Shaun Anderson fell victim to first inning disease which has infected the entire Giants pitching staff(yes, it happened when they tried to use an "opener"). That and some sloppy fielding ruined his start and the game for the Giants. Key Lines:
Joe Panik 2B- 2 for 5, 2B. BA= .245. Panik scuffled for the first two games of the series but missed a HR by a about a foot leading off the first inning when his drive hit about that far down from the metal facing of the RF arcade. He added a single later in the game and hit another drive that was caught in Triples Alley aka Death Valley that would have been a dinger in any other ballpark.
Buster Posey C- 2 for 4, 2B. BA= .252. Buster was coming off an 0 for 9 slump but his bat looked good in this game.
Mike Yastrzemski LF- 3 for 4, 2B. BA= .429. OK, baby steps are OK here. I didn't see the double but the first two hits were both soft liners and he did get thrown out by rounding too far past 1B on his first MLB hit, but right now singles and doubles from the LF is a huge upgrade over what the Giants have gotten so far. Give him a longer look!
Shaun Anderson RHP- 5 IP, 9 H, 6 R, 4 ER, 1 BB, 1 K, GO/AO= 8/1. ERA= 4.80. There was nothing BABIPy about Ketel Marte's that went over the high wall above the 421 ft. sign, but the rest of the scoring could be chalked up to a combination of BABIP luck and sloppy fielding including a couple of Wild Pitches by Anderson himself.
Sam Coonrod RHP- 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K. ERA= 0.00. Coonrod makes his MLB debut after getting called up to replace Andrew Suarez. Coonrod gives the Giants an extra arm the bullpen for now. Most likely DRod replaces Suarez in the rotation. Anyway, Coonrod was impressive throwing 98 MPH heat with a curveball to back it up. He almost certainly earned himself a longer look.
*********************************************************************************
The Loss dropped the Giants 13.5 games behind the NL West leading Dodgers and 7.5 games behind in the Wild Card race. Giants were outscored 34-8 in the series, an embarrassing beatdown, one of the worst in my memory and I've been a Giants fan for a very long time.
The Giants have pretty much backed themselves into a corner for now. Options for shuttling people in and out are dwindling. Yes, there is Mike Gerber and Austin Slater and there's Tyler Beede, but they've already been tried once and found wanting. In the short term, they need to find some stability in the lineup and in the rotation. The former will be easier to accomplish. The Trade deadline is looming and the die is about cast for them to be serious sellers. At minimum they will need to trade any players who will be free agents at the end of the season. More if they can find takers for some bad contracts. We'll just have to wait until the smoke has cleared from that to survey the landscape and see what talent has been added after the Draft, July 2 and the Trade Deadline. That is Farhan's next big test.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
i hope they can find a take for brandon belt, the time has come for posey to move to first in a lost season and let aramis get the majority of the reps behind the plate
ReplyDeleteYeah, maybe it's time to find a trade partner for Belt, he continues to disappoint last I checked hitting .225 7 hrs, can't come up with a clutch hit with RISP and making 17 mil 2 more years. I agree they have Garcia waiting in the wings and what about Tyler Austin sharing 1st base with Posey?
DeletePosey's major strength these days is behind the plate both receiving and handling pitchers -- he may well be best as a late inning defensive replacement especially to hold a lead or a close game.
DeleteTrading Belt without major $$$ is a dream of devoted Brandonphiles: 1st he has a no trade and second why would anyone want him? Giants would be lucky to find someone who would just take him for a PTBNL!
Yeah agree will be hard for the Giants to find a good deal for Belt w/o them paying much of his remaining salary. I'm hopeful that a team might be interested since wasn't Belt involved in trade rumors in the offseason?
DeleteWhen the two greatest strengths to the team (pitching and defense) start to fail, it could be a sign that their hearts arent in it. I don’t blame Bochy and I don’t blame the players. I actually think this is a reaction to a general dislike by players and coaches to the way this team is being run.
ReplyDeleteI wonder what each player and coach would say about Farhan as a person and as a GM. Tim Flannery is able to say what he feels not being a direct employee of the team anymore and he is basically saying Farhan is an idiot every chance he gets. My guess is he won’t be employed by Comcast by the end of the season and he knows this. He would rather be vocal and lose his job then sit back and say nothing which tells me he is probably echoing the thoughts of Bochy and probably many of the players as well who can’t say anything.
This season has felt like a complete failure from the start if we are being honest with ourselves. We all knew what they needed to do to be competitive this season or rebuild and neither has happened. We have given Farhan the benefit of the doubt at each crucial moment this year and the end result is a last place team with nothing positive to look forward to anytime soon!
