Splash Hits: Giants hold press conference with Bill Neukom and Larry Baer

I have yet to see the video of the press conference, but here’s what I basically gathered from Twitter:

• There won’t be a change in organizational philosophy.
• Larry Baer made it clear that the owners would like to keep Brian Sabean beyond 2012.
• Neither Bill Neukom nor Larry Baer denied that Neukom was forced out.
• Larry Baer said to assume that everybody under contract with the team in 2012 will remain on the team in 2012 (i.e. Barry Zito)
• Baer said he doesn’t expect payroll to go down.

That’s just a brief overview — there’s more that’s been written up by Tim Kawakami and John Shea (both linked below), but that’s the basic gist of it. There was some speculation from multiple astute fellow bloggers that the Aaron Rowand DFA had something to do with Neukom’s departure (see here and here); if true, that’s beyond absurd.

In the meantime, some links…

Larry Baer on Barry Zito, Bruce Bochy, Brian Sabean — and more of what you didn’t see on the televised news conference : San Francisco Giants: The Splash
John Shea from the ballpark, where a few reporters spoke with new Giants CEO after today’s news conference. . . .

Tim Kawakami: The truth about the San Francisco Giants and Bill Neukom – San Jose Mercury News
No matter how hard the parties tried to spin it Thursday, this organization is not stable.

VIDEO: Understanding ‘The Giants Way’ By Bill Neukom – SB Nation Bay Area
Former San Francisco Giants CEO and Managing Partner Bill Neukom fully understood this, and was in part the reason he decided to create ‘The Giants Way;’ a simple handbook created by Neukom on how “to articulate a successful baseball program and successful business program.”

Tim Lincecum And Another Means Of Defying Baseball Convention – Baseball Nation
Every coach at every level of baseball will talk about the importance of throwing first-pitch strikes. Tim Lincecum doesn’t care. Why would he? He’s Tim Lincecum! He’s weird!

First Pitch Tidbits – Baseball Analytics Blog – MLB Baseball Analytics
Here are some nuggets about what happens on the first pitch of an at-bat:

The Platoon Advantage: Hitter vs. Position Player
During the Common Man’s opening statement, he mentions “hitter” and “position player” interchangeably, and while Bill points out the difference and TCM surely knows the difference (you all know the difference), it’s a common correlation that’s often made.

Narratives From Formulas | FanGraphs Baseball
I won’t repeat the basics, which can be looked up elsewhere. Instead, I want to address the occasional misuse of the formula for building narratives of teams being better or worse.