History Repeating Itself
If you want to remember what it was like, here’s Wilco last night at MMP:
And for comparison, 2010 at our yard. He had better seats than me and The Bone did. I think we paid $800 a piece for ours. I’d also point out the great advances in phone video recording quality in 7 years.
A Place To Talk About Giants Baseball 
Got to hand it to Verlander, he’s having awesome run with Stros. Heard radio spot where he said he’d “found something”, like Kruk’s famous arm slot I guess. Hope Stros can take out Yanks and he gets another chance to do more with it vs. LA.
column on Colletti in SF Chron, in town promoting a book “The Chair”. Gets credit for some of Dodgers rebuild yada yada. He also notes that Sabes was part of Yanks turnaround earlier too in addition to ending Giants long drought of WS championships.
Gotta wonder as he looks out at playoff teams if he really thinks his “core” can compete with them without major influx of talent, and soon.
From what he has said, he doesn’t. What he actually does is a different story.
You can say that again.
Heh heh! WTF?
From what he has said, he doesn’t. What he actually does is a different story.
You get the feeling Sabean knows the Giants are screwed for the next few years.
Giants are a worst case scenario right now. Declining players with big contracts. Payroll maxed out. No immediate help from the minor leagues.
The three championships will be our sustaining force. We will march through these tough times. Forward!
Rags, Wotus and Bam Bam are out.
Wow!
I don’t like it. Coaching is not our problem. Lack of talent is our problem. Rags deserved better.
I’m stoked these changes were made. It was time for some new blood, new voices. This team had a classic look of a tired team set in their ways.
Not out completely:
Righetti will be special assistant to GM. Gardner gets a “special assignment” role. Decker is “special assistant to baseball ops.”
Those are all bullshit roles. At least they get to keep their benefits.
And very “special” roles at that.
Special Bullshit!
I don’t have a problem with any of these coaching moves, save one. After a season and a half of crapitude, it’s welcome, and it’s due, as I predicted months ago that a coaching shakeup would happen after the season. You can’t fire players under contract, and you can’t unload most of these dudes making a ton of coin, yet losing their athleticism. I like this, even if they change Chili in for Meulens and keep Bam Bam for some other position, which apparently is in the works. The only problem I have with this housecleaning is the elephant still in the house — BOCHY.
You turnover the whole staff except the guy that sets the tone? I don’t get that at all, on one level, and on another, it’s the Giants way. Time for Boch to move upstairs into the consultant’s chair, which is where the other guys are headed at least for now. Whoever they bring in as bench coach has to be figured as the heir apparent. Not going to be Decker, which disappoints me. I respect Righetti’s track record. He may be young enough that he still wants an on-field job somewhere. Other teams could do way worse than Rags for pitching coach, or even manager. Nevin is looking for a manager job, apparently he’s not getting it in SF…
That’s an awesome experience at the game last night, Wilco!
I’m just speculating, but the brass is probably looking for some big personality gung-ho guys for coaches. They want a Flannery or two. They see a dead clubhouse and they want some life.
I guess they just don’t want to embarrass Bochy by letting him go this off-season. Let him end out his contract next season and fade off to a retirement of deep-sea fishing.
Bochy is signed through 2019, Zum…
Doh!
Add this shakeup to the Cards minor league head Bell recruited back to SF to fix this crap minor league system, and things are looking better already. I don’t know who was behind this, I assume it was Sabes. And, I still think there was bullshit behind the scenes going on in the clubhouse the past two seasons, but nobody has the guts to give it up, nor our gutless, Giants-CSN-KNBR incestuous local media to dig it out…
Flannery posted online:
“Congrats to my coaching brothers. After winning 3 World Championships they all were reassigned. Now others get to take the shit. #legends.”
Flannery can eat that S.
