Another game, another loss. Ty Blach pitched a really good game....except for those 5 batters in the 4'th inning. Giants offense was not up to pick him up. Key Lines:
Eduardo Nunez 3B- 3 for 4. BA= .305. Hopefully that shiny BA will attract some deadline shoppers who won't notice the baserunning miscue.
Miguel Gomez 2B- 2 for 4. BA= .250. I only watched the first 3 innings but I saw Gomez make a couple of nice plays at 2B.
Brandon Crawford SS- 0 for 4. BA= .228
Hunter Pence RF- 0 for 4. BA= .247. Hunter Pence and Brandon Crawford should be batting 7'th and 8'th until they prove they are worthy of a higher spot. 2 black holes in the lineup right now.
Ty Blach LHP- 7 IP, 8 H, 5 R, 1 BB, 7 K's. ERA= 4.50. 4 of the 8 hits and the BB were given up to 5 consecutive batters in the 4'th inning. With 1 out, Blach walked a batter, then double, double, double, single, all line drives. I cannot blame that on BABIP luck because line drives. Was Blach distracted by thinking about the walk? Was he upset with the ump? Did he temporarily lose his mechanics because of having to go to the stretch? Many Sabers would say it's just a string of bad sequencing luck but we've seen it from multiple Giants pitchers over and over this year. If 3 of the 4 hits were grounders or bloopers, I'd would say BABIP luck without hesitation, but 4 consecutive line drives is tough to reconcile.
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The Pirates come to town tomorrow with Matt Cain facing Gerrit Cole.
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Food for Thought: League average R/G has risen from 4.07 in 2014 to 4.67 in 2017. If the Giants were to score exactly 4 runs every game, they would be a sub-.500 team by a pretty big margin.
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4.67!
ReplyDeleteGiants score 3.91 and give up 5.05.
SF gives up a lot more than the league average (0.38) and scores far less (0.76).
Relatively, the bad offense is worse than the bad pitching!
Interestingly, the (bad) 2017 Giants are outscoring the (relatively good) 2016 Giants 3.91 to 3.72!
Giants best starter by "ERA" -- the only one below 4 -- is Bumgarner with his 0-4 record.
Relieverwise, the days of the Core Four are long gone with Gearrin, Strickland, Kontos, and and and Osich (?) (or Melanson) a far cry from Affeldt, Romo, Lopez, and Casilla of 2012.
How is either problem fixed?
There isn't a lot of power in the Giants system, so the answer for them is not HRs but how to string hits, move the line. A "real" hitter to protect Posey would help. It won't be Pence, and probably not Crawford. Belt is too streaky to be that person. Giants apparently have given up on it being Williamson or Parker. Slater doesn't have "real" power. Shaw? Trade Belt and roll the dice?
If it is (sort of) true that the "contenders" need mostly infielders and pitching rather than power outfielders (a shaky assumption), maybe a 3-way trade with the Giants giving up something good to a contender who gives prospects to a third team (?) who gives a power outfielder to the Giants.
Perhaps there is a Harper or Judge or Bellinger blossoming in some contender's system that a straight trade would work. Jimenez is gone. Devers? Could he be pried away from Boston for Nunez and Cueto and Samardzija and Strickland? No, the Giants would have to give up Posey to get Devers!
They would be more likely to get Brinson from the Brewers who need pitching to make a run this year, to beat the Cubs to the Division and the Dodgers to the Series. Cueto (and money) and/or Samardzija (and money) plus Strickland and Crick and/or Law? Throw in Span, too. And Dyson, although they don't need a closer. Anyone for an honest outfiled slugger prospect!
Dream on!
if the front office is smart, they should look to move nunez, span, hundley, kontos, gearrin, and maybe moore and try to get as many prospects back in return. law has looked better as of late and beede is starting to find his rhythm in sacramento some of the bullpen guy are expendable.
ReplyDeleteThe front office is probably that smart..
DeleteI don't see Span, Kontos or Gearrin as guys they have to move but if the return was right, I think Evans would pull the trigger.
DeleteDo the Cubs not remember that, with the best team in the Universe last year, they could have been knocked out of the WS in the NLCS and then they could easily have lost 1 of the final 3 and NOT been the best team at all?
ReplyDeleteThey are not better this year, especially in their starters, and their lineup is not as frightening.
PREDICTION: If they stand pat or just try brushing up the edges, there will be a new World Champion this year.
If Kershaw is mortal and the Cubs don't gell, a much more realistic opportunity opens in the NL.
Washington, Milwaukee, Colorado, and Arizona are all legitimate threats.
Milwaukee has a lot in the pipeline, so maybe they will play it with what they have and wait until next year. That never works, but the Brewers may not know that if a door opens, you gotta take it.
The Brewers are a legitimate team and the Giants could push them over the top, filling and backing up minor weaknesses in the IF (Nunez) and OF (Span), another starter (Cueto or Samardzija), a good reliever (Strickland or Gearrin), and a very good back-up catcher (Hundley).
I'd give all of that for their power hitting #1 prospect and a PTBNL, and tell them we'd take Cueto back (the PTBNL) if he doesn't opt out of his contract and they don't want to keep and pay him.
Sure, that's too much for an unproven prospect -- he may be like all Giants' hopeful power prospects -- but a lot of the booty doesn't figure in for next year anyway.