Alex Cobb RHP was not at his best allowing 4 ER in 5 IP, but this time he got more than enough run support and four shutout innings from the bullpen to even his W-L record at 7-7.
Joc Pederson LF- 2 for 3, 2B, 3B, 2 BB. BA= .276. Pederson is on a tear and seems to have found a sweet spot leading off. His leadoff slash line split is .360/.450/.800. It's probably no coincidence the Giants have been on a tear over the same time frame. He's .316/.390/551 since the All-Star break. While his numbers are not as good against LHP's, they have not been terrible with an OPS of .729. Can the Giants resign him or will he join a growing list of players who parlayed single seasons with the Giants into bigger paydays with other teams?
Mike Yastrzemski RF- 2 for 3, 2B, HR(16), BB. BA= .214. YtY is another player whose numbers have perked up with a slash of .292/.357/.625 over his last 7 games, but his overall OPS of .696 remains dismal.
Evan Longoria 3B- 2 for 4, 2 HR(14). BA= .247. Longo is slashing .400/.429/.750 over his last 7 games. When healthy, he's played pretty well but has appeared in just 88 games with 294 PA's due to injuries. In the 5 seasons since the trade to the Giants he has yet to reach 130 games played. The Giants can keep him around for $13 M or buy out the final season of his contract for $5 M which gives them a net cost of $8 M. His performance is probably worth $8 M even for just half a season but is there opportunity to upgrade his roster spot?
Austin Wynns C- 2 for 4, HR(3). BA= .264. Another guy who is on a tear batting .476 over his last 7 games, .381 over his last 15 and .314 over his last 30. He can be retained as back up C for the league minimum which seems like a no-brainer.
Alex Young LHP- 2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 1 K. ERA= 2.31. Young and Scott Alexander LHP have solidified the left side of the Giants bullpen. Alexander is a FA but Young can be kept at the league minimum salary.
Thomas Szapucki LHP and Yunior Marte RHP also threw scoreless innings. Their contracts can both be renewed at the league minimum. Marte has options but Szapucki does not.
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The Giants try to keep hope alive this afternoon with Scott Alexander leading off a bullpen game(is it Jakob Junis RHP's turn for bulk innings? They will face Drey Jameson RHP the rookie with electric stuff.
2023 Catchers: Bart, Wynns, or Casali? Which 2 of 3?
ReplyDeleteAll have positive dWAR’s, Casali has maintained it the longest, is the oldest, and is a FA + being millions more expensive than the others.
Of course Bart will be kept because he, being far the youngest, has the most future. He is still developing. His offense appears to be improving. And, he was a high draft pick and the only Giant draftee.
Wynns is cheap and has the best straight BA, but less power than the others. Casali might have the most power but that could be because Bart is still developing.
Bart and Wynns for sure. No arbitration, no muss, no fuss.
Doc, I bring back Longo + >Infield Flores,Estrada,Crawford, Davis,LaStella,Villar.
ReplyDeleteI am good with Longo 90 to 100 games and 15 to 20 homers. His fielding is still very strong.
Talk about the outfield and pitching staff another time.
Richard in Winnipeg
Another thought is Longo may have some trade value and Davis definitely does.
DeleteLongoria has played 169 games in 2 years, hasn't played a full season since 2017, his BA is well past peak, last hit 20 HRs in 2018, will play @ 37 next year: he is in decline.
DeletePay $8,000,000 for maybe 80 games, at best to repeat 2022's .247/.320/.456 with a now negative UZR?
Might as well pay BB-9 $8M, may be brittle but he hit 29 HR last year and he's a year younger!
Giants have been hot as of late but they are also playing against some mediocre teams at best. I hope this doesn’t influence FZ’s strategy in the off-season thinking he can get by with all these scrubs that are flashing in the pan.
ReplyDeleteI love the Giants and in the last 30 years have watched just about every game. I have had zero interest in this team for the last 4-5 weeks. Most of the time the only way I find out how they did is by reading your updates Doc.
These players and the bullpen games along with the churn have made it really difficult to maintain interest in a very average product and no star power or promising young players. Giants fans deserve much much better than this and if it continues next season I will actively be rooting against their success so that they have a good reason to get rid of FZ and his flea market mentality.
His drafts have been underwhelming just look at the Giants top 30 prospects list and see how far guys like Bishop, Bailey, Wilson, and Bednar have fallen. Great to see the Vaun Browns, McCrays, and Schmidts over performing their draft spots but it doesn’t make up for huge swings and misses at the top end.
FZ was supposed to be able to draft and supplement with the churn but with only mild churn success and no youth movement its pretty obvious he isn’t able to evaluate and develop young talent and most of La’s success was likely Friedman and not FZ. Interesting how much better the Dodgers have been since he left and how inconsistent these Giants teams have been under the “smartest man in baseball”s leadership!
I don't disagree with any of that except for the rooting for them to lose part.
DeleteNo star power or promising young players?
DeleteExcluding pitchers, 2022 has been rough, at least July and August were. Otherwise it has been pretty good, 58-44 record.
A number of players earned their pay this year (Pederson, YtY, Flores, Estrada, Villar, Bart, Rodon, Webb, Doval, Cobb, Junis, Brebbia, and perhaps a few more RPs), but not enough, and, as Anon points out, the Giants lack Star Power.
Why?
When you win 107 games, you work around the edges. And you hope your best player doesn't retire at 34 after a very good year, #21 in MVP. They should have tried to replace Posey and Bryant offensively but luckily they wasted no money on Bryant. They did add Pederson but the team will lose 25 to 28 more games, not the 8-12 you might expect without Posey and Bryant which would have still been a good team.
