The Giants overcame another rocky first inning from their starting pitcher to win a see-saw battle to avoid the sweep to the Reds. Key Lines:
Joe Panik 2B- 2 for 4. BA= .239. Panik did not figure in the scoring, but continues to swing a hot bat hitting .391 over his last 7 games and .309 over his last 15.
Steven Duggar RF- 1 for 4, 2B. BA= .265. Duggar doubled in the bottom of the first and scored on Pablo's HR to answer the Reds opening 2-spot. He is hitting just .250 over his last 7 games but .304 over his last 15.
Pablo Sandoval 1B- 3 for 4, 2B, HR(4). BA= .282. Pabs continues to be productive in bench and sub roles. Huge game to today with contributions to 3 of the Giants 6 runs.
Kevin Pillar CF- 2 for 4, 2B, Assist(home), E(2). BA= .213. Pillar continues to pick his spots to produce. His single in the 8'th inning drove in the winning run. His ideal role is probably 4'th OF, though.
Brandon Belt PH- 1 for 1, HR(6). BA= .228. Got the Giants even for the second time with with a PH HR subbing for Eric Kratz in the 7'th inning.
Madison Bumgarner LHP- 6 IP, 8 H, 4 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 7 K's. ERA= 3.88. After the rocky first inning(both runs were unearned as the leadoff batter reached on catcher interference), Bummy settled down to pitch a good game and earn his 3'rd QS in a row.
Will Smith LHP- 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K's, Save(10). ERA= 2.87. Despite an ugly ERA of 5.14 over his last 7 appearances, Smith continues to be one of the more reliable Closers in the league with his tenth in 10 opportunities.
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With the Win, the Giants remained 8.5 games behind the Dodgers in the NL West but gained a game in the Wild Card race to a 4.5 game deficit.
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The Giants have a day off at home today. Tyler Beede tries to reset the MLB part of his season tomorrow against Trent Thornton of the Blue Jays.
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A clearly frustrated Derek Holland lashed out to the media after he was demoted to the bullpen asserting that his recent IL stay was a "fake" injury. Giants GM(or whatever his title is) Farhan Zaidi responded by saying the injury was a bone bruise stemming from spring training that "flared up" and they "did and MRI". Zaidi did acknowledge that Holland thought he could continue pitching and the decision was made unilaterally by the club for his own(and the club's) good. Zaidi also accepted responsibility for lack of communication with the players. Holland's statement made it clear the issues run deeper than just his own situation. "To be honest with you, I have no idea what they are doing.....we keep changing a lot of things."
Thoughts(possibly random):
Bone bruises take a long time to heal and it is believable for one to occur in spring training and still be bothering Holland and affecting his performance.
I am not clear on how a chronic bone bruise would "flare up," but maybe Holland bumped it again or maybe he keeps reinjuring it just by pitching.
It is hard to believe that a 10 day IL stint would make any significant difference in healing what would now be a chronic injury.
Zaidi's previous organization, the Dodgers, have been strongly suspected of abusing the IL process to essentially give players R&R over the past several seasons.
The truth is probably somewhere between Holland's statement and Zaidi's.
Holland should not have taken his grievance to the press. If he really believes he was forced to the IL when he did not really have an injury, he could have asked for a meeting with Bochy and Zaidi at which time he could have also given them a perspective on how the players are dealing with all the roster churning. If those avenues did not satisfy him, well, that's what the Player's Association is for.
Now that Holland has gone public with the assertion of a "fake injury" the Commissioner should open an investigation into the matter, as the IL is for a specific purpose and "fake" injuries are cheating just as much as using pitchers doctoring the ball or batters corking their bats. Maybe there is a role for R&R stints off the roster, but then negotiate a rule for that in the next Basic Agreement.
Farhan Zaidi has a responsibility to try to improve the talent on the roster. Players are obviously going to come and go in that process. I do think the almost frantic movement with players coming and going has reached a point of diminishing returns. At some point, Zaidi has to have enough confidence in his own acquisitions to give them a meaningful sample size to prove themselves.
