Two days after the 41'st anniversary of the eruption of Mt. St. Helens, the Giants offense erupted with a similar explosive force producing a mushroom cloud of runs over Great American Ballpark in Cincinnati. I think they are still clearing out the rubble! Game Notes:
YtY RF went 0 for 2 at the top of the lineup but also drew 3 walks and scored 3 runs. Not a bad day for a leadoff hitter!
Darin Ruf 1B fell 90 ft short of the cycle settling for 2 doubles to go with his HR and 1B. Oh, and he added a BB to reach base 5 times in 6 PA's.
Brandon Crawford SS went 3 for 6 with a 3-run HR to drive in 6 runs.
Evan Longoria 3B who had been slumping, had 3 hits including a HR and added a BB.
Steven "Grave" Duggar CF had 2 hits including a grand slam HR to cap the 9-run 3'rd inning.
Johhny Cueto RHP worked the requisite 5 IP to record the W(3-1). He allowed 1 ER.
We won't talk about the bullpen as it was pure mop up time by the time Cueto left the game.
Unfortunately for me, Tyler Mahle RHP is on my fantasy baseball team and completely blew up my pitching categories allowing 7 ER in 2 IP.
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The Win completed a sweeeeeep of the 4 game series and gave the Giants a 6-2 record for the 8-game road trip. It also maintained the Giants lead in the NL West as well as the best record in MLB.
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After a very happy flight home, the Giants immediately start a 3-game weekend series at home agains the Dodgers. For those of you who were complaining about them not playing the Dodgers earlier in the season, well, it's doesn't get much better than an early season showdown in the last half of May. Game 1 tomorrow evening features a great matchup of Alex Wood LHP and former Dodger facing Trevor Bauer RHP. Can't wait!
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Logan Webb RHP was placed on the 10 day IL with R shoulder tightness. He was replaced on the roster by Jose Alvarez LHP. Webb's turn to start is on Saturday. It's not clear right now who will replace him in the rotation.
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Down on the Farm:
AAA:
Jason Vosler 1B- 1 for 3, HR(1). BA= .214.
Thairo Estrada SS- 1 for 4, HR(4). BA= .340.
Tyler Beede RHP- 2.2 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 4 BB, 2 K's. ERA= 2.16.
Conner Menez LHP, Jimmie Sherfy RHP, Sam Wolff RHP- 1 IP, 0 R Each.
It won't be Tyler Beede getting called up to start on Saturday. Scott Kazmir LHP is scheduled to pitch today. We'll see if he gets scratched. Nick Tropeano RHP and Daniel Alvarez RHP last pitched on 5/18 so they may be available. Kazmir, Tropeano and Alvarez would all have to be added to the 40 man roster.
AA:
Heliot Ramos CF- 0 for 2, 3 BB. BA= .269.
Luis Amaya LHP- 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K's. ERA= 6.75.
High A:
Diego Rincones LF- 1 for 3, BB. BA= .375.
Jasier Herrera RHP- 2.1 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 4 K's. ERA= 5.23.
RJ Dabovich RHP- 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 3 K's. ERA= 3.60.
Low A:
Ricardo Genoves C- 2 for 4, HR(1). BA= .302.
Kyle Harrison LHP- 3.2 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 1 BB, 8 K's. ERA= 3.00.
Austin Reich RHP- 2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K's. ERA= 0.96.
Chris Wright LHP- 2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 3 K. ERA= 1.13.
Great game to watch-saw only an hour on my lunch break -was game of the week on youtube. Jeremy Affeldt was part of announcing team. 19 runs and hot hitting Buster Posey was not playing! They ran a poll on who was most likely to get in the Hall of Fame, Buster or Joey Votto. Buster won hands down. Something like 80% of the audience thought Buster will get in the Hall. I thought with his recent down years he had diminished his chances. His credentials are pretty good as a catcher with the MVP and World Series wins. Doc-What do you think?
ReplyDeleteBuster is sitting at #12 in career fWAR for catchers at 54.5. He is within easy hailing distance of Yadier Molina at #9 with 55.4 and Bill Dickey at #8 with 56.1. In fact, if Buster plays like this the rest of this season, he will likely be #8 behind Joe Torre.
DeleteAdd in the ROY, MVP and the Rings and I think you have a great case for the HOF.
....er he'll likely be at #8 by the end of this season.
DeleteThat's great stuff, thanks for the stats check.
DeleteWatching a renewed and refreshed Buster Posey remind everyone of who he was his first 5 years....jeez fellas and ladies, it just doesn't get much better than this as a baseball fan.
Speaking of Buster Posey - Shout out to "Buster Posey's good friend, Brandon Crawford!" who slipped to the 4th round in 2008 after having a bad senior year in College, but having been a 1st round lock prior to his draft year. Sabean picked him up, and the rest is history. I remember rooting for him as he struggled in AA, after absolutely destroying the pitchers in A+ San Jose. Now, he's shown exactly who he is: A dominant offensive force AT TIMES, while being very streaky - and being ARGUABLY the best SS overall in the entire major leagues since the time he came into the league more than 12 years ago.
I mean, how many games has BCraw missed over his entire career. I'll check....
OK then: Since his first full year, Craw has overaged 147 games a season, never playing fewer than 143 games (sans 2020). He's been worth 23.6 WAR over his career, and this year he's currently running a 144 wRC+ at the plate.
What a player, what a teammate. San Francisco legend I'll look forward to telling my kids about. These kids - Posey, Crawford, Sandoval, Belt, Tim Lincecum, Matt Cain, Mad Bumgarner, Sergio Romo, Brian Wilson, Joe Panik. What an unbelievable group of prospects turned champions we've had the pleasure of watching over these last 13 years. We're lucky. I'll never forget this period in Giants history.....which we're making more of this year as we type!
