Giants hire Gabe Kapler.

One of the reasons that I became a San Francisco Giants fan was that it was so easy.
The team had good players that seemed like good people (this was after the Barry Bonds years), had the best announcing team in the game, and when I was sitting around late nights, they were fun to watch.
It was one of those things that happen organically without thought or planning about who to pick to root for and that doesn't happen often to me.
I'm usually thinking about teams to root for in opposite divisions or conferences to not conflict with my main team (usually Ohio based except for the New Jersey Devils) and even though the selections are often logical, the fandom usually doesn't become diehard.
I became a Giants fan by watching and all that I wrote above, which is why the hiring of Gabe Kapler bothers me on so many levels.

I'm used to my teams hiring (and especially drafting) people that I would say would be my worst possible choice, but usually the reasons that I may have for not wanting a manager/coach/player has to do with their on the field performance and maybe a person has a maturity question or question of a clubhouse issue.

In the case of Gabe Kapler, it's more than his mediocre two years as the manager of the Philadelphia Phillies.
Kapler's two years ended with a record of two games under .500 with a roster that not only signed a superstar in Bryce Harper but had the surrounding talent of a playoff team and yet never performed at that level.
If it was only that, I might not be thrilled, but I'm used to bad field bosses as I am a Cleveland Browns fan after all.

It's the side factors with Gabe Kapler that make me wonder most about this hire.
I don't claim to have all the information on the following, so I am providing links if I miss a piece or two of valuable information.
The Washington Post broke this story in February, but since I don't subscribe to their site, the paywall is up and I'm using Medium and Sports Illustrated as the sources for this story.
In 2015, when Gabe Kapler was working for the Dodgers (as was Farhan Zaidi, the current Giants head of all things baseball) as the Dodgers director of player development and as the story goes was involved in a coverup at the Dodgers spring training facility in Arizona with two players possibly involved in a sexual assault case.
Sports Illustrated claims that one of the two players involved is currently on a major league roster (the other was released) and it's also pretty clear that the young lady involved (who wanted payment to talk to SI and has a developing rap sheet) is not a babe caught in the woods either.
I'm not going to make a judgment on the guilt or innocence of the players involved, but I will state that if you read the sources that you will have to at minimum blame Kapler for poor judgment in how he handled the situation then, but even going forward Kapler's explanations of how he handled this case are those of a man that has tossed out some platitudes and the obligatory apologies, but has yet to completely explain his actions or truly accept responsibility for his handling of the matter.

Guilt or innocence aside, there are plenty of questions that should be asked and answered (the articles raise plenty of questions on Kapler's actions then and his regrets now) of Kapler, Farhan Zaidi, and the Giants organization.
To Kapler, Zaidi and any other person of importance in the organization, I ask these two questions- "What did you handle wrong in this situation/what would you do differently today?" and "What about
Gabe Kapler makes him worth dealing with the issues from his past with the Dodgers and considering the problems in the front office in recent years (Charles Johnson and Larry Baer), what stood out about him that of all candidates allowed you to overlook these decisions?"

That's not all though with Kapler and even Zaidi, as Sports Illustrated reported a year ago (and the investigation is still moving forward) the Department of Justice is investigating MLB for violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act for acquiring players from the Caribbean and Latin American under unsavory practices.
What has been revealed thus far has been centered on 2015 and 2016 and the team mentioned most prominently among many?
The Los Angeles Dodgers- with Gabe Kapler as their head of player development.
If this shoe drops and I'm not sure when and if it will- Gabe Kapler and Farhan Zaidi could very well be a major part of these investigations.

When you wrap it up, the San Francisco Giants could have picked almost anyone in the baseball world to replace future Hall of Fame manager Bruce Bochy and the choice is someone that isn't simply polarizing to your fan base, it's someone that is being panned by almost all and the few that aren't panning the hire are simply uttering "let's give him a chance" or " we will see".
If that's the best that you have to say, it's not a popular hire.
Farhan Zaidi could have picked anyone and if it didn't work out, it would have likely been looked at as the manager's fault.
Instead by selecting Gabe Kapler against the wishes of so many, Zaidi has attached himself to the hiring of Kapler and the failure of Kapler, should that occur, will be applied to Zaidi as well for ignoring all of the baggage with this hire and selecting him anyway.

I'll wrap with the similarities to another front-office (not coaching) hire that was hated from the first minute of hiring rumors began by the fan base and local media.
It's not baseball, it's football.
Remember when the Jimmy Haslam era began with his first hire of Joe Banner and despite the howlings from everyone from me to Moses Cleveland's statue in downtown Cleveland wanting no part of Mike Lombardi, Haslam hired him anyway?
Look back to Banner's statements on Lombardi that basically said: "you don't know this guy like I do, you'll love him eventually and if not, winning is great and to hell with you".
Compare those thoughts to those that Farhan Zaidi made in his first statement on the hiring and I'll paraphrase " I'm looking forward to the fans and organization getting to know Gabe as I (Zaidi) do and as they do, it'll be a strong, positive, and long-lasting relationship".

