Unfortunate sequencing led to Sean Hjelle giving up 3 runs which the Giants were not able to overcome. Key Lines:
Heliot Ramos LF- 2 for 4, HR(20). BA= .284. Is it just me or is Heliot more relaxed at the plate since he moved off CF? Batting .346 with 3 HR's over his last 7 games. At this point, I am calling the emergence of Heliot, Fitz, Harrison and Birdsong a successful season. The Giants are now far better positioned for the future than they were at this time last season when things looked quite bleak as far as the eye could see. I would also say they are better positioned for the future than at any time since 2009 when whey had Matt Cain, Tim Lincecum, Pablo Sandoval, Buster Posey, Madison Bumgarner and Brandon Crawford either in the majors or poised to debut. Brandon Belt had just been drafted.
Grant McCray CF- 2 for 3, HR(2), BB. BA= .306. McCray is acting like he wants to stick around for awhile too.
Robbie Ray LHP- 3 IP, 1 H, 1 R, 3 BB, 4 K's. ERA= 4.70. With two strikes on the leadoff batter, Justin Turner, in the 4'th inning, Ray grabbed his right hammy and came out of the game. Gotta think that is likely going to buy him a IL stay for most of the remainder of the season.
Sean Hjelle RHP- 2.2 IP, 4 H, 3 R, 0 BB, 1 K, GO/AO= 5/0. ERA= 3.99. 5'th inning: line drive single, Sac, IF hit, force out/run, K. 6'th inning: HBP(the strap on the batter's elbow guard flew out and it was unclear from unofficial replays whether the ball hit the strap or the guard. Giants did not challenge- not sure if they could), GB single to CF, HBP(the batter appeared to bunt at the ball but the 3B ump said he pulled the bat back and unofficial replay appeared to confirm), GIDP/Run, Pitching Change- Taylor Rogers LHP enters the game with 2 outs and a runner at 3B, GB single, Force out. Lines like that are going to bite groundball pitchers every so often. I say Hjelle pitched a lot better than the line looks.
The Giants remain 5 games out of the final Wild Card spot.
The Giants get a day to travel to Milwaukee where Logan Webb RHP starts the series opener on Tuesday against Tobias Myers RHP.
I also think its huge that Patrick Bailey is establishing himself as one of the top young starting catchers in MLB. Fitz and Ramos have had great breakout seasons. It will be fun to follow Harrison and Birdsong future progress. Good to see McCray off to a good start. Scouting reports say he wasn't going to hit? I like his athleticism. Has he moved passed Matos in their outfield ranking?. Love seeing thesr young players contribute, and I haven't brought up Luciano..
ReplyDeleteJoey Bart-i follow pirates since thats my friends team. I'm happy that he's had a breakout season with the Bucs, still think he needed a change. He's actually one of the better hitters on the Pirates, defense is work in progress which is ok with pirates as long as he keeps hitting..However he still gets hurt. He was just put on IL with hamstring strain, and had a previous IL stint with a thumb injury. Tough duty being a catcher.
Catchers do get hurt a lot.
DeleteBailey, like Bart, is also on the IL.
Bailey is pretty pathetic with the bat. His defense is his calling card. He may not be a future starting catcher due to the bat unless the defense proves good enough to overshadow the bat
ReplyDeleteMaybe its just me, but Bart seemed to get hurt when he played good, which set him back. I think a good defensive catcher like Bailey has a place on an mlb roster. Hopefully they figure out why Bailey slumps in the 2nd half. Is it conditioning? He had big hits in the 1st half of the season
DeleteBart has had a lot of injuries even for a catcher. There seems to be a first-half Bailey who is just under a mid-order bat and a second half Bailey who is a #9 hitter. I assume it's fatigue. My solution would be to upgrade back up C and split playing time closer to 50-50. Maybe that's what FZ thought he was getting in Murphy? Speaking of injury history.......
