The Giants got a Quality Start from Keaton Winn and 3 XBH's from Heliot Ramos.....and lost in an embarrassing display of offensive and defensive futility....and a possible managing mistake. Key Lines:
Austin Slater LF- 1 for 3, BB. BA= .203. Slater led off against a LHP starter and got on base ahead of Ramos twice. Slater is hitting .333 with an OBP of .391 over his last 7 games.
Heliot Ramos CF- 3 for 5, 2 2B, HR(8). BA= .325. Ramos continued to scald the ball and drove in both Giants runs. His 2-run shot in the first inning got the Giants off to a promising start.
Jorge Soler DH- 1 for 4. BA= .219. #3-7 in the lineup went a combined 3 for 19 with 1 walk and 0 XBH's. Maybe YtY can be forgiven because he was facing a tough LHP but Wilmer Flores batting cleanup also went 0 for 4. I single out Soler because the man was once again flailing at breaking balls in the dirt.....or maybe I should say chopping? I noticed that he has a pronounced chop in his swing like he is using his bat to chop wood, not like trying to fell a tree but trying to split firewood. It looks like he's doing it to shorten his swing but it also shortens the time the bat is in the strike zone and possibly explains why, when he does make contact, he's just chopping the ball into the ground. Where are the batting coaches?
Curt Casali C- 2 for 3, 2B, E(2, throw). BA= .206. OK, Casali had pretty good day at the plate, but he had a very rough on behind the plate as the Angels stole 3 bases and the throwing error on Schanuel's SB led to an unearned and winning run. When Casali arrived he initially stabilized a chaotic catching situation when Patrick Bailey was on the IL. Bailey is back but can't catch every game. Apparently word is out around the league they can run on Casali? There seems to be some hope that Tom Murphy will be back at some point but I seem to recall he as having issues before his injury. The Giants acquired a veteran minor league catcher just yesterday which would seem to be a back up plan in case Casali's defensive woes continue and Murph's comeback is delayed. Meanwhile(checks notes) Joey Bart has slightly better defensive numbers and a far better slash line while playing a backup/platoon role with the Pirates.
Keaton Winn RHP- 6 IP, 5 H, 3 R, 2 BB, 6 K's. ERA= 6.66. A Quality Start that maybe shouldn't have been? Winn looked sharp and healthy until he was wild on a leadoff walk. Someone in the dugout must have seen something they didn't like and a whole entourage including Bob Melvin, the Pitching coach and trainer came out and appeared to be questioning Winn rather intently. Winn appeared to insist he was OK and stayed in the game. Kevin Pillar flied out to RF but then Logan O'Hoppe hit a mammoth HR to tie the the game. Winn stayed in to finish the inning but you have to wonder about all that, especially with two trips to the IL already under his belt and a long string of ineffective starts up to today.
The Loss left the Giants 8.5 games behind the Dodgers who also lost and a full game behind in the Wild Card race.
Kyle Harrison LHP tries to salvage one win out of the 3-game weekend set facing fireballer Ben Joyce RHP opening a bullpen game for the Angels.
My two cents: Wilmer was BAD today. Sort of just expecting it from Soler at this point, but Wilmer had multiple opportunities just to make a productive out to the outfield to move a runner into scoring position and he couldn't even do that... Baseball is always a game of subtleties, but I think Lamont has flexed a few guys into positions they can't be in if we're to be a productive team.
ReplyDeleteHot take (maybe a really really dumb one): couldn't Marco Luciano DH and get some hands on infield training on the side and slowly mixed back in? There's no way he'd be as bad as Soler...
Andy in OC
Marco is not exactly lighting it up for Sacramento even in an extreme hitter-friendly environment like Reno. Maybe Matos?
DeleteI want to see sustained hitting before bringing back Matos. I want to see Bishop up if we have to punt on the season.
DeleteLuciano and Matos are only 22 yo, their development should continue and they should not be thrust into a difficult environment: like Ramos, he is 24 and finally ready, apparently, but he wasn't at 22, or 23, yo.
