Madison Bumgarner was a one man ballgame until a 3-run Giants rally fell short in the 9'th inning. Key Lines:
Steven Duggar CF- 2 for 4, Assist(home). BA= .292. Not sure Duggar needs a platoon partner, but maybe Pillar can play LF? Unfortunately these 2 hits did not figure in the scoring.
Gerardo Parra RF- 2 for 4. BA= .250. Ditto Duggar above.
Madison Bumgarner LHP- 1 for 2, HR(1). BA= .500. Boom! How many of Bum's 18 career HR's has he hit against the Dodgers?
Madison Bumgarner LHP- 6 IP, 5 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 4 K's. ERA= 1.38. OK! In one game, Bummy not only hit a HR, he threw a Quality Start and gave up 5 unearned runs due to his own throwing error. That's pretty much the ballgame right there until the Giants 3-run rally in the 9'th fell a run short.
Travis Bergen LHP- 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K. ERA= 0.00. Bergen faced Bellinger, Taylor and Muncy and set them down in order.
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Derek Holland tries to win the rubber game of the series tonight against Ross Stripling.
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Early in the day, the Giants finally made a long-rumored trade with the Blue Jays for OF Kevin Pillar. The Giants were in desperation mode for a RH hitter/OF due to a plethora of LHP's in the NL West. They get that in Pillar. He's not quite the masher they need for LF but he can play all 3 OF positions with at least average defense. He comes with a 1 year salary of $5.9 M with 1 more year of arbitration eligibility. Having averaged 2.1 fWAR for the past 3 seasons, that's a significant bargain vs the open market. The trade cost was a couple of players who didn't figure in the Giants plans, Derek Law and Alen Hanson, and a lottery ticket pitching prospect, Juan De Paula, acquired last year in the Andrew McCutchen trade.
Kevin Pillar, OF. DOB: 1/4/1989. B-R, T-R. 6'0", 2015 lbs. Drafted 2011 Round 32(Blue Jays).
2018(Blue Jays): .252/.282/.426, 40 2B, 2 3B, 15 HR, 14 SB, 3.3 BB%, 18.1 K%, GB/FB= 0.94, 542 PA.
That BB% is very un-Zaidi-like, but I'm guessing Farhan is looking at the K%, the defense and the GB/FB. Farhan wants his batters to get the ball in the air! My concern with Pillar has been how much his value depends on dingers, and those are likely to decrease significantly moving to Oracle Park and the NL West. Something I did not realize before scrutinizing his stat line, and a pleasant surprise, is how many doubles he hits. Some of those should turn into triples playing in the Oracle. Pillar definitely checks off a need and at a very reasonable price. Now, if Farhan can just snag a RH masher for LF, his offseason will be complete if just a bit late.
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Z hoping for Defense and Pitching and SF wins last night without Bum's self inflicted Bonehead Play. Forget the Masher rely on D and Pitching to stay competitive. If The Core ever wakes up this could be a decent Team.............or Z ships out The Core at the Break.
ReplyDeleteSorry, but the masher in LF is a key piece and IMO the difference between this team contending and pretending.
DeleteAnonymous- You are right, the core needs to get its act together for this team to be decent. How exactly do you trade players that have no trade clauses? With a due respect Dr. B,one masher isn't going to make nearly the difference if the rest of the team can't get to at least average offensive production.
DeleteI literally think that the core has gotten bored of playing together. The environment has just grown completely stale. There's been no significant addition to the offensive side of this organization OVER THE PAST 6 YEARS!!
DeleteHow do you do that to a team? How does one also expect a new GM to step in and change the course of such an organization in a matter of 4 months? Other teams' GMs aren't exactly clamoring to be fleeced in trades for their top-of-the-line power OFers. And this team is headed down the mountain FAST. Bringing in short-term improvements would be a huge mistake, in my opinion. I believe the city of SF is more patient than given credit for.
OK, let's go over the California Dreaming scenario one more time. Yes, it is predicated on the "core" players collectively delivering a career average season. I get it that many commenters here believe deeply that is not possible. While not a sure thing, because nothing is a sure thing, I believe it is possible and therefore worth trying to upgrade the OF enough to make competing a credible possibility.
DeleteThe masher in LF?
ReplyDeleteMac Williamson's DFA was reported ~noon (EDT) on March 28, initiating the seven days to either trade, release, or non-tender him, which should end tomorrow.
To keep him, he would have to pass through waivers and anyone taking him gets a 29-yo player with no options and a 4-year MLB career .222/.295/.386, 0.1 dWAR. (Only a mother could love such a baby which explains to some extent why Giant fans want him back!)
Since he hasn't yet cleared waivers (reported by MLB at 1 PM EDT daily), something has to give in the next 26 hours.
If he clears waivers, would Zaidi (who doesn't have motherly love for Mac) give up on Connor Joe (0-13, 1 W) to keep Mac -- he DFAed Michael Reed to make room for Pillar?
Mac might be the masher although he's never shown that he can be that masher and his overall MLB record isn't promising to anyone.
As I have said before, I’m pretty sure Mac’s ship has sailed right on out of SFBay.....unless the A’s pick him up.
DeleteMac was not worse than what we had before Pillar. But DFA ing him is also a cold statement to all prospects that forces a sense of urgency. Shaw's assignment to A, Howard's staying at AA are similar statements to me. Don't expect today's opportunity to be here tomorrow. Zaidi showed he will not hesitate to move players if they are replaceable. So far Zaidi takes risks, but doe not wait too long to cut costs.
DeleteI still hope Mac will play in the majors, but I do not expect him to be a star and I do not blame the management.
So how do you reconcile the need to have a certain minimal sample size before you can judge a player's performance with Zaidi's hair trigger, "hey, you have 3 games to show us something" mentality?
DeleteNo particular mention of Pillar's defense?
ReplyDeleteI have heard that that's the guy's calling card.
Pillar's CF UZR decreased from it's peak in 2016 to 2017 and then decreased again in 2018. He is probably an average defender in CF. He is probably a plus defender in the corners but then his relatively weak bat gets exposed.
DeleteHe's an upgrade on the Motley Crew, but that's not saying much. He's averaged 2.1 fWAR over the past 3 seasons right about league average which is probably spot on his value.
OK, you have an outfield alphabetically of Duggar, Parra, and Pillar.
ReplyDeleteWith Parra's 100 OF assists, you might start with him in RF, and maybe the next best arm in CF if the CF metrics are similar.
Management certainly knows more than we do, so there must be a reason for Parra to be in left.
Usually you want your best OF arm in RF to make the throws to 3B, but in Oracle Park, the priority is someone who can track down the long drives in Triples Alley which is why 1 of the CF's will most likely patrol RF.
DeleteRight, but they're in LA tonight and Parra's in left...
DeleteDuggar has a serious arm himself. Mountain out of a mole hill here.
Delete