The Giants lost an early 1-0 lead but broke a 1-1 tie open in the top of the 11'th inning with a pair of 2-run HR's for a much needed win to finish a discouraging road trip on a high note. Key Lines:
Michael Conforto PH/DH- 1 for 2, HR(4). BA= .233. Conforto seems to still be limited by a sore calf. He PH for Darin Ruf DH and later hit the go-ahead HR in the 11'th.
Mike Yastrzemski CF/RF- 1 for 5, HR(4). BA= .239. YtY followed David Villar's double with a HR of his own to give the Giants a 4-run lead in the top of the 9'th.
Joey Bart C- 0 for 2, BB, 2 HBP. BA= .333. Bart used to get HBP a lot in the minors which caused some injuries early in his pro career. He reached base 3 times in this game to raise his OBP to .407. Unfortunately he did not figure into the scoring for his trouble.
Alex Cobb RHP- 5 IP, 7 H, 1 R, 1 BB, 8 K's. ERA= 2.79. Strong start for Cobb but he threw 92 pitches in 5 IP.
Bullpen- 6 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 3 BB, 8 K. The bullpen saved the day preserving the tie until the pivotal 11'th inning then holding on for the win. Taylor Rogers LHP recorded the final 2 outs for the Save although he put a runner on base by HBP.
The Giants don't get a break after the road trip. Interesting matchup to start the homestand against the Mets with Sean Manaea LHP facing Kodai Senga RHP.
Churn Watch:
Alex Wood LHP hits the IL with a hammy strain and is replaced on the active roster by Tristan Beck RHP. Welcome to the Giants, Tristan Beck.
Matt Beaty 1B/OF/DH was optioned to AAA Sacramento. Brett Wisely UT was recalled from AAA Sacramento. Beaty and Wisely are both LH batters but Wisely has been hot with 4 doubles in his last AAA game and is more versatile in the field than Beaty.
The Giants acquired Cal Stevenson OF who was recently DFA'd from the Oakland A's(yes the A's!) for cash considerations. Sam Long LHP was DFA'd to make room on the 40-man roster for Stevenson and I was beginning to wonder if Sam Long had some sort of no-DFA clause in his contract. Guess not.
So who is Cal Stevenson? He has a career slash line of .167/.261/.217 in 71 PA but before that he was the Blue Jays 10'th round draft pick in 2018 out of Univ. of Arizona. His career minor league slash line is interesting: .294/.409/.420 with more career walks than K's. He's never had more than single digit HR's in a season but put up double digit SB's in each of his full MiLB seasons. He's a lefty hitter and thrower who can play CF. Welcome to the Giants, Cal. Hope you stick around awhile.
I looked up Cal. Not much to see. Negative bWAR comprised of a negative oWAR and negative dWAR over a very limited sample. Hits a lot of soft ground balls up the middle. You may remember another player who did the same thing for the Giants -- Conner Joe who, in 2021 got back into the majors after changing his swing and launch angle. He's not exactly a star, but he's managed to accrue 3.0 bWAR so far though it's skewed by this year as the BABIP Gods are favoring him with a .417 BABIP and, consequently, is hitting .340.
ReplyDeleteIt's kind of funny to see yet another Conner Joe. Well, not funny in a ha-ha way. More like, I'm tired of the churn and barely watching anymore. I don't identify with all these churn players because the ones that do well are one-and-done leaving the roster full of mids.
Yastrzemski kind of epitomizes the Giants roster and Zaidi's management of it. He's not a CFer as he doesn't have the range, but there he is. As a hitter, he's okayish. There are plenty of guys out there who are worse, but he's not much of a difference maker, either. Meanwhile, Johnson is much better with the glove, but he hasn't been given a chance as Zaidi just keeps filling the roster with guys not good enough to even cost the Giants a low-grade prospect.
Beatty? Stevenson? Two of the worst teams in baseball gave up on these guys because they weren't good enough to make it on bad teams!!! Yet we're holding our best prospects back. I'd rather lose with my guys that came up through the organization instead of lose with a bunch of rejects from bad teams like the Royals (4-15) & A's (3-16).
I have similar feelings but I read the Giant's were the 2nd most profitable MLB team last year behind the Mariners. Look like we are in for a long, boring season.
DeleteWhoa there. Yastrzemski is precisely the type of player you want to acquire from the churn. He's given you nearly 10 WAR for essentially free. Yes, Z is always looking for guys like Connor Joe, who is better than the typical AAAA player. There's nothing wrong with stocking your AAA with these type of players.
ReplyDeleteAnd what's with the Johnson fetish? He's pretty much the definition of 5th outfielder if you're being generous. Stevenson, for all his warts, is a more intriguing prospect.
Moses bring up a good point - the churn is getting a bit tiresome and, more importantly, I find it increasingly difficult to watch the Giants anymore (and I am old enough to have seen Mays play). Case in point: I enjoyed seeing new blood in CF this spring, with Bryce Johnson. I like Yastrzemski, but he is not the future - certainly not in CF. Not sure that Johnson is, but we know Yastrzemski is not. So, who do we see in CF on opening Day? Yastrzemski. And who goes in to CF to replace him that day? Why, Bret Wisely of course, who then gets sent down the next day. And Johnson will literally run into a wall to make a catch that no other CF on the Giants could make. I believe that soon after Johnson comes off the concussion IL, he will soon be sent down because, of course, the Giants must see what they have in Cal Johnson. Frankly, it is no longer beyond the realm of possibility that the Giants will struggle to win 70 games this season.
ReplyDeleteTake away 2021, where everything fell right (and where much of that roster in no longer with the Giants), and what has the Zaidi/Kapler regime accomplished? Harper? Gausman? Rodon? Judge? They either cannot land, or cannot hold the big time guys. And as for help from the minors being on the way, how are we supposed to have confidence in them when Zaidi/Kapler obviously do not?
I do not enjoy saying this, but I am beginning to think that the Giants need a complete rebuild, starting with the GM and manager.
Kar120c...you forgot the most important person to get rid of. Larry Baer, Chief Operating Officer bought into ZD & company.
DeleteLosing streaks breed pessimism: Giants led at some point in all 5 games, lost 2 of them in extra innings.
ReplyDeleteThey have lost 4 games (of 17) decisively – they were never in any of those, but the other 7 losses could have been won, but they weren't.
3 games were loss by 1 run.
3 games were lost by 2 runs.
All those games were winnable, had they won 3, their record would be 9-8.
Only 10% of the season is gone, there's 90% left. At least let them play 40 games before you give up.
Agreed, it's way too early to give up after 18 games. I would like to see The team get healthier with Haniger, Slater, and Peterson in the lineup. 107 wins in 2021 should count for something and the lost minor league season due to COVID hurt prospect development.. I felt worse about the direction of the team when they lost 98 games in 2017 and 90 games in 2018. That wasn't too long ago. I'm good with FZ and Kap as long as the farm system continues to show progress and they call players up who deserve a chance in the majors. I liked seeing Tristan Beck pitch tonight and Brett Wisely starting in center field. He can also play SS.
ReplyDelete