DeleteGiants rushed Meckler last year and now they have a dead spot on the 40-man roster. Rolling the dice with Bishop is premature: let him feel good in AAA (cross fingers) and get him ready for 2025. The decision to protect him in December will be tough enough.
Bishop is 25 and a former #1 pick, I want to see him get a cup of coffee after the trade deadline as of right now.
DeleteRamos might be the real deal and a star in the making before our very eyes! There could be a few more that aren’t getting a shot because we have guys like Slater, Flores, Conforto, Soler, and Ahmed taking up roster spots. You don’t have to call it a rebuild but start making space for the kids and you never know they may surprise! Hjelle will be a starter next year he looks great. Let him start now to get ready. Matos should be up and playing regularly. Schmidt might be a bust but let’s find out. Fitz may improve with more PT. Luciano is a question mark that absolutely needs to be answered this year!!
ReplyDeletethe addition of porter also indicates that they want sabol playing first base in sacramento. at this point, i think the giants should try to move conforto, slater, and jackson at the trade deadline and start the clocks on hunter bishop and spencer bivens.
ReplyDeleteJackson? He's had one bad game in his last 8 outings, 2 since Opening Day. He has 16 games with 0 runs, 3 with 1 run, and 3 not good.
DeleteTeam needs 8 (or 9) relievers, Jackson is the bottom or near bottom of that.
He should have been used for multiple innings on Friday's blowout loss rather than use up 5 relievers.
Pin that one (as well as yesterday's come-from-ahead loss) on the manager and the pitching coaches.
BTW, you can't "move" non-performing players at the trading dead line: if you don't want them, who does?
You trade Jackson if we're punting on 2024, which is where I'm at right now
Delete"Where are the batting coaches?"
ReplyDeleteAND where are the pitching coaches?
Winn had not thrown over 80 pitches since April – 1½ months ago. His max effort was 78 pitches a month ago. We were yelling at the TV: get him out! No! He stayed in for 91 pitches, 15 too many after he walked Ward in the 6th.
Batting: the Giants have ONE "every day" player hitting above .240 – and he only had 82 PAs coming into this season. (Doesn't include Bailey who missed 16 games in May and sat this one out until a last gasp pinch hitting role in the bottom of the 9th.)
There is an in-game stat that is not widely reported (CBS Gametracker does) which shows "moving runners along" in their game-time box score that they call LOB but it isn't what we normally associate with left-on-base. This LOB yesterday was 20 for the Giants: Estrada 5, Soler 4, Flores and Yastrzemski 3 each –15 runners not advancing by 4 of the guys we expect to produce. What? Are they trying too hard?
The old adage is you can't fire a team but you sure can fire managers and coaches. What's wrong here? This is pathetic!
I would say a good rule of thumb for managers is if you think it might be time to take your pitcher out, it is. I get showing faith in your starting pitcher to give them the confidence to get deeper into games but in Winn's situation, especially when somone obviously suspected another injury, you have to take him out at that point.
DeleteI was thinking when Winn was left in it may have had something to do with Howards short outing the previous day. When the Halos walked Chapman to load the bases to face Solar, thought to myself wow, that's embarrassing for Solar. His 11 year career BA is 241 with a low of 192 to a high of 269. Very up and down. Another hitter JD Martinez turned down a higher offer from Giants to sign with Mets. His career BA is 287, very consistent hitter who hits homers and drives in runs. He hit 2 homers yesterday. He was quoted as blaming Oracle Park for turning down Giants saying "if he signed there, he would hit 20 hrs and drive in 60 and people would think he was done". That's a fair statement. Maybe FZ needs to make trades to jumpstart offense. They have pitching reinforcements Ray, Snell, Hicks coming back.
ReplyDelete71 games into Melvin, and Kapler is beginning to look good!
ReplyDeleteMelvin:
21 years managing, 8 post seasons, 0 rings
#25 all time in wins, 1 of 3 with no pennants (w/ Mauch & Showalter)
97 wins with the A's twice, both 0-1 post season, 3 times 0-1
Nobody is perfect but so far I consider Melvin an improvement over the chaos the team descended into under Kapler.
Deletegive it time we'll soon be punting on 2024
Delete