The Oakland A's crushed the Giants, or maybe the Giants bullpen crushed themselves giving up another gigantic inning except in the middle of the game this time. Key Lines:
Brandon Belt 1B- 3 for 4, HR(2). BA= .186. Signs of life from The Belter. Let's see if this is the start of something or a blip on the screen.
Brandon Crawford SS- 2 for 3, 2B, HR(1), BB. BA= .224. See Brandon Belt above.
Brandon Webb RHP- 4.1 IP, 3 H, 3 R, 5 BB, 5 K's. Webb struggled with command/control and threw a lot of pitches but left with the game still close.
Bullpen- 4.2 IP, 14 H, 12 R, 2 BB, 3 K's. Wandy Peralta LHP gave up 5 runs without recording an out. D'Rod gave up another 5-spot but at least got through 5.2 IP. Brian Sabean was criticized by analytical types almost annually for overspending on the bullpen, but this is what happens when you think you can build a bullpen out of a collection or random, hard-throwing arms.
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The Loss dropped the Giants record to 8-15. Probably time to throw in the towel on the season, play the kids and try to get some value at the trade deadline.
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The Giants travel to LAA for 2 games before returning to Oracle Park to complete the homestand. Tyler Anderson LHP faces Griffin Canning RHP in game one tomorrow evening.
Giants bullpen - Melancon, Pomeranz, and Dyson were traded last year. Will Smith signed with Braves. It was inevitable that 2020 season be an evaluation year for bullpen, filled with hard throwing but inexperienced arms. Maybe they'll have Anderson, Gott, Garcia, Peralta in high leverage situations in 2021. They are trying to find out which of their young talented arms has what it takes to stick in 2021.maybe I'm off base, but it seems like that's what's going on.
ReplyDeleteI think they are taking the classic analytical approach which devalues(or rightly values depending on what school of thought you belong to) relievers. This leads to churning for high velocity arms, throwing them to the wolves and see what sticks. Personally I don't see any of those names making us forget the "big four" anytime soon.
DeleteI also think having a manager who can find effective roles for different relievers can make a big difference. That was Bochy's forte. I believe if you give two managers the same set of hard throwing bullpen arms, you can get different outcomes depending on their relative ability to recognize and assign roles. Not sure Kap has what it takes for that.
DeleteI prefer to think of it as "big. four"+ Bochy. We can hope to have another big four, we should not expect it. Kapler needs to get to know his pitchers as well. So far, I think Rogers was mismanaged with 20/20 hindsight. Once he was bombed on a day game after he pitched two innings the previous night. The other time, he was asked to pitch more after a good inning, and was left there. He will learn how to utilize Rogers better. We first need a few pitchers to build a bullpen around by adding. complementary pieces (E.g Lopez of the big four)
DeleteYup, Bochy was master at using his bullpen. Kapler seems to have Gott, Watson, Rogers he uses in high leverage situations, while the rest seems to be auditioning for a spot in 2021. Maybe 2020 is more about evaluating your bullpen arms instead of assigning roles? Did he assign roles for his bullpen in Philly? Heard he had complaints about his bullpen usage in Philly. I'll say his explanation on bringing Gott in with a 5 run lead during Fridays game made no sense. If he didn't trust his setup reliever to protect a 5 run lead, he could have pulled him after facing 3 batters!
ReplyDeleteHere comes the defeatist attitude, but as Andrew Baggerly has taken to pointing out rather bluntly, the Giants are a deeply flawed, very poor team. Full stop. The organization NEEDS a #1 starter type arm, and to get that out of the draft it helps a lot to be among the first three or four teams picking.
ReplyDeleteLet's learn more about Bart and Ramos. Let's be as active as the market allows at the trade deadline. Let's hope the Giants' international scouts can pull a couple rabbits out of the hat in January. And let's keep in mind we are going through this because the Giants front office made a real attempt to deliver a winning product in 2017 and 2018. I would argue that was a bad decision, but you can't fault the effort and the willingness to spend. Remember, the Giants have three WS Championships over the last 11 years. Pretty darn good.
We will get through this. Just keep stacking prospects into the organization and good things will happen.
Bochy had much much more to work with, including Burch Smith who Zaidi let go in February and he's lights out in Oakland!
ReplyDeleteBesides, he also had Posey who probably knows more about the Giants pitching than all 15 of Kapler's 15+ uniformed coaches put together.
Then there's the difference in the defense. Giants weren't the best last year, but they are the worst this year! Give me Crawford at SS and tough out his not-so-stellar hitting, make sure we're strong up the middle — is Dubon really better in CF than Yaz? — and don't sacrifice D late in a game when ahead — think about it as a "closer" defense along with a closer pitcher!
Burch Smith? Really?
DeleteFirst, Crawford is not what he used to be either.
DeleteSecondly, show me one person who was shocked that he was let go at the time.
The reference to Burch Smith is merely he was let go by Zaidi — perhaps someone across the Bay was shocked.
DeleteHe's pitching lights-out for the A's — would be very good to have him. And he was kinda OK for the Giants in 2019. A good A's team saw something there that a bad Giants team didn't.
Crawford is not what he was but is still the best Giants have at SS and after a poor start he has hit very well lately (SSS: 15 PA) .385/.467/.692
Ever hear of something called Small Sample Size? How many teams have let Burch Smith go over the years? Nice he's had a few good games in Oakland, but I wouldn't be holding him up as exhibit A in my argument against The Churn.
DeleteI am also not sure where the connection between Bochy having "more to work with" and Burch Smith came from.
In addition to the bullpen being a disaster, our defense has been making more mistakes than any Giants team that I can remember for many years. 4 catcher's interferences already! Lots of singles hit to the outfield that have been turned into extra bases by poor fundamentals. Not getting key outs when need them. You cannot give other major league teams more than 3 outs per inning and the Giants seem to be doing it quite a bit. Doc, what do you attribute this too? New players? Players trying out new positions (Dubon in CF, Ruff in the OF)? Poor coaching? Not recognizing when defensive subs are needed?
ReplyDeleteI know versatility is the magic formula du jour, but the downside to versatility is a loss of defined roles which I do believe leads to more mistakes on the field.
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