It’s clear Logan Webb and Sam Coonrod should NOT be Giants next year.
They have failed to perform in critical circumstances. I love how little tolerance Farhan Zaidi has for consistent failure. It isn’t personal. It’s personnel
He got us out of Bobby Evans’ failed Melancon deal by being swift to cut and taking whatever heat that brought (some may watch Melancon win with the Braves and see it as redemption for Evans, I’d argue timing is everything. Let’s see how he does in a critical situation in the playoffs.).
I don’t pull punches. I started this blog way back in 2011 so I could express my opinions about the Giants to help through increasing critical discourse. I have offended people in our SF Giants community in the Bay Area with my opinions.
This is Giants Baseball Corner.
I did not coddle Tyler Beede or George Kontos or Mark Melancon with the wishy-wishy positivism of Kruk and Kuip and AlPav and Comcast. We all loved Brisbee because he was a better writer than I am, than any of us, and made it funny. And what did they do? Put him on TV. smh. They didn’t help make him a writer for the heads on tv! morons.
It’s my contribution to critique players, management and play. And the HUGE media has made that almost impossible without offending the audience they created.
I am sorry they are so sensitive and that my words, authored thus, have such a powerful ability to affect them. Brittle spirits.
This is a free wordpress blog where I spout my opinions. Many times I’m right and they’re useful. I don’t seek or need credit, followers or money, but people who love the Giants know how much I love the Giants. What I’m happy for is when an observation of mine is useful to the success of the team.
Also sometimes I am wrong or drunk or ranting out of hapless frustration.
that’s the point of a blog.
In my opinion Comcast, followed by its current manifestation as NBCBA, completely robbed us of critique for a decade and made us a less-powerful, less-savvy baseball community in order to promote their own bottom lines through “social ends.”
They make it harder to say goodbye to valuable trade chips because they have created over-emotional “social” connections. This creates enmity between fans and management.
They use an “aw-shucks” positivism by two former players as their mediators, which creates malaise and reduces hunger for wins.
They used a Republican Party tactic – name yourself the opposite of what you are to fool people into believing it (Clean Air Act, Help America Vote Act) – and created “Authentic Fan” as their motto. This unified fans who mostly watch the games on TV around a rubric and around their coverage – for better or worse. I say, worse.
They force us to never criticize Kruk and Kuip and instead of producing them tighter as they get older, give them free-er rein to blather about things that have nothing to do with the game. They romanticize them to make it unassailable.
But Kruk and Kuip are NOT sportscasters; they’re fans, who are also former players of the team they cover. It’s the worst for critical thinking to put sycophants behind the mic – and we have done it for 30 years and shoved it through the “tv” or “video” monitor era with all the accompanying advertising and entertainment bullshit.
The presence of the Comcast crowd is how the Giants locker room was able to CENSOR a legitimate reporter like Baggs at one time. Of course the players are going to say Kruk and Kuip are the best. They protect them from criticism. That is not journalism.
To help understand what I am talking about, here is the wiki page about the Broadcast Giant Monopoly Era that owns coverage of the Giants on video or TV or visually, a Mega Conglomerate, far from home in the Bay, under which we all have been writing and tweeting our thoughts.
“On April 30, 2007, Comcast purchased a 60% interest in FSN Bay Area, along with a 50% stake in FSN New England, from Rainbow Media for $570 million.[3]
Then on December 10, the San Francisco Giants acquired a 30% stake in FSN Bay Area,[4] with News Corporation becoming a minority partner in the network.
As a result of Comcast becoming the majority interest holder, the network (after the sale was finalized in February 2008) was integrated into the company’s own regional sports network group Comcast SportsNet, rebranding as Comcast SportsNet Bay Area on March 31, 2008.[5]
CSN Bay Area became the first Comcast SportsNet-branded network to use a logo style (utilizing Comcast’s then-universal corporate logo), based on the logo for SportsNet New York, that was later adopted by all the other CSN regional networks on October 1, 2008. Shortly after the rebranding in April 2008, Fox agreed to sell its interest in CSN Bay Area to Comcast.[6]
Following Comcast’s purchase of majority control of NBCUniversal, which already owned NBC owned-and-operated station KNTV (channel 11) and Telemundo O&O KSTS (channel 48), on April 19, 2011, the network announced plans to build an additional set specifically for use on sports segments seen on KNTV’s newscasts.
…
“Comcast announced that CSN Bay Area would be rebranded NBC Sports Bay Area on April 2, 2017, in a move meant to “better associate the prestigious NBC Sports legacy with the strength of our Comcast Sports Networks’ local sports coverage in Northern California.”[8]
The road to hell is paved with good intentions.
There’s plenty I love about the coverage from a visual standpoint. The coverage of the park and the super high-tech cameras and angles and slow-motions and all that comes with Giant Conglomerate Media, is great.
