Two Thumps Up For This Hire
I slept on it and the more I thought about it the more I realized this could be the perfect hire. Kapler is the anti-Bochy. Zaidi is not an idiot. Far from it, he’s smarter than all of us and most other mortal men. Why would he hire someone who could torpedo not just the team but his ascent to greatness? There is something there that maybe all of us don’t understand. And I’m ok with that, just like I don’t understand how electricity works but I trust the power company to understand it and be able to turn it on and off without disrupting my daily life. But that’s another topic.
Regarding the assault allegations, he gets a pass from me on that. Obviously if he blundered something like that again he’d have to go. But we are all human and the smart ones learn and adapt.
Look, this guy had Bryce Harper to deal with–a known drag on a team—just look to the Nats if you don’t believe that. If you don’t like that example just watch this jackass take his helmet off and flip his stupid hair back. That’s worth like 12 losses a year, at least.
Let’s see what he can do with a stud like *Z-arris* spoon feeding him studs to manage.
A Place To Talk About Giants Baseball 
man I hope you are right Craig. When I saw the headline in this mornings OC register my first thought…
A audible curse. My wife asks What? Knowing that happens when i read the sports section. I say. “The Giants hired Kapler. Why would they do that??” Of course it was a rhetorical question, as she has no clue who he is or why I didn’t wan’t him…
It wasn’t just Harper. He sucked in his 1st year too, and in many occasions seemed like his abilities did or do not include running a bullpen. Augh
Zaidi knows what his shortcomings are. He’s not going to just let him flounder, he’ll put bench coaches in who can help him. There are reasons Zaidi is going against public opinion and hiring this dude. It’s a huge risk. Why would he do that if he didn’t have some outstanding managerial qualities?
look at this stupid shit I sent into the Chronicle back in 2006! None of us know anything
https://www.sfgate.com/sports/article/LETTERS-TO-THE-GREEN-2485650.php
by the way, *Yawn of a New Era* wasn’t written by some headline writing flunky. That was ALL Big Flavor, baby.
Yawn of a new era…that’s classic, Flav.
The funny thing is, this was my second reaction after my initial “ARE YOU KIDDING ME?” I wasn’t impressed with the Bochy hire at the time and I suppose that turned out ok. The fact is, there’s nothing that we can do about it. We just have to wait and see. I hope Zaidi is right about this.
Good job with the reverse jinx…but that was my attitude when he was hired as well…
As I said in the last thread, “I am down with this hire.” Both Z and K are friends and have worked together closely when both were with the Bums, which resulted in extraordinary improvements in the organization overall, especially at the minor league level.
I also agree with the take Willie gave in the last thread, where he quoted some dude that said (paraphrasing), “The impact of a manager is over estimated. They result in very few wins.”
Similar to James Carville (remember him?) saying, “It’s the economy stupid.” In baseball, “it’s the players stupid.” In short, our fate will be decided by our 40 man roster, which unequivocally sucks at the moment and will take multiple seasons to become elite again.
And it’s not like they’re *gym Bros*. There has to be something there. I trust Zaidi
“outstanding managerial qualities” deserves a major hmmnn and I’d ask what those might be. Bottom line his team fell apart on him 2 summers in a row and he couldn’t figure a way out of it. And last year was new and improved version of Phils with Realmuto the best C in the game and Segura.
Z sure put himself on line if he thinks Kapler is best man for the job, which seems like tech bro hire. And will also fuel that “Dodger invader fox in the chicken coop” sentiment some fans already have. Other thing to think about is how will Giants FAs react–Pavs last night seemed to think that seals Bum being gone. Smith and Vogt?
Kapler apparently had baggage from LA about mishandling sexual assault allegations against some players in the minors. Whatever happened, that was apparently vetted by the Phills and MLB several years ago before he got hired there. Nowadays, the Twitterverse is a cesspool and rips anybody about anything and everything from the get go, whether based in truth or not. If SF hired Espada from the Astros there would be social media controversy about his role in this sign stealing scandal and the recent stuff at the World Series. Nothing leads me to think the ZMan would hire a guy that would embarrass him. Let Kapler manage for a while and see what happens…
exactly. What’s the worse that happens? We already stink. If he gets more out of the team than expected, and Z-arris is spoon feeding him under the radar studs for a couple of years, this will probably all work out…..
Espada was not on Stros bench then. He wasn’t hired until after 2017 season. And I doubt he had much to do with Taubman’s lunacy or subsequent Stros FO backpedals.
