There were a couple of encouraging developments in tonight's surprisingly easy win over the Mets in NY. First, Sammy Long LHP went 5.1 shutout IP. Sure, the Giants hitters made sure he had an early lead and he still threw a ton of pitches, 92, but he only walked one and served notice the Giants have an emergency SP who gives them a chance to win.
The other much more under-the-radar find here is Tyler Chatwood RHP. Yes, it was garbage time but he went 2 shutout innings with a GO/AO= 3/0. It's just one appearance but gives reason to be cautiously optimistic he can eat some innings out of he pen as well as serving as another emergency SP. Maybe he's the next big reclamation project for the Giants pitching coaches?
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When FZ took over as GM of the Giants, many of us openly wondered, sometimes a bit cynically, how he would make up for the unspeakable evil of finding Max Muncy for the Dodgers. Well, he's made up for that at least twice over. He did not find another Max Muncy. He found two other Max Muncy's! And yeah, you can count me as a believer! Tonight Mike Yastrzemski OF hit his 20'th HR of the season. That gave YtY a total of 51 HR's in 1059 PA which projects to 29 HR's/600 PA the generally used # of PA's to project stats to a full season. All that after FZ picked him off he Orioles scrapheap, of all teams!
And then there is Lamonte Wade Jr. Another lefty hitting OF who languished in the minors, and struggled in some brief MLB callups. Hitting almost exclusively against RHP's. Wade Jr has now hit 17 HR's in 254 PA which projects to a whopping 40 HR's/600 PA. Obviously Wade Jr is not going to hit 40 HR's in a season if he's only one side of a platoon but that gives you an idea of how productive he's been in his role. Where would the Giants be without him?
have Long pitch last game v Atl and then bring back Disco v Milwaukee to give the other starters an extra day rest at front end of this 16 games in 16 days run?
ReplyDeleteDoc in terms of Sammy Long's game last night.
ReplyDeleteI was quite impressed on how he was spotting the ball!
I thought his pitch count should have been lower; as I believe the Home Plate ump made more then a few questionable calls. Sammy is young he is very workable.
Richard in Winnipeg
Re: LaMonte Wade, Jr -Shows you what I know. Early in this season on this blog site I questioned why the Giants would call Wade up. I am very happy to be proven wrong on this. In all the churning that has happened in Zaidi's tenure, Lamonte and Yaz are the gems.
ReplyDeleteand in spirit of considering the HRs/PA metric, Dickerson's not far behind w/ 29 / 627 as a Giant
DeleteToo bad Dickerson is such a lousy fielder (-0.7 BaseballReference)! Kinda fits in, though: of the players on the 26 man roster, only Crawford, Casali, Yastrzemski, and Flores have + dWARs.
DeleteI question Flores @ +0.1, every time a ball is hit in his direction I hold my breath!
Ad to those two Gems:
DeleteKevin Gausman
Darrin Ruf
SS Thairo Estrada (whose MLB line is still .300/.371/.438 after being sent down a month ago)
Wilmer Flores
Jake McGee
One might temper Theseus’ doubts about Giants fielding by (a) limiting ourselves to the half of the roster where fielding measurements actually indicate something, that is, the position players, and (b) looking at more than one measuring system. Fangraphs, for example, shows Posey as a strongly positive defensive player, and Slater as positive this year too. Because the Giants are among the very best teams in avoiding gifts to their opponents, as Brisbee and Baggs have documented recently in The Athletic, I am supposing that sniping at their defense is likely to be misplaced.
DeleteDarin Ruf also has been excellent, with 14 HRs in only 192 AB.
ReplyDeleteLaMonte Wade Jr has quickly become my favorite player going back quite a ways. I love Crawford, but he's also been here 10 years now and it's great to have new baseball crushes every year or two.
ReplyDeleteWhat an incredible find. Also, he's just got that game face that makes me think this guy is going to show up in the playoffs, in the WS, and year to year. He looks like a competitor inside and out. And when they've done little video mockups of how his swing has changed from his time with the Mets to the Giants - it's night and day, and it seems like they've completely unlocked him as a player.
I have never, in my life, seen anything CLOSE to what Gabe Kapler's coaching staff have done with our organizational development and MLB hitting development. I mean, has anyone ever seen so many players - new and old, stars and MiLB castoffs alike - come together and as a team hit WAY beyond their averages?? Ruf was playing in Korea wasn't he!?
I think it's remarkable, and if it's something that Gabe & Farhan's staff have truly figured out that other teams are just not privy to yet, what an incredible weapon & advantage over the rest of the league.
It's working. 1st place still. Leaders in HRs. Just 3 years ago, that concept was unthinkable.
- Denver Giant -
With 35 games left, the next 10 games in 10 days are the NL post season (without a day off):
ReplyDeleteIn Atlanta (3) all but certain NL East winner
Home Milwaukee(4) all but certain NL Central winner
Home LA Dodgers(3) certain NL West winner or runner-up
After that 3 more @ home with Atlanta, 12 with teams under .500, and 10 of last 19 games with San Diego.
Note: It is true that it would be nigh impossible for the Giants to play both Atlanta and Milwaukee in the Post Season – they most likely will play each other.