November 4, 2025 • 39 mins
Welcome to Splash Hit Territory! F.P. Santagelo hosts. In the first episode, he welcomes San Francisco Chronicle's Susan Slusser to dish on new skipper Tony Vitello's first moments in a Giants uniform. Hear their initial reactions to the Vitello era beginning, and who could full out his coaching staff.
(22:09) F.P and Susan discuss the 2025 World Series from the Giants perspective - will watching the Los Angeles Dodgers win again compel the Giants to spend this off-season? The Giants need outfield help to compete in the NL West.
Subscribe to Splash Hit Territory, your home for San Francisco Giants insights and analysis. Tune in for multiple episodes each week all off-season long! Part of the Foul Territory Network.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
Oh my gosh, we're doing this. It's the first ever
episode of splash Hit Territory or just we're just gonna
call it splash Hit. My first time doing a podcast,
Susan's first time doing a podcast. We are so excited.
This is gonna be the greatest podcast evers all Giants,
all the time. So thirty plus years covering baseball, our
(00:27):
regular guest San Francisco beat writer, and she'll be joining
us as her schedule allows. And more importantly, my friend
Susan Slester. Susan, we're doing this. Super excited to talk
some Giants baseball with you on a regular basis.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
Right back at you, FP Who are you again? Remind
me do you have any credentials that I mean?
Speaker 1 (00:44):
I didn't think I needed an introduction, but FPI Santangelo,
former San Francisco Giant, current Giant broadcaster. So we're there
every day. We talk Giants baseball together every day. We
sit next to each other during the games, and all
of a sudden we're like, we should do a podcasts.
And how are you doing first of all, and where
are you doing the podcast from?
Speaker 2 (01:06):
Well, I'm in jolly old England, where I like to
spend the first sort of a month or so in
the of the off season and where you will be
joining me. We can do this together, FPI, I said
from the pub. Maybe it'll be a little too loud,
but the pub is a possibility at some point this month.
Speaker 1 (01:21):
I know I'm coming to join you at the end
of the month for a week in England. Those will
probably not be sober podcast, but we'll get to that
in a minute. Okay, So we got to hit the
big topic. We got to start right from the get
go about Tony Vottello. By the way, subscribe to splash
it Territory and YouTube wherever you get your podcasts. We
are part of the foul Territory network. Got to get
(01:43):
that out of the way. So splash It. Great name,
we came up with this together, but great topics to
talk about in our very first podcast. Tony Vattello the
new manager, Tony v Tello, the new manager of the
San Francisco Giants. That's how it's pronounced by Tello. Your thoughts,
Susan you go first?
Speaker 2 (01:59):
Well, I have to say I was skeptical, you know
when I first heard his name floating out there. Andy
Baggerley of the athletic was on this right away, and
you know, maybe a little bit just of a almost
some guest work, some smart guess work. Maybe right when
Bob Ellwen was let go at the press conference, Andy
(02:20):
Baggerley said, would you consider a college coach to Buster?
And I think a lot of us kind of looked around, like,
what what are you talking about? You know, it just
hasn't been done before. A manager from the college RGS
who has never played pro ball, never coached in pro ball. Yeah,
I mean at FP you played forever. This is this
is really unprecedented. So you think, like, how are veteran
(02:41):
players going to respond to a guy who has no
pro experience? But Tony Raiitello seems like he's won over everyone.
I have yet to talk to him, so it's very weird.
I wrote, as you know, or wrote a very extensive
profile of him without ever talking to him. But I
talked to his dad, I talked to a bunch of
his friends. I talked to his college coach at Jase Tindler,
who's a possibility for the Giant staff. And I realized,
(03:05):
this is the first time I've ever written a feature
about anybody who I haven't actually met or talked to
unless it was no obituary, So I hope that's not
some sort of folk foreshadowy the Giant season. But you
were at the press conference, so really I want to
ask you what your thoughts were because I watched it,
but it's different watching it on your laptop versus.
Speaker 1 (03:27):
You were there. Well, I'll start with this. The Giants
are having way too many press conferences lately, so I
mean between hire and Bob Melvin and Buster Posey and
now Tony Vitello. So I think why I said that
is they hired Tony from some stability in the organization
forty seven years old. And when you talk about the vibe,
just the vibe at the press conference, like everybody that
(03:49):
worked at the ballpark was there. So we had all
the media characters that we all know and see every
day they were there, and the cameras were everywhere, but
like all the employees that were at the ballpark were there,
and when Tony walked in, they were all clappy. So
this wasn't on air, So everybody's clapping when he came in.
And I was sitting with Mark Willard and we were
both talking about how just the energy in the room
before he even started talking, the energy in the room
(04:11):
was incredible, and then he got up there and just
absolutely killed it. And he's so dynamic. You can see
the passion that he has for life first of all,
but the passion that he has for winning in the game.
I think that's going to come through and be huge.
I know there are a lot of questions right a
college coach that's never run a major league spring training before,
(04:34):
like how does he do that? How does he relate
to the older players? But I think it comes down to, like,
winners win, and it doesn't matter where you're at. There's
going to be an adjustment period, there's going to be
a learning curve, and we're going to get to who
his coaching staff should be or could be here coming up,
and I think that's going to be super important. But
you know, we have a mutual friend in Sean Kelly.
(04:54):
Sewn Kelly is a relief pitcher with the Nationals. When
I was broadcasting back East and Sean and I became
really close. One of my favorites of all time. So
I'm walking in the ballpark and I look and there's
Sean and I go, what are you doing here? Well,
I'm best friends with Tony, so that evolved into Tony
and I got to spend a little time together after
the press conference in the Giants clubhouse, and we actually
(05:15):
hung out later that evening. So in a short time,
I've really gotten to experience Tony Vitello in a sense
that I'm buying everything he's selling, Like he seems authentic,
he seems charismatic, and you know, for a salty old player,
and a lot of them are probably going, why are
they hiring this guy? I was all in, like I
(05:38):
would love to play for him, coach for him, like
be at the ballpark, talk to him, do his show
every day. Oh no, no, I'm in until I mean
I think I think the Giants had to take a
big swing to do something to catch the team that
just won the World Series for the second straight year.
Speaker 2 (05:56):
Yeah, shake it up. I like the shake it up
element which we are learning. That's what comes with Buster Posey,
and I love that. You know, he shocked everybody with
adding Rafael de Ever six weeks before the deadline, this
one huge swing. You know, who knows how much Nick
Hunley suddenly withdrawing his name had to do with it. Obviously,
they're close friends. He regarded Nick Hunley highly. Nick Hudley
(06:18):
still in the possibility in San Diego, obviously, depending on
when this goes out. But I do like that. But
there are questions f p. He you know, one hundred
and sixty two game season, how you manage a bullpen
very different from the college game, of course, how you
deal with the Latin players. You have all these Spanish
(06:38):
speaking players, which is not something that you find at
the college level very often. There are a few, but
he said these are things he's aware of, he knows,
which is I think, you know, kind of how we
go into the talking about the coaching staff, because that's
going to be huge, right you know, there will be
some I think some returning coaches giants have said that
(07:01):
they will bring some guys back, they'll recommend some guys.
But the biggest thing, as you know, of course, is
the bench coach. You probably want someone with managerial experience,
somebody who works well with Tony Vitello. The obvious choice
is probably jayce Tingler, if he wants to do it.
I know he lives in Kansas City. Maybe that's a
(07:23):
tough sell. I don't know, but he's certainly the guy
seems to be the leader in the clubhouse if he
has interest.
Speaker 1 (07:28):
First of all, before we get the coaching staff. I
don't know if you remember, and I'm not taking credit
for this. You were you had the article teed up
for possible replacements for Bob Melvin. Yeah, if indeed that happen.
You as a reporter, as a writer, you have to
be ready at all times for everything, So you were
kind of prepared if something happened. And I don't if
you remember this, but I turned to you at the
game and I said, what about Tony Vaitello? Yeah? And
(07:51):
you said, what are you nuts? Like, are you crazy?
A college guy? Okay, So I'm not taking credit, but
I for some reason, I have seen him a lot
on Instagram. I've seen a lot on TikTok. I've heard
a lot of his interviews. And what Drew Gilbert brought
to the team as a former Tennessee volunteer in the
energy he brought, it just clicked, like why not hire
(08:12):
his coach? Win national championship?
Speaker 2 (08:13):
Yea, And clearly they love that program. You know. They
take Gavin Kylin with a with their first pick. They've
got blade. They played trade for both Drew and Blade Tidwell.
They've got another kid at Double A from Tennessee and
this is a this is a program that Giants obviously
really like. Three time college Coach of the Year and
(08:33):
he's this is a young guy. You know, college. The
college coaching job is tough. Some might say it's tougher
than I don't. Okay, that's crazy. It's not tougher than
being a Bay League manager. But uh, you know, you've
got all the not only do you have all the recruiting,
which that's going to be big for a San Francisco
Giants manager, no joke, that's going to come in really handy.
(08:56):
You get a one two punch of a charmer like
Tony Vaitello and then you got Buster Posey's half. That's huge.
I love that. I love that element of it. But
you've got the portal, now, the transfer portal, you got
the nil stuff. I don't think that job is as
fun as it used to be. I think it used
to be like, oh, you can go be a college coach,
you can stay there forever. You can kind of live
on a beautiful campus and have some you know, an
(09:18):
assistant doing your recruiting for you. It is not that anymore.