As for Kapler being vetted by the Phils. he was also fired by them after 2 non descript seasons. Hardly ringing endorsement.
I don’t understand the negativity about Zman and his attempts to pull this organization from the depths. The guy has done nothing but make improvements. He’s allowed to bring in guys he wants. That’s what everybody does when they take over a sports organization. If he craters the job, he’ll get earned opprobrium. I’ve read where the suspicion about sign stealing by Astros has been current through 2019, even into the playoffs…
Text this morning from a friend/Phillies fan: Good luck with Gabe Kapler. Bad manager.
Here’s why Gabe Kapler was picked: Bullshit Bingo. This is a game we underlings played in the corporate world. It’s also known as Buzzword Bingo. It is why I knew Kapler would get the nod. Listen to Zaidi and Harris and Kapler: they all share that linguistic trait. Corpspeak. Measured, calculated, analytical Modern Talk, replete with its fill of “kind of” and “sort of” and other careful qualifiers. The Corpspeak of the Best and the Brightest. And it is precisely what I don’t care for. Couldn’t be more un-Bochyesque. But, hey, it’s a new era, a new regime in the palace court by the piazza (I am just back from Italy). (According to Jim Salisbury of NBC sports Philadelphia, Kapler was better at communicating with the front office than with players.) Oh. “Communication.” That’s one of those Corpspeak buzzwords. (Check out Corpspeak at Urban Dictionary. Nailed it.) Having said all that, if the Giants become winners again, quickly, all to the good. Even another ring would be a wonderful thing. But I can tell you I’d cringe after the champagne dried, as the dry-cleaned Suits sat before the cameras. Ain’t no way no Bumgarner talks that way. Nope.
Interesting take Koko. You back from Italy yet?
Don’t know what it will mean with respect to performance, but that’s my angle … as you might expect it to be. Back from Tuscany. Seriously looking to go there and live off and on. Can stay up to 90 days without a visa.
I call it Millenial Speak or Millenial Dribble.
If this was group of Millenials and Corps speakers as you describe ran the country during WW II, we would be speaking German now…wie gehts:)
“Kinda, sorta” is all Beaver Cleaver…
Yeah, it’s all Kapler’s fault that the Phillies suffered a midseason collapse, going from 3½ games up in the NL East to 6½ games back in a little over three weeks, then sputtered their way out of contention. Disregard the bevy of injuries and a barely serviceable (if that) starting pitching staff made the Phillies’ improved line up more or less irrelevant.
The Phillies missed a productive Rhys Hoskins in the second half of the season, but he was far from the only reason the Phils came up short in the quest to make the postseason. The team endured some big injuries, especially to leadoff man Andrew McCutchen (ACL) and a number of relievers, there was plenty of underperformance by the pitchers and players who stayed healthy, and the front office did not save the pitching staff by acquiring for a difference-making starter at the trade deadline. Also, let’s not forget Realmuto playing on a sore knee most of the 2nd half (where he’ll probably require surgery this off season).
However, none of that shit should matter though. So yeah, let’s blame the Phillies face plant all on Kapler. Hilarious.
so he gets all the credit for being in first place last year late June at 38-29, but none of the blame for going 43-52 the rest of the season. OK. Just don’t see value of this guy other than Z (who is NOT infallible) knowing him.
When did I say that? Please show me. In my posts yesterday, I mentioned that he is far from infallible. The dude hasn’t managed one game for the Giants and he doesn’t deserve a 2nd chance?
Willie, that definitely doesn’t sound like you.
One Philly fan friend blamed the pitching as wel on the face plant but Kapler just does not show me anything about being a leader. I remember there was a lot of gisgruntlement his first year and cant see this aging team responding to him to turn anything around during his potential tenure. Ill give Bochy that leadership ability at least.
But maybe hiring his guy he knows Kapler wont question Farhan’s moves and maybe this is the sign Farhan is going to drastically start dumping aging pieces and he is not worried that Kapler will be blamed for the plummeting standings and Kapler wont feel hebisnbe8ng blamed that Farhan has his back…so let us see and will give Kapler the benefit of the doubt. But if this team is largely intact by the end of the year and pushing 100 losses, I will have lost faith in Farhan.
Whatever happened to Steve Decker in the org??
Would be nice to type and not fuck up for once…
Hey, he’s the guy. For now. Maybe he’s just the placeholder until we get good. I don’t like the hire, but Farhan has a history with him and obviously knows a lot more than we do. Like, is he a good toadie? He doesn’t look the part, but who knows?
