don't expect a lot from this offseason

[sfgdood]

This email sent out to fans by Larry Baer is simply pathetic. It screams out our team is perfect and the only reason we aren't getting ready for another parade is because of bad luck so all we need to do is get healthy and we're back on top. Not encouraging.

On Tuesday, Giants president and CEO Larry Baer emailed a letter to the fans:

The record books will show the 2015 Giants fell short of defending its World Series championship, but we'll remember this team as having as much heart and grit as any other in recent memory.

Last Tuesday night, Bruce Bochy told his players how proud he was, how proud we all were. As injuries took a toll on our roster, our players never stopped fighting. Young players kept arriving from the farm system, one more talented and poised than the next.

We saw Chris Heston throw a no-hitter in just his 13th Major League start, Kelby Tomlinson hit .328 in his first month, Jarrett Parker slug five home runs in a three-game stretch, backup-to-the-backup catcher Trevor Brown hit nearly .300 and skillfully handle a pitching staff, and we saw relievers Josh Osich and Hunter Strickland get crucial outs. And Matt Duffy. He not only claimed the starting job at third base, but he also climbed to No. 3 in the batting order, racking up more hits in the second half of the season than any player in the National League and forcing his way into Rookie of the Year contention. And, of course, he became the first rookie ever to win the Willie Mac Award.

The maturity and intensity of these rookies are a reflection of the scouts, coaches and minor-league development staff who also delivered homegrown stars Buster Posey, Joe Panik, Brandon Crawford and Brandon Belt - who with Duffy make up the best infield in baseball. Talk about the future: All five will still be under 30 years old next season, as will Madison Bumgarner. In the dog days of August, he went 5-0 with 1.43 ERA. In September, he fell one pitch short of a perfect game. And with the team shorthanded on the bench, he picked up a bat and pinch-hit. Three times. His five home runs this season lead all pitchers.

The culture of our clubhouse, shaped by team-oriented veterans, is a key factor in the success of our young players. Matt Duffy provided a glimpse in a piece for the Players' Tribune: "I was 23 and just up from Double A (in 2014). Nobody had ever heard of me. But Hunter didn't treat me like an outsider who was just passing through, filling a roster spot. He made me feel as if I was exactly what the team needed. Thus began a succession of welcoming handshakes and confidence boosters from Buster and Brandon Crawford and everyone else. Play big, they told me."

Bruce Bochy has already established himself as the best manager in baseball, leading the Giants to three World Championships in five years. But this season might have been his most brilliant managing job yet. Incredibly, only one game out of 162 could Bochy play his projected opening day lineup. His chess-master maneuvering squeezed the very best out of every player on the roster, keeping the team in the playoff hunt until the final week of the season.

This season revealed the true character of our team. It also showed, once again, the true character of our fan base. No fans are more loyal than ours. You show up no matter what. You sold out AT&T Park every single game this season, a streak of 408 straight dating back to 2010. Our 50 millionth fan walked through the turnstiles. Your energy lifts every player and coach. It's one of the most striking things to our new players -- the unusually close relationship between the players and fans. I can tell you that Tim Hudson and Jeremy Affeldt will never forget your outpouring of love and appreciation as they retired from the game. No players have represented the Giants and baseball better than these two men. Their ferocity on the field was matched only by their humanity off it. They were brothers and mentors to dozens of Giants teammates over the years. They were champions of the vulnerable and marginalized in our community. They leave a profound legacy.

We are already hard at work preparing for 2016. Our extraordinary core of championship-caliber players and our deep pool of talented rookies position us well for 2016. Just think of our lineup next year with Hunter Pence and Joe Panik back in it! Our focus right now is on getting healthy and filling openings on the pitching staff. Executive Vice President Brian Sabean, General Manager Bobby Evans and our baseball operations staff are scrutinizing and exploring every possible opportunity.

We will keep you updated on the status of the team throughout the off-season. We so appreciate you being part of our Giants Family.

Sincerely,
Laurence M. Baer, President & CEO

[Rog]

That isn't what Larry said at all. Put yourself in Larry's shoes and write one yourself. If you can write one half as good as Larry's, which is actually pretty good, I'll be proud of you.

Incidentally, Larry's JOB is to emphasize the positive, yet he mentioned the two most important factors for next season: Getting healthy and improving the pitching staff. What more do we want from the guy?

Taking into consideration that Larry should indeed stay positive in this type of letter, what did he say that was inaccurate? What he said is one thing. What we each read into it, quite another.

The world isn't a perfect place. If someone wants to look at it negatively, it isn't at all hard to do. A little skewed perhaps, but certainly not difficult.

[sfgdood]

"we failed, we feel terrible, ticket prices will be reduced to compensate for our failure and for your faith in us. We will consider it our OBLIGATION to get at least one if not two of the top FA pitchers this offseason. If we fail to do that, the ticket prices will go down even further."

[Rog]

You're not in business, are you? Nor Public Relations. Probably not a pastor or a health care worker. (Allen was in the medical field, by the way. Anyone know what became of him?)