So it's a great you know, I know he was torn,
but I think one of the things he's really going
to bring is that recruiting ability. And I've talked to
a lot of people as you have, who all just
sing his praises like crazy, starting with Phil Garner, who's
one of the people I really respect the most that
(09:39):
I've covered in this game. And Phil's a Tennessee alum
and has gotten to know Tony, and he was like,
this guy is the real deal. Phil Garner was a
long time major league player and a major league manager
and a really good one. So I really like that
a lot. But you know, what they're dealing with, the
media has brought down some managers, numerous managers. I don't
(10:02):
think that's gonna be a problem for Tony Veitelo at all.
I think he's gonna look it looks so far like
he's going to be a media darling.
Speaker 1 (10:08):
No, he crushed the press conference. I thought he commanded
the room unlike any manager I've ever seen in an
introductory press conference. And Greg Johnson's now in charge of
the nil money, so we'll see see how that goes.
But back to your point, because I'm add and you're not.
The coaching staff. I think it's super important for obvious reasons.
(10:31):
I mean, any Giants fan watching this probably knows this.
But the coaching staff is super important because there's a
dynamic between the manager and the bench coach that I
don't think a lot of people know. The bench coach,
for people that don't know, is kind of the manager's
right hand man, and the manager will say, like, get
Susan Luise, she's hitting third this inning, or he's telling
(10:54):
him maybe suggestions about who we should get up in
the bullpen, or you know, different in game decisions real time,
and it moves so fast at the big league level,
and I've seen instances where bench coaches are just yes men,
like yes, Skipper, great call I do the same thing.
And I think there's certain instances too where bench coaches
(11:15):
have an agenda and they want to be a big
league manager, and there could be some friction there because
somebody wants the manager's job. So what you need is
somebody you can trust, somebody that has major league experience,
somebody that'll tell you, no, that's dumb, what are you thinking,
you know, not loud enough for the players to hear it,
but you need a guy that you can trust, and
I think in Tony Vaitello's case, he needs somebody that's
(11:37):
been there and done that, because it's going to move fast.
I know. I talk about my minor league experience managing
the San Jose Giants in front of three hundred people
in San Jose and I was just get the pitcher up,
I got to pinch hit here, I got to put
on a bunt sign. Where's the outfit? I mean, it
was nuts at that level. So I think the key
for Tony is to get into a routine and have
(11:59):
a coaching staff that can slow it down for him,
because we sit up there in the booth and it
goes slow for us, but when you're in that dugout,
everything's going like this. So somebody with major league experience
managing has to be the bench coach in my mind,
and I've heard some names like David Ross, former manager
of the Chicago Cubs. Obviously Jace Tindler, who they're very close,
(12:21):
which you need that. Maybe a Brandon Hide who's managed
in the big leagues, but whoever standing next to him
has to be a little saltier than he has, with
more major league experience, so he can bounce things off them. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (12:34):
I really like jayse Tingler a lot. Obviously they're close friends.
I love David Ross. I've known David Ross since he
was a minor league player. Very sharp, very calm, just
to you know, obviously he's both played on the very
big stage and winning a World Series with Boston and
you know, manage the Cubs, that is an experience you
(12:56):
gotta think, and you know left the Cubs under weird circumstances,
are like, yeah, we actually thought you were doing a
great job, but we really wanted Craig Council. That's bizarre,
and he's still still out there. I would I would,
you know, either of those guys would be great. Brandon
Hyde local guy also be Any of those are really
good names. I love that. Who would you bring back
from the existing staff?
Speaker 1 (13:17):
Oh that's a tricky question. Come on, these guys are
all my friends. I'm a big pat bro guy. I
love I love the human being. I'm a huge fan
of the human being, and I think a lot of times, Susan,
I've taught I have a lot of friends. Yeah, we
have a mutual friend, Eric Chavez, who just got let
go as a hitting coach for the Mets, and he
had some interesting things to say. And I've heard this
(13:40):
not from Pat, but kind of through the grapevine being
around the team every day. Sometimes with hitting coaches there
could be too many voices where this guy has a theory,
this guy has a theory, this guy has a theory,
and you're hearing it from three different guys. When I think,
if you really want success, you have to have supreme
confidence in your guy and maybe an assistant too, because
(14:04):
it's such a tough job. Like hitting coaches never get
any of the credit. They get all the blame. It's
the hardest it's the hardest job on the staff. It's
never like, oh, the Giants are hitting three hundred with
the runners in scoring position, way to go, Pat Burrell.
It's like they're hitting one ten Our hitting coach sucks.
So you never get any of the credit. You get
all the blame. So I thought he did a great job.
(14:26):
He connects with people great greatly, But there may have
been too many voices.
Speaker 2 (14:31):
I think that's a great point. Yeah, people just don't
really notice, and we see the work that these guys
put in behind the scenes and how respected they are
First of all, I think the whole staff was very
well respected last year, and I think that's one reason
Buster and Zach Manazi and have been saying we're going
to recommend these coaches to the next manager. They've said
(14:51):
that throughout. But I'm with you with Pat just a
wonderful person. But I think people also don't realize it's
not just that hitters are listening to the hitting coaches.
A lot of them have their own hittings guys, they've
got dads, they've got people weighing in. Now it's crazy.
There's almost too much noise sometimes. Plus you get all
the metrics thrown at you. You know, there's a lot
(15:14):
You've got to sift through things sometimes. And I do
think one of the good things about Pat is that
he played at the big league level and he knows
how to kind of help each guy find the necessary things.
And we're also you know, obviously new players came in
last year who took a while to get going, especially
(15:34):
Willia Domis. And when you're you have some big bats
in the top of the order, middle of the order,
that affects everybody in the order, and that that kind
of threw things off too. Now, was that going to
be the best lineup in the division. Of course not,
but they needed more so I understand the criticisms. I
don't think it was certainly all pat and I think
(15:57):
with guys now acclimated to the team, to the order organization,
know their rules, I think that things could be different.
But for me, JP Martinez and Garvin Austen need to
come back. The pitching was more than solid, and Andy
Baggerley asked Tony Vitello during the press conference, how are
(16:18):
you going to deal with the Latin players? You haven't
really had any. You don't speak Spanish, and He's like, yeah,
I need Spanish speakers on the staff. JP Martinez speak Spanish.
Obviously they're Spanish relievers. Potentially the Randy won't be back,
but you know they will have Spanish speakers. But he
can speak to everyone, but they do need Spanish speakers
on the staff. I thought JP did a wail of
(16:40):
a job. I even threw his name out as a
possible guy they might want to interview as manager because
I think he could be a major league manager. He
is that smart.
Speaker 1 (16:48):
Well, when I was with Tony the day he was hired,
he was really stressed out obviously a long day, right
you have the press conference and you know you had
a lot of things going on. Probably didn't get a
lot of sleep. He was really stressing out about picking
the staff. He's like, I got to pick my staff,
Like that's going to be the and he was like
this is going to be tough because he cares. Here's
(17:09):
how the staff hirings usually go. Susan Tony will have
his pick first of all, Buster will recommend. But the
players have so much power now, Like the play players
want coaches that say what can you do for me?
How can you make me better? Before it was like
what can I do for Art? How what can I
(17:30):
do for Dusty Baker? What can I do for Forelipe Alou?
But the game has kind of changed to where it's
like what the coaches can do for the players, like
how can you make me better? How can you increase
my value in the industry? Like what can you do
for me? So in saying that it's harder than ever
to coach right now, but players kind of like like
a Robbie Ray, a Justin Verlander, a Logan Webb will
(17:52):
will either get you hired or get you fired. They'll
go to if there's a great rapport with their pitching
coach and he's helping me get better, Buster, we got
to keep this guy, and then that's how you stay.
And if the players go to to Buster or whoever,
the upper echelon guys stuff I never ever ever did,
but like they can go to him and say, you know, look,
(18:14):
this guy did this, this, and this, let's try something new.
So players have so much more power than they used to.
And I think, you know, I'm sure Buster talked to
them about hiring Tony. And you saw Logan's text messages
and what Logan's been saying about it in the newspaper,
like he's super excited. This team needed energy. There was
times this year when they looked like they weren't ready
(18:34):
to play baseball. We sat there and talked about it.
I did a number of games where I saw it.
So now you get energy in your coaching staff, you
get experience in your coaching staff. You try to try
to get guys to buy into this is how we're
going to play. And I can't tell you how many
shows I did on KMBR about Pat Murphy, the and
Milwaukee Brewers in that college style of brand, that translates
(18:56):
now in the big leagues, so hopefully we see all
of that stuff. But the staff hiring the pitching coach,
the bench coach, to me, is going to be maybe
even more important now that Tony Vaiitello's the San Francisco
Giants manager.
Speaker 2 (19:08):
Do you see Mark Kolberg back? I mean, right now,
we know that the bench coach job is open because
Ryan Christensen has said he's out. Matt Williams told me
he's out. So third base. I thought Mark did a
really nice job at third base when he was a
third base coach. I know fans usually just remember the mistakes.
I don't, you know, he had a few stretches that
(19:29):
weren't probably perfect, But I thought he did a nice
job there. And he's a good He's one of those good, calm,
level headed presences around the clubhouse. And obviously he also
has you know, he's Buster's former college teammate and they're
very good friends. So he knows the mind of the
front office as well as anybody, which I think is
probably valuable.
