Adrian Houser turned in a Quality Start but the Giants managed just one run in 5 innings against a pitcher who came into the game with 9.88 ERA. Key Lines:
Rafael Devers 1B- 1 for 3, HR(3), R, RBI. BA= .221. Devers has exactly one hit in each of his last 7 games including 2 doubles and a HR, which he hit today for the Giants lone run.
Jesus Rodriguez RF- 2 for 3. BA= .444. JRod can hit and he's done OK both behind the plate in in RF today. The Giants managed just 3 hits and 3 baserunners in the game.
Adrian Houser RHP- 6 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 3 K's, 9/4 GO/AO. ERA= 6.19. Solid line for Houser but lack of run support doomed his chances for a W.
Ryan Walker RHP- 1 IP, 2 H, 2 R, 2 BB, 0 K. ERA= 5.52. So it's not just the 9'th inning and not just high-leverage situations. What role does Walker have on the team right now and how long do the Giants wait for him to fix whatever is wrong?
Joel Peguero RHP- 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K. ERA= 0.00. The Giants need more hundos in their bullpen.
Matt Waldron RHP(Padres)- 5 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 0 BB, 7 K's. ERA= 7.71. Waldron is the guy who came in with the 9.88 ERA. The Giants lineup has a way of making guys like that look like Cy Young.
The Giants get a day off at home tomorrow before starting a weekend set against the Pirates. SP's for Game 1 Friday are TBD.
The stars don't all always allign in a good way or bad way all the time but, in general, most do... Horrific Bullpen, punchless OF, inconsistent high priced vets/leaders in the IF, up and down SP's..all brought in by Buster...His plan to recreate the past with character, grinders, role players complimenting Chapman/Adames/Devers was off in so many respects. I want to hope but..and i still believe ELDRIDGE should not have been called up.
ReplyDeleteSteveVA
The biggest problem with Buster's plan was investing so much for so long in the veteran core. Devers looks like he might be coming around but they are already in a deep hole. Chapman and Adames have good qualities but are not earning back their cost. I am skeptical that Eldridge would learn anything from continuing to bludgeon PCL pitching. It could be a painful process but they need to be patient with him and let him learn to hit MLB pitching from facing MLB pitching. He's not going to learn to hit MLB pitching from facing more AAA pitching.
DeleteCan the Giants play Eldridge, Devers, Schmitt, Arraez, Chapman, and Adames satisfactorily with 6 players vying for 5 batting slots?
DeleteThen there's Bailey, Rodriguez, Susac, and Haase for C and the worse one batting-wise by a bunch gets the most ABs because he's the best of the lot behind the plate?
And Bader whose .167 in the PCL is just better than his .115 in MLB?
Buster has a mess and his Ace is heading up 3 starters with ERAs @ 5 plus and no spot for McDonald.
Hey, Doc, if you were the manager, what would you do?
I've been thinking about this. It's a tough situation but I don't they can afford to keep hoping things will get better by doing the same things. Some changes need to be made. So what would I do today if I was Tony Vitello(with cooperation from Zach Minasian and Buster Posey)? 1. Move on from Patrick Bailey and name Jesus Rodriguez the starting catcher until further notice. When Susac returns, it will complicate things but that's a good problem to have. Both are better options than Bailey at this point. 2. For now I create a rotation between Chapman, Arraez, Eldridge, Devers and Schmitt where they all play 4 of every 5 games. Schmitt is the rover in that set up. Buster needs to be looking for trades for for the vets. Arraez is a breath of fresh air but he's a free agent at the end of the season. Chapman and Devers come with future obligations Buster needs to try to divest himself of. 3. Tony V and Buster need to sit down with Adames and tell him the gatorade showers need to stop until the team actually wins something significant like clinching a playoff spot.
DeleteAdames better hope compliance buyouts are not part of the next CBA. I'd use it on Adames at this point.
DeleteHard to argue with those. I’d try to move Chapman this year; hopefully he’ll have a hot streak before the deadline.
DeleteHow about the pitching side?
Did you leave Adames out of the rotation deliberately?
DeleteHe is such a sucker for high, sometimes very high, pitches? Seems that every at bat he'll swing (and miss) at something eye level!
With Bader coming back, the OF is a mess, too, not one of them has an OPS+ at or above 100!
