Giants as the anti-A's

Hey thanks there, Einstein. I'm glad that the Giants are considere the anti-A's in more ways than one. I'm also glad when any one of the pro-scout, anti-Moneyball teams like the Giants, the Cardinals, the Braves and even the Royals win. These teams still retain a lot of the charm of old-school scouting and player development with a smattering of statistical analysis.

I read somewhere that the amount of statistical analysis in baseball has gone up exponentially by some insane amount or another. I guarantee most of these teams are just gathering data as a CYA exercise and have no idea what they are looking at or what to do with most of it.

from sfgiants.com
Giants' latest title offers questions, answers | sfgiants.com:

Maybe the wrong Bay Area baseball franchise was celebrated in a best-selling book and a feature film that grossed more than $100 million worldwide. Certainly the Oakland A's and general manager Billy Beane offered a compelling story for the world to absorb with "Moneyball."

The Giants are perceived as the anti-A's, and yet San Francisco's the team that keeps ordering championship flags and rings.

As the Giants' GM, Sabean has created a culture in which many baseball-operations employees don't want to leave the organization. He asks for unswerving loyalty, but he also reciprocates it. The resulting "collective collaboration," as Sabean called it, helps the Giants act in concert when reaching a baseball-related decision.

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This article from Tracy Ringolsby tends to support my point. The top NL franchises of the last 19 years ( the length of Brian Sabean's tenure ) have been none other than the Giants, the Cardinals and the Braves. All of these franchises lean more towards scouting and player development than statistical analysis.

from Tracy Ringolsby:
Sabean Doesn’t Want Attention, Just Wins « Write 'em Cowboy:

And under his guidance the Giants, in the last 19 years have:

–Third best winning percentage in the NL (1,556-1,358, .534) behind the Braves (1,651-1,263, .567) and Cardinals (1,545-1,319, .547).

–Played more post-season games (76) than any NL team other than the Cardinals (121) and have a better post-season winning percentage (.605) than any team that has played at least 34 post-season games.

–Have made four World Series appearances, the only NL team other than the Cardinals, who also have made four, to have been in the World Series more than twice, and have won an NL-best three World Series in the last 18 years.

And don’t forget he took advantage of the San Diego Padres decision to fire manager Bruce Bochy by quickly signing Bochy to oversee things at AT&T Park.

Not bad for a franchise being run by an “idiot.’’

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