Donovan Solano and Evan Longoria were the offensive stars and the bullpen picked up SP Logan Webb with a lockdown 4.1 IP waking up the echoes of the first four months of the season. Key Lines:
Donovan Solano 2B- 4 for 4, 2B, BB. BA= .349. Solano got on base 5 times from the top of the lineup but only scored one run while also driving in one. Boch/Farhan need to consider making Solano the everyday 2B, at least until he cools off. It's not like Scooter Gennett is setting the league on fire.
Evan Longoria 3B- 2 for 4, HR(17). BA= .260. Longo's longball put him past last year's season total. He's hitting .321 over his last 7 games, .361 over his last 15 and .333 over his last 30. Not sure why anyone would want the Giants to put him on waivers let alone pay for someone to take him.
What a lot of folks don't realize about Longo is his contract is actually quite reasonable even with it's length. At the time of the trade, he had $88 M remaining on his contract. The Rays took on $14.5 M and there is a $5 M buyout for 2023. That leaves $68.5 M for the intervening 5 years which comes to an AAV of $13.5 M. In other words, the Giants are paying him to average just about 1.8 fWAR/yr. He didn't produce that last year in a transition year interrupted by a fractured hand which undoubtedly impacted him all season but he's already covered it for this season and is currently playing as well as he ever has. If Farhan isn't diggin' the length of Longo's contract, he should easily find a buyer this winter and actually get something of value in return, but it would also be very reasonable to just hold onto him and get more 3B goodness out of him for the Giants. Q: Who do you see as an upgrade out there? There is definitely not reason at all to dump him onto the waiver wire.
Logan Webb RHP- 4.2 IP, 6 H, 4 R, 2 BB, 2 K's, GO/AO= 7/2. ERA= 4.66. Not a stellar second start, but not a disaster either. Webb ran into trouble in the 2'nd inning with one out giving up a HR, double, double and single for a 3-spot before working his way out of it. He gave up a second dinger to Mark Canha in the 4'th, then, with 2-outs in the 5'th inning a single, HBP and Walk brought Bochy out with the hook. Positives are the poise to get out of the second inning and and the strong GO/AO.
Bullpen- 4.1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 5 K's. Jandel Gustave got out of the 5'th inning jam by striking out Canha but then started the 6'th with 2 walks. Sam Coonrod came in and calmly got a GIDP and a K to end the threat. It was smooth sailing the rest of the way as Reyes Moronta, Tony Watson and Will Smith all pitched scoreless frames with Smith recording his 30'th Save after the Giants took the lead in the 8'th inning.
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With the Win, the Giants gained a full game on the Cubs in the race for the second Wild Card playoff spot for the second straight game and now trail by 4 games compared to 6 after Friday night. Does this remind anyone else of Brian Sabean's infamous "cockroaches" simile in 2010?
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The Giants start a homestand with a 2-game series against the D'Backs tomorrow evening with Tyler Beede trying to get his ship righted against rookie LHP Alex Young.
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I disagree on Longo,i nice he is having a solid season now, but - he had a 91 ops+ last year, and 99 his last year in TB. He's an average player that will be 34 before next season starts. Odds say his production will most likely slip further the next few years.
ReplyDelete"It's better to trade someone a year early then a year late". We have a bunch of bloated contracts that are possible worth the money but we aren't getting value which you need when building a roster.
To answer your question of who would be a better option at 3B may I suggest signing Anthony Rendon! Pay him whatever it will take he us worth it. Longo doesn’t even need to go he could shift over to 1B as his glove is starting to fade and it may help him stay healthy. 1B for me is almost as big an issue as 3B for the next few years with no clear prospects that can take over. In past years I thought it would be a good spot for Posey to settle into once he is done catching but his bat is so god awful and his value at this point is purely defensively at catcher. If they are going to get rid of any of the 4 underperforming contracts it seems like Belt is the odd man out with possibly Crawford a close second. Sign Rendon and try to trade Belt and this lineup could be very productive next year.
ReplyDeleteThere isn't a single reason in the world to put Longoria onto the waiver wires, that's hogwash if you ask me.
ReplyDeleteAt the same time, I to a certain degree agree with the above poster, Gym. Longoria's career can crash again at any moment, and his upside or equivalent production over the next few years is severely limited by his age and the law of averages. If the Giants can get a strong return, he should be available. If they can't, then I agree with Doc - the guy is a strong piece of this team and clearly has the spirit to continue to win, and the physical body is still allowing him to do great things.
All in all, it's incredible what Zaidi has done in just one season. Last year and the years before that, the Giants were all but unwatchable; just completely uninspired baseball with literally not a hope in the world of being competitive. Suddenly, the spirit of SF baseball is completely revived and you can see it in the stands, and you can see it in the box scores with these dudes putting up 5+ runs on a regular basis.
Farhan Zaidi has what it takes, and I'm so glad they were able to bring him in. Huge culture change.
Dickerson, Yaz, Solano; plus lots of hope with Dubon, Jaylin Davis and othersl cutting ties with Holland, Panik, and Melancon... Farhan has a good eye for talent and is decisive.
DeleteAs for Posey - not only can his bat not play up to 1B, he has proven to be slow of foot an clumsy when he has played 1B.
The infield will likely get a makeover by next year.
I agree that Zaidi deserves a lot of credit for the moves he's made to make this team competitive while still rebuilding. It's remarkable considering the teams payroll situation and their top prospects are still a year or two away. I think the future looks promising considering the direction Zaidi seems to have this team going. I've been slow to come around realizing that the change to the front office needed to be made, and am glad ownership did it. Maybe tough decisions still need to be made on fan favorites like Madbum, Belt, Crawford, and it would have been hard on the previous regime since these players were part of so many successful teams they put together. DFA Panik was painful enough.
DeleteAnon above:
ReplyDelete"All in all, it's incredible what Zaidi has done in just one season. Last year and the years before that, the Giants were all but unwatchable; just completely uninspired baseball with literally not a hope in the world of being competitive."
2016: the Giants were the best team in major league baseball until the All Star game, then won the WC and almost took the eventual WS winners to a a final NLDS game with Johnny C getting another bite.
2017: began bad and got badder with injuries et al.
2018: August was a wrestling match with .500, ending the month at 68-68, just out of the race but having ended every 2018 month except May with a winning record.
On the morning of August 15, the Giants were 1 game over .500 and just 5 games out of the division lead).
Doc wrote on Thursday, August 30, 2018:
"Giants Trade Cutch
"The Giants finally threw in the towel on the season after failing to sweep the D'Backs and losing Steven Duggar for the rest of the season."
2018 ended badly after McCutchen was traded, it was a season of ups and downs, but the Giants were, until September 1st, watchable.
For 2019, SF had payroll space to add credible, available FAs for the outfield and starting pitching, but chose to nibble on crumbs and opened with an unwatchable team and little if any morale -- Conner Joe and Michael Reed in the outfield.
Zaidi has made on-the-go additions and the team became interesting in June.
The improvements to the farm system began before him.
August is likely to end with a better than .500 record having a relatively weak schedule this week, but it gets tough again in September, and elimination probably comes the following week on the road with 4 in St Louis and 3 in LA.
Johnny come home home soon, maybe we can squint and see a rotation, none of them Zaidi acquisitions.