Deletematos/lee/mccray may be your outfield going into 2025 with encarnacion or yaz being your fourth outfielder. FZ or whoever replaces him may need to be shopping matos this offseason as a change of scenery is what may be best for him. if ray has to hit the IL, i'm thinking mason black could get a second chance in the rotation as he has righted the ship in sacramento and tristan beck hasn't been great in his rehab appearances.
ReplyDeleteYou mean Ramos/Lee/McCray?
DeleteHeloit Ramos would be a starting outfielder next year. I think Yaz may be gone. I like Yaz. I have baseball cards of his Grandpa that I collected and played with, when I was 7 years old.
Deletei meant ramos
DeletePerhaps Ray's injury will discourage his optioning out of his contract, and he will be ready for 2025 as a Giant.
ReplyDeleteThat makes 4 of 5 starters and maybe the Giants would spring for 5 years and $105 MM (the high pre 2024 FA estimate) for Snell.
Still need that big, established hitter which, according to recent history, they'll not be able to sign. Is Chapman behind him (if he can be signed) enough to protect him?
And what about the 2-3-4-? CFers? Are any tradeable?
We seem reluctant to give pitchers multi-year contracts.
DeleteOn the other hand, a free-agent big bat might want to know if consistent winning is possible without stable pitching (for an example of more than minimal change to the starting rotation - going from one year of Stripling and Manaea to Ray and Snell for half a season the next year), to go with the big-bat's (presumably the reason we want to sign that bat) consistent hitting.
Fortunately, I believe we will see stability in starting pitching soon, courtesy of in-house drafting and developing (Webb, Harrison, Birdsong) and some luck in retaining current starters.
Don't forget Hicks!
ReplyDeleteI agree with your enthusiasm for the future. As disappointing as missing the off season is, the prospects emerged at all levels including at the majors. Giants can focus on signing stars without trying to fill several positions. The future looks good.
ReplyDeleteRay's uneveness and even injuries were to be expected..Yet, this is the best rotation in baseball, right FZ?? All the vets are a chore to watch, but good to watch MCCray,, Ramos, Fitz, Walker and a few others...But with FZ, the team will never be a winner. The fans and ML players deserve a better head honcho
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of McCray and Ramos, with a healty Lee..is the 2025 OF...McCray-Lee-Ramos.....Honestly, I iike the kids emerging and their is some excitement to that but that is still woefully week if you care about going far.
I think this coming off-season, you see a lot of young players/prospects being bundled...Lucianno for sure, he has been handled horribly. Just don't trust FZ as the one doing things.
SteveVA
Even now, the 2009 team looks more promising in comparison. Their big bat - Buster - made his major league debut that year.
ReplyDeleteEqually, if not more, important, the competition was not as tough then.
And Sabean's commitment to defense (the other half of pitching-and-defense commonly viewed as the proven way to win in our ballpark) had been strong and more consistent up to that point, it seems to me.
And the manager of that team, over the next few years, proved to be one of the all time greats in post season managing.
I never said this team is as promising as 2009. I said it's better positioned for the future than at any time SINCE 2009.
DeleteBailey is a plus defender at C. A big reason Melvin wanted Chapman was to upgrade defense at 3B. Fitz is grading out as a plus defender at SS by Fangraphs and defense is pretty much the only reason they signed Ahmed. They moved Ramos to LF and brought up McCray to upgrade the defense in CF. Not sure Sabean was more committed to defense than FZ and Melvin.
DeleteI agreed with you about being better positioned for the future than any time since 2009. I was not disputing that, but was trying to add to that.
DeleteSabean's commitment, I wrote, was strong, but necessarily stronger. The key difference, it seems to me, is consistency. I feel, for example, last year, it did not seem to be so, like playing Sabol at C, or Villar at 2B, Schmitt at SS or the outfield D. Ahmed, Ramos' move to LF and McCray - all good this year. Thus, comment about the consistent commitment to D. I wrote, Sabean's commitment seemed to be more consistent, meaning over the years.
Delete