[sfgdood]

Your questions seem to indicate that those specific professions involve deceit. I prefer being honest and taking accountability for failure.

[klaiggeb]

I wouldn't have written negative things at all, Randy. Sorry.

What Larry said in the booth with Kruk and Kuip confirmed they KNOW they need a steep upgrade in starting pitching.

The bottom line is he CAN'T say they failed, becuase though they didn't win... a LOT of good things emerged, and I think he was stressing that part.

Duffy, Osich, Heston, Tomlinson, Brown, and to a lesser extent, Parker.

In addition, Adrianza "found" himself and did well.

We have a solid, SOLID core of every day players.

I LIKE where we are.

IF they go out and get the arms.. .we have more than a legit shot.

If Leake is their big move, we don't/won't/can't win.

boly

[sfgdood]

Boly...there are 30 GMs who could come up with an equal number of paragraphs stressing the positives. Every team has major league talent. That misses the point, IMO. I want to see some fire in the belly. I don't want to hear the champagne and roses speeches. I want to see the "we F'd up, we KNOW we F'd up and we're going to work our asses off to not repeat those mistakes" speech.

[sfgdood]

there has to be more than just a statement saying they will try to get their guys. We see where that got them last offseason. There has to be a semi-maniacal DRIVE to get the job done...an obsession. Failure CAN NOT be an option. The team deserves it and so do the loyal fans.

[Rog]

Man, I certainly would consider being a pastor a profession of deceit. You're joking, right Randy?

You say the Giants haven't spent enough money, but they spent enough to enter Luxury Tax territory. We used to speak against the big spenders. Now we want the Giants to become one -- or actually, a BIGGER spender, since they're already one of the big boys in that regard.

And you say they haven't done enough to be successful -- despite their fabulous success in the face of injury.

Please answer this question honestly. I know you can do it. Let's suppose the Giants had signed Pablo, Lester or Shields and you knew in advance that they would suffer the huge rash of injuries they experienced this season. Would you have thought they would win another World Championship? Even make the playoffs?

With a rotation of say Bumgarner, Lester and a plethora of injury question marks? Or an infield of say Pablo, Crawford, plus an injured Belt and Panik?

How about with an outfield of say Tomas, Blanco and question marks?

Which National League player could the Giants have added who would have allowed them to make the playoffs despite all these injuries? I would say Kershaw, Greinke, Arrieta or Harper would have done so. Maybe Scherzer or Goldschmidt I'm not sure anyone else would. In fact, I'm not sure even those guys would have, but I would have loved to give it a try.

I have yet to see a rational argument showing how Pablo, Lester or Shields could have done so. It has been said that not having a Lester or a Shields wore out the bullpen, but the Giants didn't blow any more saves than in their championship seasons. And that was with Hudson, Lincecum, Peavy and Cain each having long periods of not being available.

Can anyone here QUANTIFY -- not merely guess the effect of -- how Lester or Shields would have accomplished it? I don't think anyone here even THINKS Pablo would have.

WAR says that Shields and Lester were each worth a little less than two wins. The Giants lost by 8. WAR would have to be off by a factor of more than four for either Shields or Lester to have made the difference. That seems highly unlikely.

[Islandboagie]

Larry Baer's new letter to the fans:

*clears throat*


Dear fans,

On behalf of the entire organization, we're sorry to have wasted your time this season. We should have signed Pablo Sandoval, Jon Lester and Michael Morse to a bazillion dollars and ruined the next decade of Giants baseball like Randy wanted us to.

In fact, Randy is so intellectually superior to everyone in the organization that the owners have agreed to make him the GM and give him an unlimited supply of money.

In his first order of business Randy has decided to bring Miguel Tejada out of retirement, sign him to a ten year contract and start him at shortstop.

Ticket prices will be lowered to $1

Thirdly, July 17 will be Travis Ishikawa public execution day, Randy believes this will increase fan morale and make the world a better place.

Again, we're very sorry for trying to be logical in our spending, and having injured players. Hopefully with Randy at the helm we'll become more like the Redsox and Padres, who as Randy claims are better than the Giants.

A very embarrassed,

Lawrence Baer

[Rog]

I've got to hand it to you, Boagie. I'm sure I have given you even more material to poke fun at ME, but that was truly a masterful presentation.

In fact, I would award it at least 10.0 WAR (Words Against Revulsion). Your RBI (Rationality Breeds Intelligence) really soared on that one. Your pitch had an extremely low ERA (Erratic Rumors Assimilated) and an even lower WHIP (Words Hating Intelligent Preparation).

I either just poked fun at myself or gave you even more material to work with!

[Rog]

By the way Boagie, the "Travis Ishikawa Public Execution Day" was an amazing stroke. Just one question: Given the circumstances of the Giants' need for an outfielder for the 2012 postseason, should Gary Brown or Randy be the executioner?

Speaking of Gary, I really WOULD like to see him do well. Anyone who can serve as Hunter Pence's drum without complaining has my undying admiration. And while Gary hit below .250 this season, he did cut down on his strikeouts from 119 to a pro-rated 85 or so. If he can continue that type of improvement, he won't be hitting below .250 for long.

