The Dawn of the Whisenhunt Era got off to a rocky start but he settled down to last 5 innings and leave with the game tied only to see the Giants lose it on a 2-run home run by Andrew McCutchen in the 7'th inning. A 9'th inning rally fell a run short. Key Lines:
Heliot Ramos LF- 2 for 5, 2B, 2 R. BA= .269. Ramos is batting .296 over his last 7 games. He also made a nice running catch on a drive hit over his head in LF.
Willy Adames SS- 3 for 5, 2B, R, 2 RBI. BA= .237. Adames is showing more control as a hitter. He adjusted his approach to go the other way on at least two of the hits and which kept the line moving.
Jung Hoo Lee CF- 1 for 3, 2 BB, SB(7), RBI. BA= .253. Lee also seems to have adjusted his game since the All-Star break going opposite field more frequently. He is batting .321 over his last 7 games and .309 over his last 15.
Patrick Bailey C- 2 for 4, R. BA= .209. YtY batted one spot ahead of Bailey and went 0 for 4, BB. Right now, Bailey is a better hitter as YtY is in one of his nighmarish slumps.
Matt Chapman 3B- 1 for 4, 3B, RBI. BA= .243. Chapman went the opposite way for his double as former Giants farmhand Alex Canario dived for a sinking liner and it skipped past him to the wall.
Carson Whisenhunt LHP- 5 IP, 5 H, 4 R, 2 BB, 3 K's, 6/3 GO/AO. ERA= 7.20. Whisenhunt hung a first-pitch changeup to Nick Gonzalez in the first inning. He then got punished for a couple of walks in the second inning and fell behind 4-1. It looked like a short first start but to his credit he pulled it together and pitched scoreless ball over the next 3 innings and left with the game tied 4-4.
Carson Seymour RHP- 3 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 BB, 3 K's. ERA= 4.00. Seymour looked good except for one awful hanging slider the Cutch in the 7'th and paid the price.
Justin Verlander RHP tries for his second win of the season and tries to be the stopper of the losing streak against Bailey Falter LHP who comes in with an ERA of 3.82.
I think it was during the pregame show that Kruk and Kuip mentioned an article that showed up on sfgiants.com entitled "Devers First Base Growing Pains On Display vs Mets.". Kuip, in particular, felt it was unfair since everybody knows Devers is learning the position on the fly. I would add that almost every also knows that Devers is quite sensitive about having to learn a new position in the middle of the season. I am all for journalistic independence but when you are writing for the Giants own website, I think you need to be a little more sensitive to how a headline like that could be viewed by the player as a hit piece and how it could impact the player's attitude and relationship to the team and their willingness to make personal sacrifices for the team going forward.
Nice to see Whisenhunt pitch 5 innings in his debut. Debuts can be rough but he did ok. The pitching match-up favored the Bucs with Mitch Keller pitching, but he didn't pitch well, maybe trade rumors affected him. Don't feel too bad losing to the Bucs tonight since the Giants pitched 2 rookies tonight. Bucs are my 2nd favorite team by far behind the Giants. They should trade Keller to get more offensive pieces back. The owner doesn't spend on payroll.. We should see Joey Bart catch either tomorrow or Wednesday. He shares 50/50 playing time with Henry Davis. Hope Verlander can make it 2 wins in a row tomorrow.
ReplyDeleteThe best way for Devers to get better at first is more reps and with the season derailing, I would make Wilmer available for a contending team that needs DH help. I would like to see Dom Smith start getting some reps in the outfield and allow Ramos some games in the DH slot. Eldridge should start learning to play outfield in Sacramento with Devers playing first.
ReplyDeleteFlores picked up his game a bit in July (.264/.298/.340) with a late flurry after a poor June (.221/.330/.312).
ReplyDeleteHe is loved by the base and had a terrific 2025 start, but it doubtful he would bring much, if anything, in a trade, but if someone offers a decent prospect, SF should consider it, because if this giant face-plant continues, he will be among the first to get DFA'd to let some kids play.
Fleming was over the top adamantly defending Devers at 1B as if someone told him exactly what you just wrote. Damage control from everyone but who really knows if Devers even reads the articles on the website!
ReplyDeleteThe sick thing about this season is that all it takes is a few wins in a row and we are right back in it. All it takes is for this offense to hit like it can and for the baseball gods to take their foot off our throats for a minute and we could get right back on track.
We can’t sell… who would be worth anything that we would be willing to sell? Maybe we get a mid level pitching prospect for Rogers or weaken ourselves by trading Doval but nobody else is worth anything. Bag of chew for Flores and Yaz?
They need to buy and possibly buy big. I hate to say it but nobody in the farm should be untouchable including and maybe inevitably Eldridge. The names they are tied to are the likes of Durran, Lowe, Alcantara, Cabrera, Kwan and a few others.
There are less expensive options out there as well but I’m not sure if any of them would be enough. I would rather see them fire Melvin to motivate this team than sacrifice the farm. Posey takes over as manager for the rest of the year and acquires Alcantara, Kwan, and Lowe for the stretch run…
I think the players like Bob Melvin so firing him would probably be the opposite of motivating them and backfire. I am also quite sure that Buster Posey would rather do almost any job in the world before he wants to be a field manager. Pretty sure we are more likely to see him raking the infield with the grounds crew.
DeletePosey managing will never happen. I would like for Posey to do is hire his own guy and hopefully one that will throw down the hammer and bark every once in a while.
DeleteKinda my point, players are too comfortable under sleepy Bob. Posey would only have to manage a few months but Melvin is lost. His moves are all a few batters too late and the players like him because hes never hard on them which makes them soft and the results prove it
DeleteBuster Posey is not going to manage for even one day so please lay that fantasy to rest, once and for all. And like it or not, Melvin is signed through 2026 and I would strongly advise against betting that he will be fired one day sooner.
DeleteI looked briefly at Rafael Dever’s career fielding statistics. It showed he played no defensive position in 2024, except 8 games at third base I believe. He played absolutely none this year until a few games ago for us at first base. At the MLB level, could you imagine what that would feel like to even the very best defensive player? It would not be fun. He is doing fine! I didn’t check the details or reason(s) other than already knowing the Red Sox had a better defender playing 3B.
ReplyDeleteOops! Devers played defense in 130 games of. 2024! Still, none this year before he played first base is a lot of time away. As Rob stated, “mod reps”! His defense playing hand to eye coordination will return and he won’t be trying to do ‘the next step’, before completing the ‘prior step’.
ReplyDelete