Oh my! Coming off a crushing series sweep to the D'Backs in Oracle Park, the Giants may have been breathing a sigh of relief to be facing the only team in MLB with a worse record. As we've seen so often for the past 2.5 years, faceplant! Jeff Samardzija threw batting practice for a previously weak hitting Marlins lineup and after Joe Panik's leadoff HR in the top of the first inning, the Giants offense mustered just one hit over the next 7 innings against Trevor Richards. So, we've come to this: The Giants are a worse team than the Marlins, a team that is actively trying to be bad! Key Lines:
Joe Panik 2B- 2 for 4, HR(3). BA= .251. Panik has been one of the few bright spots in May and even he is coming out of a slump. 4 for 9 over his last 2 games, though. Joe is going to be a free agent at the end of the season, so has to be on the trading block coming up to the trade deadline. Problem is, despite being maybe the Giants current best position player, you have to squint really hard to see much trade value in Joe Panik.
Jeff Samardzija RHP- 4 IP, 8 H, 5 R, 1 BB, 4 K's. ERA= 3.83. Can't blame this one on first inning blues which he got through without allowing a run. He started the 5'th inning with a walk and a single. Nick Vincent got 2 outs but then single, blast and the route was on. The Giants used 4 pitchers in the game, Shark, Vincent, Derek Holland and Sam Coonrod. They all allowed at least 1 ER to the worst hitting team by OPS in MLB.
*********************************************************************************
There is no point in tracking the Giants deficit in the standings. I am declaring them officially out of playoff contention. If they start showing signs of life and gain a couple of games or 4 in the Wild Card standings we can always pick it up again.
*********************************************************************************
Madison Bumgarner tries to stop the embarrassment tomorrow evening against someone named Pablo Lopez.
*********************************************************************************
I don't pretend to know anything at all about what managers do to make their team better. They can win a few extra games each season with good decisionmaking, mostly around when to make pitching changes and get the right matchups. Beyond that it's a black box. "Clubhouse chemistry" is an elusive term that defies definition. I guess it's like pornography, you know it when you see it? By that measure, the Giants definitely had it for a 5 season run from 2010 through 2014. I think you can add in 2009 and the first half of 2016. Even in the odd years, you still had the feeling this was just a 1 year hangover and they would come back strong the next season.
I don't know what happened at the All-Star break in 2016, but it was like someone just turned out a light. There was a late rally that was killed by Bobby Evans' failure to land a Closer at the trade deadline then.....nothing. This team has been absolutely moribund ever since. I can't put a finger on it but there is no life, no enthusiasm. Bochy looks and acts like he stopped caring 2 years ago. The "core" players occasionally do some good things but mostly act like they are happy to finish out their careers with 3 rings and a big paycheck. In retrospect, maybe Boch should have listened to his friend, the Flan Man and ridden off into the sunset with him after 2014?
I've never thought managers should be canned because their team is bad. That would be the GM's fault. But when the team comes to the park game after game not ready to play as evidenced by a horrific first inning run differential, well, maybe it's time for new leadership. Some of the current malaise may be due to the failed offseason, constant churning of the roster and the sense of a directionless front office, but this is the vibe we've gotten for 2.5 years now starting long before the front office regime change.
The Giants are in a tough spot with a Hall of Fame Manager who is in the announced final season of his career. They cannot fire Bruce Bochy midseason. That would be a horrible look! But, and I didn't think I would ever say this, it's way past time for him to go. It's time for the team to quietly offer him a sweet deal to take early retirement and let it be his idea. Maybe he needs to attend to his gimpy knee? Maybe his cardiologist tells him he needs to rest the ol' ticker? Have a day for him later in the season. It's time for Boch to hang it up and let someone else try to inject an ounce of competitiveness into this team.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
What happened? Tim Flannery retired. The Flan man was Bochy's foil, a person who could offer alternative ideas and also lighten up the clubhouse. Boch may be a brilliant manager, but he doesn't seem to relate well with younger players, which was where Flannery excelled.
ReplyDeleteIt's always a debate about how much difference 'team chemistry' makes, but it certainly makes some difference.
