- 21 hours ago
Grandi & Dibs assess Tony Vitello after 100 games as manager of the San Francisco Giants
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00And it's pretty great we have both those now.
00:03Now it's not so one-sided, me just yelling shut up to Willard.
00:06Shut up, Willard! Shut up, dibs!
00:08There we go.
00:10It's the same voice. That's just apparently the tone I take when I...
00:14Shut up, Willard!
00:16Hit me!
00:19Yeah.
00:20Sorry, dudes, I didn't mean to be so aggressive there,
00:22but I had to hit the break at the right time,
00:25and I hit it square on the number.
00:27We got to go to break.
00:30It's fine. Let me know when I can speak again.
00:32You can speak now.
00:32Oh, okay.
00:33What do you want to speak about?
00:34Shut up, Grandy!
00:36Wait, fade the music out and then do it again.
00:37There's a bunch already in there of, you know...
00:40I don't know if there's shut up, Grandy.
00:41There's not.
00:42I hate Mark Grandy.
00:43I hate Mark Grandy.
00:45Exactly.
00:46Wow, I give myself a five for my name.
00:47Do the shut up, Grandy, all the way out.
00:49No, it's all right.
00:49Do it!
00:51You can't boss me around.
00:52That's only Tuesday. We have a long way to go.
00:54The other one I do like is,
00:56I don't love Mark Grandy, but I respect him.
00:58Yeah.
00:59And that goes from like four or five years back.
01:01Oh, yeah. That's a long time ago.
01:02That goes way back.
01:02I think I brought that one with us from the old building.
01:05I wasn't going to lose that one.
01:06And that was, whatever, to take people behind the curtain for 20 seconds.
01:10As Mark would say, quick aside, which my quick asides are really quick asides.
01:14When you move from one building to the other,
01:17you do bring your computer servers,
01:19but not everything in terms of audio makes the trip.
01:23And there are a lot of old drops that didn't make the trip.
01:26So many.
01:27But, you know, we make new memories, but I do think that that...
01:30AJ Ananobi.
01:31That is definitely up there for me.
01:34So many gurus, but the AJ Ananobi from Stiney.
01:38Miles Turner?
01:40He's a jackass.
01:42That was another classic.
01:44I don't love Mark Grandy, but I respect him.
01:47There it is.
01:47And so many Lorenzo Neals, low Neal, and football season.
01:51Go to hell, Dibs.
01:52Right around the corner.
01:53Yeah.
01:53So, anyways.
01:55Rookies have reported.
01:56Yep.
01:56One thing that we might get to later on is something Adam Schefter said today on ESPN.
02:03I'll tease it now.
02:04Maybe we'll get to it later.
02:05We'll do it at some point this week for sure,
02:07because he has reported the subject of Adam Schefter's quote on ESPN earlier today.
02:14He said there were multiple teams that told them, going into the draft,
02:19Dajon Stribbling, best receiver in the draft, Dibs.
02:23Best receiver in the draft.
02:25It's possible.
02:26Well, we do know from experts, not Greg Cosell,
02:30because he doesn't do the mock draft thing,
02:32but the more people who do the mock, they do the mock arena.
02:36He was a guy over the course of the last week or so was soaring up people's boards.
02:41And so, if you believe that he is the best receiver in the draft,
02:45and then you think about what the Niners did to back that thing up,
02:49to get into the second round and still get him,
02:52if Stribbling turns out to be the best receiver in the draft,
02:55well, then that was a genius play by John Lynch and Kyle Shanahan.
02:59Yeah, trade back.
03:00Trade on back.
03:02It's a Fat Joe song.
03:03And lean back.
03:05Trade back.
03:06Trade back.
03:07And still get the guy that you want, theoretically.
03:09So, we'll see how that all goes.
03:11Dajon Stribbling and the rest of the Niners rookies have reported the veterans report on Saturday.
03:16We will get to that coming up a little bit later on.
03:19Is this a fair answer, Dibbs, from the 925 on our text line?
