An open letter to the Giants' team president

Mr. Larry Baer,

I became a Giants fan in 1971 at the age of seven. I’ve seen the thrilling highs of three world titles, the crushing defeats that ended seasons like 1998 and 2003, the humiliation of a 100-loss campaign; I even died a little sitting in the left field corner at Anaheim during that Game Six debacle.

This season has gotten so bad that even Steve Perry stopped believing. Never before have I been so disgusted and embarrassed. The collapse of the 2016 San Francisco Giants was both avoidable and predictable.  And it happened on your watch.

I understand the team president delegates. There are far too many moving parts to a Major League baseball team for one man to be able to direct it all, but the buck has to stop somewhere and you’re the guy sitting in the chair. So I ask, no, I beg you; step in and stop this disaster.

The 2016 season is gone. Yes, the Giants may stumble into a wildcard spot but can you really believe this team wins it all? A team that can't regularly survive a ninth inning isn't going to suddenly hot for four weeks. To expect this unit to win a title isn't plausible, and just getting to play an extra game or too isn't sufficient. The bar has been set much higher.

It’s far too late to do anything about this campaign, but there are still 18 games remaining in which to send a message to fans who can’t endure another season, or another day, of incompetence. Some heads need to roll.

Who is Bobby Evans, Alex?

When Pat Riley was coaching the Lakers to titles in what seemed to be every season, he had a motivational tactic that was both cruel and effective. Someone who may have been popular in the clubhouse but wasn’t pulling his weight would be traded, released or otherwise dispatched. He called it “shooting a hostage”. You’ve got plenty of people, in uniform and out, who should have a bullet with their name on it.

The numbers speak for themselves. More than two dozen times this season the bullpen has surrendered a game. Just in September they’ve coughed up seven of 11 save opportunities.  They’ve given up a three-run lead 10 times after having done so just seven times in the previous two seasons combined. And it wouldn’t be so bad if the pundits hadn’t said at the start of the season that this bullpen needed an overhaul.

You knew. They knew. Everyone knew this could happen. Yet Rome burned while the brain trust fiddled.

Bruce Bochy will go the Hall of Fame. He’s also loyal to a fault, and it’s hurting this team. You can’t change the way he manages, and God knows no one would want to. But he will continue to field players who can’t produce simply because they once did – unless they aren’t there for him to do so. So again, it’s time to start shooting hostages. If the Giants can send Kirk Rueter or J.T. Snow packing and effectively put Barry Zito on the DL for a year, then the players who are pulling this team and your fan base) into the abyss can be dismissed without the universe imploding.

The housecleaning needs to begin now. Start with your GM.

Bobby Evans threw $90 million at a pitcher who disappears for extended stretches and counted on him to be the number three. He laid 40 percent of the rotation off on two guys who were last effective during President Obama’s first term. He committed three years to a center fielder who has done nothing to help this team. Meanwhile, he failed to address the obvious weakness in the bullpen and in left field, and gave a contract extension to a first baseman who clearly will have to be pushed aside so that the face of your franchise can extend his career.

Then, when the team played so far over its head through 90 games that the Bay Area had a collective nose bleed, he traded a young fan favorite and two prospects for two more of what he already had – and middle of the rotation arm and an average reliever. Closer, the real need, wasn’t addressed despite competent ninth-inning arms changing teams faster than SportsCenter could post the graphics.

We were fooled. The first half Giants really weren’t that good but simply finding a bat and a closer could have protected that lead. And it’s apparent the players knew it. When the needed help didn’t arrive, they disintegrated. A CVS umbrella holds up better in a hurricane than this squad did in the second half.

This is a failure in the front office every bit as much as it is on the field. Bochy can send the players out in any order you like. The cards can be dealt in any order but at the end he’s still left to play the same crappy hand.

It’s time. Make the changes. Send a message. Let’s really find out of Williamson, Parker, Law, Blach, Beede, Arroyo and their ilk can play. If nothing else, we can avoid another decade filled with the likes of Carlos Valderama, Lance Neikro, Todd Linden, et al; guys who were supposed to carry the Giants into the future but ended up carrying it to mediocrity. Then spend your money on real players. When an Andrew Miller or Aroldis Chapman is available, who don’t settle for Will Smith if you want to win. We aren’t jiggy with that, and neither should you be.

The window for this team will soon close. Bumgarner, Posey, Crawford – they won’t last forever. Don’t waste the years they have left like the organization wasted Barry Bonds. Bringing in Phil Nevin or Ryan Klesko to “help” doesn’t win titles, and since 2010 you've seen to it that anything less is a disappointment.

This team isn’t good enough, and the performance of those running it leaves a lot to be desired. The fans who have packed that stadium every night since 2010 deserve better.

A Serious Fan