If you are going to try to win with pitching and defense, you can't make 3 errors in and expect to win. Key Lines:
Pablo Sandoval 3B- 1 for 3, 2B. BA= .333. This game revolved around Pablo as he gave the Giants a brief lead in the 5'th inning with an RBI double, but then committed 2 errors that allowed the Padres to score 2 unearned runs which were the difference in the game.
Jeff Samardzija RHP- 5 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 4 BB, 2 K's. ERA= 0.00. Shark was in the stretch for most of his 5 innings of work, but held the Padres at bay until Pabs' throwing error led to an unearned run in the bottom of the 5'th inning. Shark had a good fastball that reached 95 MPH on the TV gun at times, but he was not able to command the curveball or changeup. To his and Erik Kratz' credit, they did not give up on the curveball and got just enough strikes with is to enhance the FB. Overall an encouraging start by Shark.
Chris Paddack RHP(Padres)- Paddack has excellent command of a mid-90's FB and a really good changeup. He is also one odd dude with a swagger. Kruk and Kuip showed some video of him arriving at the clubhouse on gameday wearing a black western suit with a white shirt and pink tie and a very large black cowboy hat. He apparently wears this outfit before every game he is scheduled to pitch dating back to the minors. The stride is reminiscent of John Travolta in Stayin' Alive and Urban Cowboy. Anyway, if he can back it up with performances like today, more power to him.
NBC Sports Bay Area My Teams- All the announcers had to wear jackets with the My Teams streaming service logo today. Man! Please don't do that again, NBC Sports Bay Area! That is hard on the eyes!
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The Giants proceed from Petco Park to the Temple of Doom to face the Hated Ones who are coming off a 3-1 series win over the D'Backs in the opening series. Drew Pomeranz opens the 3-gamer tomorrow evening facing Lefty Julio Urias who seems to have electric stuff coming off shoulder surgery. BTW, the Dodgers hit 14 dingers and scored 42 runs in the 4 games against the D'Backs.
Speaking of the Temple of Doom, there was another beating incident in the parking lot of Dodger Stadium with another husband and father of 2 on life support with intracranial bleeding and brain swelling. As of this AM, the suspect was still at large.
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Where has The Core been......MIA?
ReplyDeleteThe core has indeed been MIA while the New Boys are more like Lost Boys..Seems like a team wide malaise and bad mind set already...Unready kids and vets not stepping up as they should..Maybe because, from the OF, they see a team that doesn't really want to do all it takes to win now..Hard situation...COuld get real ugly unless something brings them together..I thought the BOCHY fator might help..We'll see
ReplyDeleteSteveVA
It is too early to panic. One or two guys could get going offensively and it could lead to an offensive that could be borderline passable. Teamed with good pitching and strong defense, that could be enough to keep the Giants playing .500 baseball. There is no reason to abandon that hope at this point.
ReplyDeleteIt is not too early to, in a less optimistic moment, to accept that 90 to 95 losses is a very real possibility for this group.
this season is gonna be about patience and getting prospects, zaidi is planning for the long term!!
Delete...or he has no $%*#ing idea what he's doing.
DeleteThe Core doesn't seem to care this is Bochy's Last Year..............just add another year to their 2015 - 2018 collapse.
ReplyDeleteThe past three years I have been torn - is this demise due to injuries and diminishing talent (Lincecum, Cain) or complacency on the part of the core hitters. BOSH does not deserve a line-up of limp bats.
DeleteGiants lost 3 of 4 in San Diego because of Zaidi's pickups!
ReplyDeleteBut, from Oh Henry, SF Chronicle:
"Buster Posey has started 2-for-11, as has Joe Panik. Brandon Crawford is 3-for-12 and Brandon Belt 1-for-11... Steven Duggar is 3-for-15."
Which is individually AND collectively awful but Joe, Reed, Parra, and Kratz, Zaidi's offensive pickups, are 1-for-28.
Hard to put ALL the blame on the new guys when the core GIANTS are only better and far from good.
Will things go better in LA? 2 of 3 games are against LHP...
I appreciated all the comments. I will offers a couple of thoughts that I think respond to all of the concerns.
ReplyDeleteThe Core: To me, baseball is a game of repetition, consistency and muscle memory. I know matchups are important but so is continuity. That becomes even more important when you are trying to win by keeping the line moving. IMO, this team desperately needs a set lineup. If you want to have one lineup for lefties and another for RHP's, OK, but each one needs several games together to get some rhythm and momentum going.
