The Giants hit 3 dingers and Dereck Rodriguez pitched well in his MLB debut. In every other respect this game was an embarrassing for the Giants. Key Lines:
Buster Posey C- 1 for 4, HR(3). BA= .294. It's been a long time between dingers but Buster finally connected with one in the 6'th inning. Buster's last HR? April 11 against the D'Backs in AT&T Park.
Evan Longoria 3B- 2 for 4, 2 HR(10). BA= .263. Longoria's 10 HR's tie him with Nolan Arenado for #6 among 3B in MLB.
Mac Williamson LF- 2 for 4, 2 2B. BA= .263. Mac showed why the Giants need to keep him in the lineup and let him get comfortable at the MLB level.
Dereck Rodriguez RHP- 1 for 2, 2B. BA= .500. Pudge's kid was drafted as a hitter, but struggled in the lower minors and switched to pitching a couple of years ago. His experience as a hitter showed as he drilled a double over the head of the RF to drive in Mac with the Giants first run of the night.
Jeff Samardzija RHP- 1 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 0 BB, 1 K. ERA= 6.56. Shark was pulled from the game after the first inning with shoulder tightness. He then grabbed a bat off the bat rack and broke it over his knee. Hope he didn't strain the shoulder even more with that move! Another DL stint seems like a strong possibility no matter what the MRI shows.
Dereck Rodriguez RHP- 3.1 IP, 5 H, 4 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 4 K's. ERA= 2.70. Rodriguez showed excellent command of a FB that got up to 95 MPH and a breaking ball. He was painting the corners until a series of terrible defensive plays behind him in the 4'th inning. First, Kelby Tomlinson whiffed on a hard grounder that went under his glove. Then Andrew McCutchen took an awkward looking jump for a ball that went just over the top of his glove for a double off the wall in R-CF. Brandon Belt cut off the throw on the same play then threw it into LF while trying to catch the runner off 2B. Credit to Young Dereck for getting out of the inning. Then, in the 6'th inning, Dereck took a 108 MPH liner off his shin and had to leave the game. X-rays are reportedly negative. All in all, Dereck Rodriguez showed he deserves to hang around for a few more games. Oh, not to pile on Kelby, but he made 2 other errors in the game. A rough night for Kelby.
Will Smith LHP- 1.2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K. ERA= 1.50. Another bright spot in the game. Will Smith gives some hope that the Giants bullpen will eventually be a reliable unit.
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The Loss drops the Giant 5 games behind the Rockies in the NL West. The D'Backs are 1.5 game behind in 2'nd place. The Dodgers are 4 games back pending the outcome of their game with the Phillies which they trail 4-1 in the 8'th inning. The Padres lost and are 8 games off the pace in last place.
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Derek Holland tries to salvage a win out of the series tomorrow facing Jon Gray.
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Yeah, tough game but Derek Rodriquez was a nice story. Followed the game on my At bat app and was pleasantly surprised he got up to 95 mph painting the corners! Thought to myself when was the last time the Giants had a young hard throwing starting pitcher have an impressive debut like this. The last one I could think of was Zack Wheeler, it's been awhile. Baseball gods haven't been kind to the Giants. It's unbelievable how they've called up young promising players,like Mac, Alex Hanson, and now Derek Rodriquez, and they get hurt after a handful of games. Luckily Derek appears,to have,avoided the DL, and they should give him a start. They now have their top 3 starting pitchers out. Kelby had a tough game but hes the backup.,That's why they need Joe Panik back soon. Read somewhere that Bochy declared Mac the starting LF for the rest of the year. He probably needs to get his stroke back after being out for a month Glad the 18 road games out of 25 ends tomorrow.
ReplyDeleteLG
Rodriguez: He peaked at 96 MPH though I didn't see every pitch. I was actually impressed. Something funny happened while he was pitching. During the early part of his appearance Kuiper was talking up his control. He walked the next batter on four pitches.
ReplyDeleteI don't want to jump the gun, but the kid was very impressive. His pitches were pretty solid over-all. But more impressive is that he got put in some tough spots by the defense and pitched through them as well as possible. And that mental toughness is something you have to have as a pitcher or you'll never succeed.
Tomlinson: Yes, the game from hell.
Williamson: Double-Double! Glad to see it.
I just read a bit on Samardzija. His shoulder problem was worse than reported and wasn't really all the way better. But he was just trying gut-it-out and pitch through it and it tightened up last night and Bochy saw enough and pulled him.
