MLBTR Chat Transcript

#FireFarhan;

You may be onto something, although it might not be the personal thing we see in the NFL when a new GM and/or coach comes along and he wants his guys.

But I had an observation watching games this weekend that made me think of the Giants situation….

Successful teams that depend on pitching and often use all 13 position players in a game as opposed to a fairly stable starting 9, generally do it by emphasizing D – particularly up the middle, and most importantly, stressing strong fundamental play. On offense that means contact hitters that put the ball in play; smart and opportunistic baserunning; and situational hitting. All of which works to not only to find holes in the field, but also forces the opposing teams defense into making plays which often results in the defense giving up runs because they can’t make the plays. I saw a number of teams win games this weekend doing that.

Then I thought about the Giants. Their version of what might be called small ball is pretty much micromanaging their offense people – almost using data to program the players into being robots. The Giants have not been a strong fundamental team under Farhan, and Keppler managed both the Giants and Phillies where all his teams played sloppy baseball.

The winning Giants teams under Brian Sabean and Bruce Bochy were known for playing strong fundamental baseball – and it didn’t happen overnight. There has to be a commitment.