- 2 days ago
Willard and Dibs discuss what it'd say about the Giants if they bring back Buster Posey and Tony Vitello next season.
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00:00The idea of Buster Posey and Tony Vitello and being back next year.
00:04Just, let's explore that concept for a minute.
00:07Let's just imagine it.
00:08Okay.
00:08The Giants come out at the, whether it's late in the year or the end of the year,
00:11and they announce that Buster Posey and Tony Vitello will both be retained.
00:16How does that grab you?
00:19Me personally?
00:20Yeah.
00:20It grabs me in a way of, you're just basically telling me that as an ownership group,
00:27you don't care about the success of the team because Buster Posey has been not an unmitigated disaster,
00:34but it's been a failure.
00:36And we did grades the other day and you did the grades on the Giants season.
00:40You gave them an F.
00:41Yeah.
00:41And so if you want to assign grades to Buster Posey and Tony Vitello,
00:45I think Buster heading into the deadline, still lots that can go his way.
00:49It's a D minus right now this year.
00:52Hauser and Malley have been failures.
00:54Arise has been awesome.
00:55And the handling of Eldridge, I don't think was great.
00:58Casey Schmidt has popped and that's somebody that he didn't even really tab or draft.
01:03And so he's been not good.
01:06And then Tony Vitello, I would give him a grade of probably a D or a D minus.
01:10And I know he's new to pro ball and all the rest of it.
01:13So I look at it this way.
01:15If you have a year that has 95 losses and that's where they're headed,
01:19they're headed for 67 and 95, which would be the third worst record in San Francisco Giants history.
01:26And you bring back the skipper and you bring back the president of the baseball ops.
01:30It doesn't matter what his name is.
01:32You're telling me that as an ownership group, you don't really care about the on-field product.
01:37You're going to draw 2.75 million.
01:39You're going to be one of the worst teams in baseball.
01:41Let's just bring the gang back together.
01:44That's the way I look at it.
01:45Okay, and that's fair.
01:48888-957-9570.
01:49How would you feel if the Giants bring Buster Posey and Tony Vitello back again next year?
01:55What do you do in college if you get an F in a class?
01:58You retake it.
01:59There you go.
02:00Or you change your major.
02:01Correct.
02:01Or you just decide that you're not going to enroll in school and live in the fraternity house anyway.
02:07I'm going to leave the names out of it.
02:09You're looking right at them.
02:10No, no, no.
02:10Quick aside.
02:11I just heard this story last week.
02:13I'm not going to tell you who this was.
02:17But let's just say the boyfriend of a family member.
02:23I'll go that far.
02:24Okay.
02:24The boyfriend of a family member, a younger family member of mine.
02:28He's telling me this story last week.
02:30His roommate, right?
02:32He just graduated college.
02:34He did.
02:35And his roommate last year, his family lives overseas in Europe.
02:41I think he was Spanish.
02:43And his family is flying out last summer for graduation.
02:48There's one problem.
02:50Uh-oh.
02:50He didn't tell them over the last two years that he's stopped going to class.
02:57Two years.
02:59So they're coming out expecting a cap and a gown.
03:02Correct.
03:03And he hasn't been to class in two years.
03:07That's awkward.
03:07He just stopped going.
03:09And never really kind of did anything about it.
03:13Let alone mention it.
03:14Yeah.
03:15They're like, did you drop out?
03:16It's like, I don't even know if I officially dropped out.
03:18It just didn't go.
03:20So all the questions start coming up.
03:22Like, were the parents still sending money?
03:24And they're like, I don't know what the whole deal was with.
03:27Because it's like, where'd that money go?
03:29I don't know what the whole deal was with tuition and everything.
03:32But they were definitely helping with rent.
03:37And I think he was just working some.
03:41Or at least maybe he wasn't.
03:42Right.
03:42He thought he was working.
03:43Like, I don't know what the hell's going on.
03:45But can you imagine?
03:46They flew overseas.
03:48And I guess the story was, he goes, yeah, he just kind of got caught in a lie.
03:53And then he couldn't figure out his way out of it.
03:56And I was thinking to myself, if you got caught in that lie and you couldn't figure your way out
04:01of it,
04:01wouldn't you try to figure your way out of it before they got on the plane?
04:06Yes.
04:07Even if you ran it for two years, wouldn't you be like, it's time for me to fall on the
04:12sword
04:12before they board the plane from Europe headed for Southern California?
04:18Because if you want to continue that lie, now you're going to have to get a cap and gown and
04:23what?
04:23You're just going to pretend to be in the graduation and they're not going to call your name.
04:28So you're not going to cross the stage.
04:30Oh, mom, dad.
04:31With your palms up like pods.
04:34Where's when?
04:35They forgot me.
04:36They forgot me.
04:38That's awkward.
04:38But to your point, if you get an F, it doesn't necessarily mean that you go ahead and take the
04:45class again.
04:46And if you do take the class again, you might get another F.
04:49So this is why I'm trying to figure out why my opinion is what it is.
04:54I want the Giants to keep both of them because I want to see them retake the class.
05:01And I'm not 100% sure why.
05:05Maybe for one, it's Buster Posey.
05:07Maybe that's part of it.
05:09You know, like as a Giants fan, I can't ever not like Buster Posey.
05:14That's just not even in my, it's not in my DNA.
05:17I get it.
05:18I take the like-dislike out of it.
05:20Sure, and that's fair.
05:21I'm just saying like I don't, it's never going to be about that.
05:25I'm never going to just pound on a table and be like,
05:27I've got to get this guy out of the organization as quick as possible.
05:30Now, Vitello's a completely different story.
05:33We didn't know him from Adam, you know, less than a year ago.
05:37And now he's the manager of the Giants.