03:23888-957-9570.
03:25We asked Giants fans, what redeeming qualities does Tony Vitello have as manager?
03:31And the 925 said, consistency?
03:34Question mark?
03:35Is he consistent?
03:37I guess you could take it a number of different directions.
03:39Would you call Tony Vitello consistent?
03:42He's consistent to the extent that he has a lineup,
03:46or he has an eight-man in the field construct,
03:50and you go out there and you play your guys.
03:52Like, Adamus, Chapman, Devers, when healthy, they play.
03:56Arise, Schmidt, Ramos, Jung-Hoo Lee, they play.
04:00Catcher has still kind of been a revolving door.
04:03And then the Gilbert and Harrison Bader and whoever, you know,
04:06Jonah Cox, whoever else is able to be out there.
04:09Yeah, some barricado here and there.
04:11Here and there.
04:11But I do think, unlike what we had in previous regimes,
04:14which was, you know, hee-hee-ha, mix and match, and platoon,
04:18he's been consistent about that.
04:21And I give him some credit, but at the same time,
04:24this roster is built to where that's the way it's going to go.
04:28Like, Luis Arise said, I want to play second,
04:30and I'll sign if I get to play second, boom.
04:34And Adamus hates to come out.
04:35And Devers, same thing.
04:37And I do think that he's had to deal with a little bit of a tough hand
04:41in terms of, you've got Eldridge now.
04:43He needs to play first, but Devers really wants to play first.
04:47So how do you juggle that?
04:49And Jung-Hoo Lee, you're not really a center fielder,
04:52but the bat is hot, so you play right.
04:54And so, Casey Schmidt, can you play everywhere?
04:57Yes, you can.
04:57I think that that part of it, he's done well.
05:00The things that I'm critical of, though, are, you know,
05:03the vets have not really been put in check.
05:06And at times, I think that they need to be checked.
05:09That is a really hard thing to do, though.
05:11And I know you know that.
05:12But, like, you're a rookie manager who has no professional experience,
05:16professional baseball experience, and you're tasked with, you know,
05:21keeping in check veterans like Willie Adamus and Rafi Devers and Matt Chapman.
05:28Not saying they're bad people.
05:29That's not what I'm saying.
05:30But veterans of that stature who have been in the league for as long as they've been
05:34in the league, who have accomplished the things they have accomplished.
05:37And if they don't like you, not reporting anything, I wouldn't be shocked if maybe
05:42there's a group in that clubhouse that aren't particularly fond of Vitello.
05:45But that's just my guess and my read from the outside.
05:49But, like, what are you to do if you're Tony Vitello?
05:52You're fighting a losing battle.
05:54Like, there's not much, if anything, you can really do about that.
05:57That's true.
05:57And also, it's not like you've got people who are knocking on their door.
06:02Like, you don't have another shortstop who's ready to come in and be better than
06:06Willie Adamus with the bat.
06:08And you could put Casey Schmidt over there and give Adamus a break.
06:12But each player, you have to kind of manage them in the way they need to be managed.
06:16And I always go back to what I know, which is this radio station.
06:20And we've got six of us who are the, quote, main hosts.
06:24And then we've got, you know, three to five of you guys who are phenomenal,
06:28who are more of the, quote, bench players.
06:30And then we've got the other people, the risottos, the Kens, the Kams,
06:34and all the, Chase Kodich, and all the rest.
06:36It's like each one of us needs to be managed in a unique way.
06:40And I was actually talking to our boss earlier, Matt Nahigian, about him and Stiney
06:45because we were watching the YouTube in Matt's office and Stiney's just doing what he does,
06:50which is, you know, pontificating and kind of being that guy.
06:55And I'm laughing and shaking my head.
06:56And I looked at the boss and I'm like, you guys are kind of cut from the same cloth.
07:01They're both kind of from the same background.
07:03How did the boss take that?
07:04He was kind of laughing and he mostly agreed because the boss spent a lot of time in Philly
07:09and Stiney's from Pennsylvania.