I’m tired of his “woe is me”, “woe is the coaches” deal. I’ll give him credit for being a part of 3 champ seasons, along with all the other coaches. They deserve credit. But, sheezus, if he didn’t like what he was doing while doing it, or it was eating him up, nobody forced him into it. He could have easily left to go back to be a talk show host in San Diego. Or, strum his guitar out on the road. You know what you’re in for if you’re a big league coach in any sport. Good and bad. Where was this victim crap when he was on top winning 3 rings and the toast of the town? Just stop the sob story garbage, and move on…
Totally agree. Flannery’s a self righteous, attention starved clown…
Cubs fired pitching coach Chris Bosio, so they have an opening, too.
Ridiculous that Bochy survives this. Maybe they’ll make his son pitching coach…
There should be a job for Andres Torres somewhere in this mess…
Center Field??
lulz!
Schulman and Pavlovic of the beat guys haven’t even tweeted on this housecleaning yet. Baggarly has minimally, Haft has tweeted second hand, and a terse facts-only late this am on MLB.com. As usual, none of these guys had any “insider” insight into this, or if they did, said nothing. Some outfit called FanRag scooped it today before the Giants even announced it…
https://www.fanragsports.com/murray-giants-fire-pitching-coach-dave-righetti/
I can’t fault Flannery for sticking up for his coaching buddies.
But Flannery knows the deal. He knows it’s the fate of coaches.
Fun fact: Bochy fired Flannery when Flannery was coaching for Bochy in San Diego.
To a point, sure, he’ll back his brethren.
But, since when have the Giants coaches taken a ton of “shit” around here? Since never.
Flannery got the irregular criticism for sending guys that got thrown out, but come on, that comes with the territory of being a 3rd base coach. If he got thrown by that, then he should have gone back to the radio microphone instead of earning a lot of coin and getting 3 rings.
Boch and coaches were golden when winning 3 titles. When they crapped out the last few years, I didn’t see a torrent of media criticism of Bochy and staff — it was remarkably benign. In fact, on talk shows, if anybody called in to cross Bochy or Meulens, the radio hosts and guests basically attacked the call-in critic as stoopid or insane.
If Flannery were in a big East Coast team market, the coaches would have been skewered over the last two seasons. Out here, a big media shrug — most abuse was directed at the players and the front office for a bogus roster. He wasn’t even on the staff during this crap run. IMO Flannery’s seeing bogeymen that never existed, he’s got an incredibly thin skin, or he’s mistaking internal criticism we never saw or heard for public criticism that was nonexistent or on a low burner as long as he was around…
Oh man, Texas QB throws the game away in OT.
Yeah, It caused me to start drinking much earlier than normal.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Rags viewed Cain’s retirement as a natural end point and was ready to go. Chili was one of my childhood favorites so I hope he comes aboard. Too bad Bochy doesn’t do the honorable thing and walk away, especially with his heart issues. If the club stumbles out of the gate next year he should go too.
I think this is a chicken shit move on multiple levels. First off, it looks to me like they didn’t have the balls to fire Bochy, so they’re getting rid of all of his buddies in hopes he gets pissed and leaves on his own. Reminds me of an old coach at my high school who didn’t have the guts to cut guys, so instead he would make them miserable until they quit. Totally lame.
Second, its about the best example of shuffling the deck chairs on the Titanic that I’ve ever seen.
“Of course we shook things up after such a bad season—-didn’t you see we fired the bullpen coach?”
After a disastrous last season and a half, they had to make this shakeup. The season tix re-up is coming up soon. Not a coincidence there. I’m listening to Ray Woodson on the 95.7, he’s of the view that Bochy may not necessarily survive this into next season, despite his contract. I think he’ll survive it, but he may have little say in who his next staff will be. I’m guessing he’ll manage through next year, it has to be better. Then he’ll ride off from a decent season into the sunset of the front office consultantcy for the last year of his deal, citing health concerns…
Flannery is doubling down:
“Just now ·
Attention all ” couch coaches” jobs are open in San Francisco, get up off the coaches and go for it. Giants now need your knowledge . Ha….yes.”