05:39And I think that he's been dealt, A, a really tough hand.
05:43But then, B, he's also not played that hand very well.
05:45He's made his mistakes.
05:47There's no question.
05:48It's been wobbly at best at times.
05:52But I'm not sort of offended by him as the manager.
05:58And I am still curious about this whole idea of college to pro.
06:04It's not like he's a jerk.
06:06And the stuff that he's doing is just unrecoverable.
06:11This may not be the most compelling answer.
06:14But I'll never forget something that Farhan Zaidi said
06:17at the introductory press conference for Gabe Kapler.
06:23Nice.
06:24And one thing he said was,
06:26we have a lot of data,
06:28and I would imagine this is true outside of baseball too,
06:31but we have a lot of data
06:32that when somebody takes on a job for the very first time,
06:39boy, they do a lot better the second time around
06:43because you learn from your mistakes.
06:47And there's something in me that wants to see
06:50if these guys can learn from their mistakes.
06:52Now, first and foremost, obviously, the trade deadline's coming.
06:55And they're going to have to do some serious moonwalk
06:59in order to retool this roster.
07:02But Buster Posey and Tony Vitello,
07:05though we may not have wanted this in these positions
07:08at the beginning of the year, are rookies.
07:11And we give a little space for rookies
07:14to throw up all over themselves
07:18and then try to get better.
07:19It's kind of part of the deal when it's a player,
07:22but we're not giving these guys that latitude now.
07:27And I'm not saying you have to,
07:30but I kind of want to.
07:32I want to see these guys try again.
07:34Yeah, I mean, it's not that I don't want to see them try again.
07:39I just don't think that either one of them
07:41has done well enough to deserve that.
07:44And I'm thinking about the news that broke today.
07:46My friend Derek Petrak,
07:48shout out Contra Costa Country Club.
07:50He's a diehard listener.
07:51He texted me this morning about Steve Iserman.
07:53He's a Detroit guy.
07:55Steve Iserman is the Buster Posey of the Detroit Red Wings.
07:58And he stepped down today as general manager
08:01because he's been a disaster.
08:03Now he got more than a year
08:04and this would be what Buster will be a year and a half.
08:07He was hired mid-year last year, right?
08:09If I'm not mistaken.
08:10And so Buster would have, you know, less time than Iserman,
08:13but it's clear it wasn't working in Detroit.
08:15And I don't think it's working here.
08:17And he's not the only one that's not working in the front office.
08:22And the manager, I do think that, you know,
08:25whether or not it's better the second time around,
08:28maybe that second time around is in six years for a different team.
08:31Maybe.
08:31I think this is a mismatch where you've got a veteran team
08:35and a rookie manager.
08:36You've got a young core of players.
08:39You've got a veteran group.
08:40You've got a manager and a very young coaching staff as well.
08:44I think the whole thing is just a total mismatch.
08:47I can't like in this moment with what we've seen,
08:49I can't disagree.
08:51But what I can also say is I think anytime there's turnover in organization,
08:56there becomes a learning curve.
08:58Even if it's just learning each other,
08:59I don't want the Giants to have three managers in three years.
09:02I don't think that's good.
09:03I think you do in a way how you back up the truck
09:08and start over again next year if you change managers.
09:13Look, you can certainly address this mid-year next year
09:17if it's still going as bad.
09:21But Buster had a lot to learn.
09:23Tony Vitello had a lot to learn.
09:25If we were clear thinking about it at the beginning of the year,
09:28we might have actually predicted that rather than being surprised by it.
09:33And I have this desire in me as a fan to see if they did indeed learn a lot.
09:41Everybody has said that all year.
09:42They've got a lot to learn.
09:43Well, let's find out if they did.
09:45Let's find out if they did.
09:47Because the only way to not be a rookie manager
09:49and a rookie general manager is come back next year
09:51and not be a rookie anymore.
09:53And so, like, turning the whole thing over again,
09:57and now we've got to get the players and the chemistry
09:59and everything back on course,
10:01there may be plenty going on behind the scenes that I don't know.
10:04And maybe everybody's at each other's throats.
10:07And maybe they hate each other.
10:08And maybe the locker room was lost.
10:10Or maybe he never had it in the first place.
10:12And if that's the case, that's a decision to be made.
10:15Yeah.
10:15But I just don't.
10:16Like, this went sideways in so many ways
10:20that I certainly don't put it all on Tony.
10:23And I think having a third manager in three years
10:26might be almost more embarrassing
10:28than just, you know, try again.
10:31Yeah.
10:32And it would be a fourth manager in five years
10:34if you go back to the last year of Kapler.
10:36Correct.
10:37Melvin got the two and Vitella would get the one.
10:39But I look at everything that's gone on
10:41from the beginning of the year through now,
10:44and there have been so many things
10:46that reek of unprofessional
10:48and a guy who's just not in command of the clubhouse.
10:52And then you go upstairs to Buster Posey
10:54and your off-season moves were a rise in Bader
10:57and two pitchers who are no longer in the rotation.
11:00You didn't address the bullpen.
11:02So I don't know if it's Buster, you know,
11:05marching to the beat of ownership.
11:07And if he thought we're going to go outside the box
11:09and only spend $3 million a year on a rookie manager
11:13because, you know, we can do that
11:14and the price point is there.
11:16That's why Tony or Buster,
11:18Buster or Tony,
11:19if they both come back,
11:20to me it just says,
11:22ownership, you don't give a crap.
11:24This team is terrible.
11:25This team on the field is kind of embarrassing.
11:28And let's just bring them all back
11:30because we don't want to buy out Tony
11:32and we don't want to desecrate Buster Posey.
11:35And you know what?
11:36We've got another theater we need to go buy.
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