Speaker 1 (19:49):
No, he's I love talking baseball with him. He makes
me think. We talked this year and he said, our
biggest need is the seven eight nine hitters, and we're
gonna have plenty of shows to talk about that stuff.
But seven eight the lineup, we can't have automatic outs,
and he was saying things that they, you know, move
the ball around. But guys over take a walk. Mark
and I talk baseball all the time. I'm a huge fan,
so I hope he's around. But you know, I had
(20:10):
a couple of friends that were coaches for the Angels,
a couple of friends that were coaches for the Mets,
And when there's a regime change, what the front office
will always say is like, Hey, it's not up to me,
It's up to the new manager. So I think I
think whether Mark Halberg and JP Martinez and Pat Mearle
come back is essentially up to Tony Vitello, if he
(20:31):
talks to him, has great conversations, if there's something weird
about him that doesn't jibe with his philosophy. So it's
up to the new regime, the new manager to pick
his coaches, and not so much the front office. I think,
maybe I'm wrong.
Speaker 2 (20:46):
Yeah, well, he's going to need some Spanish speakers and
he knows that, so you know, i'd put it in.
I really like that coaching staff in general. I know
the fans weren't necessarily on board with it at all times,
but I think you know, again, we see the work
behind the scenes and we know them as people, and
the effort was tremendous, and the intensity and the focus
(21:07):
all of those things that you want, So FP, I
know you very much want to talk about and I
in fact talk you out of opening with the World
series like this is a Giants podcast. I hate to
say it, We're not going to be talking about the
World Series on a Giants podcast right away. Sadly, maybe
next next year, on our first one after the season,
(21:28):
we'll be talking about a Giants world Series.
Speaker 1 (21:30):
The Giants fans are pissed, obviously because the Dodgers won
another World Series. So yeah, you're right. I will defer
to you on the topics and the order they cover
in on. But just from a baseball fan standpoint, one
of the greatest World Series I've ever seen, and I
was brute and hard for the J's. I did a
thing at the ballpark the other day where I ended
the speech with Goj's and all the Giants people there
and the employees went nuts. So we were all rooting
(21:52):
for the Blue Jays, and obviously spending so much time
in Canada my career as I did, definitely rooting for
the J's in that. But there were just so many
little things, and I mean it had everything. It had
an eighteen any game that was six hours and whatever,
It had an extra endying in Game seven with a
bench clear, and all the little things in baseball that
are I'm passionate about that are the separators between a
(22:15):
championship and not. It was mostly base running, and that's
my number one passion in life. That's my number one
thing that I see every day. I think it wins
you ten games a year, and just a second primary
and a secondary lead at third base for kind of
fallefa might have been the difference in the Blue Jays
(22:35):
winning the World Series. So it was very entertaining. I
think it was good for baseball in the sense that
it helped a lot of people that might have been
casual fans fall in love with the game based on
all the drama that if you wrote that script you
wouldn't believe in a Hollywood movie. But also I think
it turned a lot of people off that the team
that spent the most money won it all. Again. And
I don't know how it affects the Giants and how
(22:57):
they spend in the offseason or or or if you
can spend like that. I don't know if it was
good for baseball or bad for baseball, but I do,
in the end of the day, think it was one
of the most entertaining World Series ever.
Speaker 2 (23:08):
You know what I think anytime you showcase the greatest player,
probably in the history of the game, in your biggest event,
I think it's great for baseball. Look, I have so
many friends who are Dodgers fans. I'm from northern California,
but you know, I admit it, I've got Dodger fan friends.
I know some of the Dodgers players very well and
like them a lot. But I'm tired of the Dodgers.
(23:29):
I think we're all a little tired of the Dodgers.
But I am not tired of watching show.
Speaker 1 (23:33):
Hey.
Speaker 2 (23:33):
I will never be tired of watching show.
Speaker 1 (23:35):
Hey. I was.
Speaker 2 (23:37):
You know, we're not supposed to root as writers, you know,
as a matter of let I work for the Chronicle,
not for the Giants, so I don't root. But man,
when he was a free agent, I was like, come on, Showy,
come to San Francisco, like you'll love Japan Town. You'll
have so many fans, and uh, you know that day
he was showed up at the ballpark, we had a
photographer who kind of got some photos of some behind
(23:57):
the scenes stuff going on, and we got it nailed
down that he was there.
Speaker 1 (24:00):
I was like, sosquatch in the meadow.
Speaker 2 (24:02):
You guys are like outside, Yeah, yeah, my friend Mersus
and Jemmy literally was in the bushes trying to trying
to spot.
Speaker 1 (24:11):
That's crazy Yamamoto. I went up in my book, is
he's a dog, like all of a sudden, like he's
hard to hate. That's the guy I wish the Giants
would have got because I didn't know he was that
much of a gamer? Are you kidding me? With all that?
That was insane.
Speaker 2 (24:26):
Well we're going to get to how can the Giants
compete with la And I do have thoughts on that.
But this world series, so I you know, I'm here
in London, so I did not watch any of the
game's life. I watched a lot of the highlights. I
read a lot of the recaps and some of the
other stories and features, and I mean I was wowed.
But what really jumped out to you. Besides the base running,
(24:47):
I mean, that's I mean, and some of the individual
obviously performances were outstanding. But if you had to sum
it up, how would you describe that world series? Because
I always think of, you know, the seventy five World Series.
You know, some of that that first Red sot well
it wasn't that great a series, but you know when
the Red Sox finally broke through, and some of those
some of those you know in the nineties were phenomenal.
(25:09):
The Blue Jays, you know, obviously played in one of
the great world series before this.
Speaker 1 (25:15):
There's a lot of takeaways from it. I learned that
Ernie Clement is my new favorite player. I mean, that
guy just absolutely flat out rakes and plays the game
the right way. So a man crush on him too.
He can really get after it. But just the fact that,
like everybody counted the Blue Jays out, and you know
it was it was a scrappy team that put the
(25:35):
ball in play against a team that's got a two
billion dollar payroll or whatever it is. And I love
the way they I love the way they bounce back
from really tough defeats, bounced back from adversity and they
just kept picking themselves up off the mat. And you
could say the same thing about the Dodgers too. There's
a lot of grit in that clubhouse that goes way
beyond the payroll. Maybe that's a credit to Dave Roberts
(25:56):
and Bob garn and you know, their whole coaching staff too.
But when you're trying to knock out the champ, and
you get a chance to knock out the champ, you
got to land the blow. And as soon as they
didn't pick up the runners, and with runnerund third less
than two and Dalton var show hit the ground ball
and the secondary lead. And I mean it's easy to say, well,
(26:17):
just hit a sack fly, But it's Game seven and
you're in the batter's box and I was talking to
my dad, I'm like, I go, I would just tell
myself hit the ball hard, because if I think about
the outcome of the game, or I think about if
I get a hit, I'm a World Series hero and
we win the World Series, or maybe in the opposite
order of those two, then you get away from the
game plan and the process. But to be able to
(26:40):
control your pulse with the bases loaded, in an at
bat with less than two outs that could win the
World Series, for your teammates first and foremost for your city.
Just and to be like a hero. I don't know
how you do that, man, And it takes a special
kind of athlete to just like take a deep breath
(27:01):
and just get into the process. I'm looking for a
good pitch out over the plate. I'm thinking the other way.
I need to get something in the air. Just barrel
this ball up any way you can. Because if you
think about your closer, if I throw strike three right here,
everyone's piling on me on the mound, you're not going
to throw strike three. If you think about a hitter,
if I'm going to walk them off, you're not going
to walk them off. It has to be so right
(27:24):
here and process oriented, which is so easy for us
to stay on a podcast. It's so hard to do.
In Game seven of the World Series.
Speaker 2 (27:32):
Well, and it's funny, you know, you mentioned the importance
of base running and obviously the secondary lead in that instance.
I mean, there's almost nobody in the current in the
modern era who knows the value of base running in
a big postseason game better than Dave Roberts. I mean,
he is revered for that. So you know, that's one
(27:52):
of the things that drove me nuts about the Giants.
Base running, outfield defense. These are all topics we're going
to get to over the course of the outfield of
the off season. But oh my gosh, those things made
every baseball player should be a good base runner and
should field their position.
Speaker 1 (28:10):
Come on, uh, you know it's my passion. Man not
have already talked to the new manager about that, so
I don't.
Speaker 2 (28:19):
He cannot take you away from me from this podcast.
This is much bigger FP.
Speaker 1 (28:24):
The podcast Baseball Podcast. We're about to be billionaires, just.
Speaker 2 (28:28):
So you know, Oh oh sure, how do the Giants
compete with the Dodgers? Now that's our final topic?
Speaker 1 (28:38):
Do you have to?
Speaker 2 (28:38):
I mean, the Giants don't, although they have plenty of resources.
Don't get me wrong. They have loads and loads of
resources they can spend. They could go over the threshold.
They could go over the threshold every year. I'm not.
I'm sure Greg Johnson's like sh like, but we all
know that they've got you know, now, they've got the
whole Bay Area to themselves. Come on, they're on a
gold mine. They own their own ballpark goal mine. But
(29:02):
they don't have the media deal the Dodgers have. They
don't have the show hey income, that extraordinary show Hay income.