07:11And so those two have a relationship that like the boss and I would never have.
07:17And so sometimes when the boss needs to give me some strong advice,
07:22he and I have kind of gotten to a spot where he knows the way that I will best receive
07:26it.
07:27And that's not, I'm not a guy that you can kind of like, you know, yell at.
07:31And cause I'm, I'm like a hothouse flower.
07:34I'm very delicate, Grandy.
07:35I did yell at you and then you shut down on me.
07:37So for a whole 41 seconds, it was a lot to come back.
07:41It was rough.
07:41Yeah.
07:42But you, you, you fought back, but now I know I'm not going to scream at you to shut up,
07:46but there's no promising that risotto isn't going to hit the button.
07:50Shut up.
07:50There it is.
07:52Okay.
07:53I will.
07:53Well, it's, it's, it was my name on the market.
07:55Not yours.
07:57We have a, we have a phone call to go to.
07:59So I'll let you get through what you're going through dibs.
08:01And then we'll, we'll fire it.
08:03We'll fire it back up.
08:03We do have tissue in here.
08:04I need to grab one.
08:05After the phone call.
08:05Uh, 8, 8, 8, 9, 5, 7, 9, 5, 7, 0.
08:09Richie from Queens wants to join and into the, into this conversation.
08:13What's up, Richie?
08:15Hey guys.
08:16How are you?
08:17Uh, we've been better, Richie.
08:18We were trying to figure out this, this Giants theme.
08:21It's not fun.
08:23Oh my goodness.
08:24Yeah.
08:25This has been a really tough year for everybody.
08:27Um, and you know, in New York, the talk is a rise going to possibly to the Yankees.
08:33I don't know how they would do that.
08:35Um, because I, I love the rise.
08:37I think he's one of my favorite players the last few years.
08:40Um, he's obviously a contact hitter.
08:42I know that they talk about the short velocity.
08:45I kill us.
08:46The guy does get on base.
08:48You know, high average guy, which we just don't have contact, which we just don't have.
08:53Um, I, you know, and it's funny with a dominance.
08:57You mentioned him.
08:57When you look at the numbers, there's not too many shortstops that have 18 home runs.
09:03You know, they talk about Gunnar Henderson and Bobby Witt, who's a complete player, you
09:07know, he's has 12 homers, but when you're going to look at a rise, you're going to say,
09:11or a dominance, you're going to say, maybe he's not, you know, he hasn't had a bad year,
09:16but when you watch him every day and, and, and, and just the contact and how they go.
09:22And even yesterday, guys, great hits a two out homer, tie the game.
09:28Normally momentum might go in your favor.
09:31And a minute and a half later, they lose the game.
09:35So I don't know what direction they're going to go as far as the trade deadline.
09:39They talked about maybe Devis going to the Yankees, you know, picking up the, the Giants
09:43will pick up a lot of the contract.
09:44They get rid of Devis and how we put Eldridge at first.
09:48And then Lee was questioning me that that would bother me because I'd like to see Lee
09:52on the team, you know, next year.
09:54Obviously the pitching staff is raised going to be gone.
09:58I would think.
09:59So is this a frustrating year when you look at the pirates and the Marlins and all
10:04these mediocre teams that are right in the thick of, of the wild card and with 17
10:10games under 500, I mean, there's 16, Richie, only 16 under.
10:18Yeah.
10:18I missed one.
10:19All right.
10:19Sorry about that guys.
10:20I got more perfectionist than that.
10:22Hey guys, did you guys talk about golf at all the open?
10:25We talked about it a little bit.
10:28I talked about it more, Richie, in terms of my sadness that the major season is over,
10:32but I mean, I wonder what you want to say.
10:35What I want to say just quickly is Ryan Fox.
10:38Like if all of these guys would play that fast, I think that more people would be into
10:44golf.
10:46Yeah.
10:47Yeah, I do.
10:48I do believe that.
