The Giants lineup laid down and died in front of a pitcher nobody heard of before and how many times have I written that in the last 3 seasons? Key Lines:
Grant McCray CF- 2 for 3, 2B. BA= .400. They say speed doesn't slump and everybody's raving about McCray's speed. Stay hot, kid!
Mark Canha PH/RF- 2 for 2. BA= .241. Repeat that acquiring Canha was not contingent upon trading away Jorge Soler.
Hayden Birdsong RHP- 4.2 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 3 BB, 5 K's. ERA= 5.01. One or two too many walks and not nearly a QS but an improvement. Birdsong continues to look like a cornerstone for the future.
Osvaldo Bido RHP- 6 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 6 K's. ERA= 3.40. It's gotten to the point where if I see an opposing SP name in the game preview I've never heard of before and their ERA is under 4, I go "uh-oh!" The A's picked up Bido in their version of The Churn after the Pirates left him off their 40-man roster last fall. He didn't really do anything special until his last 3 starts in which he's allowed 2 ER in 18 IP. Sigh! It seems his old employers still do The Churn better than FZ.
The Loss dropped the Giants to 4 games behind in the Wild Card playoff race. I know there are folks out there who are still saying they could go on a run and get into the postseason but it's getting very hard to see that happening after games like this, which are not just rare isolated events.
Blake Snell LHP tries to get a run going today against J. P. Sears LHP, a guy who...... (checks notes)...... shut out the Giants for 7 innings 3 starts ago and has allowed just 4 ER in 21 IP over his last 3 starts. Fun times!
Hey, at least JD Davis is no longer on the As and, as such, won't extract revenge on the Giants today. Gotta notice the positives, wherever we can get them. :)
ReplyDeleteTorture, to the extreme. lean into a pitch, bunt do anything, but stop flailing.
ReplyDeleteI figure at best if we won 3 of 5 for the rest of the season> maybe we hit 83 victories.
Is it enough? Not bloody likely. It is evident with the surprising call up of Grant McCray (nice to watch so far) > Farhan is clutching at straws, definitely out of his weight class as Head of Basball Operations. Definitely exceeded his Best Before Date.
And that end my Sunday morning rant.
Looking forward to watching the upbeat and positive DNC this week Go Kamala Go Coach!
Your friends in Canada
Richard in Winnipeg
P/S. I laughed> Better save Saul alumni Bob Odenkirk threw out the first pitch last night at the local Winnipeg Goldeyes game. Decent throw by the dude!
As one of those "folks out there who ̶a̶r̶e̶ ̶s̶t̶i̶l̶l̶ were saying they could go on a run and get into the postseason," this lay-down-and-die proclivity of once productive major leaguers and even the new guys is wearing us out. It is unwatchable.
ReplyDeleteAnd the final out: "Strike swinging, Strike swinging, Strike swinging, Schmitt struck out swinging" and not a pitch being close to a strike. Has he no clue?
As a born Missourian, you're gonna have to "show me" now...
I have been optimistic about Schmitt. He has tremendous tools. But that at bat pushed me over the edge. If he can’t show any maturity or discipline at his age and after so much up and down I can’t see it happening.
DeleteMaybe its time for him to return to pitching.
birdsong will likely be shut down for the season after labor day. as of right now schmitt will be gone in 2025. kim ng or whoever replaces farhan needs to pull the plug on the churn and be more conventional. a lot of the platoon guys should be part of the purge.
ReplyDeleteIt sounded like FZ and Melvin were not on the same page at the trade deadline. FZ said Melvin took control of the steering wheel when they acquired Mark Canha. I like Canha and hope he's on the team next year. Like you said Canha deal wasn't contingent on trading Solar, it sounded like Canha deal was made to make it up to Melvin after trading away Solar. Melvin is trying to win while it sounds like FZ wanted to look at young players and sell veterans. Not good when FZ and manager not on the same page.. As I said earlier I'm not happy that the team didn't show strong direction to buy or sell at the deadline, they did a little of both.
ReplyDeleteAndrew Baggardly (TheAthletic) on the Giants' inability to drive home runners: "Soler was so spectacularly bad as a run producer that the Giants jumped at the chance to ditch the last two years of his contract even as he was starting to get on base in the leadoff spot. He wasn’t doing the job the Giants were paying him to do."
ReplyDeleteBut it's not just Soler: the middle of the lineup stinks. Baggardly points out that Melvin had to resort to moving Bailey into the center to bolster Chapman, Conforto, Wade (1st Base IS, traditionally, an RBI position), Flores, even Estrada, but no one produced.
