The San Francisco Giants made a difficult but necessary decision by having Bobby Evans step down as general manager of the club.
I’m certainly not going to blame Bobby Evans for what has been a disastrous couple of season for the San Francisco Giants, but a change was needed.
The front office staff has tried to patchwork this team with aging players and bad contracts for the past couple of years and it hasn’t worked out.
I’ve been crying for a makeover since the 2017 All-Star break, and I’m hoping this is the beginning.
The game is changing quickly, and while the San Francisco Giants are getting older and slower, other teams are getting younger and more athletic.
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The way the Giants won their three World Series titles still works in today’s game — pitching, defense, and timely hitting. But you need players who are more athletic in the field and on the basepaths, and you need guys up-and-down the lineup that can consistently crank out over 20 home runs a year.
The San Francisco Giants haven’t had a 20 home run hitter since Brandon Crawford hit 21 in 2015 — that’s astounding. You can win in today’s game with that lack of power.
And I’m not saying you need a lineup full of all-or-nothing guys either, that won’t win in today’s game. But you need guys that can put the ball in play, and do so for power on a regular basis.
You look at a team like the Houston Astros as the model. They had 11 players who hit double-digit home runs last year, including four who hit over 20. George Springer had the most with 34, but Jose Altuve was next with 24.
So you don’t need a bunch of guys that hit 30-plus home runs, you just need a lineup of guys that can go deep at any given time. The Giants don’t currently have a threatening lineup like that right now.
But back to the general manager change. It sounds like whoever is going to replace Evans will be a more analytical guy.
I’m not all about the analytics of baseball, but I am not blind to the fact that how you win this game is changing, and it’s time the San Francisco Giants changed along with baseball.