Tuesday, August 27, 2019

Game Wrap 8/26/2019: D'Backs 6 Giants 4

A fielding error, a baserunning mistake and a disappointing bullpen performance ruined what could have been a winning start by Tyler Beede.  Key Lines:

Evan Longoria 3B- 2 for 4, E.  BA= .263.  Longo continued his hot hitting but muffed a grounder while playing out of his normal position in a shift.  The 2-out error in the 6'th opened the door for 2 unearned runs and an exit by Tyler Beede one out short of a Quality Start.  BTW, I wish Commenters would not disagree with things I don't say.  I did not say Farhan Zaidi should not try to trade Evan Longoria this offseason.  What I did say is Longo has trade value and Farhan does not have to give him away and definitely does not have to pay a team to take him.

BTW, the Giants actually do not have ANY albatross contracts going forward.  Their projected 40 man CBT Payroll for 2020 is $91 M under the Tax Threshold per Cot's' Contracts website and continues to shrink in future seasons.  They have more than enough resources to add whatever they need to future rosters.  Also BTW, we don't have updated numbers yet, but as of April 11, the Giants were approximately $30 M under the threshold.  I sure that has shrunk a little with all the roster churning, but only by a few $M.  Maybe saving that money is a good thing, but the Giants did not maximize their financial leverage this year in constructing the roster and doing so would not have jeopardized financial flexibility going forward.

Kevin Pillar CF- 2 for 5, 2B.  BA= .262.  Pillar had the only XBH for the Giants.  He scored a run and drove in one.

Brandon Crawford SS- 3 for 4.  BA= .236.  Crawford's 3 hits did not contribute to the scoring, but he also made scintillating catch in mid-CF on a ball Kevin Pillar did not see in the lights.  Crawford is hitting .478 over his last 7 games and .306 over his last 15.

Abiatal Avelino LF- 1 for 2, BB.  BA= .286.  Avelino drew a walk and had an RBI single and made a sensational throw from LF to almost nail a runner at home, but he also ran through a stop sign at 3B and got thrown out at home to kill a budding rally.  He came out of the game on a double switch after that and was parked next to a coach in the dugout.

Buster Posey C- 0 for 5.  BA= .246.  Buster has always been on the streaky side, but he looks more lost at the plate than I have ever seen him.  BA= .129 over his last 7 games, .186 over his last 15 and .226 over his last 30.

Tyler Beede RHP- 5.2 IP, 6 H, 3 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 4 K's, GO/AO= 8/3.  ERA= 5.56.  Beede was sharp and seemed to be getting stronger as the game went on while inducing many GB outs.  Another GB should have ended the 6'th inning but the bobble by Longo opened the door for more and Beede did not survive the inning.  Shows how far the ripple effects from a single error can go.

Trevor Gott RHP- 0.2 IP, 1 H, 2 R, 2 BB, 1 K.  ERA= 4.44.  Gott was taken out in the middle of an AB with forearm tightness.  He's been a mainstay of the bullpen this season.

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The Loss cost the Giants 0.5 games in the Wild Card race where they now trail the Cubs by 4.5 games.

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Jeff Samardzija will be looking for more run support than he got his last start as he tries for a split of the 2-game series tomorrow.

4 comments:

  1. Buster has been in a steady decline for at least 3 years now. At first it was attributed to having catchers legs and it being late in the season but he continued to look tired and worn out each year since. I know he had the hip issue but nobody talks about that anymore so either it isn’t an excuse anymore or it will never improve. I still think he is the best option defensively behind the plate but he can’t do it every day. At this rate I could see him being a part time player next year and likely hitting at the bottom of the lineup. Grandal is a free agent this offseason, bats switch, can play some 1B, and Farhan is familiar with him so maybe he is an option.

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  2. Yesterday, Anon#2 wrote a long thing to my post, so I'd like to set the record straight on Zaidi.

    "maybe we can squint and see a rotation, none of them Zaidi acquisitions"

    You're right, this starting rotation is more or less terrible, and as the Anon stated - NONE of this rotation was assembled by Farhan Zaidi. It boggles my mind that some folks here are unmoved with literally finding talent on every level (Kevin Pillar leads the team in every single offensive category, to go along with Solano w/ an .865 OPS, Yaz, bringing back Vogt, promoting Slater + giving him the appropriate amount of time to develop, developing Duggar until he got injured, and picking Dickerson out of thin air), and are decrying that Zaidi didn't go ahead and fix the completely broken pitching staff in his first Half-Season as well.

    In terms of how interesting the Giants have been over the last 4 years since 2016: over that span their average draft pick has been at #12. Their regular-season intrigue has been, essentially "maybe they can just barely play well enough to grab the 2nd wild-card spot, once."

    PS - When the 2019 season started, FanGraphs ranked the Giants' farm system #27 out of 30. (For reference, MLB forgot about them entirely and ranked the Dodgers twice lol, and BR ranked them at #22.) Right now, FanGraphs has them ranked at #14, after 1/2 season of new GM Farhan Zaidi.

    So, I'm sorry that Zaidi couldn't make every single correct prediction (Santana & Jones, whom 28 other respective teams passed up on as well), I'm sorry he couldn't fix the team in one single off-season. It's bizarre to me that folks here can't look at the turn-around and say "that's incredible" end of story. How about you give the guy a dozen months, and THEN talk about whether he's capable of working the situation in free agency. He was, after all, pretty consumed with on-boarding literally his entire own internal office staff over that same period, and had one of the worst teams (AND worst farm systems) in the league as starting discussion point while trying to work through NEGOTIATIONS with FA players AND THEIR AGENTS. (btw, we don't get to just sign a guy in FA because "I want that guy to come here." He actually has to, you know, CHOOSE to come here himself/herself.) SF is and has been over the last 10 years, one of the LEAST DESIRED locations for FA players to sign.

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  3. posey better enjoy his playing time at catcher while he can, once the river cats season is done, posey will likely see a diminished role at catcher with vogt and garcia taking most of the reps. posey will likely only be a part-time catcher next season.

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  4. Would like to see your list in off season of best impact free agents under 30 years old. The A's have such a good team - can the Giants poach any of them?

    I no longer feel it is weak to buy FA's. The Giants as a big market tea is penalized in draft - small market clubs like DBacks get all sorts of extra draft picks which I object to. When Giants had the number 2 and 10 picks the round 2 picks were pushed back until all the small market clubs got their compensatory picks

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