GDT 4/6/26 Philadelphia Phillies (Painter) @ San Francisco Giants (Houser)

[Philsmania]

I see the Giants as a team that is barely on the periphery of contention but probably needs to bite the bullet, tear it down and rebuild. The Cardinals were in the same place last season. The Redbirds and the Giants played each other in the season's last midweek series and eliminated each other from contention on successive nights. Both teams were technically/mathematically in contention until the season's final week, but not really serious contenders. Cardinals bit the bullet and are now rebuilding. Giants haven't given up the ghost yet.

[BostonRoss]

I dunno, the Giants have three really long contracts in Adames, Chapman, and Devers.

[zambonir]

The entire Giants organization is questionable. They moved Posey from the ownership group to PBO, and GM Minasian ran their pro scouting for the entire mostly-failed Zaidi era. But they are definitely not rebuilding. They don't spend enough to really keep up in the West but they also spend a LOT more than the Cardinals.

[Philsmania]

Sounds like there is a lot of denial going on in that organization.

[Philsmania]

I just know they are 3-8 after last night and I've already seen people predict Vitello will be one-year manager. I like the unconventional hire personally, and if you experiment like that you need to let it play out. But then, this is also the team whose last GM gave Kapler his second chance.

If you make an unconventional hire and it works out, you are a visionary. If it does not, you're a crackpot. Hiring Kapler was one of many things Klentak couldn't live down (aside from progressively worse Phillies bullpens).

[zambonir]

Seems like Klentak and Kapler are both smart guys and talented assistant general managers. They didn't have the people or leadership skills to run a front office (or manage up) or dugout. Meanwhile Klentak's former subordinate Fuld wound up with his job and will soon be president on the business side, while Kapler's former subordinate (who was kind of brought in as a veteran old school voice) has his job.

I wonder what would have happened if the Phillies hadn't hired Girardi (which guaranteed they'd keep Thomson).

[Deadgmwalking]

I wonder what would have happened if the Phillies hadn't hired Girardi (which guaranteed they'd keep Thomson).

The road not taken... I'm not afraid to say I wanted Girardi hard because he was the wonkish binderman my Yankee friend kvetched about when we didn't even have positioning cards in the field.

[zambonir]

I feel like his strategic mastery was overrated. If anything he underachieved with most of those Yankees teams. But he was still surely the best choice of the guys they considered. Not sure MIddleton could resist hiring the biggest name, and the guy he saw beat his team in the World Series. They were determined to hire veteran. Turns out they had a really good one with no major league managing experience.

And Kapler certainly had positioning cards! If memory serves that was actually Fuld's job, and he was bad at it.