I’ll give him an excuse – maybe Happy Hour came early today. Something(s) have obviously pissed him off, whatever. If I were in his position with 3 rings, the last thing I would do is throw bombs onto the fanbase that either liked him, or at worst was ambivalent to mildly perturbed with him while he was a coach. He’s digging himself a reputational hole with this wiseacre/victim crap. If somebody offered me tix to one of his shows, I’d decline the freebie…
He’s on edge emotionally this week anyway because he had to put his 16 year old family dog to sleep.
It sounds like I’m making an excuse, but I’m guessing that’s on his mind, too.
I like that one better than my Happy Hour effort. But, I assume his dog was OK when he penned his previous anti-fan screeds…
Yeah, Flannery wears his heart completely on his sleeve, to good effect and bad.
Fun Fact: I stood behind the backstop while my buddy batted against Chris Bosio in high school.
I wouldn’t have traded places with him for $500. He was a man child out there throwing absolute gas with lousy control and a bad temper.
More Flan:
“Replying to @Nationals
Very disappointed in your handling of Dusty..
You must not like winning…oh well…you’re the owners.”
Flan, about the Nat’s GM:
“when will Rizzo stand up and protect who he hired Matt Wiiliams, Dusty , gutless..fire himself..integrity very hard to get back.”
From KNBR:
“I think you’re going to look for, you’d love to get, it’s hard to go from the experience that we’ve had, leadership that Rags and Gardy have had to not having guys with experience,” Evans said. “So that’s, we’re going to still value that experience. I think that we’ll be creative and open, the talent pool out there of pitching guys whether at the Minor League level or at the Major League level is quite broad and there’s a lot of different strengths that coaches have and experiences that coaches have and those experiences being in different organizations and their specialties or their preferences or relative biases being different can potentially speak into what we’re doing and help get the most out of our pitchers in a different way.”
Evans didn’t admit that Righetti’s coaching points have grown stale, but he did indicate the Giants aren’t limiting the types of perspectives they’ll consider in their search. Though the Giants made Righetti’s reassignment official on Saturday, Evans said that he initially discussed the idea of shifting Righetti’s responsibilities with the coach in September, and that San Francisco has already begun the interview process.
“I think that again, you can’t take anything away from what Gardy and Rags have contributed and accomplished here,” Evans said. “But by bringing in new people, they’ll be coming in with new perspectives, maybe new priorities, maybe new strategies, a new way of looking at things and we’ll be open to all of those candidates and try to get the best combination.”
Though the Giants may still consider a promotion from within, Evans said the franchise is primarily looking at candidates outside the organization which aligns with the viewpoint Evans projected that San Francisco needs new blood in its clubhouse.
One of the qualities the Giants may also prioritize is finding a pitching coach driven by analytics who can relate to players in the same way Righetti and Gardner were able to over the past several years. As an organization, San Francisco is considered to be among the teams that have adopted an analytics-based approach more slowly than its peers, but a new hire may change that.
“I don’t want to take anything away from Gardy and Rags because they’ve always been responsive to information that we’ve been able to gather analytically,” Evans said. “But yeah, there are candidates we’ve already interviewed that have been dealing in more the analytical world for longer. I think that’s one perspective that will be in front of us, those kind of candidates for sure.”
you guys are really bringin’ it strong today. Way too many great ones to settle on just one for POTD…..
I wonder if Whitey earned himself a promotion with his dugout rant last Sept?
I could care less that Wotus is gone. KNBR is sad as fuck about it, P-Con and Marty Lurie fucking loved that guy.
Agree about Wotus,you don’t get passed over for a head gig as much as he has in the past if teams thought he was their top choice,he never was.He’s the token white guy like the token black guy that football teams have to interview to meet the requirements enforced by the league..
And I was a firm believer he was never getting the big gig here as I believe some other Flappers thought he would be a shoe in, I was so sure I had a bet with a bartender for $20 who adamantly insisted he will replace Bochy and I just put your money where your mouth is cause I’ll be collecting! And now I will with my knowing nod of satisfaction..
I heard somewhere that the NY Giants are the only NFL team that has never had an African American head coach. Is that true?
Not head coach, but possibly starting QB.
