Buster Posey is the walking embodiment of quiet professionalism. Cool. Calm. Contemplative. Collected.
I doubt his pulse has ever gone over 80 beats per minute.
And, according to multiple media reports, he just hired a manager who carries himself as if life is a giant knife fight.
Hiring Tony Vitello to manage the Giants is bold. It’s brash. I have no idea if it will work, but it was, unquestionably, the most interesting option on the board.
I love it.
Because the Giants haven’t just been mediocre, they’ve been boring. Last year’s team, in particular, needed a fire lit under their collective rears.
Well, future Giants teams will get that in spades.
FILE – Tennessee coach Tony Vitello, center, hoists the championship trophy following his team’s 6-5 victory against Texas A&M in Game 3 of the NCAA College World Series baseball finals in Omaha, Neb., June 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Rebecca S. Gratz, File)
I deal with Giants fans all the time in this role and as a host on KNBR. On the whole, I’d say they want their hand held and to be told that everything is going to be ok.
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Well, San Francisco, say hello to the chest-bumping, umpire-scathing, villain-embracing, agent of chaos from the University of Tennessee.
Love him or hate him, everyone in sports is going to know who the manager of the Giants is from this point onwards.
Vitello is a stick of C4 to convention. When you bring in someone this combustible (he’s a Missouri Tiger, after all), there’s always the potential that this blows up in Posey’s face, with nothing left to be recovered.
But there’s a chance that explosion — and there will be explosions — hits folks in Los Angeles and San Diego.
That’s the bet here.
Yes, Posey, the guy who spent a career winning with a calm two-strike approach, just swung from his heels on the first pitch.
Vitello did not take a conventional path to this job.
The conventional path is managing in Triple-A for a decade. The conventional path is being a polite bench coach, biding your time, saying the right things, and thanking the organization for the opportunity to interview for a main gig every now and again.
Vitello’s path is screaming at umpires until veins pop out of his neck, putting the bully in his pulpit by calling out everything he sees wrong with the game, building a “BaseVols” brand that’s more WWE than NCAA, and turning Knoxville into the center of the college baseball universe through brash, fearless energy.
He’s a marketing savant wearing spikes, and he is a prohibitive favorite to be suspended for a game by Major League Baseball by the Fourth of July.
And why would Posey, the ultimate professional, want that for the Giants?
Because it’s the one thing he can’t provide. It’s the one thing the Giants’ spreadsheets and analytics departments don’t have a column for: he brings this team a pulse.
Of course, being a loudmouth isn’t Vitello’s only qualification — otherwise I would have gotten the job.
No, Vitello has an excellent eye for talent and a proven track record of developing it. For a team that has a fledgling farm system, getting the most out of whatever’s left to fill out this roster is vital.
More importantly, Vitello asks his team to play with the kind of aggression he brings, seemingly, to every aspect of his life. That will be a breath of fresh air for anyone who has watched Giants baseball for the last decade.
Sure, this man might lack tact at times, but his baseball bonafides are undeniable.
But this isn’t the SEC.
How, exactly, does this play in a Major League clubhouse full of unionized, multi-millionaire veterans?
These guys aren’t 19-year-old kids on scholarship. They are grown men who will tune you out by the second week of May if you’re all bluster and no substance.
Vitello’s entire program at Tennessee was built on Vitello’s personality. He was the star. He was the brand. He was the show.
Can that work in the big leagues, where the manager is usually a glorified PR staffer who talks to the media and takes the blame (deserved or not) for losses?
(Will Willy Adames be willing to cede the spotlight?)
Vitello is unquestionably a bright mind. (Again, he’s a Mizzou alum.) But is he capable of checking his ego — the very ego that got him this job — to manage multi-millionaire professionals?
We’re going to find out, and fast.
This is either going to be a stroke of genius from Posey or a dumpster fire so spectacular that the flames will be visible from Reno. There is no in-between.
It’s absurd. It’s possibly reckless. It’s unquestionably un-Posey.
And you know what? It gets my stamp of approval because it’s the most interesting thing the San Francisco Giants have done in a long, long time.