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Despite the losing record, I've liked how this team has come from behind and pulled out a few wins the past couple of weeks, 3 deficits today before pulling out the win, they've won making up a 8 run deficit against the Reds on the road, they lost despite making up a 7 run deficit in Colorado. Hope this team can get on a winning streak, I agree that they need to get the roster more settled to see what they have, it's hard to develop a winning team if you have players coming and going in an almost frantic pace.
ReplyDeleteI don't know if these are diminishing returns - we finally have Mac on board (it'd be nice if he'd hit over .200 and doesn't pull a Gerber) and we all thought Altherr would be a good Giant and now here he is. Tyler Austin hits - that's a plus and he's on our team. All these guys need to do is hit the ball when they're given their chance. Or in Holland's case, miss some bats without missing the strike zone - if he can't go 5 innings without coughing up 6 runs then he belongs in the bullpen and if he can't go one or two innings from there then he belongs elsewhere. I sincerely hope Holland puts it together in the pen - then he'll have some trade value.
ReplyDeleteDoc, you're beginning to sound like you have a bit of a vendetta going against Zaidi.
ReplyDeleteI see what he is at least trying to do.
Looking at the revolving door outfield, the organizational belief is that the Giants have a a very weak outfield, and numbers bear that out. If the Giants have a weak outfield (at both the MLB and upper minor league levels) then, by comparison, other organizations are stronger. They have better players and more depth. Actions seem to bear this out. When Mac was exposed to other teams, the fears of Mac's supporters were not realized and he was not picked up. Other organizations are not jumping on the Giants' roster sacrifices.
So the strategy is grab better bets (to help the MLB club now and in the future) than we currently have. Altherr was not available for free previously. When he did become available Zaidi made a move. The better to bet to help the club was Altherr instead of Moore. Tactics are to acquire better bets that don't cost anything as they become available.
This is life at the margins. The changes are incremental. There is no big move to be made right now. Zaidi is doing what he can when he can do it. This is the state of the Giants. It's been literally 7 or 8 YEARS since the Giants have developed a solid major leaguer. (I'm not counting Panik. I'm going back to Crawford or Belt.) 7 or 8 years. No solid pitchers. No solid starters. Management threw money at this for as long as they could. But, the Giants are at the Luxury Tax threshold. That is no longer an options.
Perhaps there were off-season options. You've called out Domingo Santana. Yes, his bat would look good in this lineup. But his defense is not good. His overall WAR is playing out to be around 1.5 WAR for the year. Not even what is considered a solid MLB starter.
This team is not good. Some bigger moves could be made to perhaps make this a .500 team, at the expense of potential prospects who might have gone on to help the Giants in the future. Yes, most of the Giant's traded prospects don't pan out. Some do. It's not worth it (to Zaidi) to sacrifice potential long-term gains for the short-term gain of putting a .500 team on the field, as opposed to the current .430 team.
It's been 6 months. He inherited a mess that was more than 6 years in the making. Give him an opportunity to do his job.
And honestly, do you really care if Zaidi is manipulating the IL? Holland ended up there because he was/is pitching horribly. That's the problem here. Not that Holland hit the IL and may not have had a significant injury. The real issue is Holland and his lack of discretion. It's distressing that you'd like to see Manfred investigate this. To what end?
I believe Holland, who is a free agent at end of year, saw his market value marginalized by perception that he is injured and Z. fostered that by improperly placing Holland on the DL.
DeleteFair point on what might be Holland's take on this. I feel that it would be Holland's best interest to have potential cause identified for his poor performance rather than simply that he pitched poorly.
DeleteGiants hold an option on Holland in 2020. Around $7-$8 million. I believe the amount is higher the more starts he makes this year. If that is what's behind Holland's comments, then he hasn't played this well.
If he keeps pitching like this, the Giants won't pick up his option at any cost, and if he pitches well, then the Giants will pick up his option. The real issue (and pathway to a good contract next year) is that Holland has to improve.