Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Game Wrap 9/14/2011: Giants 3 Padres 1

Timmy pitched a typically fine game while Carlos Beltran supplied the offense as the Giants ran their winning streak to 4 games. Key Lines:

Carlos Beltran- 2 for 3, 2 HR(20), BB. BA= .298. Beltran showed just how valuable a guy like him is to a lineup. He probably deserves to be credited with at least 0.5 WAR for just this one game alone!

Mark DeRosa- 1 for 1. BA= .269. DeRosa now has a 4 game hitting streak going with 4 RBI's to show for it in just 6 AB's. He's hitting .471 over his last 10 games.

Brandon Belt- 1 for 3, 2B. BA= .218. Belt continues to give reason to think he's going to be a good one if the Giants are just patient with him.

Tim Lincecum- 7 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 0 R, 2 BB, 6 K's. ERA= 2.59. Just another great game from Timmy.

For what it's worth, the Giants gained a game on the NL West leading D'Backs who lost to the Dodgers 3-2 and are now 7.5 games behind, not that it matters in the big picture.

The Giants now hit the road and take on the Reeling Rockies in Coors Field. Ryan Vogelsong gets the first start tomorrow evening against Jhoulys Chacin.

Some pretty big news today in Giants Land. Managing Partner and CEO Bill Neukom is being forced to retire by the Executive Board of the team effective December 31 of this year. He will assume the title of Emeritus something or other. COO Larry Baer will assume CEO duties, at least temporarily. Some of the details of the news reports reveal some things about ownership I did not know. There are 32 Principle Owners including some very well-heeled individuals with impressive corporate pedigrees. The real power behind the team lies with an 11 member Executive Committee that makes all the important decisions and there's the rub. It seems that Daddy Neuks didn't always ask permission of the Executive Committee when he decided to spend some fairly large amounts of money. Although the Chronicle is reporting that the issue was control and communication rather than the $$$$ themselves, there was also mention of some discomfort over raising payroll and talk of putting some of the WS windfall away for a "rainy day fund."

While I am far from an expert on the ins and outs of baseball ownership, it would seem that the new regime might be a bit more tight-fisted than Daddy Neuks. What that means for the short and long term future of the team remains to be seen. If they are going to cut costs, I would hope they don't go back to skimping on scouting, player development and the draft as that is a far less expensive way to acquire talent than trying to build with FA's. On the other hand, if they are mad because Neuks approved the trade of Wheeler for Beltran and now has nothing to show for it, well, that's not altogether terrible as I wouldn't mind having Wheeler back myself, even though I have defended and continue to defend the trade as the only way for the Giants to try to make a serious run. I would assume that Baer will be making all of next year's payroll decisionst this fall, obviously in consultation with the Executive Committee. It will be interesting to see the offseason unfold and start to read the tea leaves.

11 comments:

  1. very bothered by this move

    and trickle down and low taxes for the rich are bs

    if what purdy says is true, most rich people dont wanna spend their money, they wanna sock it away for a rainy day

    btw, since moving to the belle, the giants have never lost money, and thanks to corporate sales, werent expected to anywhere in the future

    and this whole thing smells of a baer coup

    baer is the perfect company man

    started off as an intern and has now risen to the top...he has survived every change since 93, not an ez thing to do in the baseball biz

    he is a politician, and will do anything to keep his job and stay in tight with the powers that be, even to the point of leaking negative things about the outgoing manager, and setting up both a manager and a talk show host to get fired (alou vs krueg)

    does it bode well for the future? dont think so. not when it was neukom who came up with the jerry mccquire like "the giants way" manifesto...the one that forced a drastic change in the makeup of the fo and the overall philosophy of the org

    the only thing that baer buys into is the thing that lets him keep his job

    sometimes change is good

    sometimes change is necessary

    but this hearkens to the forced changes made by the niners...and we all know how that turned out

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  2. Well, I'll reserve judgement for now, but it has to be at least somewhat concerning. This is the second a major shakeup in ownership in the last 3 years. Instability in ownership is almost never a good thing.

    BTW, I agree with you re. Supply Side/Trickle Down economics.

