The Giants lineup could not overcome another rough start for Keaton Winn in a game played in Birmingham AL to honor Willie Mays. Key Lines:
Heliot Ramos CF- 1 for 5, HR(10). BA= .307. 3-run HR's often win games but not this time. Must have been a thrill for Heliot to cover Willie Mays' old position for this game and to hit a 3-run HR to boot!
Patrick Bailey C- 4 for 5. BA= .299. Says something about the lineup when the #3 hitter gets 4 hits and not figure into any of the scoring.
Keaton Winn RHP- 2.2 IP, 5 H, 1 BB, 2 K's. ERA= 7.16. Given the recent history, I have to wonder if Winn is either not fully healthy, tipping his pitches or both. Not sure how long they can keep rolling him out there with these results. What alternatives do they have?
With the Loss, the Giants fall double digits behind the Dodgers in the NL West and 1.5 games behind in the Wild Card playoff chase.
Giants and Cardinals have the day off to travel back to St Louis. They pick up the series with an afternoon game on Saturday with Jordan Hicks RHP facing Miles Mikolas RHP. Predicted high temp in St Louis for Saturday is 97 degrees F. That should be fun(not)!
"when the #3 hitter gets 4 hits and not figure into any of the scoring" you need someone behind him to drive in him and the rest of the top of the lineup.
ReplyDeleteChapman does this in streaks (he's NOT on one now: .152/.291/.196/.487 last 12 games), and Conforto, with 22 RBIs for the season, is unlikely to even reach a middling 50.
Soler, who is showing some signs of life for this month, should have been bumped up ere this, but Melvin not only won't bunt, he doesn't seem too ready to budge on the lineup.
Consistency is a good thing except when it's not working.
Note: The above did not appear when Googling for the top quotes on "consistency" – it should have! There was "You can be consistently bad at something — and that's not good" which might apply.
Why Winn?
ReplyDeleteIsn't the problem the 40-man roster? Snell and Harrison are on it, but Cobb and Ray aren't (both still on 60-day IL)?
Seymour, Whisenhunt, and especially Romero are candidates but none is on the 40-man. Seymour and Whisenhunt have some control issues.
Getting harder and harder to watch these vet hitters fail and fail..Yeah, they occasionally run into one (but not enough) and sometimes have mini streaks or games where you think..OK, lets go....but six vets in the .210-.227 range (and a 7th one likely in a few weeks) in a roster molded by FZ is amazingly incompetent for such experienced hitters..Are they that bad? Is it the hitting approach under Burrell?? Doesn't matter, they need to get their heads out of their butts and perform like major leaguers...If not, jut play kids.....I'm probably over-reacting a bit..:)...but, seriously, after Wisley, Ramos ,and Baily, there's almost zero reason to watch the rest of the hitters these days...Yeah, I still do..but,...
ReplyDeleteAs for the pitchers, guys like Winn, Black and even Harrison were gonna have ups and downs with more exposure/innings/injuries..Unfortuantely, they all seem to be happening simultaneously and there doesn't seem to be a "hot" pitcher ready yet for a start...But, it is also not really worth chasing in a trade given the mediocrity of the club and the potential comebacks of Snell, Beck, Ray and Cobb.....It's the time when the Vet Hitters need to be carrying the weight and they haven't been up to it..
SteveVA
I wish this Rickwood game was started a couple of years sooner then Willie Mays could have been there. Great night except for final score. It's great that Giants center fielder Heliot Ramos hits a 3 run homer on a night MLB honored Willie Mays.
ReplyDeleteIt may be time to trade for a veteran pitching in the minors and consider working out free agents. I feel for Winn and there are not a lot of viable options in Sacramento.
ReplyDeleteThere are 5 SP's on the IL and all of them are (potentially) good, this will heal itself
DeleteI'm talking about a stopgap until we get some healthy guys
Deletehave to lose someone off 40-man
DeleteThe Giants have some obvious problems:
ReplyDelete1. The pitching gives up too many runs.
