Sunday, July 26, 2020
Game Wrap 7/25/2020: Giants 5 Dodgers 4
The Giants got some key hits early along with some solid pitching from several of their younger pitchers then held on for their first W of the season and the first W of the Gabe Kapler era. Key Lines:
Austin Slater LF- 0 for 1, 3 BB. BA= .000. Slater did exactly what he was supposed to do at the top of the linup, which is get on base. Unfortunately a pattern of getting injured just as he seems to be getting traction on his career continued, and that may not be totally due to bad luck. Slater kept getting himself turned every which way but loose tracking drives in his direction. It cost him on one as he recovered to make the catch but slammed into the wall and suffered a hip contusion. He's now DTD. I seem to recall Slater's oblique strain his first season was on an awkward catch due to a bad route in LF too.
Donovan Solano 3B- 1 for 5, 2B. BA= .167. Solano had the big blow in the fourth inning that gave the Giants a 5-1 lead. He also made a throwing error in the 8'th that led to 2 runs for the Dodgers closing the gap to 5-3. Wilmer Flores had problems with throws from 3B and now Solano. Who's next? Pablo?
Wilmer Flores 2B- 1 for 4, HR(1). BA= .333. Flores has been one of the Giants better bats through the first 3 games. He appears to be much more comfortable playing 2B than on the left side of the IF. He made a nice snag of a Corey Seager line drive in short RF that Justin Turner totally thought went through and easily doubled Turner off 2B while Turner was face-first into 3B. Ha ha! That was fun!
Mike Yastrzemski CF/LF- 2 for 4, 2B. BA= .364. YtY led off the second inning against the LHP Alex Wood by slapping the ball down the 3B line beating the shift for a double. He came around to score the Giants second run. He's been pretty easily the Giants best hitter through 3 games.
Logan Webb RHP- 4 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 BB, 2 K, HBP(Muncy). ERA= 2.25. After giving up a run in the first, Webb found himself with the bases loaded in the second on a catcher interference, walk and HBP. He got out of it in a can-of-corn flyball out to Mookie Betts. The third inning was 1, 2, 3. The Dodgers helped Webb through the 4'th inning with some interesting baserunning. Jaylin Davis showed off his arm from RF nailing Chris Taylor trying to go from first to third on a single. Then Joc Pederson was wandering around off 1B on a pop fly to CF and YtY doubled him off 1B. Webb went out for the 5'th inning, but you knew he was on a short leash and came out after giving up a leadoff single to Austin Barnes. All-in- all, a nice first game of the season for the young hurler. Oh, and have I ever said how much I hate Max Muncy?.....as a Dodger of course, not as a person.
Caleb Baragar LHP- 2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K. ERA= 0.00. Like Logan Webb, Baragar benefitted from some nice fielding and bad baserunning by the Dodgers but had impressive command of a 92 MPH fastball to both sides of the plate and gave Kap 2 shutout innings to get the game to the 7'th inning.
Shaun Anderson RHP- 1IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 3 K's. ERA= 0.00. I have to confess I had mentally written off Shaun Anderson but what an impressive appearance he had here! FB up to 97 MPH and a wicked slider. Walked the leadoff batter but then struck out the side.
Trevor Gott RHP- 1 IP, 1 H, 1 R, 0 BB, 0 K, Save(1). ERA= 9.00. Gott was into the torture thing as he gave up a leadoff HR to cut the lead to 1 but then worked his way through the next 3 batters to record the Giants first Save of the season. So, Gott gets the first Save opportunity and converts. I guess he's the Closer for now?
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The Giants close out the 4 game series in LA with a chance for a split. They face Julio Urias LHP while their SP is TBD. Will it be Shark, and what does that mean for Shark if it isn't?
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As some expected, the Giants signed Chris Herrman C to a minor league contract and will assign him to the remote camp after a brief stint on the taxi squad.
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Slater has played a little 3rd, might be "safer" there.
ReplyDeleteGlory: Giants pull out a split with the Shark biting the Bums!
The Giants pulled out this victory with very little help from their manager Kapler. The disregard for defense is head scratching to say the least and almost bit them in the junk yesterday on several occasions. Slater was also safe on a steal attempt he was called out on to end the 5th and Kapler didn't even glance at a monitor to see if a challenge was needed. The lineup also showed some really good AB's against RH pitching once Wood was out which contradicts the whole Left/Right platooning theory. How about just play the best players offensively and defensively each day and don't worry so much about what hand the opposing starting pitcher uses to throw?