One man does not make a Team, this Team was mainly rotten to The Core
DeleteThey just suck SOOO BAAAD. How much worse can they get - DFA Longoria, Belt, Samardjiza, Pomeranz, Holland and eat the salaries - no one wants to watch them play baseball anymore. They are boring and lame. Keep Posey Crawford Panik Duggar for up the middle D and PLAY all the YOUNG HITTERS you can find! Sign Keuchel trade Bumgarner then re=sign Bumgarner and go to 2020 with Keuchel, Bumgarner and Cueto + and NOT those 5 names up above. Get us out of this!
ReplyDeleteDoc, a couple of thoughts from your Canadian lifer Giant fan.
ReplyDeleteIn 2016; I sincerely think some of the air in the ball club disappeared when they traded Matt Duffy!
Number 2; early I said gave Farhan time; I am dead to that now.
I cannot fathom how the clubhouse feels about the revolving door of player moves.
Dare I say it > bring back Sabes to put some life into the team
Richard in Winnipeg
P.s this is not torture; this is just sad!
Dr B,
ReplyDeleteI have always appreciated your insight and candor. But, when I first started reading your blog, I thought that you carried a pro-Sabean bias that at times rang of being a homer. Turns out as we all know those Sabean years produced 3 WS! After your entry today calling for the end of the Bochy tenure, I got to say I have another level of appreciation for your thoughts and opinions. Yeah, dark times we live in. We fans like the players can still get nostalgic for those amazing years. I am ready for the fire sale to start. It will be painful, but the sooner the house cleaning begins, the better. An 11-3 loss to the Marlins would not be so bad if the Giants are rebuilding, but for a team that is trying to compete-yuck!
I agree, great post Doc. Yeah I wasn't happy with that Duffy trade and Evans not getting a closer in 2016. I'm sure changes will be made shortly.
DeleteOne day a sports management class will make a case study of the Giants - dissect this team to wee what made them die off in such a fantastic way. I would love to have Bosh or The Core or really anyone on the inside talk candidly to the fan base. It may never happen in the interest of not offending anyone. How much of the performance drop off is due to age? how much attributed to complacency due to long guaranteed contracts for absurd amounts of money? It is no coincidence that The Core was all signed to contracts of about six years in length and from the age of late 20's onwards The Core stopped hitting.
ReplyDeleteWe start with weak play by The Core. Then we have FO mistakes - no international market stars developed since Panda. Plus failure to bring in any younger talent by any means - MLB Draft or Rule 5 or via Trade. Instead you have stupid FA signings (Austin Jackson) stupid trades (Bryan Reynolds and Crick for McCutch) to name just a few.
Clearly the WS Championships went tot he heads of management / the team / and even the fan base. I will never forget the video of the Giants fan holding the "Dynasty" newspaper behind the Dodger home plate area. The idea was - oh we may be scuffling but don't forget we are a Dynasty. I never thought that was funny. We live in the moment not in the past. You tempt fate by doing this. It is pure hubris. In that respect this downfall is no surprise. It is arrogance that brought down this franchise.
Now I read every message on this thread and SFGate and MCC because I want the pulse of the fanbase. Consensus is that we are watching a horrorshow. Grotesque ineptitude. Spectacularly bad play. Pummeled by the Yankees and then Arizona - pratfall in Miami. I think this team has the largest run differential in all of baseball. It is the most lifeless / lazy / confused / careless team in all of MLB.
I would never buy a $25 ticket to watch these guys play. The entire organization needs to get its act together. Will be many years before they are competitive in their own division.
SF should have never allowed Boch to go another Season, that was an emotional call and I doubt one that Z supported. Ownership still meddling in Baseball Affairs. As for the Core they played above their talents for 5 Years and now have settled into who they really are......support players not The Core.
ReplyDeleteat this point farhan will be cleaning house this offseason, i expect none of the current coaching staff to return next season.
DeleteSpot on across the board here with the post and the comments. We could spend hours dissecting why this has happened and who is to blame but really none of that matters. What matters more is what they do now and Farhan’s honeymoon is over.