One of the biggest challenges for the new pitching coach is trying to get any kind of consistency, or competency, out of Samardj and Moore. Good luck with that.
And the entire bullpen…
Jim Hickey would be a great choice for the pitching coach job.Quite a nice resume built over the years in Houston and Tampa Bay..
I’m for Whitey doing all these jobs. Just sit him on the bench and let him yell at everyone. These guys know how to play baseball, they just need to get their asses kicked.
It would be so entertaining!
Looks like Whiteys about to piss in his jock with that crow hop..
If you’re into college football, this OU/K-State game is off the hook
I think the changes in coaching staff have more to do with getting more out of the young guys, hitters and pitchers both, than the vets the already have that struggled. Giants FO is disappointed in lack of growth in them (mac parker blach law o-shits yada yada) and wants to see more. Which begs question, are they really any good or not and will new coaches really make much of difference?
Bell move is a strong one tho, clear indication that it’s time to go in different direction, as in up, when it comes to draft and player development.
I could also see Bochy saying, after mulling things over, if that’s the way you want to play it, good bye and good luck. Especially if FO isn’t planning on bringing much more talent to everyday LU 2018.
And with health issues, does he really want to go through the grind of a 2018 season that will probably be pretty similar to ’17?
another reason I can sympathize with Flan. New coaches aren’t gonna make hella big difference with what they have/get any more out of their blessed “core” of vets (Belt Panik Posey Craw Span Pence Moore Smardz yada yada) If you’ve still got the mostly same honky clubhouse and team, expecting better results out of it is lame.
Although they’ve been with him long enough to be considered his own, Bochy did inherit Rags and Wotus from Dusty…
college football is such a great product. Wow, what a game ending.
Not if you like defense.
i don’t watch football for the defense
Rams and Seahawks off the top of my head haven’t had black HCs.
Mac (as always) is probably right. It’s QBs…
Not true Chuck, the Rams had a black QB James Harris, pretty good player as well..
I thought we were talking head coaches
Great catch, Judge!
I swear he could start for the Knicks…
Good job by the Astro fans in RF staying out of the way…
Just learning about the moves. Was at a pumpkin patch today with grandson, then beautiful Skaneateles with gf. I’m for all manner of shakeups. Evans was real clear, barely diplomatic, about wanting analytics from pitching coaches. You guys are right. It might all be a subtle, or not so subtle, way of nudging Bochy out.
When’s the wedding?
any day now
Who is Whitey?
Hint: El Presidente
ah….
Is Modelo any good?
I like it a lot, but then again I’m a guy who can’t stand craft beer and thinks IPA’s taste awful.
One of My favorite beers 🍻 I order at the bar Loo, yeah Modelo is a good 🍺
The dark beer is real good.
Charlie Morton can throw 97? I had no idea and I’ve seen him pitch a few times over the years.
Thanks, guys. I also hate IPA’s.
BTW, Sandog, my beloved Tracks will be closing (date undetermined).
Bartender said Penn Station won’t renew their lease or something.
They may have already given up. I noticed the Guinness was sub-par last Sunday…
every single store, bar, gym, restaurant you name it (that I frequent) has closed down in the last 4 years. It’s fucking total bullshit and I’m starting to think I have horrible taste
I think my kidneys are closing down…
Fun fact:
The last team Gary Brown played for was the Southern Maryland Blue Crabs of the Atlantic League.
It’s interesting that Brown was drafted in 2010. In the year when the Giants were winning the first of the 3-in-5 championships, the drafting was starting to go bad.
Judge grew up in the Calif. Central Valley city of Linden, near Stockton, about 50 or so miles from where I live. He wasn’t drafted until the 32nd pick. Every team had passed on him in the first round.
From Wikipedia:
“Judge attended Linden High School, where he was a three-sport star. He played as a pitcher and first baseman for the baseball team, a wide receiver for the football team, and as a center for the basketball team. He set a school record for touchdowns (17) in football and led the team in points per game (18.2) in basketball. In baseball, he was part of the Linden High School team that made the California Interscholastic Federation Division III playoffs.”
