What About Bob?

Three-Dot Friday 9.26

Stoic Bob, center (photo by author)

We will soon learn what San Francisco Giants President of Baseball Operations Buster Posey really thinks of this season. If you recall, at the beginning of the season there was a soft “playoffs or bust” mandate from pretty much everybody who didn’t have a uniform.

As we head into the final three games of the season, the answer has been “bust” in a spectacularly weird Jekyll-and-Hyde fashion. The numbers are absurd for one team to have in one season: 10 games over .500 in mid-June and tied for the division lead. Then losing 15-of-17 at home and going 0-23 in an entire series with Runners in Scoring Position. Then winning 11-of-12 to pull within a half-game of the final wild-card spot and hitting a home run in a San-Francisco-record 18 straight games. 11 walk-offs, the most in the majors.

And then, this. Losing 9 of their last 12 to fall completely out of the playoff chase again and sit at 78-81 going into the final weekend of the year. They must sweep the Colorado Rockies to finish at 81-81, which is something they had never done in franchise history until 2022, they were a win away from doing it last year, and now they might just do it again!

So, the question for Buster is: how much of this rollercoaster ride gets placed on the shoulders of manager Bob Melvin?

Because as the apparent chairman of the Bob Melvin fan club, I can tell you that most of the arguments for firing Bob from the fan base are inane. And let me also point out that there have been no rumblings from upstairs that Bob is done. If you go read the tea leaves from last year, the “Farhan Zaidi is toast” signs were there. There have been no signs of that about Bob- outwardly, at least.

A lot of people are pointing out starting pitcher Logan Webb’s comments after his start earlier this week, where Webb says, “This is the most talent we’ve had” and seems to say he believes the problem is elsewhere than the dugout.

Webby mid-pitch on July 30 (photo by author)

First, I could point to every late-September Logan Webb quote of the past few years. He is a bulldog who is fiercely disappointed when the Giants don’t make the playoffs every season. He is ticked off and believes his team should be better because he will always tell you that he thinks his team should be better. Webb’s standards are incredibly high, which is what you want. He thinks everyone should do everything they can to be the best they can, and when guys doesn’t do that, Webb is going to be frustrated.

A lot of the fanbase clamoring for Melvin to be fired includes a lot of pointing out he’s never won a pennant or World Series. What you’re ignoring is that for eleven years he managed the A’s, who were doing their best to tear the franchise down. You can’t simultaneously say Melvin has never won when he was managing a franchise that was actively trying to destroy their team. Melvin won three division titles and made the playoffs six times despite A’s management intentionally giving him worse and worse teams…

The “Melvin can’t win” argument also includes his two underperforming seasons with the stacked San Diego Padres lineup. While not a lot has still come out about that mess, it does seem to me that Melvin’s style didn’t mesh too well with the players. I can only imagine that those guys run on their own clocks, and Melvin likes to have a little order in the clubhouse.

The silliest argument from the Giants fan base to fire Bob is “He’s not animated enough in the dugout.” Suggesting that an outwardly even-keel manager is the reason they’re not winning is the hallmark of someone who’s never been in a dugout during a game. I’m sure inside, Melvin is as on edge as any other manager in a dugout- though nobody can hold a candle to one-time Braves coach Leo Mazzone, who rocked back and forth like a pendulum.

You know who else showed complete calm and stoicism during the tensest moments on the diamond? Buster Posey as a catcher, that’s who. Nobody complained during Game 7 of the 2014 World Series that Posey was too chill while Madison Bumgarner was out on the mound. And especially during that final ninth inning, when with two outs Gregor Blanco misplayed a soft liner to center and allowed the tying run to get to third. Posey was two steps away from Bum and ready to hug him because it was over but had to retreat and think strategy again and not let everything overwhelm him. He did so and they won their third title in five years.

So, if your argument for firing Melvin is that he’s too chill, Posey is not going to buy that one.

The on-field arguments are also silly. Mismanaging the bullpen? Well, Posey did ditch two of the best arms at the deadline- Tyler Rogers and Camilo Doval- and the presumed next closer, first-time All-Star Randy Rodriguez, promptly went down and needed Tommy John surgery in mid-August. And the one lefty in the pen they went into the season with, Erik Miller, has been injured and MIA for several months. So, Bob has been constructing his bullpen from whatever pieces have been left for him from Posey’s moves. Did Ryan Walker get a few too many chances to be the closer again? Sure. But it’s not like there was a sure-fire replacement waiting there after Rodriguez went down, and to have a lead in the 9^th you must keep it in the 6^th, 7^th, and 8^th by using other potential closers.

Then there’s the lineup. Jung Hoo Lee might be a fan favorite and is a decent center fielder, but he is not what they signed him to be at the plate. Farhan Zaidi gave him a 6-year $110 million deal to be the leadoff hitter. He wears 51 to honor Ichiro, which makes you think he’s a contact hitter with a high on-base average, which is what you absolutely need to be a leadoff hitter. To put it simply: he is nowhere close to that.

(The leadoff hitter for the 1916 New York Giants was a fellow named George Burns, whose on-base average was higher than any regular on this year’s team. And oh yeah, those Giants won an MLB-record 26 games in a row. I wrote the book on that, and you should read it.)

Because Lee can’t be the leadoff hitter, Melvin must juggle things around to make it go. Webb says the talent is there and he is right. But when nearly the entire lineup is batting .220, that’s beyond anything a manager can fix easily. That is roster construction from the front office, not the manager playing the wrong guys. He can only play the guys he has.

As I like to continuously point out, if you are the better player you are going to get to play. Contracts don’t matter- in fact, front offices and managers would always prefer the younger, cheaper player to be better than the old, expensive guy because then they can pocket more of the parking and concessions and tickets and beer money. If players make $30 million a year, how much are teams making so they can pay that without a problem? Because nearly all of them are private, non-publicly traded companies, we don’t know… but we know they can afford at least $280 million per year payrolls, and that’s not counting anybody who’s not actually playing the game…

A while back, the Giants had a manager who won fewer than 73 games in each of his first two seasons with the club. He seemed chill and the fanbase was scratching their heads because this guy didn’t seem to get it. But management stuck with him, they won 88 games the next season and the World Series the year after that.

That first World Series year, the catalyst was a rookie catcher named Buster Posey. Sometimes it just takes one guy to make a manager look smart.

That manager, of course, was Bruce Bochy. And now, as the guy in charge of the manager, Buster Posey must make the decision about Bob Melvin.

But here’s the overriding thing despite everything I have just said: Logan Webb is the leader of this team. And if Webby wants Melvin gone, Melvin is probably gone, despite everything else…

Webby mid-delivery on June 19th (photo by author)