SAN FRANCISCO -- When Buster Posey began his search for a new Giants manager, he used the word "obsessive" to describe the type of work ethic and commitment to detail he was looking for. The current Giant who has the most experience with Posey's choice has known for years that Tony Vitello will go to great lengths to accomplish his goals.
Drew Gilbert played for Vitello at Tennessee, and his former coach has credited the outfielder for helping to change the mindset of the entire baseball program there. But Gilbert wasn't originally supposed to play for Vitello.
Gilbert was a two-way star at Stillwater High School in Minnesota when he first met Vitello, who came to watch him at a showcase in Indiana. At the time, Gilbert was committed to play collegiately at Oregon State, but Vitello, who was just getting started in Knoxville, pushed hard to change that.
"He recruited really, really hard -- really, really hard," Gilbert said on Monday's "Giants Talk" podcast. "But at the time I didn't think anything of Tennessee because he had just gotten there. There was nothing really to be excited about Tennessee other than him. I don't want to say I wrote him off right away, but I think I always kind of remembered how hard he recruited me and I think naturally, as a human, that just kind of stays in the memory bank."
When coaching changes at Oregon State led Gilbert to reevaluate his choices, Vitello returned with the same level of effort, and by then, it was clear that he was turning Tennessee into something special. Gilbert decided to visit the campus and saw right away that it was where he wanted to be, in large part because of Vitello's messaging.
Gilbert remembers other college programs making promises about playing time or his initial role, which he knew couldn't actually be guaranteed. Vitello and his coaches presented things in a different light.
"What he and his staff would tell me is, 'You get what you earn,'" Gilbert said. "And I appreciated that honestly, because that's just how life is, right? I don't know why that really clicked with me. That's just how I operate and that's how they operated and it was pretty easy to see when I visited that that was going to be a good fit."
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It's also pretty easy to see why Posey would feel that's needed at Oracle Park. Before Gabe Kapler was fired, players grumbled privately and publicly about a lack of accountability within the clubhouse. Bob Melvin did a much better job in that department, but still, there were far too many baserunning and defensive mistakes last year, and nothing was ever really done to fix it.
It's much easier, of course, to be strict with 19-year-olds, but the Giants are confident that Vitello will be able to get through to some of their big leaguers who could tighten things up a bit. That would go a long way toward closing the gap in next year's postseason race.
Gilbert said Vitello set a consistent standard with his program at Tennessee, but also realized that he didn't have to -- and shouldn't -- treat everyone the same. He tailored his coaching to each individual and took a long-term view. For a Giants organization that needs to do a better job of developing young talent, that could be crucial.
"You were able to see kids develop not only as players, but as people, and when you combine the two, you might have a really good ballplayer in three to four years," Gilbert said. "And if not that, you can take those skills you learn there and apply them to anything else you do in life."