Mitch Haniger broke out of his slump and the kids at the bottom of the lineup raked as the Giants busted down the door to a winning record on the season. Key Lines:
Mitch Haniger LF- 3 for 5, 2B, HR(3). BA= .215. We've been saying for awhile now, getting Haniger going is a big key to sustained winning for this team. He broke out in a big way tonight as he followed a leadoff walk by Michael Conforto RF in the second inning with a 2-run HR for the Giants first two runs. He ended up with 2 runs scored and 4 RBI's. Let's see if this is the start of some great baseball.
J. D. Davis 3B- 3 for 6, 2 2B, HR(9). BA= .278. No signs that J. D. Davis is slowing down on offense. He has had some a few errors at 3B amidst generally stellar defense. What a steal of a trade by FZ!
Mike Yastrzemski CF/RF- 3 for 5, 2B. BA= .264. YtY seems like he's found his groove again after the injury layoff. That is also a huge key to sustained winning. Oh and BTW, we had a Debbie Downer in the comments a few days ago complaining that he is too slow to play CF, but we've seen him cover a whole lot of ground and make some plays only elite CF's make in the last few days too. If YtY keeps playing and hitting at his current level I have no problem with him completing the season as the strong side CF platoon.
Casey Schmitt SS- 2 for 5. BA= .343. Right now Casey Schmitt is unquestionably the best SS on the roster on both sides of the ball. Kap basically said so when asked about this being something like the 3'rd game out of 4 where he's started against RHP's.
Patrick Bailey C- 4 for 5, 2B. BA= .364. Gotta also think Bailey is now the unquestioned first string catcher until he proves he can't sustain it.
Brett Wisely 2B- 2 for 5, 2B, HR(3). BA= .194. The BA is ugly but Wisely scoots around pretty good on defense and hits just enough to be a nice utility option in the middle IF and OF. Another wise pickup by FZ.
Alex Wood LHP- 5.2 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 5 BB, 5 K's, GO/AO= 6/2. ERA= 3.51. Giants got about what you expect to get out of a healthy Wood. It does help to pitch with a 9-run lead.
Tristan Beck RHP- 3.1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K's, Save(1). ERA= 4.63. Valuable experience for Beck while eating up innings after yesterday's bullpen game. Ha ha! He gets credit for the Save because he went more at least 3 innings. BTW, his ERA is 3.45 in 15.2 IP in the month of May.
Logan Webb RHP tries to clinch another series win tomorrow afternoon against Corbin Burnes RHP.
I'll just add that in addition to crushing the eye test, YtY CF metrics back that up with a +10.8 UZR/150 which is very close to his 2021 and 2021 UZR's too.
ReplyDeleteYtY plays a GREAT RF @ Oracle, maybe a 1000% better than Conforto who, at best, is lousy in the field.
DeleteIf he doesn't opt out next year (as he probably will if he doesn't get hurt), he should be the strong side DH, post Pederson.
Giants could have Matos and Brown by then and a healthy Slater making for an OF glut – wishful thinking, huh?
Not the score I expected to see when I saw LMWJ and Sabol combine for 1 for 12 with 9 Ks at the top of the lineup.. But go figure!
ReplyDeleteTo the naysayers:
ReplyDeleteAlthough it's possible, you wouldn't expect a "bad" team to win 9 of 11.
At this instance, the Giants are a ½ game behind the Mets and the Pirates to be a Wildcard.
They are but a game behind the Brewers.
Fangraphs, today, gives them a 51.4% chance to make the playoffs, that's the 6th highest in the NL. It's behind the Brewers only because some one in the Central has to make it.
Quit calling for FZ's scalp – it only shows you don't know the Giants: this is His team: other than Webb and Doval he didn't inherit much: potential positives were Luciano, Matos, and some long shots if those 2 aren't still long enough.
It's a process – it takes years to build a team from scratch. The Giants cleaned house because the system was bankrupt: Bart was just about the best they had in November 2018. Go look at the prospects befor Zaidi (https://www.mlb.com/prospects/2018/giants/) and the years before: Ramos, Beede, Arroyo, Crick – Bart was #1 or #2 for 3 consecutive years.