He's already basically paid for HM. You could have offered
him a billion and it would have been a deal easily.
And Toronto has a you know, they're the only team
in Canada. They got resources too, maybe more than the Giants.
I don't know, But for me, the separator is the
(29:26):
Giants could be going and getting the you know, twenty second,
twenty third and twenty fourth, twenty fifth kind of players
on the roster that the Dodgers did. These are affordable guys.
They are not getting those those guys. How are the
Dodgers getting the best role players too? I mean, everybody
seems to click once they're there. I mean, they have
(29:48):
all of this locked up, and then you go down
to Triple A. They've got the most depth. That's crazy.
Speaker 1 (29:55):
I mean that's a billion dollar question. How can the
Giants compete with the Dodgers. Think, what you have to
do is worry about yourself and not the Dodgers first
and foremost. You have to do what you need to
do to be successful, and what type of brand of
baseball that is is is going to be. We play
the game the right way every single day with a
passion and a focus and an energy that it's all
(30:17):
we have to do is go out there for two
and a half hours every night and compete our ass
off and do all the little things that sometimes we
didn't see a lot of times we didn't see last year.
And whether it is getting I don't think it's Greg
Johnson spending. That's what all the fans want to do, like, oh,
you got to spend with the Dodgers. Number one, you
got to rely on a on a on a back
to back. Hangover that, how hard is it to three
(30:39):
p like you have to. You have to hope that
there's some element of that. And number two, you have
to hope that Tony Vitello comes in and inspires this
team and that is is very transparent with the players
that that realizes like that that he can help them
be winning players, that he can help the guys that
haven't had the big time tracks get the contracts through
(31:02):
a style of baseball that wins and is productive for
all of us. So for the Giants to compete with
the Dodgers, a they have to worry about themselves. The
Padres are great too, The Diamondbacks are great too. It's
a really tough division. But it's about to me a
brand of baseball that scrappy, fundamentally sound, that throws strikes,
(31:23):
that catches the baseball, that hits the cutoff man, that
keeps the double play in order. That ninety feet is precious,
and they're running the bases in a winning manner to win,
and they're looking for every advantage they can get, turning
over every stone, lifting up every mat and putting the
ball in play with two strikes and not striking out
and running hard to first base and putting pressure on
(31:44):
the defense. I mean, I could go on for hours
and hours. If they play a Milwaukee Brewers brand of baseball,
they will be in the mix, and they will be
playing in October. But it's not just oh, we did
it for two weeks and then all of a sudden,
we don't know what the infield fly rule is letting
fly balls drop between outfielders and the outfield. It has
to be an aggressive here on fire, fundamentally sound on
(32:10):
both sides of the baseball brand of baseball for not
just a month and then take a month off and
another month and take a month off. There has to
be a consistency to it. And there's one hundred and
sixty two Susan. As you know, you can't go out
like college baseball and just like whoo, you can't do
that every night. But you could be consistent in your approach,
and you could be diligent about your work ethic, and
(32:32):
you could be passionate about your desire to win, and
that's how you catch the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Speaker 2 (32:37):
Yeah, you know, and I think that the raw ra
thing is not necessarily going to work all the time,
and you know, it potentially could backfire at times. But
I will say I think we're going to have our
first argument right now. I agree with you everything you said.
But last year they said pitching in defense, and I said, yeah,
that is how you got to win, but they did
not have the personnel to do it. You have to
(33:00):
have the personnel first and foremost. And you take a
look at the Giants outfield, which we're going to talk
a lot about this offseason. The Giants outfield is not
you know, it's one of the reasons we saw Drew
Gilbert much earlier than I think we thought we might
see him. The Giants outfield is not a good defensive outfield,
especially once they traded. Yes, just not. They don't have
(33:22):
the personnel to be, you know, among the better outfields,
which is what they need, especially at that ballpark. I
love Elliott Ramos. I love him as a hitter, I
love him as a person. He's phenomenal. I'm not sure
he is an adequate major league left fielder. I think
he has to take a huge step forward next year
(33:44):
at that position, and he needs to be confident, and
he needs to be focused, and he has not shown
that yet. If not, I think he should be a
DH and they've got Bryce Eldridge to do that. I
don't know what you do in that spot. And Jung
Hu Lee love watching Jung Who, but he is not
one of the better center fielders in the game right now.
(34:05):
He needs to take a step forward now. He was
playing in his first full season. I'm going to give
him a big asterisk for that, but we need to
see a lot more from him. And I'm going to
talk about this all off season. I'm so sorry I'm
gonna bore you on it, but I think you know
it's more than just saying we have to play the
game the right way, and they do. They have to
have the players that can do that.
Speaker 1 (34:23):
Well, that's where the work comes in and you have
to buy in. I mean, the only way you get
better than outfielders taking fly balls off the bat live,
not fungos, not machines. You just got a power shag
and you have to do it. And if you if
you've reached your ceiling defensively, I always think that on
that side of the baseball, there's so much upside if
you want to work at it. There's there's only so
far and go as a hitter based on what God
(34:44):
gave you and your work ethic, you know. But on defense,
like Wade Boggs was a terrible third basement of the
minor leagues and he won a Gold Glove, and there's
all kinds of examples of that. So it's just it's
just about caring about defense and working hard at it
and wanting to be better at it. And I think
when you talk about spending, you're never going to spend
with the Dodgers if you're Greg Johnson. But just make
some smart choices, get some scrappy guys, some guys that
(35:07):
can play defense like back to seven, eight and nine.
They're not automatic outs. They can bud guys over and
hit and run and take a walk. They don't have
to be three hundred hitters. They just have to be
tough outs. I think if you build the lineup with
tough outs, but all your points are well taken, Susan,
I mean, I need to be convinced.
Speaker 2 (35:22):
I need to be convinced that some guys have not
hit their ceilings defensively because I we have not seen
that to be the case yet. Well, it's otherwise, go
out and get a couple of good defensive players.
Speaker 1 (35:36):
If you think your guys aren't good defensively, then coach
them up. Man. It's that simple. It's like you can't
complain about guys being bad at something and if you're
the coach. That's why Tony's the manager of the Giants
right now, because I feel like he's going to hire
staff that there's going to be a tireless workout ethic.
I think his biggest challenge besides the obvious, is going
to be to realize when to like, like back off
(35:59):
a little bit, because there are one hundred and sixty
two games and we can't just run these guys into
the ground with with with early work every day.
Speaker 2 (36:07):
You're the optimist. I guess I'm going to be the
skeptics sometimes on the show.
Speaker 1 (36:11):
But no, I like that.
Speaker 2 (36:13):
We almost agree on everything. That wouldn't be that wouldn't
be fun if we if we agreed on everything, but
we usually do.
Speaker 1 (36:19):
So. There was some breaking news before we just started
to record the greatest podcast in history, Splash Hit. It's
something about the Hall of Fame, Like you're on the
Contemporary Yeah, Era Committee, there's something about the we can
tease this for our next show.
Speaker 2 (36:34):
We're going yeah, for our next show. Yeah, yeah, let's
talk about it next time. Yeah. I'm on the Contemporary
Era Ballot Committee. I'm on all the ERAS ballot committee
we formed obviously, so it's what it sounds like. We
formulate the ballots for the Era Committee to vote on.
And I can say, if you haven't seen already since
the I think it came out about an hour ago,
Barry Bonds is back on the ballot. Jeff Kent is
(36:56):
on the ballot. So we'll be considered, uh, along with
a bunch of other names by the ERAS Committee at
during the winter meetings. This year and that will be decided.
I find those are always going to be interesting, So
stay tuned next time because we will talk about that
in full.
Speaker 1 (37:14):
Can they fight in the dugout in Cooperstown if they
both make it, that'd be awesome, Just a full on
brawl the induction ceremony like they did in San Diego.
They didn't like each other, by the way, Chuck here
makes it.
Speaker 2 (37:29):
Can they put like a truck at Chuck Chuck onto
his plaque?
Speaker 1 (37:33):
They were like little kids. If Barry had to have
one one whole row on the plane, Jeff had to
have two rows. If Barry was ten minutes late for stretching,
Jeff had to be eleven minutes late for stretching. They
were like little kids, but both great teammates. I enjoyed
them both very much, and Barry and I are still close.
I haven't talked to Jeff in yours, but I'll just
say this, I'll leave I'll end the show with this.
(37:54):
The Hall of Fame isn't the Hall of Fame until
Barry Bonds gets in, period. It just isn't. So whatever
you need to thoughts, your little committees, make sure Barry
gets into the Hall of fame.
Speaker 2 (38:08):
Well, I was on that committee and he is on
that ballot. I was on the last Eras committee that
did not Photoman. We can talk about that too. I
can't talk too much in depth about that because we're
not allowed too, but well we'll talk around it, all right.
Speaker 1 (38:23):
Well, that was fun In our first ever podcast, Splash
It on the File Territory Network. We've had a blast today.
I don't know. We're gonna do these periodically. You're gonna
be my guest periodically and we're going to talk about
the giants every single time. So it was fun actually
just to get to see you. You're in jolly old
England across the pond. It was fun talking baseball with
you and that was really cool.
Speaker 2 (38:42):
Thanks fantastic. And where can people find us now? And
where do you appear with this beautiful video?