I am talking about the production of “The Show.” It has become dulling entertainment with way less substantive contemporaneous coverage and critique of the actual team and management.
Their goal is to create an impenetrable “club” loyal to their brand at Comcast. It is not in their interest to allow diverse opinions or other unique baseball analysis in. It is more important to establish their hegemony over the story of the Giants. Keep the entirety of their club comfortable. People join clubs to feel good, right? So the sycophancy and positivism folds right in.
We aren’t New York. I get it. I love our inclusionary aspects and Bay Area positivism, But if there isn’t healthy critical sports journalism to apply pressure, the millionaires playing and managing ball? you know the ones who make hundreds of thousands more a year than our essential workers? Well they can get lax with their commitment and effort without that pressure.
Let me be more specific about my critique in an attempt to be constructive.
I always put Vin on rather than listen to our staff. There are at least 20% of opposing team’s broadcast crews I also listen to during the season.
In other markets the statisticians and producers weave critical, contemporaneous data into the broadcast. They do very little “historical” or “trivia” or “storytelling” content. Those elements are woven into the production at specific moments, but most of the coverage is in the moment and of what is happening on the diamond.
Match-up data is a critical example of what is missing here. Instantaneous, to-the-count, match-up data is now available against every opponent. What made Scully great was his preparation. The story-telling was a gift, but the data-collection and research and preparation for delivery of a nugget was work.
We can tell if you’re phoning it in. And clunky improvising, which may have worked for many years when we were winning and times were high and you were more under control, withers into doddering, poorly-timed irrelevancies if you don’t watch that shit hawkishly.
Point the second: catch-phrase creation whereby you keep saying something to make it your stamp? is wack. Enough. Just call what is happening in front of you. There’s usually plenty of presently available contemporaneous data to what is happening at any moment in any game. Enough with the catch phrase stamping.
Which means quit droning on about history when that space could be filled with contemporaneous data. The historical elements can and should be woven into pre-produced areas of broadcast when the game isn’t actually going on.
Not that I don’t mind cool stories and pepper … but when your patter is weak? It’s a drag to even watch the game. Everybody at Comcast is telling you your patter is beloved and great, and really the production – from a baseball standpoint, in the moment, of the game – gets weaker by the year. Is that the legacy you want?
Krukow just reads aloud what is on the screen often. It’s degrading. To him and the listeners. He’s just reading statistics that are in front of us!
Truth is we are one of the sexiest SABRmetrics teams out there. We have money like the big boys and Zaidi and Kapler are making deft, quick moves, like jabs and stiletto stabs, trying wild ideas and lineups and experimenting with the new faces they move about like pawns. They have exposed guys weaknesses clearly in advance of any moves they make this winter. You can see it in the numbers.
We need comparable data-driven coverage that is equally if not more deft and out-in-front. Our print journalists do it. Schulman and Shea do it. The beat guys. Learn how to be more like them.
Well enough of my opinion about that.
Let’s Go Giants!
Avoid the sweep!
Avoid the season sweep!
Please don’t let the A’s beat us six straight!
Goooooo!
Letter to the President of Baseball Operations, GM and Managers of the San Francisco Giants in Advance of Last Game of the Irregular Season, PLUS Final Starting Lineup
Dear Farhan Zaidi, Sam Harris, Gabe Kapler and Giants Staff:
Whew! If that incredible, short, sharp blast of games was a vision of what can be expected in the years to come, I am very excited for what we are embarking on, which for organizational purposes I call The Farhan Zaidi Era.
For me as a fan, it’s simple because the 21st century for the San Francisco Giants has been neatly divided into two eras thus far:
The Barry Bonds Era and The Bruce Bochy Era.
Each came with apex accolades in which we thrilled and sad nadirs we suffered together, as fans of the Orange and Black.
I am very proud to be a Giants fan, always have been, always will. We have history and cherished Hall-of-Famers and Freaks and Boch and Barry Lamar and magic wandoo and torture to bind us – sometimes against the world. And the best park in baseball.
The Farhan Zaidi Era began with a concentration of power into Mr. Zaidi’s office, President of Baseball Operations, that allowed him to clean house of recent unfortunate mistakes and begin the process of SABRmetric-driven decision-making: moneyball. It is also the period when we are most cash-operable, having paid off the stadium.
To his credit, Mr. Zaidi didn’t rush into rapid-fire changes. He was slow and measured about selecting a manager, interviewing at least a half-dozen candidates – including in-house guys like Ron Wotus – before deciding on a young and eager Mr. Kapler.
Mr. Zaidi was even slower about hiring a GM, leaving the general manager position vacant his first season in San Francisco. He announced former Chicago Cubs assistant, Mr. Harris, had been hired as the 10th general manager in franchise history only after November 1st, 2019 – less than a year ago.
