Glaring Differences between A’sand Giants Managers and Management  5-11
To Billy Beane, the manager may not make a difference   but  don’t tell that to suffering A’s fans, who after nearly four years have had more than  enough of  Bob Geren. Now, previous Beane managers Macha and Howe  are looking good, by comparison; at least they were winners.
MLB San Francisco Giants 2010 World Series Championship Carousel
Why would a manager continue NOT to play his best hitter, Ryan Sweeney (.364 as of 5-11) on a regular basis, at least while he’s hot?.
Instead , Geren continues to run out ‘Mendoza line’  hitters like Ellis, DeJesus and Barton – and even worse, Geren is batting Barton second!.          A smart manager like Giants’ Bochy will play the hot hitters. Geren just runs out the same players, hoping one day they’ll hit. GM Beane has his favorites and will resign an Ellis for 6 mill, saying we need his defense.  And,  don’t blame the low averages totally on the A’s  hitters, themselves.
I’ll bet just a manager change would bump up players’ averages. These guys are not .200 hitters but, among other things, Geren doesn’t inspire.. He is bland, deer-in-the-headlights kind of guy.      Perhaps they don’t have a lot of other choices – and Geren isn’t doing anything to inspire these hitters, As we’ve seen with Apier , Holliday and so many others, when we trade guys away away they suddenly get better!
A’s now have a lineup of yes men. As a caller to the great Rick Tittle just said , the A’s have assembled a team of ‘yes’ players. Gone are the Milton Bradleys. These guys won’t complain. While hot hitting Sweeney sits, he doesn’t complain. Maybe the A’s need someone to speak up and say…
Where’s the bunting? Where’s the clutch hitting? Where are the little extra s ? The A’s pitching staff currently has a better ERA than the Giants and hitters are comparable but under-performing for above reasons. So, the A’s again are playing .500 ball to the undoubted frustration of pitchers – and hitters, even if they won’t say it publicly. The Giants are getting those walk-off games with late inning  strategy. Get a walk, put pressure on the pitcher. Steal a base, Sacrifice. Score a run and win the game, like last night 5-10 against Arizona, one of several walk off wins for the Gianits this past week.  (By the way, if the Diamondbacks were paying attention they could have reversed the winning run if they noticed one of the Giants ‘high-fiving’ Darren Ford a few feet before he crossed the plate to score the winning run. Credit Rick Tittle for paying attention to that).
So, Geren continues into his fourth year, without a winning record – the first manager under Beane to have a losing record – and  FOUR years…
GEREN ONLY NON-WINNING MANAGER UNDER BEANE – AND FOUR YEARS RUNNING – TIME FOR CHANGE
YOU WATCH – When Beane finally gets rid of his buddy, Geren, one day – it will have to happen unless Beane leaves first - the players’ averages and overall play WILL IMPROVE significantly. It’s hard to play for a minor league manager, a guy you don’t respect.
While we like Giant’s Bochy, the Giants are winning against weak teams. As mentioned, Arizona with another poor manager, Kirk Gibson, and the teams on the recent road trip, New York and Pittsburg.
As for Colorado, they really choked In their two series against the Gaints and will certainly be gunning for them next time…   And, yes, the Giants are still playing on… dare I say it… yes, STEROIDS. Not all the players but the Giants continue to ‘win at any cost.’ Even after Barry Bonds, GM Brain Sabean continues to go for the Roids players . After noting in previous blogs how convicted steroid user, Jose Guillen , brought in last September , was enough to make the difference in the Giants going to the playoffs; then with the addition of alleged users like Ross, also brought in late in the year, Renteria, Uribe now we were reminded that Mota was a convicted user with the Mets , before the Giants acquired him a couple years back.
This is not to say that all these guys-and probably others- are not still users, but once a user almost always a user, we say.  It’s likely another new Giant, Tejada , may have cleaned up his act – and it shows… The Giants probabl y wish he was still on the juice.  Look how Manny Ramirez  fooled everyone for years  – and got away with it once- only to finally quit baseball in frustration after he was caught a second time.
