New SF Giants GM invokes familiar formula to return to winning ways

The SF Giants officially announced that they are hiring Zack Minasian as their new general manager. In his first remarks in the role, Minasian echoed a tried and true strategy that brought the Giants a lot of success last decade.

Unfair or not, Minasian has been subject to suspicions among some parts of the fanbase given the fact that he was hired by the eminently unpopular Farhan Zaidi for his previous role within the organization and because he is the godson of former Los Angeles Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda. These things are obviously not Minasian's fault, but they are certainly not the best ways to endear yourself to Giants fans.

However, we should do our best to give Minasian the benefit of the doubt. He is his own man and it seems unlikely that he is going to operate in the same exact way that Zaidi did. Additionally, with apologies to the more conspiracy-minded folk out there, there does not seem to be much evidence that he is actually a Dodgers operative trying to sabotage the Giants from within.

SF Giants appear poised to return to winning formula

It was heartening to hear Minasian discuss the general strategy he and president of baseball operations Buster Posey have for trying to create a successful product on the field:

"I think it’s a huge advantage that we have this blueprint from not too long ago on what works in this ballpark. Buster talked about it: we’re going to pitch, we’re going to play good defense and we’re going to find ways to score runs," said Minasian.

Obviously, this is not groundbreaking stuff by any means. Giants fans understand that this was the formula that resulted in 3 World Series titles last decade. It is good to see that Posey and Minasian are on the same page in this regard so they can go about restoring that Giants brand of baseball.

Actually doing it is much harder, of course. But at least the dawn of this Posey-Minasian regime seems to have more of an overarching vision to it than much of the Zaidi era did.

They can say all the right things, but now the hard work begins of trying to pull a mediocre team up and turn them into an actual contender. Let's hope they can deliver on this vision.