Heliot Ramos' 2-run home run in the third inning failed to ignite the Giants dormant offense and only served to set up an even more frustrating loss than yesterday's spiral into fan despair. Key Lines:
Heliot Ramos LF- 1 for 5, HR(11), R, 2 RBI. BA= .293. I'll give Ramos credit for keeping his head up and focused in the midst of one of the more epic lineup meltdowns in memory but one batter can only do so much.
Patrick Bailey C- 1 for 3, 2B, BB. BA= .191. Bailey scored ahead of Ramos' HR after leading off the third inning with a double. Bailey's BA is quietly .300 over his last 7 games.
Landen Roupp RHP- 6.1 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 5 K's. ERA= 3.18. Another masterful start, this one from Roupp who baffled Padres batters with a curve and changeup that were equally effective and with just enough fastballs to keep them from waiting on the slow stuff. Roupp has allowed just one earned run over his last 4 starts(he did allow 3 unearned runs against the Tigers his last time out). 3 of those 4 starts went at least 6 IP.
Camilo Doval RHP- 1 IP, 2 H, 2 R, 2 BB, 2 K's. ERA= 1.67. Doval reverted to the wildness that led to his downfall last season. There is obviously something psychological about closing that causes analytics to undervalue it. Might be getting close to time to see if Randy Rodriguez has the temperament for it.
Spencer Bivens RHP- 1 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 0 K. ERA= 3.10. Like Ryan Walker yesterday, Bivens is a contact pitcher not particularly well suited to start an inning with a runner at 2B when it is imperative to keep that runner from scoring.
Kyle Harrison LHP tries to break the losing spell tomorrow evening facing Nick Pivetta RHP who comes in with an ERA of 2.74.
I felt good about the offense breaking out tonight with the Padres throwing a young pitcher I've never heard of. Instead another frustrating 1 run loss. Bad omen letting the 9th get to Machado. Young hitters like Ramos and Fitzgerald need to watch and learn how Flores handles Abs with RISP. I. think the offense will break out of their slump when we least expect it. That's baseball, its unpredictable. Maybe hitting at Oracle Park gets in their heads too.
ReplyDelete2011 vibes all over the place. Heartbreaking to ruin all the (mostly) great pitching.
ReplyDeleteGotta leave Doval there for bit, but he just doesn't seem built for the 9th. Gotta slide Randy in there if Doval blows another one like this in the next month or so.
No begrudging Bivens. You called it Doc. It's not a good situation for him, out of the gate with the runner.
No answers to the hitting. Too much to even vaguely treat Encarnacion as any kind of savior. Destroying the Mexican League and performing well in the PCL is no assurance of MLB success.
Great seeing Ramos sustain. Don't want to ruin him with the hopeful belief that the G's finally developed an OFer...
If things don't change by the LA series, the focus may have to shift to selling and purging the majority of the Farhan holdovers on the roster. In a seller situation, you make Ray and Rodgers available for trade for hitting prospects at the deadline. Farhan didn't leave Buster a lot of good ingredients in the kitchen and tearing off the band-aid isn't the worst thing.
ReplyDeleteNowadays, it seems harder to trade off players for prospects, especially those with a lot of team control. GMs are holding onto prospects more tightly than ever and harder to trade away players with opt-ins or future guaranteed years. I don't see the ownership suddenly going into tank mode or other teams helping the Giants get rid of unwanted vets.
ReplyDeleteWay to go Landon Roupp!!! Going out there and pitching his butt off again under the extreme mental pressure that all Giant pitchers are facing every game now.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, Bad outing by DOVAL but if the pitcher's aren't near perfect, the Giants don't have a chance...And that's all on Posey, GMZM (does he do AANYTHING??) and the previous regime...The Adames thing is a head scratcher....Chapman is Chapman...a .235 hitter.....but the Giants had the chance to work along the fringes in the off season but didn't and committed to holdovers...It's hurting big time...And like the Pitching staff, Buster and GMZM have to be near perfect also with their moves....Can't have mis-steps like sending down MATOS after a great game in order to bring in AAAA retread..
And, yes, they aren't hitting, but it's going further then that now. they also aren't executing or getting little things done. Look how the Pads of all teams won in the past two nights and the Giants have no answer in the extra frame..Not to mention how the entire lineup had no answer to a bunch of Padre's scrub pitchers the entire night.
Nothing new above I guess..What's the solution to this offensive and now team meltdown, when you have nothing in the minors yet? Well that's why Buster get's paid the big bucks and has a GM to help him...Big decisions to be made about to treat this season and when and who to deal from the pitching assets.