    Did I read right that Giants merchandizing had INCREASED by $1-2 Million PER DAY? If so, that's pretty darn unbelievable and explains why Daddy Neuks thought he had more money to spend. Seems like there is plenty to cover the increased payroll PLUS put some away for a rainy day.

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  3. I believe it was $1-2m per MONTH. Still, pretty impressive.

    I, too, am concerned (1) that Neukom is out and that (2) Baer is in. This offseason will be VERY interesting to see how Baer exerts his philosophy (assuming he even has one).

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  4. Reading between the lines of all this, I looks like maybe Larry Baer is in good with the Burns family. Daddy Neuks may have taken advantage of an unstable situation after both Harmon and Sue Burns died within a short time of each other to stage a coup on Peter Magowan. Now that the Burns kids have gone through their grieving period and found their alliances on the board, Baer staged his own coup and is now in the driver's seat.

    I have no idea how the new Ruling Coalition values winning vs profits, but the rainy day fund idea seems like a possible red flag.

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  5. Just for context, I believe that the $1.5-2M extra per month for merchandise is top line revenues. I would subtract 33-50% to account for the cost of manufacturing plus the costs of distribution (transport, retail space, cashiers). That would reduce actual profits to $0.75-1.25M roughly. Then after taxes, thats roughly $0.5-1.0M monthly.

    Still a good amount, but about half or less of the announced amount. Not like adding revenues via park attendance, which goes straight to the bottom line.

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  6. Lots of good speculation here. I have no idea what the politics may or may not have been, but these make a lot of sense.

    I am not happy with the change but am willing to let Baer prove me wrong.

    One thought that just came to mind: Neukom is slated to leave at year's end, so he will guide the Giants through this free agent off-season. So we will probably not see Baer's hand and strategy until next year, and unless the Giants do something big mid-season, probably not until the 2012 off-season.

    But I too am worried about the talk about rainy day savings. Strikes me as similar to the talk when the Giants revealed that they had a rainy day fund to enable them to pursue Greg Maddux, but for some reason they declined to pursue Vlad. If he had a problem with Felipe, as a local reporter/broadcaster said he did, then the Giants should have just moved Felipe up and out, and get a new manager at that time. Managers are replaceable, Vlad's are a rare breed.

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  7. I think Baer has been joined at the hip of both Magowan and Bow Tie. From Baggs opening questions with Neukom in 2008:

    "One of our very best assets is we’ve got, by any fair measure, I think the best COO in baseball. And the fact Larry would be willing to re-up and redouble his part in the administration was essential to this transition and gratifying to all the investors. So Larry Baer is front and center and at the top of this pyramid."

    Baer strikes me as a marketing first guy. More panda hats! More fake beards for the kids! But he has been with the Giants forever. Baseball first guys would sign Cain long-term first. Marketing guys would sign Timmy. Bow Tie would sign em both.

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  8. Aloha Drb,

    This move is unfortunate, although they had their reasons according to the article. We'll see what happens. I thought they were going in the right direction with Neukom since he emphasized the farm and stayed away from big $ long term deals, and they're only 1 year removed from winning the WS. The change was necesary when Magowan was replaced in my opinion because of the Zito signing and not emphasizing the farm enough. They seemed to be going in the wrong direction. Lets hope that things will not change too much under Baer..

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  9. I forgot to mention that I was encouraged to read Timmy's good comments on Hector Sanchez catching him yesterday.

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  10. nuke is totally out...cashing in his ownership share

    this is a hostile removal

    nuke's ties to silicon valley corp were a big positive for the org...thats done

    this does not look good at all

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  11. Bacci and OGC,

    Guys, don't get hour dauber down too far on this Neukom thing. He didn't show up on the scene until 2009. Yeah, that's the year they started winning again, but the groundwork had already been laid. Cainer, Wilson, Timmy, MadBum and Buster had already been drafted and their bonuses paid. The international scouting had already been beefed up. Pablo Sandoval was just hitting the majors and Angel V had been signed to a big bonus. Daddy Neuks may have codified all that with his manifesto, but the structure was already in place. This may not be as big a change as we are all fearing.

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