No impact free agent signings, no impact trades, no positive results and now we hope he doesn’t screw the draft up too. The results won’t be known obviously for 2-3 years so theoretically he could run this team completely into the ground by 2021 before anyone in ownership really notices and takes action. Nothing that Farhan has done up to now has shown me he is capable of recognizing talent in the draft or on other teams that he can acquire via trade.
Farhan should have hired a real GM by now - the June draft and July trade deadline and then the off-season free agency decisions. Maybe he's an evil genius who WANTS everyone unhappy enough to be waiving those no-trade clauses by July, but more likely he might have an overactive belief in his actual ability to build a team.
DeleteLet's blame Farhan for the dearth of talent in the system, too!
DeleteRealistically, other than the obvious absurdity of Joe and Reed in the Opening Day lineup due to lack of anyone else, he's dealing with aging vets, a pitchers' park, and marginal AAA resources.
The very best the farm has produced since Joe Panik in 2014 is Steven Duggar and he's hanging on by his glove.
Can you blame Zaidi that the best player on the team is "Pudge" Sandoval? That Free Agent hitters don't want to come to Oracle? That no one seemed to want to trade someone good for a Giant in return?
Zaidi is easy to blame but Longoria is the best addition since the 2014 WS win-by-your-teeth finish and Bumgarner's heroics accented by the 2016 post All Star collapse.
If there must be someone to blame, there are candidates galore and Zaidi inherited a big-fat-mess and that's why he was hired.
Throwing good money after bad (re Dallas Kuechel) does not seem to be a meritorious plan -- one guy cannot plug multiple leaks.
The smartest thing the Giants could do now is to sign Dallas Kuechel. Just a few reasons why:
ReplyDelete1. Our starters suck and we could use the help in the rotation
2. It would give us an experienced starter to replace MadBum next year and beyond
3. It’s only money that they can afford to spend wont cost a draft pick pretty soon and he should be relatively affordable
4. Increases MadBums trade value instantly by taking another option off the market (this is the biggest reason IMO)
5. Oracle would be perfect for Kuechel’s style of pitching
This would be a thinking-outside-the-box type of move as it would boost the return on the MadBum trade giving us better prospects in return likely than if Kuechel were still on the market. We would have an “Ace” pitcher probably for less than what MadBum would have cost to keep next year and beyond.
I like this idea - load up for 2020 with Keuchel, Cueto, 3, 4, 5 SPs TBD. I hear the Yankees are sniffing around Keuchel though - which team would YOU want to pitch for if you were Dallas Keuchel?
DeleteI agree they should have hired a GM by now. Maybe Farhan and the FO have their hands full trying to cover Larry Baer's duties as well due to his suspension. I think they hired former blue jays GM JP Riccardi as an advisor to Farhan.
DeleteOne fact that may disappoint some folks: it looks like there will be a lot more 'sellers' than 'buyers' at this year's deadline. So just saying "trade player X" probably won't work very well. I have a feeling that there will be a lot of "yeah, not really interested" at the other end of the phone calls this year.
ReplyDeleteI really like this blog and I appreciate all the time Dr.B. are putting on these posts. I used to like the comments, too, since they often provided insightful commentary about baseball. Lately though, the comments section turned into any other comments section with many posts taking cheap shots into players, coaches, and the front office. I understand negativism and harsh critics, but there is no need for cheap, personal shots.
ReplyDeleteIt looks likely that I will have to read the posts and avoid the comments section as in many other sites.
Fans have a right to be frustrated and upset and to voice those opinions in comments... that is kind of the idea! Farhan is getting paid a lot of money to compete this year according to Giants ownership so if the results arent there he needs to be able to deal with criticism. If the Giants had come out and admitted they were rebuilding this season instead of lying to their fans about their intentions, I think we would be much more understanding of the situation. If he wanted to compete he should have signed actual major leaguers there were plenty that were available and they didnt get great offers from other teams so the overpay to get them to come here wouldnt have been much. If Farhan is rebuilding then where is the tear down and return of prospects?
DeleteI understand the frustration. Pavs wrote recently the front office plan was to compete and find keepers (players who will play with the Giants for multiple years). It almost sounded to me like they want to compete and rebuild at the same time, which is tough to do. Maybe thats why signing a player like Adam Jones didn't fit since he'd block a young player from getting a chance, although it will be tough for them to do a full rebuild due to all their bloated/no trade contracts. I think Doc is correct that we'll have to see what kind of young talent is added after the mlb draft, international signings, and trade deadline to see where the team is at. Maybe things will start to look up in the 2nd half of the year. Hopefully Joey Bart and Helliot Ramos will continue to show progression.
Delete