Team Stat Rankings:
Runs: 705(17).
Hits: 1261(26).
Doubles: 239(28)
Triples: 28(6).
HR: 173(19)
Walks: 556(6).
Strikeouts: 1380(12)
BB%: 9.2(4)
K%: 22.7(13)
BB/K: 0.40(10)
SB: 68(29)
CS: 24(27)
BA: .235(25)
OBP: .311(20)
SLG%: .386(25)
HBP: 66(12)
Sac: 22(9)
SF: 52(6).
GIDP: 103(14)
GB/FB: 0.98(22)
BABIP: .281(25)
Hard Hit%: 30.1(26)
Med Hit%: 53.5(6)
Soft Hit%: 16.4(6)
Oppo Field%: 24.7(9)
Cent%: 33.6(29)
Pull%: 41.7(13)
HR/FB 10.5(22)
A few points here:
1. Strikeouts were NOT the problem with this team. The Giants were solidly in the top third of the league in walks, near the top third in least K's and their BB/K was top third.
2. I am never sure what people mean when they speak of "situational hitting" but the Giants were in the top third in at least one situational category: Sac Flies.
3. If you had the feeling the Giants hit into bad luck all season, the numbers support you as they were solidly bottom third in BABIP(for comparison their BABIP was .290 or almost 10 points higher in 2024 when they ranked #15, so this is a number that should regress positively in 2026).
4. Part of the BABIP problem is likely that they hit the ball in the air a lot and didn't hit it hard often enough. HR/FB is supposed to normalize with large enough sample sizes. Does that mean flyball hard-hit rates also normalize?
Now that we've wrung team stats dry, let's look at team leaders in the standard categories:
PA: 1. Ramos 695. 2. Adames 686. 3. Lee 617.
Runs: 1. Adames 94. 2. Ramos 85. Chapman 76
Hits: 1. Ramos 159. 2. Lee 149. 3. Adames 133.
Doubles: 1. Lee 31. 2. Ramos 24. 3. Chapman 23.
Triples: 1. Lee 12. 2. Bailey 3. 3. Adames, Chapman, Wade Jr 2.
HR: 1. Adames 30. 2. Chapman 21. 3. Ramos 21. 4. Devers 20.
RBI: 1. Adames 87. 2. Flores 71. 3. Ramos 69.
Walks: 1. Adames 80. 2. Chapman 71. 3. Devers 56.
Strikeouts: 1. Adames 179. 2. Ramos 158. 3. Bailey 133.
SB: 1. Adames 12. 2. Lee 10. 3. Chapman, Fitzgerald 9.
BA(Qualified): 1. Lee .266. 2. Ramos .256. 3. Chapman .231.
OBP: 1. Chapman .340. 2. Ramos .328. 3. Lee .327.
SLG%: 1. Chapman .430. 2. Adames .421. Lee .407.
If you add in players who had more 150 or more AB's, Dominic Smith led in BA with .284 and Christian Koss batted .264. Devers led in SLG% with .460.
Very interesting! Thanks!
ReplyDeletePersonally, what I’d like to see is more hits. So higher BAs and especially BARISP. Perhaps that regression in BABIP will help.
They can try to increase their BA and hits by swinging at hittable pitches earlier in the count and staying out of 2-strike situations but then you sacrifice walks and potentially favorable 2 and 3-ball pitch counts.
DeleteWow, thanks Doc ... this is eye opening! Almost all of the YouTube commentators are belittling the Giants' for too many strikeouts (in particular, Chapman). The stats you point out about hard hit and sac fly rates are also very interesting. If you listen to the YouTube crowd, the Giants were too focused on hitting homers and not good at situational at-bats.
ReplyDeleteThe Giants team stats that jump out at me as weaknesses are the total hits and batting average. This is what many are saying about this team, that there was a failure to make solid contact consistently. When I looked up team OBP in mlb, I get them in 20th place in this category (maybe double-check your source that says they were 11th, as I may be wrong). So what looked like a strength of getting on base is not one as their BA really drags them down. (To give context-The Brewers have the highest OBP with a .334 average, the Giants is .311). Your comment on BABIP makes sense in how it affects BA and OBP. I will leave the strategies to improve in these areas as a team to those who know much more than I do.
ReplyDeleteYou are right, they were 20'th in Team OBP and yes the BA drags that down.
DeleteGiants have 5 fairly adequate offensive players (DH, 3B, SS, LF, & CF) and such a good defensive C that they maybe could live with a reduced offense there. This puts Devers at DH not 1B: he will play one or the other. Perhaps SF can live with a not great offensive 2B if the fielding is good enough and makes the team strong up the middle defensively.
ReplyDeleteThey are probably going with Eldridge at 1B and that will most likely have growing pains – do they "have to"?
In RF are all the back up outfielders, 3, 4, 5 depending upon whom you count so it is the best spot to improve if they can.
Giants have 6 players (Adames, Chapman, Devers, Lee, Webb, and Ray) with guaranteed contracts plus $4M if exercised for Murphy and $1M for Soler, which, after all the things that add to payroll, leaves just under $80,000,000 (see *** at end) to fill the 26-man roster with Ramos, Bailey, 3 IFers, 2 OFers, a b/u C, 3 SPs, and 8 RPs which, if all are "replacements" (no improvements), will leave $60M (+/-) to sign at least 1 good SP.
If Buster goes to the cap, there is money available to improve, but quality isn't going to come cheap.
Valdez and Imanaga (if available) are $30M+; Suarez, Cease, and Bieber are $25M; King and Giolito are $20M+, and another half dozen or so in the $15M class.
Verlander: $8M, way down from this year's $15M, a bargain!
https://www.spotrac.com/mlb/free-agents/_/year/2026/position/sp/level/mlb
Many Top relievers, also, from big bucks to bargain basement
https://www.spotrac.com/mlb/free-agents/_/year/2026/position/rp/level/mlb
*** https://www.spotrac.com/mlb/san-francisco-giants/overview/_/year/2026
Did Buster see enough from Eldridge to feel confident plugging him in as a co-1B/DH with Devers for next season? I guess I would try to re-sign Smith give Eldridge a bit more breathing room. Smith could be traded if/when Eldridge is ready or could be a nice lefty bat off the bench.
Delete