It was that statement that instantly made me think of Jimmy Haslam, Joe Banner, and Mike Lombardi answering questions and defending a hire that only they thought was a good idea with only those men believing things were going to work out as they offered the same stale platitudes on why this was a good idea.
Mike Lombardi lasted thirteen months with the Browns and when he was fired- Joe Banner was fired with him.
Let's see what the future holds for Farhan Zaidi because his decision to push for Gabe Kapler could be a decision that takes Zaidi down with his hand-picked choice.

Back later with a cleaning of the inbox as I was working on that when the hiring of Gabe Kapler was announced.

Bye Bye Banner and Lombardi!!

Out of the clear (?) sky Tuesday morning, I saw it flash across Twitter.
Joe Banner and Mike Lombardi were relieved of duties by the Cleveland Browns!

Now look, I'm not saying that former Eagle linebacker Ray Farmer will be a whiz at GM or that Alec Scheiner will be great as President (which I don't really care about bean-counting), but I will say this- Knowing little about Ray Farmer as an executive beats knowing what Mike Lombardi brings to the table.
Or as I said in a discussion with another Browns fan-Farmer is unknown, so that's a risk, Lombardi is a known quantity as a poor executive, so I'll take my chances with Farmer.

None of this is to say that I'm thrilled with Farmer, who assisted with last year's less-than-strong draft, but did not have the final say and therefore doesn't deserve to have that hung around his neck.
Farmer also doesn't come with a huge resume' other than being the director of player personnel with the Chiefs just before Scott Pioli ran the Chiefs into the number one pick and his one year with the Browns.
I am open-minded though as Farmer will have his own say for the first time and will get his chances to succeed.

The losses of Banner and Lombardi actually made me leap and do a little softshoe at the world headquarters, so no matter how poorly Ray Farmer could do, I still wouldn't miss these two.
Joe Banner may have been a tough man to bargain with at the table and good with the finances, but he wanted to be on the football end and he just wasn't equipped for that part of the job.
Banner could have been very helpful to the organization had he been able to concentrate on what he did best.
However, it appears that his ego simply could not handle that and therefore he deserved to go. 

Mike Lombardi?

One adage of the political game is that if you have a choice with a story that is going to be badly regarded, you try to release it on a Friday.
The theory goes that between the end of the work week and people just wanting to relax, you can sometimes take the edge off the news by getting it out there initially when the attention is divided.

Yesterday Jimmy Haslam and his hired frontman Joe Banner did just that with the hiring of highly unpopular NFL Network analyst Mike Lombardi as the head of player personnel.

Lombardi was the one name almost universally panned by Cleveland media, bloggers, fans, sand people, you name it and sure enough, that's exactly who was hired.

Joe Banner was the patron of Lombardi and he knew that there were going to be some upset people as Banner was quoted as saying "I put myself out on a limb here" and referring to a backlash "My eyes are open"

The issues are not with the media opinions of Lombardi, although his words on using a second-round pick in the 2013 draft in the supplemental draft on Josh Gordon as "A wasted pick" are coming back to haunt Lombardi after Gordon's excellent rookie season.
The problems lie with the awful draft record that Lombardi was involved with in his previous stint with Cleveland that saw first-rounders used on failures such as Tommy Vardell, Derrick Alexander, and Craig Powell.
Under the Lombardi-led personnel department, the Browns drafted just one Pro Bowler in five drafts (the late Eric Turner) and generally struggled in the evaluation of both college and pro personnel.
That is what scares Browns fans and nothing that Jimmy Haslam or Joe Banner can say that will dull those concerns.

Haslam was quoted as having a "respected NFL leader" offer that "If you can get Mike Lombardi then you have to do so".
Considering the same things were said about Joe Banner, did Haslam ever think that getting advice from competitors to hire guys that no one else even interviews might be a bad idea?
This move is groused about by almost all, although everyone would like to see Lombardi pull off a Lazarus-like return with some good personnel decisions and this move has really put a damper on the excitement of the new regime.
Joe Banner says he has put his neck out? He has and if the young, but promising Browns take a step back-Banner might be going with his hand-picked friend.....

It's too bad that the Browns made this move because I was already to give them credit for two excellent coordinator hires for rookie head coach Rob Chudzinski.
Norv Turner on the offensive side and the hiring of Ray Horton from Arizona to run the defense are both strong hires.
Turner will do what he does best- work with quarterbacks and call plays, while Horton did an excellent job last season with the Cardinals for the most part.

The only downside to the hiring of Horton is the likely transition from the 4-3 to the 3-4.
Rob Chudzinski says he wants to use elements of both defenses and have a "hybrid", but as nice as it sounds to have the best of both, it usually works out to have the defense that the coordinator prefers become more and more dominant.

My concern is that once again, the Browns are so busy shoving a scheme instead of using the talent available to run the system to their strengths.
Ray Horton is a quality coordinator, but I bet they run more 3-4 than anything else, but the talent has been accumulated for a 4-3.

The linebackers are already weak and I wonder if Jabaal Sheard can stand up in the 3-4, plus considering Phil Taylor, Ahtyba Rubin, and John Hughes seem to be one too many to play the nose, although I might take a look at Rubin as a 3-4 end.

All of that and I haven't even touched goofy uniforms for 2014. UGH!

So with all the questions and less than enthused fan base, it makes sense to make these announcements on a Friday.
Here we go again...

Photo Credit: AP Photo