I almost mentioned that Brandon Crawford is sitting with the highest cumulative fWAR of any Giants SS since the 1930's.
DeleteThe Giants are not going to have any choice other to pick up Buster;s option for next year as well if he continues his season. I can't picture them giving him the buyout and bidding him adios after a MVP like season.
ReplyDeleteI agree.
DeleteAgreed, but I would not hold it against them to trade him for a king's ransom (basically literally) and allow the team to recoup some major resources towards the tail end of a likely HOF career. Love him, and wouldn't mind seeing him light it up for another club for a few more years, while we become an annual powerhouse again.
DeleteHey, the other day I realized I had completely forgotten: Buster Posey in his 2nd year was destroyed at the plate, snapping so many ligaments and ACLs, who can even recount the damage?? We didn't know if he'd ever play again, let alone be any good.
He's carried the team 2 additional world series rings since then, and been the face of the franchise - as well as the face of the entire game over the ensuing years. Let's not forget everything Posey did to give us an unbelievable career, for us to watch as he unfolded it.
Definition of a champion.
Report from Fresno – I traveled from Visalia to Fresno to watch the San Jose Giants play the past two nights. I would normally wait for the Little Giants to travel to Visalia to play the Rawhide, but, inexplicably, the Giants are not playing in Visalia this year, even though they are both in the Low A West league.
ReplyDeleteA few thoughts about watching Low-A ball versus the High-A ball that has been presented in Visalia for the past many years. It is apparent that this is a lower level of baseball. The players are obviously younger. There are primarily 19 – 22 year-old players with some 23-25 year-old players sprinkled in. It is also apparent that most of these players did not play organized ball last year. The players are not as refined. There are more errors. The pitchers have the stuff, but lack control. When the pitchers miss the plate, it is often very clear. There are more batters hit by pitches.
A few observations from the games:
Marco Luciano played like a top prospect. His first home run on Wednesday was to the opposite field. His second home run was a line shot with not much of a launch angle. His RBI single last night was a hard grounder that bounced past the 3rd baseman. It is also apparent that he is only 19-years old. He made a really nice play in the field, fielding a grounder up the middle and flipped the ball with his glove to the 2nd baseman to force the runner while running away from 2nd base. He also made a bone-head overthrow of 2nd on a throw from the outfield in an attempt to get a runner advancing to 2nd. He also hesitated on a throw to 3rd, when a snap throw would probably have caught a runner who strayed too far off the bag.
Ricardo Genoves appears to be a legit prospect. He had good at-bats and handled the catching fairly well. It appeared that some times he was looking into the dugout to get instructions on what pitches to call.
Kyle Harrison does not look like a 19-year old on the mound. He showed composure and confidence. He was pitching with runners on base most innings. He should have gotten out of the 4th inning without a run scoring, but on a strikeout of Bladimir Restituyo, the ball got away from Genoves and Restituyo, who is fast, just beat the throw to 1st. It was called a wild pitch, but the ball shot off at an angle from the plate, so Genoves deflected it, and probably should have stopped it. Harrison was then taken out and a run scored on a single off Ty Weber. While Harrison had 8 strikeouts, he also hit 2 batters.
Luis Matos, who is 4 months younger than Luciano, had a couple of singles last night. He also struck out once last night and twice on Wednesday – giving him 12 strikeouts and 3 walks in 61 plate appearances. Luciano has 3 walks, I HBP and 15 strikeouts in 58 plate appearances. I presume they will be encouraged to work on plate discipline as they move through the system. Matos covered center field well. APGiantsfan
nice report
DeleteThanks Ukn for this really nice writeup.
DeletePerhaps Ricardo Genoves is destined to be the next Hector Sanchez!!!
Ah, it's APGiantsFan!! Sorry, didn't see your sig at the bottom. Great to see some regulars showing back up again.
DeleteDidn't know Matos was 4 mo younger than Luciano. Both kids will be a ton of fun to follow is what it's looking like..Though I'm kinda more of a Heliot Ramos guy myself. ;P
So, I had a lingering memory that Darin Ruf was a bit obscure before arriving here in SF. Oh boy, was that correct and I just wanted to shout out to Darin Ruf, and Farhan Z again.
ReplyDeleteAs a reminder, Darin Ruf was playing IN THE KOREAN LEAGUES before being picked up by SF after the 2019 season. Before he left for Korea, his final year with the Phillies in 2016 he hit .205 with a sub .600 OBP. He crushed the K-Leagues, of course.
From 2021-2023, he was "predicted" by ZiPS to be worth around -2.5 WAR (note the negative sign). This year, he is already worth 1.0 WAR, and the Giants hold the rights to his contracts for the next 2 years after this through arbitration while he's getting paid $1.2M this season.
So, just yet another absolute nobody, obscure hitter whom the entire league had forgotten about. Now he's here, and he's a crucial player on this team. I like the D he pairs with his Offensive prowess too, he's just intimidated by anything. Also, did you folks see him scoot around the bases to get that double in the 1st? That guy has WAY more speed and athleticism than I gave him any credit for.
So..What an incredible job FZ and his FO have done. I mean, they picked up 2 starters this offseason and brought back Gaussman on that QO. All three have ERAs hovering around 2.00! I mean, wow. I'm having fun here..
Best in the West again.
Great to see folks reveling in the Giants success again. That's what being a baseball fan is all about, the wonder of it all!
ReplyDelete