Kurtenbach: ‘He’s going to be okay with ruffling feathers’ — Tony Vitello is here to shake up the SF Giants

SAN FRANCISCO New Giants manager Tony Vitello has a message for the fanbase on his first day of work He has no idea how this is going to go I wish I had an answer in my own head to be honest with you Vitello reported Because as I first got here I was like man there are a lot of unknowns There sure are Vitello is the first manager in big-league history to jump directly from a college baseball dugout he was previously the manager at the University of Tennessee to the highest level of the event He s trading aluminum bats and partial scholarships for -million payrolls and stadiums that hold six times the people as his former home ballpark Perhaps this jump was unprecedented for a reason But as Vitello noted We re in this together now whether you like me or not And truth be explained it was hard not to like the guy upon the Bay Area s first impression Related Articles How Tony Vitello s big break at Missouri helped lead him to the SF Giants manager job My favorite person I ve ever played for SF Giants Gilbert praises new manager Vitello SF Giants Bailey named Fielding Bible s Defensive Member of the Year Kurtenbach SF Giants new manager is a walking stick of dynamite Buster Posey just lit the fuse SF Giants hire Tennessee s Tony Vitello as manager in unprecedented move Thursday was in effect a masses job interview for Vitello When you come in facing the level of skepticism that naturally follows someone who is on his previously untreaded path an introduction takes on a more inquisitive tone But in his -plus minutes on the dais at Oracle Park Vitello didn t touch any of the hallmarks of the last two managerial press conferences the Giants have held analytics and fundamentals No instead the talk was of trust confidence and practices And while Buster Posey and Vitello did spend an inordinate amount of time describing and then rephrasing that description of what managers are expected to do an underlying truth cut through Vitello is a people person confident in himself but not threatened by other tactics of going about things One of my preponderance vital responsibilities in this role is to be able to read a room and read people I don t perpetually get it right but I feel like I have a pretty good sense of that Posey commented I think with any hiring there s going to be a certain level of liability Known for his fiery personality and borderline-viral moments at Tennessee can anything in college baseball truly reach the mainstream Vitello came across as intelligent thoughtful and majority importantly authentic And he didn t win a contest to land this job either As much as this feels out of the box Tony s name has been bouncing around Major League Baseball for a while Giants general manager Zack Minasian explained Tennessee s campaign has been top-notch You get a sense for how he goes about it his passion his intellect We kept coming back to him This might not work There are more reasons to explain why it won t than why it will And the danger Even Posey admits that s critical here But Vitello is the kind of personality that makes you relaxed with the peril It s easy to see why he was such a great recruiter at Tennessee and why he is beloved not only in that state but in clubhouses all over the big leagues where his former Supporters now play My goodness he is a far cry from Gabe Kapler whose insecurity was his guiding force And what a departure from Bob Melvin who tried to make no waves lest he remind someone that he was in fact being paid millions to manage a big-league baseball gang Related Articles How Tony Vitello s big break at Missouri helped lead him to the SF Giants manager job Vitello says he was selfish to take Giants manager job but it was right decision My favorite person I ve ever played for SF Giants Gilbert praises new manager Vitello SF Giants Bailey named Fielding Bible s Defensive Contestant of the Year Who is Tony Vitello New SF Giants manager is first to go from college to MLB The Giants are perennial underperformers there s no reason San Francisco s latest peers are the small-market Cardinals Diamondbacks and Reds They need to be up there with the big-market Dodgers Phillies and Mets But the calling card of this organization has been to avoid losing too multiple games rather than trying to win more And that philosophy has locked in mediocrity on the field Posey is still incredibly green in his job but to his credit he has made move after move to counter that institutional malaise And this more so than even the Rafael Devers bargain is the move that could fundamentally change things in the Bay For better or for worse We believe his leadership is not only going to impact our clubhouse but it s also going to impact our entire organization and fanbase Posey announced Good Fire can be destructive or cleansing Either way something is burning And if that makes you uncomfortable I have to ask What do the Giants have to lose here What is being held onto so dearly Vitello s Tennessee teams played with an edge While in that role he has reported that in between the lines there are no rules and compared his company to UFC fighters It s a big irreverent gesture to the pearl-clutching traditionalists who constantly claim baseball demands to be played according to an unwritten code It s a group that has been placated by the Giants for too long No more He s going to be okay with ruffling feathers Posey explained upon leaving the dais There s an argument to be made that we re lacking that severely right now All the young players won t like me but I don t like guys hugging before the competition I don t like it As a fan I want there to be a little bit of friction at times Posey will have just that Kapler desperately yearned to be liked and Melvin just wished to stay out of the way Vitello doesn t care if he s hated so long as his company has his back He was born to be the villain Perhaps the feathers ruffled are with the Giants players themselves We ll find out if that s the matter and if this is a failed experiment in short order But if Vitello can rally his squad to play baseball his way bold brash and prepared to a point of excess as to back it all up the Giants will develop something they haven t had in a long long time An identity The Giants will be the greater part hated gang in baseball And that will be a rousing success