Not producing an RBI guy is on Zaidi, not because he didn't try, but because he didn't succeed, HIS hand-picked guys didn't produce. He inherited old guys and an empty farm, but whom has he added? Bailey and Fitzgerald and some promise in the future, but where is the power?
I don't think the Giants should consider Bailey as part of the future. Yes, he's solid defensively but offers nothing at the plate. He is what he is, regardless of his age. If Joey's breakout in Pittsburgh is for real, another mistake by FZ, just one of too many, unfortunately.
DeleteBailey has hit some nice ones, that were heading too close to outfielders lately. He may be finally pulling out of his long, less than par hitting. However, when he first came up, he seemed to be a very confident and successful hitter, mostly from his left side. I at one time thought he may have been hitting as well as Buster Posey was. But this year, it has been tough to figure out if any previous concussion(s) or other injury(-y+ies) have been holding him back. Fatigue at this point of the season is also a factor. But, Buster tore it up the second half of 2012 and won several awards! I attended 22 games in 2012, of which two were playoff games.
DeleteBailey not part of the future?
DeleteOne of the best defensive catchers in the league? Maybe the best.
It might help if he gave up the RHB – he can't be worse against LHP batting LH.
He's NOT a middle of the order.
But because the Giants don't have 3-4-5 hitters, Melvin has had to push Bailey (and Chapman) up from where they should bat.
How many games have the Giants had where they go into the 5th or 6th inning without a hit? It has become miserable to watch.
ReplyDeleteOver the last 30 days the Giants are tied for third for the lowest in the NL ERA at 3.46. (Padres have the lowest ERA for the last 30 days with a 2.94). Pitching has been good. for SF.
Giants are 10th in runs scored (111) over the last 30 days (Dbacks are first with 162, Padres 2nd with 145, LA 3rd with 128). The Giants hitting has sucked while their Western Division rivals show them what a team should look like has they head towards the playoffs. Time for Farhan to look in the mirror and decide if he needs to be churned.
Derald Cook
Read an article on NBC sports bay area that Matt Chapman would like to stay a SF Giant and is waiting on the FO to make him an offer. I'd be in favor of keeping Chapman, FZ needs to get it done!
ReplyDeleteI know that’s what players always say about their team, but I sure hope it’s true with Chapman. That dude is a BALLPLAYER. He may be painful at the plate at times but overall, he just plays the game as one should. Very entertaining!
DeleteThanks to the above posts for inside scoop, especially on Soler. He was painful to watch and really sucked the life out the team every time he failed to bring runners home; put way too much pressure on pitching and looked like he had no interest in adjusting his swing (eerily similar to Bart).
As for still believing, I’m in that camp however brutal this team is at scoring runs. Thinking, ‘fire FZ!’ every game is just not fun. What’s harder to believe is that they’re not the worst offense! I’m certainly not pro-FZ but I’m also not against, either. There are a lot of positives and negatives with one being players not producing that should be. Ultimately, team construction obviously falls on to FZ but it really seems like there needs to be a reassessment of our hitting philosophy and maybe that’s where he’s really failing because the guys we have should be better. Though, it appears that hitting is grim league wide and only the elite in all of MLB are having some success. Been watching faithfully for 40 plus years and I’ve never seen the ball move this much and with as much power. Can FZ ever land one of those elite hitters? Is it all his fault the Giants aren't landing them?
Rob in Vancouver
I saw Chapman in a video yesterday, during the Giants game telecast, discussing this matter.. He did not specifically say “offer”, but, I thought that same as you read. Kruk and Kuip, I believe it was, said Chapman did not want to say anything, by what they listened to. They were probably just kidding. I believe he is looking for an extension, as well. 2 years is all I would go for him though. He plays all out on defense and has a fast strong long swing. I believe he has good speed on the bases. He could be a number 3 or 5 hitter in the future Giants lineup.
DeleteChapman actually has an offer for the next 2 years (his option), $17M & $18M, plus a mutual option for $20M (which never works, one side or the other won't want it).
DeleteHe's having a late-career year, best since 2019, probably worth $30 this year, but would the Giants pay more than $20M each for the next 2?
What about making the 3rd year a player option? Giants would probably do that since they made out so well this year.
$55M guaranteed options for 3 years. Would the Giants do more than that through his 34 year-old season?
With everything crashing around him, FZ will probably give him 4 years and $100,000 MM.