SteveVA
Interesting stat I saw from the NY Times in March:
ReplyDeleteHome team winning percentage in extra innings, 1901-2019: .523
Home team winning percentage in extra innings, 2020-24: .493
Its a smaller sample size to be sure but its possible that the use of the ghost runner has taken away home field advantage in extras.
Don't know details but I believe someone on Fangraphs posted an analysis that concluded the ghost runner give the visiting team a small built-in mathematical advantage.
DeleteI am not ready to call us sellers but don’t tend to think we are buyers. On the latter, given who we love (Ramos, Lee and Fitz), who we have to hope get better (Chapman, Adames and Bailey), and what we won’t upgrade long term (1b), you’re really only talking Dh and Rf. Do we really think we can improve there? In the pitching, the rotation is rock solid. I also think before we get any help in the pen, we have to give Doval some leash and try Frod (and closers don’t come cheap).
ReplyDeleteIf we become sellers, I don’t think Ray gets the boot. He’s under contract for next year. It would take a haul to pry him loose. I guess if we got a controllable star Rf and more, maybe. Otherwise, I think V and maybe Walker are the ones who get traded. The first given emergence of our younger pitchers (with the Carsons in the ready) and the latter of Frod moves to closer and Doval to set up. Then Hicks could be your 7 / 8 guy. I wouldn’t mind a lefty to round out the pen. I could see moving some AAA pitchers like Black too.
I don’t see “bust” up the team since we have a very good core, and you have to assume some underperforming guys will step up. We also have nice talent at 1b and pitching, and maybe Of given Matos and others. We could always see about upgrades for prospects but that isn’t a nuclear option.
I wouldn't move Ray unless top MLB ready hitting prospects are coming back the other way in a trade. Tyler Rodgers is tradeable at this point, I would even listen to offers for Webb if we can get a king's ransom back the other way. Guys like Yaz, Wade, Wisely, and Luciano are players I'd move on from. Buster was handed bad food in the kitchen from Farhan. Ownership needs to humble themselves a bit and actually try to bring in coaching and scouting the can actually develop hitting in the minors.
DeleteI think some of the development issues came from promoting too many prospects too fast and ending up with with a logjam on the 40-man roster.
DeleteExactly, @DrBGiantsfan and there's quite a few players like Wisely on the 40-man who I simply view as "guys" and I don't see anything that they are going to stick on an MLB roster. Luciano is one who simply needs to be on another franchise with how bad Farhan has messed up his development.
DeleteIn 2023 patrick Bailey had 51 abs at Richmond and 54 abs at Sacramento before being called up for good to the big club. He's learning how to deal with slumps against advance pitchers at the big league level. Doval-gotta stay with him was on a nice roll until last night. I'm waiting to see what Busters 1st trade to improve the team will look like. Heard John Shea that he thinks their GM (ZM) will be the front man on trades with Buster having the final say. I'm confident Buster will continue to make well thought out decisions with the roster. It will be interesting because this is his 1st season as PBO and teams tend to wait till trade deadline to make moves since it sends a bad message to their fan bases if they give up on their Frontline players too early.
DeleteFrom GiantsTalk podcast: "I think there's pressure to put this team in a position to win ball games, because, as you mentioned, the pitching staff is really good and I believe that that's going to continue through the year," Buster said on Thursday's "Giants Talk" podcast. "Yeah, I think there's urgency from everybody to provide these guys with run support."
DeleteHe said that the trade deadline will be stressful and that he cannot guarantee they will make a big trade. From the comment, it sounds like they are not going to be sellers if the pitching continues to hold up.
Wonder if/when Buster will be criticized for his acquisitions?
ReplyDeleteOr his (apparently) extension for Chapman?
Ya know, I approved of the ADAMES signing..but..I look back at his stats now, that was a lot of money to give a guy who in 2023 in 550 ABs hit .217 with 24 HR and 80 RBIs..maybe ..215 to .230 (.230 and 2022) with 10-20 HRs is all we can expect in a non hitters Ball Park which takes HRs away and which, considering his fielding struggles, will make it a very bad signing. Chapman is nothing special either, expect .225 to .240 every with inconsistenceis but enough powwer to play in SF. Not a horribe extention but nothing fantastic either......PITCHING will have to be the key
DeleteSteveVA
I guess BUSTER can't fix anything his way right now so he's gonna go the old FZ Dumpster Dive Bottom of the Barrel route by DFAing Wade and Huff and sending down KOSS..while binging up Dumpster Dive "trash" like Daniel Johnson, DOminic Brown and Kinzler (that one makes sense)....Same old same old
ReplyDeletesteveVA