New Giants honcho Bill Neukom spoke to the media yesterday and gave us a glimpse of how the new era might take shape. Ray Ratto poked fun at Neukom for talking up the need for a “Giants Way,” a new organizational philosophy, but I found Neukom’s use of a dusty baseball axiom refreshing. Though short on details, it’s clear Neukom believes the organization needs focus and discipline.
We’ll see how he fills in the gaps, but it’s generally a good thing to set one’s sights on a few clear goals and have everyone work towards them. It’s like sending a kid to a certain school with a good reputation: Everyone who graduates knows how to write a convincing letter or job resume, read and understand a ballot measure, and do enough math to avoid getting bamboozled by car dealers and mortgage brokers.
The Braves for years have preached that pitchers need to throw fastballs to the corners. The A’s preach strike zone awareness for their hitters. Maybe the Giants will be known for teaching superior defensive fundamentals or flawless baserunning. Maybe they do these things already. But for too long this team’s organizational reputation has revolved around what it couldn’t do — develop hitters, evaluate free-agent talent, respect statistical analysis — instead of what it could do competently. (Develop pitching. That’s it, though that’s important.)
Read the full transcript here. Much of what he said could be read as boilerplate. But there are little things here and there I find interesting. Such as: “We all believe in team play and deflecting credit to your teammates.” He also says that the Giants Way encompasses “medium– and long-term strategic planning,” something that in recent years has seemed lacking from on high.
I liked this, too:
There’s a recent memo from Brian to instructional league folks saying, `Here are the kinds of things I want you to emphasize with our Giants players this year.’ What does a 2-1 count mean to you? How do you stretch your lead? Those kinds of fundamentals. That’s all part of the manual. The Giants Way itself will have broader themes to it, but certainly the way the game is played between the lines is an essential part of the Giants Way. The Giants Way also has to be, `What is the kind of talent we want to find and how do we find it?’
Neukom was asked about Sabermetrics and Moneyball. Before we read parts of his answer, remember that Brian Sabean famously derided Moneyball when it was all the craze a few years ago. No one’s asked Brian recently if he’s now better acquainted with The Googlenets, but one might take Neukom’s answer as having a certain pointedness. Let’s listen:
Baseball is a science and an art. When it comes to picking the talent, we need the sharpest baseball eyes: people who can pick the 16-year-old arm out of the cornfield. We also need to be very well informed with all that is at our fingertips. We need to be smart about that. It’ll be a blend…...
It’s important we have better scouts and better statistical analysis. We just have to outwork people, whether it’s in the conditioning room, down the dirt roads in middle America or in front of the screen.