Speaker 1 (38:50):
I have it right here. You can subscribe to Splash
Shit Territory on YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts.
We're part of the File Territory Network.
Speaker 2 (38:57):
So yeah, I'm gonna do that right now.
Speaker 1 (39:00):
I'm gonna do it right now. Al right, Susan until thanks.
Speaker 2 (39:03):
Thanks you FP. Here we go with the outro h
Oh my gosh, we're doing this. It's the first ever
episode of splash Hit Territory or just we're just gonna
call it splash Hit. My first time doing a podcast,
Susan's first time doing a podcast. We are so excited.
This is gonna be the greatest podcast evers all Giants,
all the time. So thirty plus years covering baseball, our
(00:27):
regular guest San Francisco beat writer, and she'll be joining
us as her schedule allows. And more importantly, my friend
Susan Slester. Susan, we're doing this. Super excited to talk
some Giants baseball with you on a regular basis.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
Right back at you, FP Who are you again? Remind
me do you have any credentials that I mean?
Speaker 1 (00:44):
I didn't think I needed an introduction, but FPI Santangelo,
former San Francisco Giant, current Giant broadcaster. So we're there
every day. We talk Giants baseball together every day. We
sit next to each other during the games, and all
of a sudden we're like, we should do a podcasts.
And how are you doing first of all, and where
are you doing the podcast from?
Speaker 2 (01:06):
Well, I'm in jolly old England, where I like to
spend the first sort of a month or so in
the of the off season and where you will be
joining me. We can do this together, FPI, I said
from the pub. Maybe it'll be a little too loud,
but the pub is a possibility at some point this month.
Speaker 1 (01:21):
I know I'm coming to join you at the end
of the month for a week in England. Those will
probably not be sober podcast, but we'll get to that
in a minute. Okay, So we got to hit the
big topic. We got to start right from the get
go about Tony Vottello. By the way, subscribe to splash
it Territory and YouTube wherever you get your podcasts. We
are part of the foul Territory network. Got to get
(01:43):
that out of the way. So splash It. Great name,
we came up with this together, but great topics to
talk about in our very first podcast. Tony Vattello the
new manager, Tony v Tello, the new manager of the
San Francisco Giants. That's how it's pronounced by Tello. Your thoughts,
Susan you go first?
Speaker 2 (01:59):
Well, I have to say I was skeptical, you know
when I first heard his name floating out there. Andy
Baggerley of the athletic was on this right away, and
you know, maybe a little bit just of a almost
some guest work, some smart guess work. Maybe right when
Bob Ellwen was let go at the press conference, Andy
(02:20):
Baggerley said, would you consider a college coach to Buster?
And I think a lot of us kind of looked around, like,
what what are you talking about? You know, it just
hasn't been done before. A manager from the college RGS
who has never played pro ball, never coached in pro ball. Yeah,
I mean at FP you played forever. This is this
is really unprecedented. So you think, like, how are veteran
(02:41):
players going to respond to a guy who has no
pro experience? But Tony Raiitello seems like he's won over everyone.
I have yet to talk to him, so it's very weird.
I wrote, as you know, or wrote a very extensive
profile of him without ever talking to him. But I
talked to his dad, I talked to a bunch of
his friends. I talked to his college coach at Jase Tindler,
who's a possibility for the Giant staff. And I realized,
(03:05):
this is the first time I've ever written a feature
about anybody who I haven't actually met or talked to
unless it was no obituary, So I hope that's not
some sort of folk foreshadowy the Giant season. But you
were at the press conference, so really I want to
ask you what your thoughts were because I watched it,
but it's different watching it on your laptop versus.
Speaker 1 (03:27):
You were there. Well, I'll start with this. The Giants
are having way too many press conferences lately, so I
mean between hire and Bob Melvin and Buster Posey and
now Tony Vitello. So I think why I said that
is they hired Tony from some stability in the organization
forty seven years old. And when you talk about the vibe,
just the vibe at the press conference, like everybody that
(03:49):
worked at the ballpark was there. So we had all
the media characters that we all know and see every
day they were there, and the cameras were everywhere, but
like all the employees that were at the ballpark were there,
and when Tony walked in, they were all clappy. So
this wasn't on air, So everybody's clapping when he came in.
And I was sitting with Mark Willard and we were
both talking about how just the energy in the room
before he even started talking, the energy in the room
(04:11):
was incredible, and then he got up there and just
absolutely killed it. And he's so dynamic. You can see
the passion that he has for life first of all,
but the passion that he has for winning in the game.
I think that's going to come through and be huge.
I know there are a lot of questions right a
college coach that's never run a major league spring training before,
(04:34):
like how does he do that? How does he relate
to the older players? But I think it comes down to, like,
winners win, and it doesn't matter where you're at. There's
going to be an adjustment period, there's going to be
a learning curve, and we're going to get to who
his coaching staff should be or could be here coming up,
and I think that's going to be super important. But
you know, we have a mutual friend in Sean Kelly.
(04:54):
Sewn Kelly is a relief pitcher with the Nationals. When
I was broadcasting back East and Sean and I became
really close. One of my favorites of all time. So
I'm walking in the ballpark and I look and there's
Sean and I go, what are you doing here? Well,
I'm best friends with Tony, so that evolved into Tony
and I got to spend a little time together after
the press conference in the Giants clubhouse, and we actually
(05:15):
hung out later that evening. So in a short time,
I've really gotten to experience Tony Vitello in a sense
that I'm buying everything he's selling, Like he seems authentic,
he seems charismatic, and you know, for a salty old player,
and a lot of them are probably going, why are
they hiring this guy? I was all in, like I
(05:38):
would love to play for him, coach for him, like
be at the ballpark, talk to him, do his show
every day. Oh no, no, I'm in until I mean
I think I think the Giants had to take a
big swing to do something to catch the team that
just won the World Series for the second straight year.
Speaker 2 (05:56):
Yeah, shake it up. I like the shake it up
element which we are learning. That's what comes with Buster Posey,
and I love that. You know, he shocked everybody with
adding Rafael de Ever six weeks before the deadline, this
one huge swing. You know, who knows how much Nick
Hunley suddenly withdrawing his name had to do with it. Obviously,
they're close friends. He regarded Nick Hunley highly. Nick Hudley
(06:18):
still in the possibility in San Diego, obviously, depending on
when this goes out. But I do like that. But
there are questions f p. He you know, one hundred
and sixty two game season, how you manage a bullpen
very different from the college game, of course, how you
deal with the Latin players. You have all these Spanish
(06:38):
speaking players, which is not something that you find at
the college level very often. There are a few, but
he said these are things he's aware of, he knows,
which is I think, you know, kind of how we
go into the talking about the coaching staff, because that's
going to be huge, right you know, there will be
some I think some returning coaches giants have said that
(07:01):
they will bring some guys back, they'll recommend some guys.
But the biggest thing, as you know, of course, is
the bench coach. You probably want someone with managerial experience,
somebody who works well with Tony Vitello. The obvious choice
is probably jayce Tingler, if he wants to do it.
I know he lives in Kansas City. Maybe that's a
(07:23):
tough sell. I don't know, but he's certainly the guy
seems to be the leader in the clubhouse if he
has interest.
Speaker 1 (07:28):
First of all, before we get the coaching staff. I
don't know if you remember, and I'm not taking credit
for this. You were you had the article teed up
for possible replacements for Bob Melvin. Yeah, if indeed that happen.
You as a reporter, as a writer, you have to
be ready at all times for everything, So you were
kind of prepared if something happened. And I don't if
you remember this, but I turned to you at the
game and I said, what about Tony Vaitello? Yeah? And
(07:51):
you said, what are you nuts? Like, are you crazy?
A college guy? Okay, So I'm not taking credit, but
I for some reason, I have seen him a lot
on Instagram. I've seen a lot on TikTok. I've heard
a lot of his interviews. And what Drew Gilbert brought
to the team as a former Tennessee volunteer in the
energy he brought, it just clicked, like why not hire
(08:12):
his coach? Win national championship?
Speaker 2 (08:13):
Yea, And clearly they love that program. You know. They
take Gavin Kylin with a with their first pick. They've
got blade. They played trade for both Drew and Blade Tidwell.
They've got another kid at Double A from Tennessee and
this is a this is a program that Giants obviously
really like. Three time college Coach of the Year and
(08:33):
he's this is a young guy. You know, college. The
college coaching job is tough. Some might say it's tougher
than I don't. Okay, that's crazy. It's not tougher than
being a Bay League manager. But uh, you know, you've
got all the not only do you have all the recruiting,
which that's going to be big for a San Francisco
Giants manager, no joke, that's going to come in really handy.
(08:56):
You get a one two punch of a charmer like
Tony Vaitello and then you got Buster Posey's half. That's huge.
I love that. I love that element of it. But
you've got the portal, now, the transfer portal, you got
the nil stuff. I don't think that job is as
fun as it used to be. I think it used
to be like, oh, you can go be a college coach,
you can stay there forever. You can kind of live
on a beautiful campus and have some you know, an
(09:18):
assistant doing your recruiting for you. It is not that anymore.