Modelo is great if you’re on a boat in the Delta.
Maybe the Giants should throw Gary Brown a bone 🍖 as some kind of coach,of course not as a hitting coach since he stunk at hitting but it might make the Giants feel theirs still a little value left from their horrible pick..
Oh wait how about hair rubs to all the players in the dugout during the game?
I was at a concert with my son Matt and some of his friends a month or so ago (at the Whiskey a Go-Go ironically) and he offered to buy me a beer. He said they had 805 on tap, (which is a popular beer in SoCal) and he’d thought I’d like that ok. I try to be a low maintenance guy, so I said that was fine. Later that night we were walking to the car as a group and I said I thought that 805 was surprisingly damn good. Matt started laughing and said it was actually a Modelo—that he knew i would like that better. I said that Modelo was the best 805 I’ve ever had. We all got a laugh out of that.
such a great post.
Sandog is a national treasure…
I had a tall boy Modelo at the game last night. They didn’t serve it with lime and I don’t know why but I just can’t drink Mexican beer without lime.
Tall boy Modelo’s at Petco Park often have hot Latina women attached to them.
It’s a great look.
Works for me Sandog!
Wow twice Bird as been thrown out at the plate in this series.He’s turning into the new Buster Posey!
Oh yeah Altuve a bomb 2-zip that guy is amazing..
The Astros are likely going to pull Morton after 5 excellent innings and 50 some pitches because analytics says so (third time thru lineup bullshit).
I think Modelo was the name of one of the guys that put my new front yard in this past May. I gave the dudes a couple of six packs of Corona, though…
Lol
Re: Pawlie’s note above — the later-to-be Mrs. snarkk and I years ago went to an October wedding of a buddy of mine at the Sherwood Inn in Skaneateles Great old place, great wedding, beautiful area and we made it part of a fall foliage trip.
They divorced about a decade ago…
Yeah baby! I will say this about Fox soorts1. Aat least they use fucking g numbers instead of dots for balls strikes and outs.
I hate the stupid dots.
Ha! Withbyankn that one Charlie!
Fucking phones…
14 curveballs in a row by McCullers? That was insane. It looked like McCann wasn’t putting down a sign at one point.
I think you let McCullers pitch the ninth and just make sure Giles is ready if needed.
Model Dark Muey Bueno…coaching shake up even more muey bueno.
Is the shake up Sabean driven??? Is it a sign of a blockbuster coming aka Matt Williams trade???
Astros muey muey Bueno!!! Destroy the Fodgers…Stros in 5!!!
Go Stros!
So glad we are not seeing a Yankmee bum WS.
Happy for you Wilco!
Houston we have a pennant!
Excellent!
Thank you, Astros!
Good for the Astro’s and Houston. Not sure why I wasn’t rooting for them. I think part of it is that them being in the AL really bugs me. Oh well, I’m over it and I sure as hell will be rooting for them now.
GO ASTROS! BEAT THE BUMS!
Awesome.
Now I have a team to root for in the WS…
Congrats Houston we have no problem!
Now go fucking take down the Dogpile!!
Early call Astros in 6 this team is hungry and exciting to watch and the City needs this championship after the Hurricane Harvey devastation..Verlander is pitching lights out (9-0) since joining the Astros and Altuve just keeps amazing me this team is deeper then LA and will get this done!!
Omg fucking hilarious..Josh Riddick only wearing a USA speedo getting drenched in the clubhouse!! You can’t get much looser as a team then that!!
Sorry guys, this is too much to overcome:
Led Zeppelin & Guns ‘n Roses aside this might be my favorite song:
Do I know how to kill a thread or what?
Loo, bummed to hear that Tracks is closing, I liked that place. Went there on your suggestion before the Clapton concert at the Garden the day after my Dad died a couple years ago. Also agree about Bochy “surviving” the changes. I have a hard time believing that Sabean did not confer with Bochy before these moves and he agreed to it all. The guy should hang up that oversized hat of his for good….