I get a Jersey Shore “my shit don’t stink so don’t even question why I tried to insert a pitcher who hadn’t warmed up” vibe from him.
He’s certainly the anti-Bochy in many many ways.
I dont like the hire sorry…lot of discontent in Philly from his players about his game Management and smacks of just going with hiring his buddy and also someone who wont stray from Farhan being the ultimate decision maker. Having someone calling all the managerial shots for someone who has never played the game is peturbing to me. Worked for Theo Epstein because he had proven big league experiencesd managers…hope I am wrong…
if you just go off what happened in Philly then yeah, it seems like a risk. Again, people learn and adapt. By all accounts this guy is smart (he’s a democrat, come on 🙂 ) Anyway, Zaidi isn’t hiring some dude who could torpedo his presidency, I think the risk here is small and the potential gain is huge.
I would’ve preferred a Whig…
Zaidi has proven over his rise in the ranks with the A’s to the bums, that he knows what the fuck he is doing. I wasn’t thrilled with the Welcome Back Kotter, er Kapler hire, but on the flip-side, not unlike Blade and Flav, I trust Z to make the right call. Time will tell.
Now I have to get back to staring out the window and wait for Spring.
Giants have gone in a radically different direction of management from the Sabes/Bochy era. As it should be. Baseball is going in a radically different direction of play, which I don’t like. But, until that changes, management has to roll with it, and deal with it. Bochy and crew were demonstrably not well suited to deal with the new realities in baseball…
Agree whole-heatedly, Tom. I too dislike the current game…pinball baseball. It is all about Ks and HRs.
I want to see the game I grew-up playing and watching, that included the hit-and-run, sacrifice, squeeze, stealing of bases, etc. The current slant on the game sucks compared to the game how it used to be played, IMO.
Chuck you got railroaded out of your job for this clown 🤡! When all the players question a managers leadership and not no on any given moment their role use age is it’s disturbing.Talk about their injuries, was the pitching injuries maybe related to how UnKappable he handled their arms? Literally blowing them up the 1st month of the season?
Zaidi interviewed players and management from Philly. They gave positive comments
Kapler was fired from Philly because the owner caved into the Philly fans, who are, to put it mildly, the jerkiest fans in sports. The Philly fans take pride in being jerks.
The Philly front-office wanted to keep Kapler, but were over-ruled by the owner.
Excellent. Our gain.
Well I do believe in Z so maybe I’ll give Kapler a pass for now.Its not like he’s walking into a great situation and even a great manager like Earl Weaver would not be able to turn this team around initially, plus they don’t have the hit,walk, 3 run bomb guy that Weaver was used too.Hopefully Kapler learned from his mistakes in Philly going forward and use the players in their roles their accustomed to.
That’s the spirit!
Glad to see you’re open minded AK and on reflection, you’re at least giving him a chance.
There was an almost half-hour long interview with Zaidi on the KNBR morning show today, with Mac pounding Zaidi with tough questions, and Zaidi answering the questions very well, IMO. The kinds of questions the beat writers will be too chicken to ask, except for maybe Baggs.
Zaidi is a cool customer. He’s not going to be rattled by fan reaction. He clearly is very pleased with getting Kapler. He sees the organizational improvement in the Giants in the last year that a lot of us fans can’t see.
Murph will ask a tough question, he used to make Jed York literally weep
Murph is who I meant. I get those two mixed up.
Of course, organizational improvement, at some point, has to turn into wins on the field. But I think we’re still at least a couple of years from that.
Yes, exactly what I have been saying. We’re easily 2, maybe 3 years from challenging for the Division. That being said, we might get lucky and compete for a wild card next season, but no way with this current roster.
Regardless, I hope Kapler is given at least 2 seasons to show he can turn this “battleship” around.
No doubt it will be a process/ learning experience, I just want Kapler to give my boy Davis plenty of AB’s in ST cause he has the speed/ power/arm to be a possible gold nugget needed with experience this team needs! He’s a fresh apple not part of the rotten core…
There is zero risk in the hire. As far as Farhan goes. And Mr. Kotter for that matter. Given the window of suckitude is wide open and if they gets results better than horrible, then they are hailed as heroes.
I just wonder how long his leash is. 3 years of 90+ losses? I’d think by 2022 (fuck, does that sound weird) we’d better be on the righteous path.
zero risk? Huh? Giants fans are up in arms about this if Z misfires it will seriously weaken the power he has in the organization. If Kapler bombs and gets run out of town how hard will it be for Z to hand pick his next manager? There is a lot of risk here for Z anyway.
