SF Giants Press Clips Friday, September 28, 2018 San Francisco Chronicle Can Giants spoil the Dodgers’ season? Henry Schulman Kevin Frandsen remembers the at-bat vividly. In the waning days of his major-league career, which began and ended with the Giants, he got a start against Clayton Kershaw at AT&T Park. Having barely played at all in September 2015, he expected Kershaw to bust him inside with fastballs. Frandsen got one and swung a bit early but managed to push it up the middle for a single. That was the Giants’ only hit in an 8-0 Dodgers victory that clinched the third of what is now five consecutive National League West titles. When Kershaw completed his shutout, he and his teammates turned the ballpark blue. They danced on the field and decorated the visiting clubhouse in Champagne. “He was special that night,” Frandsen said. “He smelled blood in the water at AT&T, knowing a win clinched it for them.” Once again, the schedule has brought these ancient rivals together for the season’s final weekend with a chance for one team to party and the other to ruin it, the way the Giants did when Joe Morgan hit his home run in 1982, or when the Dodgers beat Salomon Torres to send a 103-win Giants team home in ’93. In three of the past four seasons, the Dodgers have clinched the West by beating the Giants. In 2014, they did so at Dodger Stadium, again with Kershaw on the mound, and it happened last year on Tommy Lasorda’s 90th birthday. The stakes seem higher this weekend, at least for the Giants’ faithful, because they have had little else to cheer in a second straight losing season. This is their World Series. The series begins Friday night, with the Dodgers a game behind the Rockies for first place in the 1 West. The Dodgers are fighting on two fronts, however. They can lose the West and still reach the playoffs. They enter the weekend one game ahead of the Cardinals for the second wild-card spot. The Dodgers are loaded with talent while the Giants are fielding a ragtag team of irregulars and rookies, with a couple of everyday players sprinkled in. The Dodgers have many more ways to win this weekend. Does that ever matter in this rivalry? Giants manager Bruce Bochy, speaking about his players, said, “They’ll feel it. They’ll know it, They’ll talk about it. They know they can impact what happens.” The Giants are sending their best arms to the mound to meet the Dodgers’ best. Hyun-Jin Ryu faces Madison Bumgarner in Friday night’s opener. Giants fans would love it if Bumgarner came out snorting fire, hoping to ram the Dodgers right out of the postseason. They might be a little disappointed, even if Bumgarner intends to win. “That’s a good story, but no,” Bumgarner said. “I don’t see it that way. If we’re not going, I don’t care who goes. I feel like we should be there, and could be there, and we’re not. I am going to do everything I can do to keep them from going only because I’m pitching. “I don’t care about them or any other team in the division. I only care about us.” Second baseman Joe Panik, who began this season with two solo homers to beat the Dodgers in two 1-0 games, does believe the hairs on the players’ necks will stand at attention because of what’s at stake. “We’re all playing for pride, for the Giants name on the front of the jersey,” Panik said. “The rivalry with the Dodgers, having them at home, they’ve got these games on the line … that’s going to give us a little extra incentive to lay it all out there.” Bumgarner is from North Carolina, Panik from New York. Frandsen is San Jose born and bred, and he can’t forget Kershaw’s one-hitter and the Dodgers getting lit on the Giants’ home field. “I don’t think you go into it thinking about ‘don’t let them celebrate on your field,’ but when it happens, damn it, it sucks,” Frandsen said. “The rivalry isn’t the crazy hatred on the field as in the past, but when good things happen (for one team), I think that’s when the rivalry kicks in and a little bit of the jealousy and the hatred is seen or heard.” Frandsen drove home to San Jose late that night and stopped for a bite to eat. The game was 2 being replayed on the TV at the bar. Fans stopped by to thank him for saving the Giants from a no-hitter. Those fans might not like to hear it, but as professionals, the Giants understand how good the Dodgers have been since they began their string of division titles in 2013, and how good they are now, no matter what happens over the weekend. “Winning five in a row, they’ve been playing really good ball for a while now,” Panik said. “It’s no fluke. They’ve got a lot of talent over there. As an athlete, as a ballplayer, you’ve got to respect that.” The fans? Not so much. San Jose Mercury News Ten candidates who fit the Giants’ desired ‘next-gen’ front office profile Kerry Crowley SAN FRANCISCO–At some point this offseason, the Giants will gauge star free agent Bryce Harper’s interest in playing at China Basin. They will discuss Madison Bumgarner’s future with the franchise. And they will lay the groundwork for changing a roster that’s in desperate need of a makeover. But before all of that takes place, the Giants must hire an executive to lead those discussions and build a new blueprint. After dismissing general manager Bobby Evans on Monday, Giants CEO Larry Baer and vice president of baseball operations Brian Sabean have set out to find a “next-gen” leader of the franchise’s front office. Baer wants a mind who can blend analytics with scouting, while Sabean is determined to hire a visionary who grasps the challenges of constructing a club that can win at AT&T Park. Evans’ replacement will answer directly to Baer, and it’s possible Sabean’s title will change this offseason to accommodate the new hire. Sabean will not be involved in the day-to-day operations of the front office, and if the Giants want to interview and ultimately hire the most qualified candidates, they’ll need to open a position that represents a promotion, and not a lateral move. In the coming days, some of the the candidates the Giants will likely pursue are current general managers with a track record of success. Because clubs can deny executives the right to interview for the same position with another franchise, the Giants may need a vacancy in the vice president of baseball operations role to bring in an experienced general manager. With that in mind, here’s a list of 10 executives who could become the front office official 3 tasked with leading the Giants into the future. Jean Afterman: Sabean has deep ties to the Yankees, where Afterman ascended to the role of assistant general manager in 2001 and currently stands as the highest-ranking female executive in the sport. A San Francisco native, Afterman attended Lowell High School with Baer and boasts extensive experience with an organization that has enjoyed recent success in both international and domestic talent acquisition processes. Chaim Bloom: Because Bloom, 35, is already the vice president of baseball operations in Tampa Bay, the Rays are not required to permit Bloom to interview for the position in San Francisco. Still, he’s an obvious fit for the role as he’s an analytically-driven, forward-thinking executive with a background in negotiating contracts and player scouting. If Bloom isn’t available, general manager Erik Neander could also receive a call from the Giants. Mike Chernoff: Since earning a promotion to the general manager role in 2016, Chernoff has overseen back-to-back AL Central champions and built a well-balanced club with a middle-of- the-pack payroll. Though he hasn’t experienced the challenge of dramatically overhauling a major market roster, very few candidates have. Mike Elias: The assistant general manager of scouting and player development for the Astros, Elias owns a strong track record of acquiring amateur talent. The Astros credit Elias as the “driving force” behind the selection of Carlos Correa with the No. 1 overall pick in 2011 and the Yale product also spent the early years of his career scouting in the Cardinals organization. David Forst: Poaching Forst, the Oakland A’s general manager, would be quite the splash, but it’s not outside the realm of possibility. Forst has clearly demonstrated a strong ability to build from the ground up and has never had the benefit of working with such deep pockets. Would Forst leave an A’s franchise on the rise and trek across the Bay Bridge to go head-to-head with Billy Beane? It’s a question the Giants might find themselves asking in the near future. Jed Hoyer: Hoyer is signed to a five-year contract that won’t expire until 2021, but a move to San Francisco would bring him out of Theo Epstein’s shadow in Chicago and allow Hoyer to continue to cultivate a reputation as one of baseball’s brightest executives. If the Giants can figure out a way to lure Hoyer to the Bay Area as their vice president of baseball operations, they may inquire about Hoyer bringing in Cubs executive Jason McLeod to serve as general manager.