He batted only .247 for Salt Lake City (a great place to hit), but that was in part because his BABIP was only .282. Gary's BABIP will be a lot better than that. Combine a return to a more normal level for him and cut down on the strikeouts some more, and he could put up a respectable average.

Gary still needs to get more walks though (just 22 last season in 397 at bats), and it is hard to believe with all his speed that he was caught 12 times while stealing 14 bases. I wonder if his failure to grasp base stealing might be indicative of a problem that is keeping him from embracing better hitting concepts.

Even if it is in another uniform though, I would love to see Gary bounce back and let Randy have the last laugh. Gary just turned 27, so it's still possible. He needs to do it soon though. Next season his age will be ABOVE average for AAA.

I have an honest question for Randy. This isn't a setup or anything, but rather an attempt to learn something that baffles me. What is it that Gary has changed or failed to develop that has turned him into what he is now from a guy who truly did tear up the California?

Asked in an attempt to be humorous, how has Gary gone from a player who truly did tear up (pronounced "TAIR up") the Cal League to a player who did tear up (pronounced "TIER up") the PCL last season?

The Giants have recently done a very nice job of developing young hitters, but they failed miserably with Gary. Maybe Randy can give us some insight into why.

[rxmeister]

The Giants had a good season. If you don't think so, it's because you're spoiled by the world championships. Ask Marlins fans if the Giants had a good season. The only thing they need to apologize for is frivolous payroll spending that got them to the luxury tax without providing value. Stop talking about Lincecum and Vogelsong, unless they sign minimum contract deals, sentimental contracts need to end. The sentimental contracts they still have, (Romo, Lopez, Cain etc.) need to viewed as sunk costs going forward, and be thankful that a couple of them provide quality albeit at an inflated price. It's time to be ruthless and assemble the best team you can possibly field.

[sfgdood]

With such historic level success comes higher expectations. That is just how it works. You can't win 3 titles in 6 years and then compare yourself to the likes of the Marlins. That isn't credible. When you build a team that wins titles at a rate at which some call it a dynasty, then missing the playoffs is NOT a good season. Not in the least. I want to see evidence that someone is pissed off about this instead of blowing sunshine up our asses.

[klaiggeb]

Randy, a GM can't market his team by stressing all that sucked during the year.

And even though we didn't win, the season had so many successes they had to be stressed.

You can't market a problem by telling everyone how you screwed up, and why.


business doesn't work like that.

Like Mark said, we had successes.

Lost the war, maybe, but at least we get to come back next year and fight again.

As Mark also said, "actions speak louder than words."

Let's see what our "actions" this off season are.\

boly

[sfgdood]

Dude, the Giants have sold out like 500 straight games...marketing isn't an issue. They need to own up to their failures because if they continue doing the same things THEN marketing will become an issue because the sellouts will stop

[Islandboagie]

I can guarantee you the Giants haven't had 500 real sellouts in a row. The fact that they've kept that record going shows how invested the ownership and upper management is in remaining competitive and the focus of the bay area sports fans.

[Rog]

Here's what I think. Take what Randy says and then think the opposite and we're likely to be closer to the truth. He's become a broken record -- or just broken.

[Rog]

I think you did the same thing that you're saying the Giants did with you, Randy. You built up our expectations by being a good poster at one time. Now you just seem to get on a track and can't get off.

If you stop and think about it, we know you can do better. We've seen it. And thus our higher expectations.

[sfgdood]

I'd like to say you did the same thing Rog...sadly, we're still waiting for your first good post

[Rog]

I'd like to say you did the same thing Rog...sadly, we're still waiting for your first good post


Rog -- You give yourself away here. Haven't had single good post? Everyone here has had PLENTY of good ones. Just as one example, you have.




Read more: sfgiantsmessageboard.proboards.com/thread/3071/expect-lot-offseason#ixzz3o4VJywss

[rxmeister]

The sellout streak is nonsense, I agree. The Knicks just announced their sellout streak had ended at 201, only because they had to, as nobody showed up for their pre season game against Brazil. Of course they'll still say their regular season streak is intact. You will need literally full empty sections of seats before the Giants will admit the game wasn't sold out. That should happen next year if the Giants don't have a big offseason.

[sfgdood]

I don't know about the Knicks but empty seats do not mean the tickets were not sold...and that is what counts in terms of team revenue

[Rog]

I don't know about the Knicks but empty seats do not mean the tickets were not sold...and that is what counts in terms of team revenue


Rog -- I agree with you here, with the caveat that empty seasons don't mean the tickets WERE sold, either.




Read more: sfgiantsmessageboard.proboards.com/thread/3071/expect-lot-offseason#ixzz3oDbfWa97

[Islandboagie]

Randy- I don't know about the Knicks but empty seats do not mean the tickets were not sold...and that is what counts in terms of team revenue

Boagie- Randy, the Giants buy the remaining tickets after the game starts.