10:49And I also love his attitude when he said to his caddy, let's end this because 90% of
10:54the people on the par on the 18th, which was the toughest par, par four and a closing hole.
10:59So everybody's thinking playoff, if anything, or he loses it and come out to outright win it.
11:05But, you know, the DeChambeau thing, guys, did you touch on that?
11:08Oh, yeah.
11:09We did.
11:09Last week.
11:10There was, if anybody, and again, there's always two sides to a coin and two opinions.
11:16I don't see how the opinion can be that he went in there like a bull in a china shop.
11:22Yeah, he did, Richie.
11:22And I don't want to say that.
11:24Sorry, Richie.
11:25I don't mean to cut you off.
11:26We touched on DeChambeau on Friday.
11:28We did.
11:29And I mean, Richie, I know you're still with us.
11:32And I thought that that was a clear cut two stroke penalty.
11:35But the one that struck me was on Sunday where Scotty Scheffler hits it 100 yards left
11:40of the hospitality tent.
11:42But he doesn't even go look for it because you get three minutes to find it.
11:47So instead, he's just arguing with the official over whether or not he actually has to find
11:52it.
11:52And they agreed that because it's in a certain area, he doesn't have to find it.
11:56He gets free relief and he makes birdie.
11:59And I think about if you and I, Grandy, were out golfing and if I hit one that far offline
12:04and I probably would, like before you even go look for it, you probably just drop another
12:09one and take the pedal and you play on.
12:11But with all these giant tents, I know that their rules are different, but everyone's
12:15giving DeChambeau a hard time for stomping the grass and he should have gotten a penalty.
12:20But Scotty got the break of all breaks and made birdie somehow.
12:24Somehow.
12:25Yeah.
12:25Yeah.
12:26Anyway, at least it didn't result in a major, you know, finish for him.
12:30If he had won, it would have come under major scrutiny, whatever.
12:33Can I take you back to October 30th, Dibs?
12:36Please.
12:36So this is when Buster Posey introduced Tony Vitello as the Giants manager.
12:41We're 100 games into Vitello's managerial career at the major league level.
12:48The Giants are 42 and 58.
12:51I figured we could run through Posey's opening comments, his opening statement when he talks
12:56about how great Tony Vitello is and, you know, what he heard about him through this whole hiring
13:00process.
13:02And we'll take it in chunks.
13:04I've split it up into six different bits, Dibs.
13:06That's a lot of chunks.
13:07Here's bit number one.
13:09Posey introing Tony Vitello, talking about him being a natural leader.
13:14You know, when we first started talking to Tony, it was abundantly clear that he was a
13:19natural leader.
13:20You know, wide range of topics.
13:22And I think some highlights that I came away with from those conversations were, you know,
13:28some of his vision, his conciseness, and plenty of other leadership qualities.
13:33He's a natural leader.
13:35He's got great vision.
13:36He's concise, which I don't really understand.
13:39But 100 games in, would you describe Tony Vitello as a natural leader, Dibs?
13:44I would, but it's one thing to lead 18, 19, 20, and 21-year-olds who are coming to your
13:51program because your program is successful and you're an institution.
13:55And it's another thing to go to the major leagues where you've never been before.
13:59And now you're leading guys who are hundred millionaires who've been doing this for longer
14:05than you even were at Tennessee.
14:07So now I don't think that you can walk in with the gravitas to be that concise and to
14:13be that much of a natural leader.
14:16It's impossible unless you have the absolutely perfect group of guys.
14:20Or you're just incredibly vivacious and you're just this otherworldly speaker and you can
14:27control the attention in any or every room you walk into.
14:31Or you start out 24 and 7.
14:33That helps.
14:34That helps too.
14:35I mean, if they would have started great and they were awful in April, so the Giants players
14:39start great and Tony's rah-rah conciseness and everyone's like, man, Tony Vitello, Buster,
14:46am I right?
14:46I mean, just not checkers, but because everybody for the most part started poorly, then it starts
14:52to be more of a head scratcher.
14:53Specifically the offense and the veterans all were off the terrible starts, all of them.