Agree, Flav.
Well, Mr. Kotter IS gonna misfire. There’s zero risk in that the bar to get over is on the ground. If we remain stuck with the dead & bloated lineup, we will be right around what, 95 losses?
The only reason we didn’t get there this year was one big month by Dick Dick Dick and Yaz Yaz Yaz. If Kapler gets us under 90 losses, it is a success. At least that’s how semi-knowledgeable fans will look at it.
Regular Giants fans? This ain’t Philly. As soft as the press is on the Giants here, most of the fans are the same way. They WANT Posey, Belt, Crawfish, and Longo out there every day. They want Panik back, FFS.
Agree BF! You know this hire is only the 4th manager the Giants will have in 34 years after Davenport got canned for Roger Craig.Others Felipe Alou, Dusty Baker and Bruce Bochy all winning managers.
4 in 34 years blows me away a bit, they sure like that continuity at the manager position that’s for sure so Kapler has some big shoes to fill if he’s going to last..
you want to talk about a guy who had NO other options and you’re talking about Wo
I’m shocked they keep throwing Wotus a bone 🍖
Is this Kapler’s 1st decision on his coaching staff?Are is some what else making the call?
Wotus is like that little junk drawer in the kitchen that never gets cleaned out…
Someone has to help Murph figure out who all the new front office guys are.
I’m kinda pulling this number out of my ass but I think the Giants need to come in around .500 this year for it to be considered a success. They won 77 last year, a 4 game improvement would be a step in the right direction. Look, Kap is Zaidi’s GUY. He hand picked him and brought him in despite a failure in his one and only other managerial job AND the sexual assualt mishandling is a big deal here. This guy HAS to work out or Zaidi is gonna look bad, real bad.
I’m not saying Z would get shit canned if Kapler bungles his way out of here after a year but he’ll be stripped of a lot of power when it comes to bringing in the next manager. Baer and his buddies will be all over his shit if he fucks up this hire and has to go out and hire another one right away.
look at it this way, even if there are no high profile fuck ups and the players like Kap well enough, if he wins 65 games this year will that go over with the fanbase? No way. So Kap and his team have to perform this year. Or Zaidi will get and should get a ton of shit for this hire.
Again, this ain’t Philly. The fans won’t get him out barring some sort of Larry Baer type fuck up. And as far as I’ve seen, Kapler handled the LA shit by going up the chain of command. It wasn’t really his problem to solve. But I haven’t looked into it too much and I don’t know the details.
Farhan will ride his guy for 3 years. 2022 is the make-or-break with Mr. Kotter. We’d better be somewhere around 86 wins by then or he will likely be gone.
And this team more than likely, at least as constituted now, WILL lose around 90-100 games. Esp with our Stone Temple Pilots (dead & bloated) lineup. Seeing as what happened to our bullpen I don’t think we near as good as last season.
Maybe Farhan pulls 4 rabbits out of his hat.
What’s significant about it? Consideiring how much money he is making, Posey absolutely should have been there, front and center. Hell I think the Giants should pimp him out for partys and special events like Lou Seal.
Posey doesn’t have to attend these things, he met with Kapler last month tho, this is a sign he’s behind the hire
Thanks for making me traveling secretary. ‘And awaaaaay we go.’ Jackie Gleason
I was struck by Kapler mentioning “diversity and inclusion” as an important part of his belief system. We hear that all the time in corporate America but it just sounded out of place coming from the mouth of a baseball guy. Sure it may have been written into his speech by the PR staff as a way to counter the sexual assault allegations that occurred while he was in LA, But there could me more to it than that.
I have no idea what Kapler’s sexual orientation is, but if there ever was an organization that would be the first to embrace an openly LBGTQ manager it would be San Francisco.
Kapler’s been married at least once, maybe twice. First one was to his high school girlfriend
PR fluff. Like Bosa deleting his earlier questionable tweets, it’s simply getting ahead of the possible shit show.
I laughed when I saw on Facebook someone said they wanted Metheny instead of Kapler. I can’t think of a more boring choice than Metheny. At least Kapler is an interesting pick. In July of last season, the Giants weren’t boring for the first time in years.
Maybe Kapler can spark some baseball life into the Old Aging Highly-Paid Core. Although it’s going to give him pause when he sees those doughy pear-shaped athletes in Spring Training.
Pablito and Crawfish should start now. If Craw must stay, they have to do something about his conditioning.
