The Giants love their former players and they brought two back to beef up the coaching staff. Local boy Pat Burrell will be the new hitting coach and former Giants third baseman Matt Williams will now man the third-base coach's box. Current third base coach Mark Hallberg will move across the diamond, replacing Antoan Richardson. Bob Melvin's bench coach will be Ryan Christenson. The former Pepperdine and A's player was BoMel's guy in both Oakland and San Diego. He replaces Kai Correa.
Assistants J.P. Martinez, Alyssa Nakken, and Tairu Uematsu are supposed to be back. Justin Viele and Pedro Guerrero will stay on as assistant hitting coaches. Brian Bannister and Craig Albernaz, on the pitching side, are both with Cleveland now. Pitching coach Andrew Bailey is interviewing elsewhere so I expect we'll see a new top guy real soon. What former Giants pitcher and/or local boy would make a good pitching coach?
Anyway, I'm fine with the changes, it's to be expected with a new manager. Roster upgrades are next, I suppose. What moves do you think the Giants should make for the 2024 season? What moves do you think they will make?
--M.C.
16 comments:
The pitching coaches did a reasonably good job except when it came to STrippling. They could not get him to right the ship. I take it that Descafani's fade was almost completely due to injuries. I think they need to work on Beck keeping his slider a bit more down. He elevates it too much and when he does gets into trouble. I am hoping that they can unlock Harrizon into being a true ace type pitcher. We will have to see if they can sign a top of the rotation type pitcher. They have depth but at the moment, until some of the young arms prove themselves, they have depth in the 4 and 5th starters, not in the 2 and 3 starters. I look at Cobb as a 3 starter. Not really an Ace for an entire season, and better than most 4 and 5 starters. Once in a while he can throw in a true ace performance but he cannot sustain it. Webb is a bulldog, and a very good pitcher. Perhaps in the Lincecum, Bumgarner era, he would not be the ace. With Webb, except for a rare bad early inning start, he is usually good for about 96 pitches. Once in a while he is good for more, but I have noticed in the last 2 years, that number is when he usually hits a wall. Once in a while he can stay sharp for about 110. Remember when guys could throw 130, and have no issues?
It will be nice to see Williams in a giants uniform again. Nothing else ever looked right.
It’s fun to see former Giants players return as coaches, but of course, it’s gotta be the right person for the job -who is going to help the Giants win. It will be interesting to see how Pat the Bat and Volgy do this year and if they become fixtures. Hopefully it’s a lot more then just a FZ move to appeal to fans and rebuild interest in the team.
I have no problem with "appeal to fans and rebuild interest" as a strategy! They not only had a bad year in the W-L column but a bad year at the gate. Ownership isn't going to spend all that capital they've piled up if the revenue streams are shaky.
Matt Williams has been around. He's a lifer. And he's worked with Melvin before, and managers love their cronies. I suspect he passes the popular-guy-and-competent-coach test. Pat the Bat has been working in the organization so he knows the players and he's got two other guys with him now at this level. I think they are both good hires.
Now it's time to add some players!
And I really am all-in on Vogie. I think he should be the pitching coach.
I got this tidbit from FanGraphs (David Laurila's column):
Philadelphia’s Kyle Schwarber came to the plate 720 times this year and batted .197 with 47 home runs, 108 runs scored, 104 RBIs, 126 walks, 215 strikeouts, and a 119 wRC+. In 1956, Phillies outfielder Richie Ashburn came to the plate 719 times and batted .303 with three home runs, 94 runs scored, 50 RBIs, 79 walks, 45 strikeouts, and a 115 wRC+.
There's your new school vs. old school. Schwarber swings for the fences. Ashburn put the ball in play. There's always been sluggers vs. contact hitters, but today's game allows a guy to hit .197 and keep his job!
Not only that, Richie Ashburn was a heck of a fielder. Cannot say the same for Schwarber. Richie could play some outfield.
No DH in those days!
I thought Matt Williams looked pretty great in a Nats uniform when he mis-managed his way to a 2 - 0 Giants lead in the 2014 NLDS.
Ouch!
That was an epic game.
Williams managed again a few years later, in Korea.
Bryan Price gets the pitching job. He's from SF, attended Tam High in Marin, and played ball at Cal.
He managed the Reds for a few seasons.
MLBTR says both Austin Slater (~$4M) and Mike Yastrzemski (~$8M) signed one-year deals and avoided arbitration. Yaz has an arb-year left. Slater is a free agent in 2025.
Kai Correa got a job with Cleveland on the Guardians coaching staff. He joins Craig Albernaz there working for new manager Steven Vogt.
Gabe Kapler goes to Miami as an assistant GM for player development. They fired GM Kim Ng and got a new guy, former Rays GM Peter Bendix, and named him PoBO. He now has Kap and three other "asst GMs" working under him.
I'm happy to see both of those guys in baseball. Kap may not be suited to managing. But he is very smart and knows the game. He knows even more about teaching players and that's the difference-maker for organizations. There is talent everywhere, but the best teams learn how to get the most from their talent pool. That's all about coaching aka teaching. Correa successfully sheds his Mini-Me persona and finds a new home. It's a drop ("major league field coordinator") from bench coach but it's something. He's still a young (35) guy. He strikes me as a pretty creative guy and despite his unorthodox (Kap-like!) manner he probably brings a lot to a club. Again, it's more of a teaching role, making sure the manager's philosophy and expectations are clear for everyone on the 40-man roster.
Rumor has it that Ohtani will sign with Toronto:
https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2023/12/blue-jays-to-reportedly-sign-shohei-ohtani.html
Rumor is now saying he hasn't made up his mind yet.
That's why they call 'em "rumors!"
I'm depressed:
https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2023/12/dodgers-to-sign-shohei-ohtani.html
Yankees get Soto and now this. Bad for the sport.
$700 million, though. Holy shit.
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