14:59And so if you're one of those veterans and this is your new manager and he's managed you
15:04for 20 games and you're hitting 150 or whatever it was and the team is already six games under
15:10500, it's going to be that much harder to be the natural leader and to win over the clubhouse.
15:16Part two, when Posey introduced Tony Vitello on October 30th.
15:21Here's Posey talking about how all he heard from everybody else, this guy, he's a winner.
15:26Here's Posey.
15:27I think where it really took off for me is when you start making phone calls and you talk
15:31to so many different people that have come into contact with him for years and years and
15:35been in his world and you start to hear some of the attributes.
15:38And conversely, Tony had a lot of conversations with people in our own organization and the
15:46feedback was all the same.
15:47The response was, this guy's a winner.
15:50Everybody Buster heard from when he was trying to figure out who Vitello is and if he's worth
15:56offering the managerial job to, everybody told him he's just a winner.
16:01He's like Draymond Green.
16:02Everywhere he goes, he wins.
16:03We talked about that yesterday.
16:04That's who Tony Vitello is.
16:06He's a winner.
16:08This is not, of course, all on him, but through 100 games, the Giants are 42 and 58.
16:13Right.
16:13And I do think that part of being a winner goes beyond your record.
16:17I think that Tony Vitello has built a great program in Tennessee and he's somebody who
16:22is concise.
16:24He's confident and he's unique and he's one.
16:27So yeah, he's a winner.
16:28But to make the leap from there to here, just because you're a winner doesn't mean that
16:32you automatically get to come here and win.
16:35And I think about Chip Kelly and I know he was with the Eagles before, but he got the
16:40job with the 49ers and he's somebody who was a winner at your beloved Oregon.
16:44He was amazing at Oregon.
16:46He was amazing.
16:46And so he comes here and he brought his smoothie program and he brought some of his college
16:52ideas and it didn't land well.
16:54And they went two and 14 and he was gone.
16:56So you could be a winner and then go into a spot and not win.
17:01Speaking of Chip Kelly, could you tell me what job he currently has?
17:05I know he was at UCLA.
17:08I thought.
17:08For a while as their head coach.
17:09Hasn't been there for at least a few years now.
17:12Yeah.
17:12I mean, based on my three-year-old guess, I don't think I can tell you.
17:16Two years ago, he was the offensive coordinator of the national champion Ohio State Buckeyes.
17:20And then last year he returned to the NFL.
17:22Do you remember what job he had in the NFL last year?
17:26Grandy, obviously I don't.
17:28I mean, well, it's not where he currently is, is the point.
17:30So you don't know his current job, but you might've known last year's job.
17:32No, he's probably the offensive quality control coach for the Miami Dolphins.
17:37He was the OC for the Oakland Raiders.
17:40The who?
17:41I'm sorry.
17:42The Vegas Raiders.
17:43Wow.
17:44Oakland Raiders.
17:45What an idiot I am.
17:46My God.
17:47The Las Vegas Raiders.
17:50The Vegas Raiders.
17:51I don't think he made it through the season.
17:54They probably fired him before the season ended or maybe immediately when it ended.
17:57He's now the offensive coordinator for Northwestern.
18:02He's back in the Big Ten.
18:03Okay.
18:03I don't think he'll be as successful there as he was at Ohio State.
18:06No, but we'll find out.
18:07I mean, for Chip Kelly, it's probably a year and then a second year.
18:11Oh boy, that offense got really good.
18:13And then he'll get another head coaching job.
18:14And then he'll go back to the NFL and wash out and start the whole thing all over again.
18:18Anyways, to your point, Chip Kelly was once the biggest name in coaching in football.
18:23And now he's the OC for Northwestern.
18:27So Tony Vitello, a winner, but not a winner with the San Francisco Giants.
18:32Kind of like Chip Kelly was a winner with the Oregon Ducks and hasn't really been much of a winner
18:35elsewhere.
