The post above was made after the Red Sox series win. Three days later the Giants would be swept by the Marlins, who had a -90 RD coming into the series. The Giants mentally collapsed and strayed from their Identity as a team (playing together), especially in the rubber match.
The Giants missed the postseason because they lost too many games to teams with negative run differentials, including 1-run games during a season when they were healthier than any of their NL counterparts. The Giants weren’t playing together: taking the sac fly, stolen base or bunt to advance, score. Devers swings away in a 1-run loss, striking out, rather than getting the sac fly to tie the game. Robbie Ray has 4th most walks by SP, but Baggs who praised Melvin for holding Doval accountable, never flags that those walks cost the Giants key wins, including the 1-0 loss in Miami. Ray was never held accountable for walks because he had the most wins in H1.
In early June the Giants swept the Braves and won the Rockies series. When the Giants won the Red Sox series, Posey texted Larry Baer giddy. This represented everything Posey imagined Baer said. Posey ignored the sloppy play on the field. So did Melvin, coaches and players. Go back and watch these 3 series. No beat writer or blog wrote an article sounding an alarm that the Giants were winning with poor fundamentals. Baggs was there. He can’t blame his sabbatical yet he’s hailed by his readers as the smartest beat writer.
The elephant in the room is the Giants don’t have an Identity. Posey set an Identity at the start of the season and at critical times the front office, manager and players abandoned it during the season: How much is the manager responsible for helping to create, maintain an Identity, culture is the question?
Personally think Melvin failed and doesn’t deserve to return even if Giants backed into postseason, but you’re correct he’s not solely to blame. Posey and the players strayed from their Identity too. During their late summer win streak, the Giants won because the pressure was off (see September 2023 Padres).
You can have a losing season and have an Identity and culture that sets up future success. Without it, it’s hard to get through the hard times every team will face in a 162 season.
Everyone points to losing Yaz and Rogers, but they were on the team during their collapse. Melvin and the players also blamed Chapman’s absence. Melvin said in AZ Chapman will always travel with the team even when he’s injured because the team needs his presence in the clubhouse. Casey and other players said the team missed his presence on the field. Baggs lauds this, failing to note it’s a troubling sign. If a team can’t cope when a key leader goes down, they were never fully connected/together.
Adames stole more bases with the Brewers, which Murphy enforced his players to do (see Athletic 2024 profile on Murphy yelling to Freddie Freeman to tell his young player to run). Who is to blame that he didn’t with the Giants: Adames, Melvin, coaches? Both? Ditto Fitzgerald who stole at least 20 bases in consecutive minor league seasons. Baggs said Melvin, coaches encouraged them to run more, but fails to question why they couldn’t motivate them, putting all the blame on the players. Why didn’t Adames steal more? Or Chapman? Why was Fitzgerald timid? Why was Ramos afraid to make mistakes?
During wins/losses, the opposing team announcers often mentioned an odd defensive alignment: positioning in the OF or IF or forgetting to bring the infield in. Again who bares responsibility? Melvin, coaches, or the leaders on the field?
When Melvin said his team was searching for an Identity in 2024, neither Baggs or anyone else (front office, announcers, beat writers) saw it as a red flag that it’s a key part of manager’s job to help create/maintain an Identity.
Finally if the Giants part ways with Melvin do they run it back with Nothing Like It?
The post above was made after the Red Sox series win. Three days later the Giants would be swept by the Marlins, who had a -90 RD coming into the series. The Giants mentally collapsed and strayed from their Identity as a team (playing together), especially in the rubber match.
The Giants missed the postseason because they lost too many games to teams with negative run differentials, including 1-run games during a season when they were healthier than any of their NL counterparts. The Giants weren’t playing together: taking the sac fly, stolen base or bunt to advance, score. Devers swings away in a 1-run loss, striking out, rather than getting the sac fly to tie the game. Robbie Ray has 4th most walks by SP, but Baggs who praised Melvin for holding Doval accountable, never flags that those walks cost the Giants key wins, including the 1-0 loss in Miami. Ray was never held accountable for walks because he had the most wins in H1.
In early June the Giants swept the Braves and won the Rockies series. When the Giants won the Red Sox series, Posey texted Larry Baer giddy. This represented everything Posey imagined Baer said. Posey ignored the sloppy play on the field. So did Melvin, coaches and players. Go back and watch these 3 series. No beat writer or blog wrote an article sounding an alarm that the Giants were winning with poor fundamentals. Baggs was there. He can’t blame his sabbatical yet he’s hailed by his readers as the smartest beat writer.
The elephant in the room is the Giants don’t have an Identity. Posey set an Identity at the start of the season and at critical times the front office, manager and players abandoned it during the season: How much is the manager responsible for helping to create, maintain an Identity, culture is the question?
Personally think Melvin failed and doesn’t deserve to return even if Giants backed into postseason, but you’re correct he’s not solely to blame. Posey and the players strayed from their Identity too. During their late summer win streak, the Giants won because the pressure was off (see September 2023 Padres).
You can have a losing season and have an Identity and culture that sets up future success. Without it, it’s hard to get through the hard times every team will face in a 162 season.
Everyone points to losing Yaz and Rogers, but they were on the team during their collapse. Melvin and the players also blamed Chapman’s absence. Melvin said in AZ Chapman will always travel with the team even when he’s injured because the team needs his presence in the clubhouse. Casey and other players said the team missed his presence on the field. Baggs lauds this, failing to note it’s a troubling sign. If a team can’t cope when a key leader goes down, they were never fully connected/together.
Adames stole more bases with the Brewers, which Murphy enforced his players to do (see Athletic 2024 profile on Murphy yelling to Freddie Freeman to tell his young player to run). Who is to blame that he didn’t with the Giants: Adames, Melvin, coaches? Both? Ditto Fitzgerald who stole at least 20 bases in consecutive minor league seasons. Baggs said Melvin, coaches encouraged them to run more, but fails to question why they couldn’t motivate them, putting all the blame on the players. Why didn’t Adames steal more? Or Chapman? Why was Fitzgerald timid? Why was Ramos afraid to make mistakes?
During wins/losses, the opposing team announcers often mentioned an odd defensive alignment: positioning in the OF or IF or forgetting to bring the infield in. Again who bares responsibility? Melvin, coaches, or the leaders on the field?
When Melvin said his team was searching for an Identity in 2024, neither Baggs or anyone else (front office, announcers, beat writers) saw it as a red flag that it’s a key part of manager’s job to help create/maintain an Identity.
Finally if the Giants part ways with Melvin do they run it back with Nothing Like It?
Not one Giants writer (beat reporter or indie) mentioned the elephant in the room. Will be fascinating if anyone figures it out