The Giants lineup took out their frustrations on Jordan Montgomery LHP, yes, THAT Jordan Montgomery! Key Lines:
Austin Slater CF- 1 for 4. BA= .140. To the dismay of many Giants fans, Slater was activated off the IL and Luis Matos was optioned back to AAA Sacramento. Not sure Slater is the answer here but Matos needs more seasoning. It's not like he was tearing up the PCL before his call up.
Heliot Ramos LF/CF- 2 for 2, HR(5), 4 BB. BA= .304. Holy moly! I'm always hesitant to say a player is here to stay. I mean look at what just happened to Luis Matos. Heliot Ramos sure looks like he's here to stay. Wouldn't that be something if after practically disappearing from the prospect radar screen Heliot turns out to be the guy I wrote on this very blog that the Giants had to draft him in the first round because if they didn't the Dodgers almost certainly would and they could not let that happen? BTW, is Heliot eligible for ROY? He only had 82 MLB PA's prior to this season but maybe he spent too much time on the MLB active roster?
Thairo Estrada 2B- 3 for 6, 2B. BA= .250. Thairo is batting .323 over his last 7 games.
Jorge Soler DH- 2 for 6, HR(7). BA= .215. Is Soler finally finding a hint of traction? .269 over his last 7 games.
Wilmer Flores 1B- 2 for 4, HR(2), BB, SF. BA= .219. Speaking of finding traction....Giants need Wilmer to find some quickly with LMWJ on the IL. The HR was a grand slam and capped a 6-run 3'rd inning that torched......Jordan Montgomery.
Tyler Fitzgerald SS- 2 for 4, BB, SB(5). BA= .270. Fitz had his own defensive struggles at SS earlier in the season, but between the injury to Ahmed and even worse struggles by Marco Luciano and Casey Schmitt The Churn brought him back.
Jordan Hicks RHP- 3.2 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 4 BB, 7 K's. ERA= 2.82. Another abbreviated start from Hicks who threw 92 pitches. The last time Hicks went 6 innings or more was on April 27 although he went at least 5 innings in his last 5 starts before today.
Jordan Montgomery LHP- 2 IP, 7 H, 6 R, 3 BB, 1 K. ERA- 6.80. For those Giants fans who preferred Montgomery over Blake Snell how does that ERA look? Moral to the story: Pitchers need spring training! Meanwhile Sean Manaea has an ERA of 3.63 with the Mets.
The Win narrowed the gap between the Giants and Dodgers to 8 games in the NL West. The Giants move up to 3'rd place and trail in the Wild Card race by 1.5 games.
The Giants are off tomorrow and travel to Texas where they start a weekend series against Forever Giant and Hall of Famer Bruce Bochy and the reigning World Series Champion Rangers on Friday with Logan Webb RHP facing Michael Lorenzen RHP, who BTW was also a free agent and is 3-3 with an ERA of 2.96.
Nice win, good to see the offense taking out their frustration and the bullpen not imploding for once. Heard interesting Tim Kawakami podcast with Greg Johnson owner. FZ tenure- he credited FZ saying he kept the Giants competitive when he started, which was challenging considering the Giants had no help from the farm system coming up at the time. Johnson is a diehard Giants fan for the past 30 years. He definitely wants to see the farm system start producing good MLB players. With Bailey, Harrison, Winn and now Ramos starting to establish themselves as MLB players, is the Giants farm system in a cycle where several of their young players will start knocking on the door for MLB opportunities?
ReplyDeleteThings were certainly looking bleak when FZ was hired but there were a few good players in the system: Matos, Ramos, Luciano, Walker, Hjelle, and Winn were in the minors, as was Bart who is having a very good year in a relatively SSS (69 PAs: 151 OPS+)
DeleteIt's disappointing matos.was sent down, but Slater has a good track record against LHP. Greg Johnson made it loud and clear that their goal is to compete for a playoff spot every year. Speaking of which would love to see a rotation maybe in July to include Blake Snell, Robbie Ray, and Alex Cobb.
DeleteBaseball-Reference writes for Ramos "Rookie Status: Exceeded rookie limits during 2023 season"
ReplyDeleteManaea is used exclusively by the Mets as a SP, 11 starts, 57 innings.
ReplyDeleteHe was not used that way by the Giants in 2023 (37 games, 10 starts).
Did the Giants want him?
Instead, perhaps, they signed Jordan for less and for longer.
Jordan, 13 starts, 67 innings, compares favorably, is 5 years younger, and just learning to be an SP. He is signed for 4 years @ $11MM/yr, which is less than Manaea ($14.5MM, 2025 player option $13.5MM with the Mets).
Seems he could've been a Giant.
To this point of the season, he would be a better option than what the Giants have tried to do beyond Webb, Harrison, and Hicks.
Snell may well work out, and if Ray comes back, Manaea here would become an RP which he did not want.
So Manaea is a Met.
Isn't Ramos out-of-options & hence can't be sent down? Slater is in his last team control year, I think Ramos floor is being at least as valuable as Slater as righty platoon/depth (or more) OF through the team control years. I'm glad for Ramos to be up to stay, his play is elevated, smart & dialed in at bat (4 walks!) & in field & on bases.
ReplyDeleteRamos was sent down earlier so no, he is not out of options.
DeleteIn the NL, behind the 3 division leaders, Atlanta stands apart leaving 9 teams clustered within 3½ games. Of those 9, 7 of them, nearly half the league, are a total of 1½ games apart. Each day they are juggled around, yesterday's "in the lead" are tomorrow's "½ out."
ReplyDeleteWith 100 (+/-) games left for each team, it means only transitory bragging rights, but it's interesting especially when the Giants have a bye yet they still move up or down in the order. Or both.