18:35More from Buster Posey on October 30th when he introduced Tony Vitello to the Giants, all their fans, the media.
18:44Here's what Posey said he's going to do for all the players.
18:48He has a vision to be great and not just for himself, that that's going to rub off on those
18:55around him.
18:56There's an expectation that he'll get the best from everybody that he comes into contact with.
19:01There's an expectation that he'll get the best out of everybody that he comes into contact with.
19:06I don't think that's happened so far this year.
19:08It hasn't.
19:09And I do think that for me anyway, it goes back to the core tenant of the challenge of the
19:15hire,
19:15which is you're bringing in somebody who's never been at this level and he's never dealt with, as far as
19:21I know,
19:22he's never coached people of this age and of this experience level.
19:26And so what you have to do in that spot, you rely on your leadership and your communication and the
19:31rest of it.
19:32But the essence of who you are as a coach is probably not a great match for pro baseball,
19:39because in Tennessee, it's, you know, you're going to fire the guys up and we got Mississippi State this weekend
19:44and we have to go out there and, you know, execute and this and that and all that stuff.
19:49I mean, I thought about it, but when you're dealing with pro baseball players,
19:52there's, you can, you can ratchet it up every now and again, but these guys have been through it and
19:58they've seen it.
19:59How many games has Raphael Devers played?
20:01Probably a thousand and Matt Chapman, the same a thousand.
20:05And, you know, Willie Adamas, probably damn near a thousand games.
20:09And so they've seen everything that you've never seen.
20:12So if you come in with a passion and a blueprint and all the rest of it,
20:17how is Tony Vitello supposed to really wrap himself around this?
20:22Well, yeah, he's on game one and they're on game a thousand and one.
20:25I feel like obviously your Buster Posey, your intro and your new manager,
20:29you're going to sell him to the best of your ability because you're not going to go out there and
20:33say,
20:34well, yeah, I mean, he's won in the past and, you know, we hope he can win here.
20:38You're going to be definitive and you're going to say he's a winner.
20:41He wins everywhere he goes.
20:43He gets the most out of everybody.
20:45So maybe this is a little unfair holding Tony Vitello to those standards.
20:48I think it's more so maybe an unfair expectation that Buster Posey set for Tony Vitello,
20:54considering the roster that he was taking over, the bullpen, the starting pitching and all that.
21:00More from Buster Posey on October 30th as he introduced Tony Vitello.
21:05What is he going to be as a teacher, as a motivator?
21:08Here's Buster.
21:09You know, Tony's a teacher.
21:10He's a motivator, tireless worker, and someone who understands how to build culture.
21:15He understands how to build culture.
21:17I mean, I don't know how you view the Giants dibs from the outside looking in.
21:21This does not seem to be a team that is completely bought in.
21:25They seem to be, I mean, we saw it with Willie Adamas yesterday,
21:28just totally shocked that the ball was thrown to him at second base.
21:31That does not seem to me to be a guy that is showing off the culture of the clubhouse set
21:37by Tony Vitello.
21:38And it's impossible for him to come in and set the culture when he's never been in the clubhouse before.
21:42So his culture is one that he developed at Tennessee, and there's a certain order of things,
21:49and there's a certain way that you're going to go about doing things.
21:51But if that doesn't jibe with major league players, and I heard reports in spring training that he was doing
21:58things that kind of came off as a college approach,
22:01of course, because he's from college.
22:03And so if the vets aren't open-minded to buy into his way of thinking,
22:07then there's going to be a little close-mindedness and maybe even a little bit of pushback.
22:12And that's hard to undo over time.
22:14Yeah.
22:15I got to hit a break here, dibs, in 20 seconds.
22:17Is that all right?
22:18I mean, yeah, it's okay.
22:19I had 25 seconds worth of content, but I'm afraid to go over my allotted time,
22:24because you've shown a knack to shut people down.
22:28We're brought to you by Fremont Bank.
22:30Here for you, here for good.
22:31More on Vitello and the trade deadline coming up next on 95.7 The Game.
Comments