The Giants erupted for five home runs including two each by Lamonte Wade Jr and Matt Chapman to support another promising start by Landon Roupp. Key Lines:
Mike Yastrzemski RF- 1 for 4, HR(18). BA= .235. The BA doesn't look like much but YtY has hit 9 HR's, all off RHP's, in his last 30 games. That's tied with some guy named Shohei Ohtani for HR's off RHP's in that span(Ohtani has 13 HR total in his last 30 games).
Lamonte Wade Jr 1B- 2 for 4, 2 HR(8). BA= .267. LMWJ will almost certainly be tendered a contract as a bridge to the Bryce Eldridge Era.
Matt Chapman 3B- 2 for 4, 2 HR(26). BA= .249. My prognostications are wrong much more than right but it's fun to get 25 HR's for Matt Chapman right.
Curt Casali C- 2 for 4. BA= .194. Despite the anemic BA, Casali has been a solid backup for Patrick Bailey but do the Giants need an upgrade in the role to give Bailey more days off so the bat doesn't wear down?
Landon Roupp RHP- 5 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 3 K's, GO/AO= 7/1. ERA- 2.70. The groundouts made up for the subpar K/BB. In 11 appearances since his current recall from the minors starting on August 9, Roupp has been sensational with just 3 ER in 30.1 IP including starts in his last 3 games in which he allowed just 2 ER in 15 IP. He is part of an expanding list of SP options for next season.
Spencer Bivens RHP- 2 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K's. ERA= 2.76. The Giants have a bunch of options for the Willie Mac Award but they could do a lot worse than give it to Bivens who has one of the more remarkable and heartwarming stories of the season. I mean, 3 years ago, this guy was pitching for the Gastonia Honey Hunters! After graduation from someplace called Rodgers State University he pitched in a local amateur league before playing 2019 in France then two seasons of indy ball before the Giants signed him in 2022.
Tristan Beck RHP- 2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K. ERA= 1.64. After missing most of the season to repair and rehab an aneurysm in his arm, Beck is positioning himself to be a factor on the pitching side of next year's roster.
Blake Snell LHP tries to increase his already robust free agent market going for the sweep in the series finale facing Seth Lugo RHP.
Matt Chapman was activated from the paternity list and Marco Luciano IF was optioned to AAA Sacramento after stopping by the training room to have those splinters removed from his butt. It's hard to imaging a worse mishandling of a top prospect starting with last offseason when FZ created expectations that Luciano would be handed the starting SS position and given ample room to establish himself. Yes, he's had some opportunities and yes, he's had some very rough games on defense to the point of borderline yips but he was given zero time to work through them and zero rope when he made a flub after several pretty good games at 2B. And OK, maybe he's just not a MI. Scouting reports have been saying that for years. We're just now going to move him to the OF?
Luciano spent ~50 days on the MLB roster when he wasn't on the IL.
ReplyDeleteHe got into 27 games for 81 PAs.
Why did he sit on the bench so much — why didn't Melvin play him?
It appears to me Luciano got deep into Melvin's doghouse, probably from the flurry of errors, but if Melvin didn't want him on the field, why was he still on the roster and why didn't he DH more when he was called back up for that ostensible purpose? It also appears Melvin and FZ were not reading off the same page on Luciano's development.
DeleteThe big positive is Luciano finally stayed healthy for a whole season. I'll say this without trying to put blame on anyone is that I'm sure the Giants have good minor league coaches and instructors who have worked with Luciano. FZ has special assistants like Will Clark and ''the professor" Ron Wotus working under him. Ron Wotus was not only a great coach but a former middle infielder during his playing days. I saw him play for the AAA Hawaii islanders. He was high ok n Tyler Fitzgerald from the beginning of the season. He works with the minor leagurs.I'm sure they have organizational meetings at the end of the year, why did it take this long to finally decide to convert him to an outfielder? Melvin was hired after FZ made the statement about Luciano being starting SS. Not his fault. There were some positive developments this season, my biggest gripe with the Giants is the mixed messages and people not being on the same page.
ReplyDeleteLuciano did do one stint on the IL: May 31, then SF activated him June 11th & optioned him to Sac for rehab but didn't call him up until July 30 and sent him back 15 days later.
DeleteJust wondering Doc but why would you think Snell has a robust pitching market off an injury plagued season when he was healthy last year and won his second Cy young award and didn’t have a robust market?
ReplyDeleteDifferent market, strong second half. I think potential signing teams will discount the terrible first half and blame it on lack of spring training to ramp up. I don't think he will get what he was hoping for in the market last year but will get more than enough to make a decision to opt out look good.
Deletei think luciano gets showcased in the fall league and is likely going to be traded this offseason. if we can't land kim or adames in free agency, i can see luciano and matos be part of a trade package for bo bichette.
ReplyDelete