The first year, Mr. Zaidi was easy-going about the rabid Bochy Era fans who literally yelled at him in public to keep Bumgarner. He brought back and then eased out the Panda and Hunter Pence to allow them and the fans a chance to have a last goodbye. He was exceptionally sensitive to us and measured with an emotional fan base.
But he has also been ruthless, swift and cultured in making aggressive moves. He has pushed for and asserted the agenda of the Kapler management approach – lotsa moves, sometimes just in one game – that takes SABRmetrics heavily into account. This caused a whiplash-like effect for many fans since it’s a drastic change from Skip’s style of the Bruce Bochy Era.
But I realized something about this group that I appreciate so much that I added it to this blog’s motto:
It’s not personal, it’s personnel.
The whiplash was exacerbated by the crazy, 60-game, Covid-shortened season. The season was supposed to be a long, slow rebuilding year and we expected to be in the cellar again. My lawyer called us “a quadruple-A team” when we started.
Then Covid-19 struck. The season was tossed out. New parameters were set. But new parameters and flexibility on the fly are what the new Giants are built for, and wow! did we perform!
I want to begin by thanking each and every one of you for your efforts to allow us not only to field a team this year, but to allow them to travel and play elsewhere free of illness, properly quarantined. Well done.
San Francisco has led in being a smart, public-health conscious city. Mayor Breed and the council have done an incredible job. You all represent our city and you did it very well. I was worried.
It was a shame that the false positive harshly interrupted our rhythm, but it was testimony to our good public health decision-making that we erred on the side of caution and shut it down for two days to test again and contact trace.
I was very proud we not only overcame what turned out to be a false positive test with extreme caution, but that we were able to host another team, the Seattle Mariners, when conditions in their area were too unhealthy in which to compete.
This was an exceptional job under extreme, unprecedented circumstances and I am proud of how you handled it.
However, seeing employees of the SF Giants circling the park and honking their horns during games in August and September and interviewing a few of them on the streets, I was quite distressed. I get that it’s Covid-19 wreaking havoc on everybody’s budgets, but it was sad to hear how many serious labor-management issues exist. We have to take care of our people who take care of our players and fans, guys. I hope you remedy that situation first this offseason.
The irregular season of 2020 started with an absurd number of errors and clunky games, but it wasn’t like I expected much. I was just so happy to have baseball back. What a horrible year it had been and how relaxing and soothing the normalcy of baseball was – even this crazy-rules, rock-n-roll version!
But then members of our team, managed by Mr. Kapler and company, began to have shining moments.
Donovan Solano was first, Mike Yastrzemski next, two guys who have been working hard, hanging around baseball a long time having it click and making it happen. Then the young guys, Flores and Dubon. Then Longo and Belt got into the act and all of a sudden we had turned the thing around. Then it was new dad Alex Dickerson’s turn.
What a year batting we had! Talk about whiplash! Giants batting was a 180-degree change from The Bochy Era. What we learned about closing off the alleways and the park’s new dimensions is that our guys could go off!
We went on that incredible tear, climbed back up to .500 and we genuinely looked like a playoff team before the double-whammy of the false-positive Covid-19 test and the fire-stained skies that made air unbreathable and play impossible in Seattle.
Whatever happens today and tomorrow, whether we make the playoffs or not, this year has to be called an unequivocal success for the San Francisco Giants.
Amidst all the madness of the year – illness, fire, smoke and ash – the Giants gave us an exciting, fun team to watch with thrilling moments and even a playoff race chase. Thank you.
There is only one thing I really want and that’s your autographs.
My cutout is the goofy-looking one over in Sec, 127, Row 9, Seat 16.
Mr. Zaidi, Mr. Kapler and Mr. Harris, would you please sign my cutout?
I have a feeling your management team will prove to be a very successful one for us and I want to have a token, a totem of when it all started.
If we make the playoffs, I will continue writing here, but if not, this will be my last Giants Baseball Corner entry for 2020. Concluding with our last lineup of the year.
The San Francisco Giants will take on the San Diego Padres at Oracle Park in a couple of hours for the last game of the irregular season of 2020. Left handed pitcher Adrian Morejon (2-2, 4.86) will be on the mound for the Friars.
Gabe Kapler and the Giants counter with Drew Smyly on the mound, who will be supported on defense by this batting lineup:
Austin Slater (DH)
Mike Yastrzemski (RF)
Darin Ruf (LF)
Wilmer Flores (2B)
Brandon Belt (1B)
Evan Longoria (3B)
Mauricio Dubon (CF)
Brandon Crawford (ss)
Joey Bart (c)
Let’s Go Giants! Beat the Pads! Let’s get the win, mathemagically get into the playoffs, go down to Chavez Ravine and #BeatLA!
I want to go get the Bums! Make it happen.
I’m the author and editor-in-chief, Karthik Rajan, saying
Let’s Go Giants! Vamanos Gigantes! Yes! Yes! Yes!