So it's a great you know, I know he was torn,
but I think one of the things he's really going
to bring is that recruiting ability. And I've talked to
a lot of people as you have, who all just
sing his praises like crazy, starting with Phil Garner, who's
one of the people I really respect the most that
(09:39):
I've covered in this game. And Phil's a Tennessee alum
and has gotten to know Tony, and he was like,
this guy is the real deal. Phil Garner was a
long time major league player and a major league manager
and a really good one. So I really like that
a lot. But you know, what they're dealing with, the
media has brought down some managers, numerous managers. I don't
(10:02):
think that's gonna be a problem for Tony Veitelo at all.
I think he's gonna look it looks so far like
he's going to be a media darling.
Speaker 1 (10:08):
No, he crushed the press conference. I thought he commanded
the room unlike any manager I've ever seen in an
introductory press conference. And Greg Johnson's now in charge of
the nil money, so we'll see see how that goes.
But back to your point, because I'm add and you're not.
The coaching staff. I think it's super important for obvious reasons.
(10:31):
I mean, any Giants fan watching this probably knows this.
But the coaching staff is super important because there's a
dynamic between the manager and the bench coach that I
don't think a lot of people know. The bench coach,
for people that don't know, is kind of the manager's
right hand man, and the manager will say, like, get
Susan Luise, she's hitting third this inning, or he's telling
(10:54):
him maybe suggestions about who we should get up in
the bullpen, or you know, different in game decisions real time,
and it moves so fast at the big league level,
and I've seen instances where bench coaches are just yes men,
like yes, Skipper, great call I do the same thing.
And I think there's certain instances too where bench coaches
(11:15):
have an agenda and they want to be a big
league manager, and there could be some friction there because
somebody wants the manager's job. So what you need is
somebody you can trust, somebody that has major league experience,
somebody that'll tell you, no, that's dumb, what are you thinking,
you know, not loud enough for the players to hear it,
but you need a guy that you can trust, and
I think in Tony Vaitello's case, he needs somebody that's
(11:37):
been there and done that, because it's going to move fast.
I know. I talk about my minor league experience managing
the San Jose Giants in front of three hundred people
in San Jose and I was just get the pitcher up,
I got to pinch hit here, I got to put
on a bunt sign. Where's the outfit? I mean, it
was nuts at that level. So I think the key
for Tony is to get into a routine and have
(11:59):
a coaching staff that can slow it down for him,
because we sit up there in the booth and it
goes slow for us, but when you're in that dugout,
everything's going like this. So somebody with major league experience
managing has to be the bench coach in my mind,
and I've heard some names like David Ross, former manager
of the Chicago Cubs. Obviously Jace Tindler, who they're very close,
(12:21):
which you need that. Maybe a Brandon Hide who's managed
in the big leagues, but whoever standing next to him
has to be a little saltier than he has, with
more major league experience, so he can bounce things off them. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (12:34):
I really like jayse Tingler a lot. Obviously they're close friends.
I love David Ross. I've known David Ross since he
was a minor league player. Very sharp, very calm, just
to you know, obviously he's both played on the very
big stage and winning a World Series with Boston and
you know, manage the Cubs, that is an experience you
(12:56):
gotta think, and you know left the Cubs under weird circumstances,
are like, yeah, we actually thought you were doing a
great job, but we really wanted Craig Council. That's bizarre,
and he's still still out there. I would I would,
you know, either of those guys would be great. Brandon
Hyde local guy also be Any of those are really
good names. I love that. Who would you bring back
from the existing staff?
Speaker 1 (13:17):
Oh that's a tricky question. Come on, these guys are
all my friends. I'm a big pat bro guy. I
love I love the human being. I'm a huge fan
of the human being, and I think a lot of times, Susan,
I've taught I have a lot of friends. Yeah, we
have a mutual friend, Eric Chavez, who just got let
go as a hitting coach for the Mets, and he
had some interesting things to say. And I've heard this
(13:40):
not from Pat, but kind of through the grapevine being
around the team every day. Sometimes with hitting coaches there
could be too many voices where this guy has a theory,
this guy has a theory, this guy has a theory,
and you're hearing it from three different guys. When I think,
if you really want success, you have to have supreme
confidence in your guy and maybe an assistant too, because
(14:04):
it's such a tough job. Like hitting coaches never get
any of the credit. They get all the blame. It's
the hardest it's the hardest job on the staff. It's
never like, oh, the Giants are hitting three hundred with
the runners in scoring position, way to go, Pat Burrell.
It's like they're hitting one ten Our hitting coach sucks.
So you never get any of the credit. You get
all the blame. So I thought he did a great job.
(14:26):
He connects with people great greatly, But there may have
been too many voices.
Speaker 2 (14:31):
I think that's a great point. Yeah, people just don't
really notice, and we see the work that these guys
put in behind the scenes and how respected they are
First of all, I think the whole staff was very
well respected last year, and I think that's one reason
Buster and Zach Manazi and have been saying we're going
to recommend these coaches to the next manager. They've said
(14:51):
that throughout. But I'm with you with Pat just a
wonderful person. But I think people also don't realize it's
not just that hitters are listening to the hitting coaches.
A lot of them have their own hittings guys, they've
got dads, they've got people weighing in. Now it's crazy.
There's almost too much noise sometimes. Plus you get all
the metrics thrown at you. You know, there's a lot
(15:14):
You've got to sift through things sometimes. And I do
think one of the good things about Pat is that
he played at the big league level and he knows
how to kind of help each guy find the necessary things.
And we're also you know, obviously new players came in
last year who took a while to get going, especially
(15:34):
Willia Domis. And when you're you have some big bats
in the top of the order, middle of the order,
that affects everybody in the order, and that that kind
of threw things off too. Now, was that going to
be the best lineup in the division. Of course not,
but they needed more so I understand the criticisms. I
don't think it was certainly all pat and I think
(15:57):
with guys now acclimated to the team, to the order organization,
know their rules, I think that things could be different.
But for me, JP Martinez and Garvin Austen need to
come back. The pitching was more than solid, and Andy
Baggerley asked Tony Vitello during the press conference, how are
(16:18):
you going to deal with the Latin players? You haven't
really had any. You don't speak Spanish, and He's like, yeah,
I need Spanish speakers on the staff. JP Martinez speak Spanish.
Obviously they're Spanish relievers. Potentially the Randy won't be back,
but you know they will have Spanish speakers. But he
can speak to everyone, but they do need Spanish speakers
on the staff. I thought JP did a wail of
(16:40):
a job. I even threw his name out as a
possible guy they might want to interview as manager because
I think he could be a major league manager. He
is that smart.
Speaker 1 (16:48):
Well, when I was with Tony the day he was hired,
he was really stressed out obviously a long day, right
you have the press conference and you know you had
a lot of things going on. Probably didn't get a
lot of sleep. He was really stressing out about picking
the staff. He's like, I got to pick my staff,
Like that's going to be the and he was like
this is going to be tough because he cares. Here's
(17:09):
how the staff hirings usually go. Susan Tony will have
his pick first of all, Buster will recommend. But the
players have so much power now, Like the play players
want coaches that say what can you do for me?
How can you make me better? Before it was like
what can I do for Art? How what can I
(17:30):
do for Dusty Baker? What can I do for Forelipe Alou?
But the game has kind of changed to where it's
like what the coaches can do for the players, like
how can you make me better? How can you increase
my value in the industry? Like what can you do
for me? So in saying that it's harder than ever
to coach right now, but players kind of like like
a Robbie Ray, a Justin Verlander, a Logan Webb will
(17:52):
will either get you hired or get you fired. They'll
go to if there's a great rapport with their pitching
coach and he's helping me get better, Buster, we got
to keep this guy, and then that's how you stay.
And if the players go to to Buster or whoever,
the upper echelon guys stuff I never ever ever did,
but like they can go to him and say, you know, look,
(18:14):
this guy did this, this, and this, let's try something new.
So players have so much more power than they used to.
And I think, you know, I'm sure Buster talked to
them about hiring Tony. And you saw Logan's text messages
and what Logan's been saying about it in the newspaper,
like he's super excited. This team needed energy. There was
times this year when they looked like they weren't ready
(18:34):
to play baseball. We sat there and talked about it.
I did a number of games where I saw it.
So now you get energy in your coaching staff, you
get experience in your coaching staff. You try to try
to get guys to buy into this is how we're
going to play. And I can't tell you how many
shows I did on KMBR about Pat Murphy, the and
Milwaukee Brewers in that college style of brand, that translates
(18:56):
now in the big leagues, so hopefully we see all
of that stuff. But the staff hiring the pitching coach,
the bench coach, to me, is going to be maybe
even more important now that Tony Vaiitello's the San Francisco
Giants manager.
Speaker 2 (19:08):
Do you see Mark Kolberg back? I mean, right now,
we know that the bench coach job is open because
Ryan Christensen has said he's out. Matt Williams told me
he's out. So third base. I thought Mark did a
really nice job at third base when he was a
third base coach. I know fans usually just remember the mistakes.
I don't, you know, he had a few stretches that
(19:29):
weren't probably perfect, But I thought he did a nice
job there. And he's a good He's one of those good, calm,
level headed presences around the clubhouse. And obviously he also
has you know, he's Buster's former college teammate and they're
very good friends. So he knows the mind of the
front office as well as anybody, which I think is
probably valuable.
Speaker 1 (19:49):
No, he's I love talking baseball with him. He makes
me think. We talked this year and he said, our
biggest need is the seven eight nine hitters, and we're
gonna have plenty of shows to talk about that stuff.
