B-King wrote:wco81 wrote:Samurai wrote:Giants fire Gabe Kapler. Can't say I'm disappointed, although I gotta think Farhan Zaidi has a big share of the responsibility for building out a roster largely devoid of playoff-caliber talent. While the roster largely under-performed (with a couple of exceptions), Kapler is the one responsible for squeezing out what talent there is and it would be hard to say that he was able to get the talent previously displayed by the likes of Conforto, Pederson, crawford, Slater, Davis and Haniger in the optimal manner to succeed. Giants have to be among the most boring (and slowest) team to watch so Zaidi needs to find the right talent and hire a manager who will be able to better squeeze the juice out of the roster we get.
Basically Zaidi is trying to do the same thing Billy Beane tried, but with a higher payroll.
Ten years ago, Giants were one of the highest revenue teams in the majors, when the park was new. I don't know if that's still the case with the steady decline in attendance the last 5 years or so. The pandemic really hurt but I believe the decline was occurring before the pandemic.
Seen some comments on McCovey Cove that the owner doesn't care about winning, just being profitable.
Yet their payroll even this year was higher than the MLB average.
I wonder if Zaidi was the one who technically fired Kapler or the owners fired him but it's a message that Zaidi has to produce results.
Problem with Zaidi is that other POBO and GMs know the same stuff he does, to try to dumpster dive for hidden gems. Except they've done better at drafting and developing and finding the free agents to perform. Other than 2021 and Rodon, Zaidi hasn't been able to do that.
I don't know if he has had a chance to rebuild the farm system or he wasn't given that chance or if that's not within his competency, he just uses analytics to find undervalued players but as far as hiring the right developmental coaches, maybe that's not something he's good at.
It may just be that the Giants won't sniff another WS until they get new ownership. But it's not like the NBA where billionaires are lining up to buy franchises, because baseball struggles to attract fan interest.
Sounds like Zaidi made the recommendation to move on from Kapler and ownership approved. Not really laying the blame on Kapler. You can't win in poker with crap cards.
Not really seeing a path for Zaidi to make past another year. This roster needs a major overhaul and I doubt that we are able to do so and be more competitive. It would be more entertaining if we bring up the youngsters than watching the retreads.
At first, most fans would be supporting the youngsters.
But they won't wait forever for the prospects to turn into proven MLB starters.
Remember how hyped Bart was? They were hoping he'd slot right in after Posey retired. Now, I think most fans have little expectations of Bart.
Schmitt started out well. So did Bailey. But no matter how good they are on defense, if they can't hit, it's hard to keep playing them.
Ohtani isn't as attractive a target with the injuries and uncertain future as a #1 or #2 starting pitcher.
But man they need to at least put up a fight or bid up his price so that the Dodgers don't get him for a team-friendly deal.
I get the impression that they will only try to sign someone like Bellinger and to say to the fans that they are trying to sign impact free agents.
The reality is, Giants need both Ohtani and Bellenger, a couple of guys capable of hitting at least 30 HRs.
If they signed Judge last year, they'd still probably need to sign more hitters this year.
They need to bring the fences in, because it's not like starting pitchers are lining up to sign with the Giants except for the 1-year deals that they can leverage to bigger long-term deals with other teams.
Zaidi did accomplish that, get rid of bad contracts and avoid long-term commitments.
But they can't sign the best players without committing for long term deals.
You get what you paid for.
