It's Official

One way to improve your club is to poach talent from another club, in this case your long-time rivals. The Giants hired Dodgers GM Farhan Zaidi to be their President of Baseball Operations.

 

Here's Larry Baer:

“We set out to find one of the best minds in baseball and Farhan’s many accomplishments and expertise exceeded our expectations,” said Baer. “Farhan is widely viewed as one of the top executives in our industry and we are thrilled to have him lead the next chapter of Giants Baseball.”

Here's Mr. Z:

“I am delighted to return to the Bay Area and to join one of the most storied franchises in the game,” said Zaidi. “I have watched the Giants from afar and I have great respect for the organization’s culture and many accomplishments. I am excited about this new opportunity and I’m looking forward to getting right to work.”

Zaidi has a PhD from Cal and worked for the Athletics before going to LA. By all accounts he is a very smart and accomplished fellow so I am happy the Giants landed him. He has a five-year contract. Here's Baggs' take (this is before the announcement):

But the mere fact that Zaidi is their first choice should tell you something: they are no longer interested in a caretaker to prop up a fading roster. They are ready to do a 180 from a highly accomplished but flawed front office whose insular methods of roster creation have allowed them to fall behind their contemporaries.

The off-season just got very interesting!

--M.C.

RIP Willie Mac

Willie McCovey passed away on Wednesday. Giants fans of my age group (I was born in 1959) got to see him at his best when we were young and impressionable. His greatest seasons were 1968-1970 and ballplayers seemed like mythical beings when we were that age. He really was something on the field and he came back to the Giants and flashed a little of the old magic for a few years before retiring in 1980. He was much beloved by fans, teammates, and the organization.

--M.C.

Been there, done that

Much was made of the how well the 2018 Boston Red Sox hit with runners in scoring position and two outs in the World Series. Seems like we know a team that did just about the same thing not long ago:

The chart is from Jay Jaffe at FanGraphs.

Yes, that 2010 World Series Champion San Francisco Giants team is special for a lot of reasons. Slugging .895 with two outs and runners in scoring position is just another on the list!

--M.C.

Finis

The Boston Red Sox complete their remarkable 108-win season with a remarkable 3-loss post-season. They played three really good teams--the Yankees, the Astros, and the Dodgers--and lost only one game to each. That's, like I said, remarkable.

No more baseball in 2018, unless of course you are fans of the Japan Series. The Mystic Zo reports that the Carp have notched the first win of the best-of-seven finals. The Hiroshima Toyo Carp is the NPB team-of-choice here at RMC.

The Giants have tantalized us with talk of a new brain trust for 2019. I'm expecting they'll have to have people in place by the Winter Meetings. That means the month of November ought to be interesting.

Only 115 days until the first Spring Training game!

--M.C.

114

The 114th version of the World Series is upon us. Game One is at Fenway on Tuesday. The 2018 AL champion Red Sox beat two 100-win teams, including last year's champs, to get to the Fall Classic. Early odds have Boston at -125. The LA Dodgers return as NL champions winning on the road in Milwaukee in the seventh game of the LCS. Naturally we here at RMC were rooting for the Brewers, but such is life. I have a lot of friends who are Dodgers fans so I know they'll be happy. The Red Sox are my mom's team and I know my east coast family members are happy.

Giants fans will have to wait until next year, of course. Perhaps we'll get some exciting changes this off-season. In the meantime, enjoy the ballgames.

--M.C.

LCS set

It seems fitting that the two best teams in the American League, the Boston Red Sox and the Houston Astros, will meet to decide the pennant. The two best teams in the National League, the Milwaukee Brewers and the Los Angeles Dodgers, meet to decide the pennant as well. The playoffs worked, mostly, as seeded. The number-one team will open their best-of-seven series at home. The NLCS starts Friday and the ALCS starts Saturday. Eduardo Nuñez is the only former Giants player I'm aware of on an LCS roster, if you are looking for a rooting interest. Obviously it is "Beat LA" around here, not to mention that it is very hard to root against a team named for beer-makers. I not only like beer, I make it, too. So "Go Crew!"

--M.C.

How Much Do Injuries Matter?

I throw out the question because, with respect to the 2018 Giants, I honestly don't know.   Here is a list of the Giants' position players who have spent time on the disabled list this season:

Buster Posey
Brandon Belt
Evan Longoria
Joe Panik
Hunter Pence
Alen Hanson
Steve Duggar
Mac Williamson
Pablo Sandoval

That's our entire infield including a couple of the back-ups.  It's easier to make a list of players that weren't on the DL: Kelby Tomlinson, Brandon Crawford, Gregor Blanco, Gorkys Hernandez, Nick Hundley (thank god for that), Austin Slater and the FNG's called up in September.  I see 2 guys there who are legit full time major leaguers (maybe 3 if Slater develops further).  And Andrew McCutcheon, who gave us 5/6 of a season before he was traded.  Of course, that doesn't include the pitchers: Madison Bumgarner, Johnny Cueto, Jeff Samardzija, Mark Melancon, Will Smith, Hunter Strickland.  The Giants fortunately got exceptional performances out of their young pitchers, otherwise, it would have been a long view up at San Diego.

But just what toll did the injuries take?  There have been some statements to this already.  Ron said, "Every team has plenty of injuries every season."  Nomisnala said, "Injuries hurt this team severely."  I read a quote from the Giants trainer that said he had never even heard of a team with this many injuries.  Of course, that is a bit of a self-serving line for the Giants to put out.  But I wonder, just how much better would the Giants have been had they gotten decent seasons out of most of their players?  Clearly injuries played some part, and clearly every team has them throughout the year.  Also, the injuries have an effect that is longer than the length of the DL stay - a player has to rehab, and then get back to major league play.  It doesn't seem like that happens easily.  Madison said his mechanics were at their best right before he got hurt - not late in the season after he had rehabbed in the major leagues for 4 months.

So what do you think?  10 games?  That would make a big difference.  1 game?  It's clear that the Giants need to make some moves to muscle up the team, yet it is also clear that the Giants are still going to be built around pitching (finishing, after that historically horrendous September with a 5th-best team ERA).  I've said that I thought the Giants improvement (which was ultimately only 9 wins) was the result of pitching.  But how better could they have been without the injuries?