Acquisitions: Zaidi clearly whiffed on the offseason. I'm absolutely not buying that this disaster is by some clever design. That goes against many of his own statements and the open pursuit of Bryce Harper. Mac has his issues and I am not against upgrading from him, but Joe and Reed are quite clearly both downgrades. Parra is a nice player but has no business being higher on the depth chart than 4'th OF. Solarte his a nice reserve 2B, but appears to not have the arm to field on the left side of the IF. Kratz has veteran savvy and framing skills, but the bat is a black hole in the lineup. If Buster is only going to be able to play 80-90 games, Aramis Garcia would get enough PA's to make it worth keeping him on the active roster.
The California Dreaming scenario required that the the Core collectively produce an average season AND the OF be significantly upgraded. We already know for sure the latter did not happen. The jury is still out on the core, but the lack of support in the lineup from the OF makes it more difficult for the core to meet that goal. I know there is no such thing as lineup protection, blah, blah, blah, but there is definitely a synchrony that develops in a lineup that is extremely difficult to achieve if 3 or 4 members are automatic outs.
Day after day -- begin looking for Bill Murray & Andie MacDowell.
ReplyDeleteMaybe Dave and Amy?
Had Baer or Zaidi had come out and said they want to rebuild like a beat writer suspects, I'm not sure if the fans would be as upset. But I doubt Baer would ever use the term rebuild since they want to sell tickets. I'm not buying that Harper was Zaidis idea, it smells like ownership driven, since it's never been Zaidis mo. This is speculative on my part, but I wish Baer/Zaidi would have been more honest to the fans. If ownership wants the team to be competitive every year but Farhan wants to rebuild and look at young players, that is a recipe for a losing season and a team stuck in neutral.
ReplyDeleteHow sure are we that Zaidi even has an MO? The Dodgers have so many front office personnel I don't know how anyone can know what their roles are in decisionmaking. For all we know, Friedman was making the big decisions while Zaidi was off in a corner playing his waiver roulette game. A similar scenario is likely when he was in Oakland.
DeleteAs for his statements, it's more than just giving lip service to being competitive. Zaidi said from the beginning he had a plan to upgrade the OF and it was likely through the trade market. When trades did not materialize in the winter meetings, that line morphed into the trade market waiting for the FA's to sign before emerging. Then he hopped on the Harper bandwagon before saying trades would emerge when teams faced roster crunches. None of what Farhan himself went out of his way to project actually happened. It seems to me that attributing this disaster is some sort of secret Farhan genius rebuilding plan projects a lot of wishful thinking onto him. I don't think Baer and Zaidi were being dishonest with the fans at all. I think they had every intention of upgrading the OF and competing. They simply failed.
Duggar and Belt both coming up huge tonight.
ReplyDeleteAs mentioned, it's speculative of course. Maybe the more sure assumption it's not the Dodgers MO to chase a Harper. I think I read Zaidis duties with the Bums included trade talks and something else. For all we know, decision making could have been a collabertive effort too. Wasn't that the case with the Giants old regime? I think Evans got a bad rap because of this. I don't want to sound like a
ReplyDeleteZaidi apologist, but I didn't mind him not making any trades at the Winter meetings, since he was hired in November and I didn't want him to trade away players he doesn't even know. Still don't buy Harper was Zaidi driven, the Phillies owner was leading the Harper pursuit. Hope you're right about Baer, Zaidi being honest, that is what bothers me the most
it is true Zaidi was hired late and as Dr Lefty pointed out, his performance this offseason does not mean he won't have success down the road and in other areas. His new scouting staff may crush the draft. His new player development people may start producing a bunch of pitchers throwing 98 MPH and hitters hitting dingers. He may make some great traded at the deadline, either to improve this year's team or jumpstart the farm system. I just think we need to own up to this 1. Not being a great offseason for him or the Giants and 2. Not being part of some secret genius plan which will reveal itself in due time. I don't think the Giants should panic and fire Zaidi now, but guys in his position are only allowed so many swings and misses and he has one already.
DeleteAs for Evans, I agree he got a bad rap. I still think his processes were sound. Maybe the scouting improves under Zaidi. Maybe player development improves too. I think there better than even odds Evans would have put together a stronger team this year. We can debate whether that would be a good thing or not, but I don't think it was Zaidi's intention to tank the season.