Bill Neukom, the Giants new managing general partner, was introduced to the media today – it was Neukom’s second day on the job.
Opening statement: This is a very exciting day for me, Day Two on the job. I’m on a very steep learning curve and I have a lot of smart people to help me learn a lot in a hurry so we can make the Giants the team we all want it to be and this enterprise to be a part of the community we all want it to be. We are hard at work with plans to build on what we learned during the 2008 season. Our job is to take the talent we have and make sure we have an improved performance on the field in the 2009 season. And that means we intend to be competitive and after we are competitive we intend to be contending and we intend to be competitive as soon as possible. We want to be the sort of franchise that puts a contending major-league team on the field game in and game out and affords its community and its fan base a contending team year in and year out. How we are going to do that is by emphasizing and investing even more in home-grown talent. We have to find the best baseball athletes that we can find by better scouting and better analysis. We have to be wise about making the strategic trades that will materially help our team in the medium run at least and the long run. We will have to be willing to enter into the free trade creation market every now and then where there is opportunity to materially improve our competitiveness as a ballclub. Once we have that kind of talent on a regular basis then we are going to stress fundamentals. We will have a Giants way. We will be better conditioned, we will work harder, we will be better prepared. We will have mastered the fundamentals in all aspects of the game, and that will pay dividends we believe season in and season out. So we’re going to have the best talent and we’re going to have the best teachers and leaders and our field manager and our coaches and our instructors and our trainers and the like. (Brian Sabean and Bruce Bochy) share our enthusiasm for what it is we’re doing – to get us competitive in ’09 and to get us to be a contending ballclub on a regular basis just as soon as possible. The whole point is to develop the Giants way of playing baseball and to make sure everyone who becomes a Giant understands how it is we play this game. We think the fan base deserves more and we intend to deliver more in the near term and in the long term.
Q: Is contending in ’09 realistic?
A: We saw promise in 2008, particularly the second half with the play of a number of our young ballplayers. The question is which of those young players can sustain that kind of performance over a very long major league season. We saw promise. In the offseason with conditioning, with teaching, with practice leading to a very vigorous and disciplined spring training, which of them will be able to sustain their performance at the major league level? The next batch of players who didn’t come to our roster this year are also very promising. You’re beginning to see the fruits of being able to draft higher because of our lesser record over the last three years. We think our young talent supply is quite good. We’re not persuaded that in the ferocious competition of major-league baseball that talent, if it all proves out, will be good enough to make us not just competitive but contenders on a regular basis. We will look for ways to complement that talent. This is something for baseball experts. I shouldn’t pretend to be too specific.
Q: What is your job?
A: My job is to see to it that we have, as an enterprise, primarily in baseball but also on the business side – my job is to see to it that we have the right structure, the right culture so we can provide the resources and guidance so our baseball experts can put a winning team on the field. And that buck stops with me. It is important that we have a culture of meritocracy, that people understand there are objectives to every job in this enterprise, that they know they will be fairly judged as to how they perform against those objectives, they will have incentive compensation, and we will have world-class people in key positions on the business side and we will have the best in baseball in every key position on the baseball side. When I wake up in the morning and when I go to sleep at night I’m thinking about what is this organization, what is this structure, do we have the right people doing the right things? Are they motivated to be the best possible producers they can be? And making sure I stay out of the way of these talented people doing what they’re doing.
Q: Will the payroll increase?
A: We have asked Brian to look broadly at the question of the roster and that means again primary emphasis on home-grown talent, how much of this young talent can we expect to produce on a sustainable basis during the championship season next year. Where do we need to complement it with a trade? The number is something of a place holder at this moment in our financial planning. We’ve said to Brian and Bruce Bochy, “Don’t be constrained by a place holder number for payroll right now. Think about this in terms of how you’re going to assemble a roster that’s going to be competitive in ’09 and come back to us. We may not be able to afford Plan A. We may tell you we’re really a Plan B, a Plan C season. But we’ve told him, “Without being wild about it, don’t be limited by the notion you have only X dollars to spend. Think out of the box. Be creative.” We think that’s the way you run a talent business. Our business is baseball. But a good baseball business means we also have to be an entertainment business. It’s got to be an education business. Baseball is not an easy game. We have a whole new generation of people (fans) we need to educate about the subtleties and nuances and the joy of baseball. We’re in the information business. We’re in the service business. We’re in the content business. It’s not just between the lines. It’s where that amazing performance can go. It’s a pretty complicated business.
Q: What is the Giants way? Does it mean to bunt a certain way, to execute cut-offs?
A: It includes that, those kinds of fundamentals, that’s all part of the manual. The Giants way itself will have broader themes to it, but certainly the way the game is played is an essential part of the Giants way. What’s the kind of talent we want to find and how do we find it? It’s a focus on teaching, training, leading by example. It also involves how they comport themselves off the field as well as on the field. It has to do with the business they’re a part of. We need to support baseball, that’s what the non-baseball part of the Giants does.
Q: Peter Magowan has been a visible owner. Do you plan to be a visible owner?
A: I will be as visible as my colleagues think is constructive. And I will be as invisible as my colleagues think is constructive. I have a lot of learning to do, there’s no question. I am not doing this out of any sense of ego. I’m doing this because I’ve been a Giants fan since they came to San Francisco. I’ve followed the Giants quite closely for the last 50 years. It’s an enormous honor and an exciting opportunity for a fan from San Mateo to be part of the leadership of this team. I don’t need to be out front or prominent. What I need to be is good at my job.
Q: Sabean and Bochy are on last years of contract. Will they be invited back?
A: We’re not going to worry about what their status is with the Giants beyond the 2009 season now. We’re not going to be distracted by that. Plenty of time after the ’09 season to look back and evaluate how each of us did and decide where we go from there.
Q: Will Barry Bonds have a role in the organization?
A: We all need to be respectful of what Barry Bonds has done for baseball and this team. We need to permit the legal process to play out. Where we go in the future with Barry Bonds will depend to some extent on the future. It was a very good sign that he came to the reunion event. He’s always been enormously popular to the fans who populate this ballpark. I think there will be other opportunities for Barry Bonds and the Giants to find common ground. We don’t have any concrete plans at this point.
— Lowell