ReplyDelete12 hits and a walk + 3 HRs net how many runs?
ReplyDeleteOnly Mac among the starting position players did not bat with a RISP: everyone who came up with a runner in scoring position failed -- 7 of the 8 starting position players had an O-fer with RISP, Kelby had O-fer 2 along with 3 errors. Maybe he needs new specs?
ESPN headlines a link with, "Rodriguez has shaky debut vs. Rockies" then proceeds to show the long fly to the wall that McCutchen whiffed on, Dereck's double, and getting whacked by the line drive.
http://www.espn.com/mlb/boxscore?gameId=380529127
It's seems pretty clear that Cutch is done: in the field and at the plate.
This is truly a disappointing season so far. I think Evans did what he could to put a competitive team on the field. Every team has a weakness. Unfortunately, a rash of injuries exposed our weaknesses - starting pitching depth being the main one. Until recently, I was really disappointed that Longoria and McCutchen weren't doing much. I've always like both players throughout their careers. Longoria seems to be picking it up. McCutchen has been a huge disappointment - poor defense, lack of power, hitting under .250. At this point, giving those at bats to Austin Slater or one of the other AAA outfielders probably wouldn't be a step down and would give the Giants more information about the future. Is it time to start shopping McCutchen?
ReplyDeletethis season is likely gonna cost evans his job. i could see david bell take over as gm next season with more of an emphasis on scouting and analytics next season
DeleteTo make it worse:
DeleteCrick for McCutchen. Crick has a higher K/9 than any reliever we have and has an ERA in the low 2s.
Arroyo for Longoria. Arroyo has put up better defense and is hitting .350 in his short time back up in the majors.
And it's not just this year. We will almost certainly continue to 'lose' these two trades. Longoria (unless we salary dump him) will likely be a defensive liability going forward and as hit tool declines, a complete contract albatross. McCutchen will be gone at the end of the season and Crick will, unless he blows up, will likely be a closer and has, currently, stabilized the Pirates bullpen while developing an outstanding two-seam FB.
I rarely call for heads. But Evans was ****ing delusional when he thought he could take last year's club and turn it into a legitimate playoff-competitive team.
Moses, If you want someone's head on a platter, make it Larry Baer. Baer is the one guy from the ownership group who has been there from day 1. He's calling the shots. Ownership's business model from day 1 until now demands competitiveness every year. They have never deviated from that. No rebuilds! Evans did as well as any GM possibly could have working with that mandate, maybe better.
Deletei have a bad feeling baer is gonna make evans the scapegoat. the focus this offseason needs to shift to analytics and scouting or they may find themselves where the niners were when john and denise york were running things.
DeleteMaybe I just completely clued out, but I am under the impression if there is someone in the Giants organization who is pushing them toward modernization in their approach and getting younger and more athletic in the farm system it's Bobby Evans. That is not easy to do when you also have a mandate to stay competitive every year and stay under the CBT threshold. Giants have always believe in their process and not scapegoated people. Maybe Evans isn't really part of the inner circle and will be the exception, but I hope not.
DeleteI can understand the fan discontent and have my doubts that they are a playoff team, but I'm asking myself what team could withstand losing their top 3 starting pitchers for some or most of the season.i may be in the minority but i can't be too upset with the FO trying to compete. I believe I read Evans saying that rebuilding doesn't guarantee anything either. I was more upset with the FO not getting a closer for their playoff run in 2016. I agree didn't Evans engineer major changes to the farm system last year. It would be a shame if the Giants don't have a good season and Evans is made the scapegoat.
DeleteLG
Maybe. But sometimes you have to tell your boss that what the client wants steps over the line to tax fraud and it should be reconsidered... Tough to do as a junior accountant. But it had to be done.
DeleteMoses, I agree with a lot of what you say, but this one is beyond the pale. You'd fire Bobby Evans for not getting himself fired by telling Larry Baer that a business model that has been wildly successful for 25 years is not the right way to go? Yeah sorry, but that's a ridiculous take.
DeleteI am hopeful about D. Rodriguez but he did something that reminded me of Samardzija: Throws hard and is a physical talent (see his double) but gets his pitches up in the zone a bit too much and bit too flat and needs to mix it up a bit more. So, maybe I'm wrong but Longoria made sense but now it looks like Cutch and Jackson are not such hot pick ups? And, yes, too bad Rodriguez didn't have a clean inning: Kelby and Cutch let him down.
ReplyDelete