Isnt’ it inter esting how the Giants suddenly went from a .500 team through the first half of last year to the world series after the acquisition of Ross and Guillen. More than a coincidence I say.  Spread the goods around , just like Bonds  (Benitez, etc) did back in ’03 the previous time they went to the playoffs.I know I have no scientific proof what was actually going on with the Giants behind the scenes. I just see the many steroid connections with the Giants – for more than with any other team - and it has gone on for many years. I suspected Bonds in the beginning while others were still ignoring his quickly-expanding physique. And now, we’re starting to see injuries in guys like Ross, who was one of the sudden superstars of last September and the playoffs, and even Brain Wilson – who really knows?
I know most people today  – especially Giants fans – could care less whether their players use steroids.  ( And I know, you could say the A’s started it all back in the 80s with McGuire and Conseco – and , as a former A’s fan, I lost all respect for the A’s of those years, including manager Tony LaRussa, who had to turn a blind eye.
Today, I am neither a Giants fan  nor an A’s fan, for the different reasons. For the Giants, its’ years of lousy trades, making excuses, and STEROIDS. Now , add the announcers to the mix. The times I have listened to Giants’ games have been like audio saccharin. Perhaps John Miller’s best days are bhind him, as I can’t understand how he mad e the broadcasters Hall of Fame being such a homer. Similarly, the new guy, is just as bad. I can just turn on the radio and tell instandly who’s winning –WITHOUT THE SCORE – by the tone of their voices. There’s a definite down tone to their voices when they’re losing – and , often, it’s umpire’s fault. The ball-strike calls usually seem to go against the Giants when they’re losing., according to Miller and ‘flem.’  And , I get really tired of Miller’s over-use of the word ‘indeed.’ INDEED! Maybe there was good reason to drop Miller and Morgan from the Game of the Week broadcasts this year. Miller may be a nice guy – and he does a great VinScully impression – but it seems like he made have changed his style, becoming more of a ‘homer’ when he joined the Giants broadcasters.  Wouldn’t be surprised if Baer and company told him to give it a little more ‘home’. And then there’s ‘Krook’ , who’s the worst of all. He may know his baseball but it’s Excuse City when it comes to the Giants. Only his buddy, Kuiper, seems to truly give a more unbiased approach to the game of all the broadcasters. ‘This is John Miller , your (pregnant pause) G-g-g-iants b-b-b-b-roadcaster.!
Whereas the  Golden State Warriors didn’t give Keith Smart a chance, firing him after one year, the A’s are way over due! How long will the misery go on. What a shame to see an above average team wallowing in mediocrity, due largely to the manager. Oh, and by the way, Billy, swallow your pride and play Sweeney more. So what if you the guys you traded for, DeJesus and LaRoche aren’t as good hitters and you can get Milton Bradley back now – he’s on waivers –  but we know you won’t having given away Apier to get Bradley the first time.
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Geren only non-winning manager, Geren Can’t win
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We talked recently about the SF Giants sinking back to their true reality, the worst hittin team in baseball. If you listen to the Giants announcer, they seem to be following suite. Rather than announcers, they might be characterized as the ‘Giatns radio cheering section. Messeurs Fleeming, ‘Kru’ and thje “hall of Famer’ Miller seem to constantly be urgint eh Giants on, to little avail in recent days. They seem to spend much of their time complaining about the the bad breaks the Giants get, the injuries and especially the umpires and how they make bad calls on the Giants but not their opponents. And, their announcing prowess is sprinkled with cliches. We should nickname Flemming ‘ Big time’ and Miller ‘Indeed’ or ‘Wow’ or ‘Just Like That’ orany number of other over-used terms. And then there’s Miller’s pregnant pauses, eg ‘Your (pause) Giants’ (pause) announcers’ Does he think he’s cute? The Giants are said to have one of the best announcing teams. I don’t think so. The A’s , who could use some ‘homers’ more than the Giants have a much better announcing staff, who better use their time to discuss topics of interest other than the bad breaks of the team.
