[lex24]

1698209252[/url]']

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Interesting that Matt Williams is a coach for the Padres/ The Giants top priority now is a new hitting coach.  Yes I saw the existing one has another year on his contract.

Giants finished 24th in OPS+ after finishing 15th last year and 4th the year before that. Our current hitting coach should be our former hitting coach ASAP.

As for pitching, the Giants finished 2nd in all of MLB for FIP in both 2021 and 2022, and 4th in MLB this year. Very good. Keep the pitching coach.

FIP was great, but team ERA was 12th in MLB this year, 13th last year and 2nd in MLB in ERA in 2021. Not only that, the Giants finished 5th in Rtot, the most comprehensive fielding statistic. 2nd in pitching, 4th in hitting, 5th in fielding. No wonder they won 107 games.

And then somehow, they got stupid. They forgot how to field. After finishing 5th in Rtot in 2021, they dropped precipitously to 28th in 2022 and 25th in 2023. No wonder they became a .500 team. They fell in all three major categories. Fielding was a disaster, and dragged down the pitching. But 24th in OPS+ in 2023? It's a miracle they won 79 games. Must have been the managing. Oh right, we fired that guy.

And just a fun little aside...in 2023, the Padres finished 5th in Rtot, 11th in FIP, 2nd in ERA, and 9th in OPS+. How does that team finish 82-80 -- and win 14 of their last 16 to get there -- finish in the top 1/3rd in baseball in all major categories, but at the 50th percentile for W/L? Normally, I'd point at the manager, but I can't really do that since he's now our manager...

I think SF will have new leadership handling the pitching.  

Bannister has moved on to Chicago and Bailey is looking to work closer to home (East Coast).  Boston is considering him.  Speaking of which, Kapler is under consideration for the top baseball operations job in Boston.  Wouldn’t that be a story?

On Kapler, I would not at all be surprised to see him land a FO job.  It is what he’s more suited for.  I would be very surprised if he manages again anytime soon.

Update: He didn’t get Boston job.

---

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Giants are about to announce Bob Melvin as their new manager.

Bummer. I was hoping for Alyssa Nakken. . . .

The Giants have it on their web site.

Bob Melvin to be hired as Giants manager (sources) (mlb.com).

Personally, I don't think it's a good idea. He's coached for 20 seasons, finished first in his division 4 times and made the wild card four times. His teams were ousted in three of the four wild card games, and ousted in the NLDS three times. So in 20 years, Melvin made it to the NLCS just once and was ousted in five games. This year, he had eight Padres players who had multiple all-star games on their resume, along with six other players who were gold glove winners, or finished in the Top Five of Cy Young voting multiple times or were single-time all-star game participants. In other words, he had a LOADED roster...that had to win 14 of their last 16 games to finish 82-80 with the third highest payroll in baseball at $249 mms., and finished three games ahead of the Giants, a team with a roster nearly bereft of hitting and fielding talent.

Melvin doesn't excite me at all. I have the exact opposite feeling, and it will be the first year in many, many years that I won't buy a ticket. And after they go 3-7 in their first ten games, I probably won't watch them on TV either. 

If this team wins 78 games next year, I will be very surprised. But hey, BoMel ix a 3x Manager of the Year (Kapler only won it once). Maybe BoMel will turn all the first and second year players into All-Stars. Here's hoping...

Agree totally on BoMel, it's cool that he went to M-A, Cal, kept the A's relevant despite annual exodus of star players due to A's cheap owner, blah blah. But all his great teams in Oakland with very talented rosters won a total of just 1 postseason series. What's he going to do with the SFG roster of 30-somethings platoon players and 20-somethings with "promise"? Coax Posey out of retirement?

Well, no matter who Giants hired as manager, improving the roster has to occur.  Melvin may help with that. I expect a significant amount of turnover.

[lex24]

1698209252[/url]']

1698204837[/url]']

1698194508[/url]']
Interesting that Matt Williams is a coach for the Padres/ The Giants top priority now is a new hitting coach.  Yes I saw the existing one has another year on his contract.

Giants finished 24th in OPS+ after finishing 15th last year and 4th the year before that. Our current hitting coach should be our former hitting coach ASAP.

As for pitching, the Giants finished 2nd in all of MLB for FIP in both 2021 and 2022, and 4th in MLB this year. Very good. Keep the pitching coach.

FIP was great, but team ERA was 12th in MLB this year, 13th last year and 2nd in MLB in ERA in 2021. Not only that, the Giants finished 5th in Rtot, the most comprehensive fielding statistic. 2nd in pitching, 4th in hitting, 5th in fielding. No wonder they won 107 games.

And then somehow, they got stupid. They forgot how to field. After finishing 5th in Rtot in 2021, they dropped precipitously to 28th in 2022 and 25th in 2023. No wonder they became a .500 team. They fell in all three major categories. Fielding was a disaster, and dragged down the pitching. But 24th in OPS+ in 2023? It's a miracle they won 79 games. Must have been the managing. Oh right, we fired that guy.

And just a fun little aside...in 2023, the Padres finished 5th in Rtot, 11th in FIP, 2nd in ERA, and 9th in OPS+. How does that team finish 82-80 -- and win 14 of their last 16 to get there -- finish in the top 1/3rd in baseball in all major categories, but at the 50th percentile for W/L? Normally, I'd point at the manager, but I can't really do that since he's now our manager...

I think SF will have new leadership handling the pitching.  

Bannister has moved on to Chicago and Bailey is looking to work closer to home (East Coast).  Boston is considering him.  Speaking of which, Kapler is under consideration for the top baseball operations job in Boston.  Wouldn’t that be a story?

On Kapler, I would not at all be surprised to see him land a FO job.  It is what he’s more suited for.  I would be very surprised if he manages again anytime soon.

Update: He didn’t get Boston job.

---

1698215317[/url]']

1698172273[/url]']

1698170306[/url]']

1698169785[/url]']
Giants are about to announce Bob Melvin as their new manager.

Bummer. I was hoping for Alyssa Nakken. . . .

The Giants have it on their web site.

Bob Melvin to be hired as Giants manager (sources) (mlb.com).

Personally, I don't think it's a good idea. He's coached for 20 seasons, finished first in his division 4 times and made the wild card four times. His teams were ousted in three of the four wild card games, and ousted in the NLDS three times. So in 20 years, Melvin made it to the NLCS just once and was ousted in five games. This year, he had eight Padres players who had multiple all-star games on their resume, along with six other players who were gold glove winners, or finished in the Top Five of Cy Young voting multiple times or were single-time all-star game participants. In other words, he had a LOADED roster...that had to win 14 of their last 16 games to finish 82-80 with the third highest payroll in baseball at $249 mms., and finished three games ahead of the Giants, a team with a roster nearly bereft of hitting and fielding talent.

Melvin doesn't excite me at all. I have the exact opposite feeling, and it will be the first year in many, many years that I won't buy a ticket. And after they go 3-7 in their first ten games, I probably won't watch them on TV either. 

If this team wins 78 games next year, I will be very surprised. But hey, BoMel ix a 3x Manager of the Year (Kapler only won it once). Maybe BoMel will turn all the first and second year players into All-Stars. Here's hoping...

Agree totally on BoMel, it's cool that he went to M-A, Cal, kept the A's relevant despite annual exodus of star players due to A's cheap owner, blah blah. But all his great teams in Oakland with very talented rosters won a total of just 1 postseason series. What's he going to do with the SFG roster of 30-somethings platoon players and 20-somethings with "promise"? Coax Posey out of retirement?

Well, no matter who Giants hired as manager, improving the roster has to occur.  Melvin may help with that. I expect a significant amount of turnover.