But seven eight the lineup, we can't have automatic outs,
and he was saying things that they, you know, move
the ball around. But guys over take a walk. Mark
and I talk baseball all the time. I'm a huge fan,
so I hope he's around. But you know, I had
(20:10):
a couple of friends that were coaches for the Angels,
a couple of friends that were coaches for the Mets,
And when there's a regime change, what the front office
will always say is like, Hey, it's not up to me,
It's up to the new manager. So I think I
think whether Mark Halberg and JP Martinez and Pat Mearle
come back is essentially up to Tony Vitello, if he
(20:31):
talks to him, has great conversations, if there's something weird
about him that doesn't jibe with his philosophy. So it's
up to the new regime, the new manager to pick
his coaches, and not so much the front office. I think,
maybe I'm wrong.
Speaker 2 (20:46):
Yeah, well, he's going to need some Spanish speakers and
he knows that, so you know, i'd put it in.
I really like that coaching staff in general. I know
the fans weren't necessarily on board with it at all times,
but I think you know, again, we see the work
behind the scenes and we know them as people, and
the effort was tremendous, and the intensity and the focus
(21:07):
all of those things that you want, So FP, I
know you very much want to talk about and I
in fact talk you out of opening with the World
series like this is a Giants podcast. I hate to
say it, We're not going to be talking about the
World Series on a Giants podcast right away. Sadly, maybe
next next year, on our first one after the season,
(21:28):
we'll be talking about a Giants world Series.
Speaker 1 (21:30):
The Giants fans are pissed, obviously because the Dodgers won
another World Series. So yeah, you're right. I will defer
to you on the topics and the order they cover
in on. But just from a baseball fan standpoint, one
of the greatest World Series I've ever seen, and I
was brute and hard for the J's. I did a
thing at the ballpark the other day where I ended
the speech with Goj's and all the Giants people there
and the employees went nuts. So we were all rooting
(21:52):
for the Blue Jays, and obviously spending so much time
in Canada my career as I did, definitely rooting for
the J's in that. But there were just so many
little things, and I mean it had everything. It had
an eighteen any game that was six hours and whatever,
It had an extra endying in Game seven with a
bench clear, and all the little things in baseball that
are I'm passionate about that are the separators between a
(22:15):
championship and not. It was mostly base running, and that's
my number one passion in life. That's my number one
thing that I see every day. I think it wins
you ten games a year, and just a second primary
and a secondary lead at third base for kind of
fallefa might have been the difference in the Blue Jays
(22:35):
winning the World Series. So it was very entertaining. I
think it was good for baseball in the sense that
it helped a lot of people that might have been
casual fans fall in love with the game based on
all the drama that if you wrote that script you
wouldn't believe in a Hollywood movie. But also I think
it turned a lot of people off that the team
that spent the most money won it all. Again. And
I don't know how it affects the Giants and how
(22:57):
they spend in the offseason or or or if you
can spend like that. I don't know if it was
good for baseball or bad for baseball, but I do,
in the end of the day, think it was one
of the most entertaining World Series ever.
Speaker 2 (23:08):
You know what I think anytime you showcase the greatest player,
probably in the history of the game, in your biggest event,
I think it's great for baseball. Look, I have so
many friends who are Dodgers fans. I'm from northern California,
but you know, I admit it, I've got Dodger fan friends.
I know some of the Dodgers players very well and
like them a lot. But I'm tired of the Dodgers.
(23:29):
I think we're all a little tired of the Dodgers.
But I am not tired of watching show.
Speaker 1 (23:33):
Hey.
Speaker 2 (23:33):
I will never be tired of watching show.
Speaker 1 (23:35):
Hey. I was.
Speaker 2 (23:37):
You know, we're not supposed to root as writers, you know,
as a matter of let I work for the Chronicle,
not for the Giants, so I don't root. But man,
when he was a free agent, I was like, come on, Showy,
come to San Francisco, like you'll love Japan Town. You'll
have so many fans, and uh, you know that day
he was showed up at the ballpark, we had a
photographer who kind of got some photos of some behind
(23:57):
the scenes stuff going on, and we got it nailed
down that he was there.
Speaker 1 (24:00):
I was like, sosquatch in the meadow.
Speaker 2 (24:02):
You guys are like outside, Yeah, yeah, my friend Mersus
and Jemmy literally was in the bushes trying to trying
to spot.
Speaker 1 (24:11):
That's crazy Yamamoto. I went up in my book, is
he's a dog, like all of a sudden, like he's
hard to hate. That's the guy I wish the Giants
would have got because I didn't know he was that
much of a gamer? Are you kidding me? With all that?
That was insane.
Speaker 2 (24:26):
Well we're going to get to how can the Giants
compete with la And I do have thoughts on that.
But this world series, so I you know, I'm here
in London, so I did not watch any of the
game's life. I watched a lot of the highlights. I
read a lot of the recaps and some of the
other stories and features, and I mean I was wowed.
But what really jumped out to you. Besides the base running,
(24:47):
I mean, that's I mean, and some of the individual
obviously performances were outstanding. But if you had to sum
it up, how would you describe that world series? Because
I always think of, you know, the seventy five World Series.
You know, some of that that first Red sot well
it wasn't that great a series, but you know when
the Red Sox finally broke through, and some of those
some of those you know in the nineties were phenomenal.
(25:09):
The Blue Jays, you know, obviously played in one of
the great world series before this.
Speaker 1 (25:15):
There's a lot of takeaways from it. I learned that
Ernie Clement is my new favorite player. I mean, that
guy just absolutely flat out rakes and plays the game
the right way. So a man crush on him too.
He can really get after it. But just the fact that,
like everybody counted the Blue Jays out, and you know
it was it was a scrappy team that put the
(25:35):
ball in play against a team that's got a two
billion dollar payroll or whatever it is. And I love
the way they I love the way they bounce back
from really tough defeats, bounced back from adversity and they
just kept picking themselves up off the mat. And you
could say the same thing about the Dodgers too. There's
a lot of grit in that clubhouse that goes way
beyond the payroll. Maybe that's a credit to Dave Roberts
(25:56):
and Bob garn and you know, their whole coaching staff too.
But when you're trying to knock out the champ, and
you get a chance to knock out the champ, you
got to land the blow. And as soon as they
didn't pick up the runners, and with runnerund third less
than two and Dalton var show hit the ground ball
and the secondary lead. And I mean it's easy to say, well,
(26:17):
just hit a sack fly, But it's Game seven and
you're in the batter's box and I was talking to
my dad, I'm like, I go, I would just tell
myself hit the ball hard, because if I think about
the outcome of the game, or I think about if
I get a hit, I'm a World Series hero and
we win the World Series, or maybe in the opposite
order of those two, then you get away from the
game plan and the process. But to be able to
(26:40):
control your pulse with the bases loaded, in an at
bat with less than two outs that could win the
World Series, for your teammates first and foremost for your city.
Just and to be like a hero. I don't know
how you do that, man, And it takes a special
kind of athlete to just like take a deep breath
(27:01):
and just get into the process. I'm looking for a
good pitch out over the plate. I'm thinking the other way.
I need to get something in the air. Just barrel
this ball up any way you can. Because if you
think about your closer, if I throw strike three right here,
everyone's piling on me on the mound, you're not going
to throw strike three. If you think about a hitter,
if I'm going to walk them off, you're not going
to walk them off. It has to be so right
(27:24):
here and process oriented, which is so easy for us
to stay on a podcast. It's so hard to do.
In Game seven of the World Series.
Speaker 2 (27:32):
Well, and it's funny, you know, you mentioned the importance
of base running and obviously the secondary lead in that instance.
I mean, there's almost nobody in the current in the
modern era who knows the value of base running in
a big postseason game better than Dave Roberts. I mean,
he is revered for that. So you know, that's one
(27:52):
of the things that drove me nuts about the Giants.
Base running, outfield defense. These are all topics we're going
to get to over the course of the outfield of
the off season. But oh my gosh, those things made
every baseball player should be a good base runner and
should field their position.
Speaker 1 (28:10):
Come on, uh, you know it's my passion. Man not
have already talked to the new manager about that, so
I don't.
Speaker 2 (28:19):
He cannot take you away from me from this podcast.
This is much bigger FP.
Speaker 1 (28:24):
The podcast Baseball Podcast. We're about to be billionaires, just.
Speaker 2 (28:28):
So you know, Oh oh sure, how do the Giants
compete with the Dodgers? Now that's our final topic?
Speaker 1 (28:38):
Do you have to?
Speaker 2 (28:38):
I mean, the Giants don't, although they have plenty of resources.
Don't get me wrong. They have loads and loads of
resources they can spend. They could go over the threshold.
They could go over the threshold every year. I'm not.
I'm sure Greg Johnson's like sh like, but we all
know that they've got you know, now, they've got the
whole Bay Area to themselves. Come on, they're on a
gold mine. They own their own ballpark goal mine. But
(29:02):
they don't have the media deal the Dodgers have. They
don't have the show hey income, that extraordinary show Hay income.
He's already basically paid for HM. You could have offered
him a billion and it would have been a deal easily.
And Toronto has a you know, they're the only team
in Canada. They got resources too, maybe more than the Giants.
I don't know, But for me, the separator is the
(29:26):
Giants could be going and getting the you know, twenty second,
twenty third and twenty fourth, twenty fifth kind of players
on the roster that the Dodgers did. These are affordable guys.