Pablo? (this is the GREATEST opening theme for a horror movie. Stephen McQueen to boot)
I saw that on a black and white TV when I was a kid and that movie terrified me. It seemed cheesier when I saw it years later in color (and I was older.)
Opening credits! Back when films had opening credits, and audiences were expected to have the attention span to watch them.
The best scene is when they pour jelly across a picture of a diner. Special effects extravaganza.
From the interview this morning on KNBR….
Murph: “We’re not going to see Posey batting 3rd or 4th this season, are we?”
Zaidi: (laughs) “Kapler will make the tough decisions he needs to make. And he’ll talk to the individual players about his decisions. He’s a great communicator.”
I’m fine with the hire. I know he had some issues in Philly, but I didn’t follow that closely and he gets a clean slate from me. Man, the comments on The Athletic are brutal though—by and large the fans hate the hire. I can’t tell if it is more because of the poor handing of the sexual assault with LA or his managing in Philly.
I’m glad to see Wotus back and I think it was a smart hire. He knows the team, is a good 3B, and I like when he is on the post game show with Marty. I think the main reason he hasn’t been hired as a manager is that he is not a sexy name.
I think Wotus was retained to act as a buffer.
The Giants have a lot of buffers…
Yeah, lots of negative comments, on most blogs/sites. Like these commenters know more than Z does. Just don’t get comments like “Kapler? I’ll pass.” You’ll pass what? Gas? You gonna not be a Giants fan anymore? Sheesh. In just a couple weeks after the Series ended, Z hired us a GM who looks good and a manager who could be good too. New day, new dawn, new year, I’m already at least half-excited for the new season and there haven’t even been any player moves yet….
Agree wholeheartedly, Paul. And here’s the other thing: fans are freaking out about this but the alternative was someone named Joe Espanda. If that guy was hired would all these haters be rejoicing? Shit, they have no idea who Joe Fucking Espanda is. This is just a bunch of people who like to rant on social media to sound important. Of course I’m not talking about those die hard fans that were all in on Espanda being hired. LQTM
Yeah I had no idea who “Say it ain’t so Joe”was.Along with Quattaro?I thought they were talking about the latest Audi with Quattaro 4 wheel drive..
Atleast with hired a guy with big league experience and not a guy with quality control.And what’s that mean anyway? a guy with quality control taking a shit are piss and not leaving a skid mark,are peeing with accuracy and not all over the toilet seat 💺??
Not the guy I wanted, but I’m glad they didn’t go with some bland unknown.
Things should be a little less comfortable with W.B. Kotter…
Agree, and less comfortable is a good thing with this bunch of players, especially “the core”. No one should feel comfortable coming off losing season after losing season.
which is why the guy they hired for the job was looking for one in first place.
https://sports.yahoo.com/pat-burrell-believes-ex-teammate-231422988.html
Well, it was about 90% against him 2 days ago. Like I said, there’s no risk as the team will suck regardless. If he can coax them to 70+ wins, it’ll be a victory.
Barring some insane Farhan majic.
I’m betting on some Farhan magic. We’ll see. At any rate, it certainly will be a change for *the core* going from comfortable Grandpa Bruce to a guy who could absolutely kick any player’s ass….
Yanks and Phils reportedly in on Bum.
No doubt he’s gone…
Until yesterday, I can’t recall anyone here (or any Giants fan) saying, “You know I hope Giants next mgr. is a guy like Gabe Kapler.”
Well until yesterday, I didn’t know there was an epidemic of bent cocks…
super lulz….
well it was down to two candidates so unless you (or anyone here or any Giants fan) weren’t paying attention to that fact I guess I could see why everyone is in an uproar. But that’s just ignorance on not following along with some very easy to access news……
It was down to Kapler or some dude named Esplanta or whatever. I’ll take Kapler and hope for the best and, actually, I’m expecting the best. Trust Zaidi. He knows what he’s doing……
Sure, Willie, I know I never said or even thought “I hope they hire Kapler”, but I didn’t say or think that about any other candidate that seemed a must-hire anyway. Those *quality control* guys the team was considering, uh, whatever. So, they hired Kapler. No point in gnashing one’s teeth over it because only time will tell. If Z and Harris and Kapler all operate on the same page, and I’m guessing they will, then good things are likely to happen, that’s all we can hope for. I find it difficult to be disappointed in this hire mainly because I wasn’t hoping for anyone else anyway. Things will be different, and this team needs that.
And thanks to Unca, he’s already got a first rate nickname.
“WBK” for short…