2. The defense makes untimely and too many errors.
3. The offense doesn't score enough.
Solutions:
1. The pitching "should" take care of itself as the 5 injured SPs arrive/return
2. Fixing the defense will be difficult, if not impossible: Chapman (10 errors) has more than double the next highest (Giant) player but makes spectacular plays - how can that change; Casali (2 errors) has a lot of errors for his limited number of games, but Bailey does need some back-up – he's young, play him more; Fitzgerald (5 errors) is the near-everywhere-back-up with an OPS+ of 117 which is the 4th highest of the players playing currently – get him out of the game with a lead; Flores (3 errors) is a liability on defense and not playing to his normal offense but is, supposedly, the "heart of the team" – why can't he just pinch hit; Luciano (5 errors), Sabol (3 errors), and Schmitt (2 errors) aren't currently on the 26-man so are not hurting the team (now).
3. This is bewildering because most of the time they get plenty of guys on base (10th in OBP) but don't score ! Their worst "clutch hitting" is with 2 outs & RISP (.211). They hit best when they are ahead (.266) and even better when they're up more than 4 runs (.273).
4 (added) Speed – next to nothing, #30 in steals. Seems that FZ & BM don't care about this.
Most of the quoted stats come from:
https://www.lineups.com/mlb-team-rankings
https://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/split.cgi?t=b&team=SFG&year=2024
It's absurd to despair!
ReplyDeleteGiants will move "up" today without playing:
Cubs have already lost so that makes for a tie
AZ are dogs in Philly, would move SF to one game behind
Pirates are dogs with TB, would move SF to a ½ game behind them
Reds are slight dogs with Red Sox, would move SF ahead of them
Nationals are fav's in Colorado but anything can happen there
Padres are fav's at home because of Cease but Brewers are a better team
Giants will beat Cardinals tomorrow behind Hicks against Mikolas (5-6, 4.59 ERA)
Giants will beat Cardinals Sunday behind Webb against Gray (if SF can score a couple runs)
Of course they will, and then sweep the Cubs in a 4-game series at home!
DeleteThey better wake up quick because, after the next 6 winnable games is a very, very formidable schedule all the way to the All Star break July 15th:
3 games at home with LAD (47-31) 5th best in MLB
3 games in Atlanta (42-31) 7th best in MLB
3 games in Cleveland (47-26) 4th best in MLB
3 with Toronto – their first team with a losing record (after the Cubs next week)
3 games with another winning team Minnesota (41-35 now) 10th best in MLB
What happens in the next 3 weeks + 1 day, 21 games, could well determine 2024 for the Giants.
Is Bob Melvin inspirational?
ReplyDeleteSaid Farhan Zaidi at his hiring last year: "Bob Melvin is one of the most well-respected managers and people in baseball today... He brings a wealth of baseball acumen from all of his experience in the game, first as player and then over the last 20-plus years as a manager or coach. Having worked with Bob in the past I have seen firsthand the positive impacts that he has on a team and an organization. I'm thrilled to be working with him once again and can't wait to get started."
But nothing about "inspirational" which is what the Giants needed after the mechanical and uninspiring Gabe Kapler.
Google Bob Melvin & inspire: you get his comments on Ron Washington, who is known to be inspiring.
You get his comments on Rickwood Field.
From The Athletic you get the Giants "... were committed to making changes to an on-field product that many have viewed as dull and uninspiring."
Has that changed? Emphatically NO.
Before the last AZ game, Melvin addressed his uninspired team which was about to be swept for the second consecutive time: “When you’re playing inspired and you feel good and you’re playing loose and confident, that’s what happens.”
The Giants did win 3 in a row and creep to 1 game under .500!
Then they went 4-7 and lost 3 consecutive winnable series plus the opener with St Louis in Rickwood, playing very uninspired.
This team is hard to watch.
Kids like Ramos, Wisely, and 2nd year Bailey are followed by Chapman, Conforto, Flores, and a maybe wokeup Soler but die in the 9th with 2 on as Chapman goes down swinging.
Inspired?