The Giants were inexorably ground into dust by a clearly superior team. At least that was how it felt. Key Lines:
Wade Meckler CF- 2 for 2, BB. BA= .267. In his last 3 games, Meck has 5 hits in 9 AB's with 2 BB's. He's sustained BABIP's of over .400 over multiple levels now. That's probably not sustainable but his BB and K rates were stellar in the minors so even if the BABIP normalizes, he should be a better than decent on-base/leadoff type hitter. That skillset plays quite well out of the #9 hole too. We may have a keeper here.
Logan Webb RHP- 5.1 IP, 6 H, 5 R, 1 BB, 1 K, GO/AO= 10/2. ERA= 3.51. Webby was getting groundballs but wasn't missing bats and that's not going to get it done against a lineup like the Braves run out there. I mean, if you have two equally talented pitchers and one faces the Braves lineup and the other faces the Giants lineup, which pitcher is going to win the game?
Alex Wood LHP- 3.2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 2 K's. ERA= 4.52. Wood is still pitching mop-up. Could he re-emerge in higher leverage situations down the stretch?
The Loss drops the Giants a full game behind the Cubs in the race for the 3'rd and final Wild Card playoff spot.
Ryan Walker RHP opens game 2 of the series this afternoon facing Max Fried LHP. Free Heliot!
Churn Watch: Michael Conforto OF hits the IL with a hammy, grade 2 no less. Didn't see that one coming but also not surprised. He might be back by October IF the Giants are still playing. Heliot Ramos OF gets the the recall to replace Conforto on the Active Roster. You have to think at this point there is a strong possibility Conforto does not opt out of the second year of his contract which will pay him $18 M next season.
If Conforto comes back healthy in 2023, with this "comeback" season behind him, you could squint a bit and see a 3 WAR which makes $18M at least not unreasonable. With Pederson gone he would be a fair DH.
ReplyDeleteEven this year, with glazed eyes you could see 2.5 WAR and 25 HRs in a full season. But he's not the clean-up bat the Giants wanted, he needs a bat behind him!
Today's (possible) outfield: Ramos LF, Mekler CF, Matos RF.
ReplyDeleteAlso starting: Walker P, Bailey C.
Sabol & Schmitt & maybe Beck coming in later.
8 rookies could make the field today against the best in the NL.
And, just a game out of the playoffs.
Against LHP, it will be Slater for Meckler, Schmitt for Wade (Davis at 1st, Schmitt at 3rd), and Flores DH for Pederson. All RHB lineup.
DeleteManea to start, not Walker.
No Brooks yet.
if the giants miss the postseason, andrew bailey has to one of the assistants to be fired, with how the starting pitching has struggled this year, it is time to bring in an experienced pitching along with an experienced hitting coach.
ReplyDeleteNot sure I agree with this take. The Giants ask a whole lot more than most teams of their coaching staff. They have had a lot of success reviving or elevating the careers of individual players but when you try to build an entire team that is dependent of coaching to improve and on players with extensive injury histories staying healthy for a full season, the problem might be more in the roster building philosophy than with the coaching.
DeleteAnd the roster building suffered from the lack of very many successful draftees for the 6-8 years ahead of Zaidi, whose first draft in 2019 continued the blight.
DeleteThings seem to be looking up.
I like what the Giants have done this season bringing up lots of rookies. Bailey looks like their future catcher for years to come, and who knows what Matos, Schmidt Harrison and others will bring in 2024. The future looks promising.
Deletei think bringing in experienced assistants would help develop a lot of the rookies who have scuffled this season
DeleteI think the development of their young players is more important then making the playoffs this season. It's hard to develop and win at the same time.
DeleteI feel like they've been partially snakebit too regarding the injuries. Yaz and Slater have been on the IL multiple times the past 2 years, which is a concern. But the team got to callup Matos, Ramos, and Meckler. Thairo and Haniger suffered broken bone in the hand thanks to being hit by pitches, which is being snakebit. The 2 players they've signed with extensive injury histories are Conforto and Haniger. Injuries are part of the game, all teams have to deal with it. Some teams suffer more injuries then others. Maybe it's just not their year.
Deleterob eymann: I just don't think coaching and player development is their problem. There are just too many examples of players who did better after coming to the Giants and of rapid development of prospects, especially this season. Maybe too rapid?
DeleteBest to go easy on the Meckler proclamations. He looks more like a future major league utility guy or part time player due to his game and the fact is that we haven’t seen enough of him even in the minors to get a good gauge on whether he’s legit or not. Remember, Vaun Brown did crazy good last year in his first year and climbed the latter before getting hurt but is struggling this year. Yes, there games are completely different with Brown being a power/speed guy that hit for average too during his first year with low walks and high strike outs while Meckler doesn’t show much for speed or power but gets singles and has good walk/strike out numbers. The prognosis is that it’s too early to tell but Meckler may be a major leaguer but not sure if he’s going to be a career starter or bench guy that analytics like because he walks.
ReplyDeleteNot sure who you think proclaimed anything about Meckler. I think I questioned his ability to sustain a >.400 BABIP. That said, K and BB ratios to mean something as we found out with Casey Schmitt and Meckler's look pretty good.
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