They are not getting those those guys. How are the
Dodgers getting the best role players too? I mean, everybody
seems to click once they're there. I mean, they have
(29:48):
all of this locked up, and then you go down
to Triple A. They've got the most depth. That's crazy.
Speaker 1 (29:55):
I mean that's a billion dollar question. How can the
Giants compete with the Dodgers. Think, what you have to
do is worry about yourself and not the Dodgers first
and foremost. You have to do what you need to
do to be successful, and what type of brand of
baseball that is is is going to be. We play
the game the right way every single day with a
passion and a focus and an energy that it's all
(30:17):
we have to do is go out there for two
and a half hours every night and compete our ass
off and do all the little things that sometimes we
didn't see a lot of times we didn't see last year.
And whether it is getting I don't think it's Greg
Johnson spending. That's what all the fans want to do, like, oh,
you got to spend with the Dodgers. Number one, you
got to rely on a on a on a back
to back. Hangover that, how hard is it to three
(30:39):
p like you have to. You have to hope that
there's some element of that. And number two, you have
to hope that Tony Vitello comes in and inspires this
team and that is is very transparent with the players
that that realizes like that that he can help them
be winning players, that he can help the guys that
haven't had the big time tracks get the contracts through
(31:02):
a style of baseball that wins and is productive for
all of us. So for the Giants to compete with
the Dodgers, a they have to worry about themselves. The
Padres are great too, The Diamondbacks are great too. It's
a really tough division. But it's about to me a
brand of baseball that scrappy, fundamentally sound, that throws strikes,
(31:23):
that catches the baseball, that hits the cutoff man, that
keeps the double play in order. That ninety feet is precious,
and they're running the bases in a winning manner to win,
and they're looking for every advantage they can get, turning
over every stone, lifting up every mat and putting the
ball in play with two strikes and not striking out
and running hard to first base and putting pressure on
(31:44):
the defense. I mean, I could go on for hours
and hours. If they play a Milwaukee Brewers brand of baseball,
they will be in the mix, and they will be
playing in October. But it's not just oh, we did
it for two weeks and then all of a sudden,
we don't know what the infield fly rule is letting
fly balls drop between outfielders and the outfield. It has
to be an aggressive here on fire, fundamentally sound on
(32:10):
both sides of the baseball brand of baseball for not
just a month and then take a month off and
another month and take a month off. There has to
be a consistency to it. And there's one hundred and
sixty two Susan. As you know, you can't go out
like college baseball and just like whoo, you can't do
that every night. But you could be consistent in your approach,
and you could be diligent about your work ethic, and
(32:32):
you could be passionate about your desire to win, and
that's how you catch the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Speaker 2 (32:37):
Yeah, you know, and I think that the raw ra
thing is not necessarily going to work all the time,
and you know, it potentially could backfire at times. But
I will say I think we're going to have our
first argument right now. I agree with you everything you said.
But last year they said pitching in defense, and I said, yeah,
that is how you got to win, but they did
not have the personnel to do it. You have to
(33:00):
have the personnel first and foremost. And you take a
look at the Giants outfield, which we're going to talk
a lot about this offseason. The Giants outfield is not
you know, it's one of the reasons we saw Drew
Gilbert much earlier than I think we thought we might
see him. The Giants outfield is not a good defensive outfield,
especially once they traded. Yes, just not. They don't have
(33:22):
the personnel to be, you know, among the better outfields,
which is what they need, especially at that ballpark. I
love Elliott Ramos. I love him as a hitter, I
love him as a person. He's phenomenal. I'm not sure
he is an adequate major league left fielder. I think
he has to take a huge step forward next year
(33:44):
at that position, and he needs to be confident, and
he needs to be focused, and he has not shown
that yet. If not, I think he should be a
DH and they've got Bryce Eldridge to do that. I
don't know what you do in that spot. And Jung
Hu Lee love watching Jung Who, but he is not
one of the better center fielders in the game right now.
(34:05):
He needs to take a step forward now. He was
playing in his first full season. I'm going to give
him a big asterisk for that, but we need to
see a lot more from him. And I'm going to
talk about this all off season. I'm so sorry I'm
gonna bore you on it, but I think you know
it's more than just saying we have to play the
game the right way, and they do. They have to
have the players that can do that.
Speaker 1 (34:23):
Well, that's where the work comes in and you have
to buy in. I mean, the only way you get
better than outfielders taking fly balls off the bat live,
not fungos, not machines. You just got a power shag
and you have to do it. And if you if
you've reached your ceiling defensively, I always think that on
that side of the baseball, there's so much upside if
you want to work at it. There's there's only so
far and go as a hitter based on what God
(34:44):
gave you and your work ethic, you know. But on defense,
like Wade Boggs was a terrible third basement of the
minor leagues and he won a Gold Glove, and there's
all kinds of examples of that. So it's just it's
just about caring about defense and working hard at it
and wanting to be better at it. And I think
when you talk about spending, you're never going to spend
with the Dodgers if you're Greg Johnson. But just make
some smart choices, get some scrappy guys, some guys that
(35:07):
can play defense like back to seven, eight and nine.
They're not automatic outs. They can bud guys over and
hit and run and take a walk. They don't have
to be three hundred hitters. They just have to be
tough outs. I think if you build the lineup with
tough outs, but all your points are well taken, Susan,
I mean, I need to be convinced.
Speaker 2 (35:22):
I need to be convinced that some guys have not
hit their ceilings defensively because I we have not seen
that to be the case yet. Well, it's otherwise, go
out and get a couple of good defensive players.
Speaker 1 (35:36):
If you think your guys aren't good defensively, then coach
them up. Man. It's that simple. It's like you can't
complain about guys being bad at something and if you're
the coach. That's why Tony's the manager of the Giants
right now, because I feel like he's going to hire
staff that there's going to be a tireless workout ethic.
I think his biggest challenge besides the obvious, is going
to be to realize when to like, like back off
(35:59):
a little bit, because there are one hundred and sixty
two games and we can't just run these guys into
the ground with with with early work every day.
Speaker 2 (36:07):
You're the optimist. I guess I'm going to be the
skeptics sometimes on the show.
Speaker 1 (36:11):
But no, I like that.
Speaker 2 (36:13):
We almost agree on everything. That wouldn't be that wouldn't
be fun if we if we agreed on everything, but
we usually do.
Speaker 1 (36:19):
So. There was some breaking news before we just started
to record the greatest podcast in history, Splash Hit. It's
something about the Hall of Fame, Like you're on the
Contemporary Yeah, Era Committee, there's something about the we can
tease this for our next show.
Speaker 2 (36:34):
We're going yeah, for our next show. Yeah, yeah, let's
talk about it next time. Yeah. I'm on the Contemporary
Era Ballot Committee. I'm on all the ERAS ballot committee
we formed obviously, so it's what it sounds like. We
formulate the ballots for the Era Committee to vote on.
And I can say, if you haven't seen already since
the I think it came out about an hour ago,
Barry Bonds is back on the ballot. Jeff Kent is
(36:56):
on the ballot. So we'll be considered, uh, along with
a bunch of other names by the ERAS Committee at
during the winter meetings. This year and that will be decided.
I find those are always going to be interesting, So
stay tuned next time because we will talk about that
in full.
Speaker 1 (37:14):
Can they fight in the dugout in Cooperstown if they
both make it, that'd be awesome, Just a full on
brawl the induction ceremony like they did in San Diego.
They didn't like each other, by the way, Chuck here
makes it.
Speaker 2 (37:29):
Can they put like a truck at Chuck Chuck onto
his plaque?
Speaker 1 (37:33):
They were like little kids. If Barry had to have
one one whole row on the plane, Jeff had to
have two rows. If Barry was ten minutes late for stretching,
Jeff had to be eleven minutes late for stretching. They
were like little kids, but both great teammates. I enjoyed
them both very much, and Barry and I are still close.
I haven't talked to Jeff in yours, but I'll just
say this, I'll leave I'll end the show with this.
(37:54):
The Hall of Fame isn't the Hall of Fame until
Barry Bonds gets in, period. It just isn't. So whatever
you need to thoughts, your little committees, make sure Barry
gets into the Hall of fame.
Speaker 2 (38:08):
Well, I was on that committee and he is on
that ballot. I was on the last Eras committee that
did not Photoman. We can talk about that too. I
can't talk too much in depth about that because we're
not allowed too, but well we'll talk around it, all right.
Speaker 1 (38:23):
Well, that was fun In our first ever podcast, Splash
It on the File Territory Network. We've had a blast today.
I don't know. We're gonna do these periodically. You're gonna
be my guest periodically and we're going to talk about
the giants every single time. So it was fun actually
just to get to see you. You're in jolly old
England across the pond. It was fun talking baseball with
you and that was really cool.
Speaker 2 (38:42):
Thanks fantastic. And where can people find us now? And
where do you appear with this beautiful video?
Speaker 1 (38:50):
I have it right here. You can subscribe to Splash
Shit Territory on YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts.
We're part of the File Territory Network.
Speaker 2 (38:57):
So yeah, I'm gonna do that right now.
Speaker 1 (39:00):
I'm gonna do it right now. Al right, Susan until thanks.
Speaker 2 (39:03):
Thanks you FP. Here we go with the outro h
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