FZ didn't do that. Kapler didn't do that. Management and coaching didn't do that.
The players did that. They didn't perform.
Going into the All Star break the Giants won 7 of 9 and were 2.5 games behind San Diego, the #4 team in the NL, and just a half game out of the WC.
Then they collapsed, losing 12 of 15 games and never recovered.
Why?
Mostly because they didn't score enough runs.
Really the Giants need to score more runs. And they need some Star Power.
There's no relief to either of these in the system for next year.
So, Owners open the $$ spigot & FZ make a couple of flashy signings and the Giants are back in the playoffs but not going to beat the Dodgers.
Glad to see Giants on a hot streak to end of the season on a high note. it's been a disappointing season no doubt. I was down on FZ and the farm system earlier so I looked into it. He inherited a system ranked 28th in 2019 when he was hired. While 1st round picks Bishop, Bailey,, and Bedner started slow, it's interesting that lower round picks like Kyle Harrison, Casey Schmidt, Grant McCray, and Vaun Brown had great seasons too. While 1st round picks are important, I'd like to see lower round picks make it too, shows good scouting. .I think the lost 2020 minor season has thrown off the development of some minor league players throughout baseball. You may disagree Doc but the system might start to produce players that will help the big club starting maybe mid 2023(Harrison, Schmitt). I'll say too soon to give up on the farm. As for FZ's record - the Giants finished a handful of games below 500 his 1st year 2019, finished 2 games below in 2020 but I wasn't expecting much anyway. 2021 was a great year, so I only see 2022 as a disappointing year. I'll be very disappointed if Giants ownership and FZ are not aggressive pursuing top level free agents, like they said they would. I expect them to go hard after Aaron Judge, makes too much sense, but they will have to submit an offer that will blow everyone away to have a chance to land him. This promises to be an interesting off-season!
ReplyDeleteIf Steve Cohen goes George Steinbrenner on Judge as Stephen A. predicts, he might not be so proliferate with Nimmo who wcould answer a couple needs for the Giants but does he have the "Star" quality they need?
DeleteHe does have the "right" first name.
Signing Judge would be a mic drop for FZ. Part of this sport and the enjoyment is rooting for players like Judge and Bonds back in the day. We need a star like that who is from the area who returns home to shine and brings fans back to the stadium.
DeleteIt would buy FZ another 3-4 years to prove he actually can draft and develop talent especially from the end of the first and second rounds which is where we should be picking each year. It would allow for some of the international FA’s that he signed to develop as well and replace some of the top round draft pick flops.
There is plenty of room in the payroll and immediate opportunity to make hundreds of millions at least in Judge SF merchandise. Nobody blocking him in our system or the MLB in the OF and a few big holes he could help fill in either the 2,3, or 4 holes.
With factoring in CA taxes it may take $45-50 million a year for 8-10 years with opt outs. How much more revenue would at least a million more fans a year over what they had this year produce?? That is exactly what would happen if all FZ did was sign Judge this offseason!
Giants have made some nice lower round draft picks under FZ with Kyle Harrison being the most spectacular. It's just that it is so hard to make up for busted first round picks and when it happens three years in a row.....not that the book is closed on them yet(is almost closed on Hunter Bishop), but it's not a good look at this point at all. As for this year's draft, Reggie Crawford has a high ceiling but big time bust potential. I have similar expections for Whisenhunt moving fast....just as I did for Bednar this time last year.
DeleteAlthough CA income tax is 3+% more than NY state, the NY city income tax is a comparable amount greater than the SF income tax.
DeleteAt $25,000,000 and more, it's about a wash.
It's not the penalty that Bryce Harper was seeing in Philadelphia: state income tax is low but city tax is somewhat more, combined well less than NYC & SF.
Re city income taxes: cities have more difficulty collecting their taxes unless the player actually has a residence there. States have far more power and CA is very aggressive. Judge will pay more in SF than NYC but it's not like 13% against 0% in Florida, Texas, & Washington.
DeleteBecause "jocks" have to pay wherever they play (home and away), their tax returns can run into thousands of pages!
Wow! And the complexity is about to get a lot worse with the new schedules starting next season.
DeleteI remember following this in 2021 draft. The Giants had a chance to draft high school SS Khalil Watson, a consensus top 10 talent with their #1 pick, 14th pick overall but picked Will Bedner instead. The Marlins picked Watson 2 picks after the Giants and signed him to a big overslot bonus $4.5 mil. The Giants signed Bedner to a $3.6 mil undershot bonus and used the cost savings to sign 4th round pick Eric Silva to a $1.5 mil overslot bonus. Both Watson and Bedner have started slow, was this a good draft strategy? Looks like they were trying to get 2 good lottery tickets instead of 1.
ReplyDeleteMy personal opinion is the best draft strategy is get the Best Player Available in the first round and let the rest of the draft take care of itself. Obviously there are a lot of people who know a lot more about it than I who disagree and continue to finesse it by going underslot in the first round so they can go overslot later in the draft. My thought is if that player you go overslot for later is so great, why didn't any other teams take them sooner?
DeleteThanks Doc the reason I asked is I also thought teams take the best player available when their turn comes. It seems that FZ is trying to be cute playing with slot values of high picks. Not sure if it's good drafting #1 picks for lower slot value means the player won't be as highly rated a player. But I'd they come up with a good #1 pick and draft a Kyle Harrison #3 then it works out. As for 2022 #1 pick Reggie Crawford I liked that they went for high risk/high reward pick with rhe last pick of the 1st round. Why not, since the pick has a good chance to bust anyway no matter who they pick
ReplyDelete