ReplyDeleteI think the Giants knew they wouldn’t compete this season and instead of coming out and saying it, they tried to ride the nastalgia train one more year and it is blowing up in their face. Farhan is in charge and he needs to hit the brakes on the train and run this S-show. DFA guys you can’t trade and like Dr B says find a way to move on from Bochy by the All-Star break.
It is time for a great big reality check to the players, ownership, management, and fans. Time to put up the white flag and officially move on from the past. A full cleanse is needed and right now looks like the only way to turn this around
There is No Quick Fix, it could be painful for awhile. Z has his job cut out for him but we will need patience, at least as much as we gave Evans & Sabean after 2015.
DeleteFull Cleanse is needed
DeleteTrying not to jump on the bandwagon, the Giants have done what they had to do since 2014 (except signing a closer in 2016) to extend the championship era.
ReplyDeleteIt's pure hindsight to fault the "core" extensions or the Longoria trade. Perhaps the Giants gave up too much for McCutchen but he was last year's best player as Longoria is likely to be the Giants best player this year.
Posey is the Face of the Giants, still a superior catcher, and great with pitchers. He shouldn't bat near the top of the lineup, but who should? Long live Buster.
Panik has another year of arbitration but he has returned his salary in full and will do it again this year. Panik is not the problem.
Belt and Crawford: glad to have them, maybe they'll be around a little too long but they aren't far off earning their pay. Wouldn't have 2 of the 3 championships without them.
My only criticism would be the Giants waited until the wheels fell off to admit they have to rebuild.
Had the Giants had the Dodgers farm system when Zaidi signed up, "competing now" might had worked. Nothing he has done changes what is necessary to do going forward: he tried to keep plugging holes with what he could sign (always a two way street) and he had little to offer in trade from a nearly empty cupboard.
There are only a few Giants that will bring anything worth getting in trade. We complain about the "core" because they aren't "earning" their current paychecks. Well, we don't know anything that 29 GMs don't know. We're stuck with what we have, DFAing doesn't relieve any responsibility, it just makes someone unhappy and maybe provides a slot for someone deserving: LIKE WHO?
The "core" is mostly performing, maybe not to what we want, but they are all on the decline: we can't realistically expect more.
Just because they don't have great trade value doesn't mean they should stay, better to Lose without them than with them......losing is losing but we could look at different in house option.
DeleteI like the analysis of the first post. Almost all contract look bad towards the end, so we need to look at the the full contract. I don't really blame the FO; we were at 500 until we traded McCutchen last year, and it was after losing Bumgarner at the beginning of the year. Cueto for almost all year and Shark for almost all year. Those are the top 3 pitchers. If they were healthy, it could have been much different.
DeleteFor this year, they tried to sign Harper. If they succeeded, I guess they would have signed more short term players for immediate success. Once they missed there was no point. Zaidi also said the market for relievers were not good, and he expected it to be better during the season. I bet it was similar for position players as well. Contrary to the anon(s) I think our players do have trade value, but not very high. I can see them bringing some prospects, especially if we eat up part of the salary.
I wish life was so easy that we could just burn down the house each time, we were dissatisfied and build another one the next day. If it were, FO would be selling lottery tickets to pick the next GM instead of paying millions to Zaidi.
Who is being blocked by the core?
ReplyDeleteTheir salaries block the ability to sign free agents. If Longoria wasn’t on the team maybe Machado would have been a target. Not saying I want that but he would have made more sense than Harper but we had Longo and Crawford blocking the left side of the infield.
DeleteShaw is being blocked in a way by Belt and Bart is about to be blocked by Posey starting next year. Other players like Samardjiza and Melancon may not be blocking anyone but aren’t good either so time to move on.
The objective now should be to lose as many games as possible while acquiring and evaluating as much talent as possible. Anyone that helps this team be mediocre and maybe more importantly anyone who isn’t motivated to bring it every night should be given a chance to succeed elsewhere. Thanks for the memories
bochy is unlikely to step down midseason but, farhan may have to think about sending a message by making an in-season change to the coaching staff and i think curt young could be the guy the gets the axe with pitching as bad as it is right now,
ReplyDelete