ReplyDeleteI think the Giants looked around at the other sports teams in the Bay Area and hired Kapler thinking he would be the next Steve Kerr or Kyle Shanahan. He may be just as progressive as they are but his innovation reminds me more of Chip Kelly than those two. His lineups and decision making seem robotic and 100% predetermined by a spreadsheet while his in game management reminds me of a little league coach. He also looks like he borrowed a pair of his wife's underwear and is using them as a mask.
As for Shark, my guess is he is the least happy Giant right now. Keep an eye on him this year for however long he is a Giant because there will be some fireworks between him and Kapler at some point guaranteed! This was probably a contributing factor to not bringing back MadBum, they didn't want another pitcher on the team who had zero respect for their new manager and his "innovative approach".
It has only been 3 games but I can't for the life of me see how this is ever going to work out well. Kapler will get exposed as a very poor in game manager and he is going to have a difficult time getting buy in from any of his players with all the mixing and matching. Baseball for better or for worse is a sport where almost everything a player does on the field can be put into a statistic. Blindly using those statistics to make decisions will be the downfall of both Kapler and Farhan.
From sports.yahoo.com today:
ReplyDeleteAfter labeling Kapler as "tight-lipped, the "Field Level Media" writer states:
"Giants pitchers don't figure to get the opportunity" to pitch deep into games.
"Johnny Cueto gave up one run over four innings in the season opener and was surprised the he was not allowed to go further. The Dodgers scored seven runs in four innings off the San Francisco bullpen that night.
"You have to adjust to everything in life, but it's uncomfortable," Cueto said Thursday through an interpreter. "It's the first time I've experienced this in my career, and I've been in the majors for 12 years."
The writer quoted Kevin Gausman "I think that there should be starters, and there should be relievers. I think the whole opener thing kind of just gets a little tricky. It complicates things more than I think it needs to be."
Maybe leave Farhan in charge of building the farm and bring Bochy back to manage the games. Or some other proven in-game manager. Or Buster Posey.
ReplyDeleteYou got me thinking a little with this suggestion. I'm watching the A's game and I know Farhan had a smaller role there but what players did he have his finger prints on and what did he really do while with the A's? They don't seem to be hurting much since he has been gone.
DeleteSame with the Dodgers. What specific players did he discover and what was his exact contribution? They also seem to be doing just fine in his absence and coincidentally finally spent some money after he was gone. I know Muncy and maybe Chris Taylor could have been Farhan's guys but who else am I missing or am I missing anyone?
My point is that if you want to get rid of Kapler then what has Farhan done since he has been here to warrant keeping him around? Same thing he did in Oakland and in LA, he has been cheap. The talent he has acquired since being here is a list that won't impress many (Dubon, J. Davis, Dick, Yaz, Wilson, Bishop, and Bailey). Time will tell with some of these guys but others clearly aren't going to be superstars or likely core pieces for the next 5 years.
I am asking not to instigate but because I am desperately in need of a reason to like this guy. I don't want to be negative for the next 2 years until he either gets this team on track or gets fired. I wish I could be more patient and trusting but I need a few good reasons why. Right now all I see are reasons why he isn't the long term guy.
https://goldengatesports.com/2020/03/05/san-francisco-giants-farm-system-best/
DeleteThe closing line to the above article is "And after years of hosting a laughable farm system, it’s certainly nice to see the organization finally getting some league-wide acclaim."
That's the whole point, I think. Not only was the MLB talent on the Giants basically worst in the league (getting top-10 picks how many times the last 5 years?), but when Z arrived the minor league farm was essentially bone dry.
The evolution has been obvious to me at least, but I'm patient. I'd rather wait 6 years for a long lasting stretch of talent and success, than fill the roster with bought "talent" from free agency and be middle of the pack from now till eternity.
This team is clearly headed in the right direction.
Talent arrives in 1-2 years and I doubt the faucet will ever run dry after that.
"...when Z arrived the minor league farm was essentially bont dry."
DeleteOh really? Let's see: Heliot Ramos- drafted under Bobby Evans. Joey Bart- drafted under Bobby Evans. Marco Luciano- signed under Bobby Evans. Luis Matos- signed under Bobby Evans. Luis Toribio- signed under Bobby Evans. Sean Hjelle- drafted under Bobby Evans. Alexander Canario- signed under Bobby Evans.
Bobby Evans actually left Z a whole lot of farm system talent. I give Z credit for building on it, but the bulk of the players people are currently raving about in the farm system were drafted and/or signed while Bobby Evans as the GM.