Since Ramos had a 3-hit game his slashes are awful:
.138/.133/.241/.375
The Giants best position player and pitcher, by WAR, are Arraez and Ray, both free agents. Do we have to wait until the trading deadline to get something for them?
I also remember that at the time of the Chapman signing everyone was in agreement that the point of the signing was to get some good, established players on the team so that more FA's want to sign here and make SF a good destination again. Fast forward a few years and I don't know if it's really payed dividends much at all; maybe it helped sign Adames and Arreaz for example, but the strategy doesn't seem to be paying off if we're not getting any A listers. It seems Buster's overall strategy of approaching the team building was not correct, in hindsight I should add because I think a lot of us were optimistic about it.
DeleteA question I find interesting, is the the cost to move people. We know Devers, Adames, Chapman...probably Lee as well, all have contracts with (substantial) negative value. At what point would they entertain an offer on Devers that has the Giants paying half the freight?
DeleteI've soured on Chapman since he called out Schmidt. And Willie...for God's sake, please, put the Gatorade down, and go spend the kind of time with Wash that Arraez did.
Obviously, there's not a great pathway forward. Another month of this and playoff hopes will be very dim.
Yes, I left Adames out of the rotation because I don't think Schmitt can play shortstop but I do think Adames could use a day off here and there to give Christian Koss some playing time, and right now I'm not so sure Koss is a worse option than Adames, although Adames is more likely to go on a hot streak and hit 10 HR's in a month.
DeletePitching side, Borucki needs to go and Ryan Walker should not be anywhere close to a winnable game.
DeleteInterestingly, Susan Slusser thinks Schmitt plays SS about as well as Adames.
DeleteI don't agree with Susan Slusser on that point.
DeleteWith this team likely on pace to be worse than the 1985 team, Posey, Minasian, and ownership need to change course and allow the kids a long leash and don't get impulsive if a guy like Eldridge struggles.
ReplyDeleteI agree the Giants should change course. The veteran, win-now approach is not working and I think adopting as much of a rebuild mentality as ownership can handle is the best strategy for 3 reasons: 1. We have a fairly elite group of teenage and under 21 y/o prospects in the system 2. Ohtani is 31 years old and he and the Dodgers should start diminishing around the time the prospects are ready to make an impact and 3. The current team is not good and doesn't seem to be close to being good. With respect to the Dodgers I wonder if it's like Aikido or Tai Chi (not sure which it is exactly) where you aquiesce to the opponents energy or strength and kind of work with the flow to beat your opponent. So in this case it could be like we acknowledge how super strong the Dodgers are right now and so we go silent for a few years, and then when they get old that's when we strike. Kind of a weird analogy but I wonder if it's a good long term, overall strategy for the state of the Giants.
DeleteIt would not surprise me if, when Susac is done with his rehab, Bailey is optioned to the minors (he has 3 options left), since Susac must return to the big club. This would be announced as an opportunity for Bailey to work out his hitting issues. The Giants are 5-10 since Susac went on the IL.
ReplyDeleteA disappointing start for sure, but I'd say it's a bit early to be trading anyone. My sense is that the real trading happens around the trade deadline and the Giants would be selling low at this time of the season. It is encouraging to see JRod outperform other catchers so far, and I HOPE that his defense is good enough. (He didn't seem great on some of the throws to 2nd base).
ReplyDeleteWatching Tampa Bay employ the opener reminded me of the (Good 'ol?) days of Kapler-- was that a good experiment?
On KNBR, the radio hosts were waving the white flag and saying that any playoff talk is unrealistic until they get to .500 and only seven teams in history with this bad of a record at this stage of the season managed to win even 85 games. I'm not sure if this ownership group is willing to take a "you gotta like these kids" approach that they did forty years ago.
ReplyDeleteThe trade of Carlos Correa back to Houston last year required the Twins to send along $33 million of the $96 million remaining on Correa's contract. Chapman is still owed about $112 million, Adames is owed about $160 million, and Devers is owed about $225 million base + $75 million in deferred payments (2034-2043). If we use the Correa deal as a reference point, we can imagine how expensive it will be to trade them, particularly Devers with the deferred payments.
Chapman likes the Bay Area. Unless they sit him, it's going to be difficult to get him to approve a trade. And even if he eventually comes around, it's likely to take some time to convince him his playing days with the Giants are over. Still, Chapman is signed at $25 million per season through 2030. So, any trade would need to resolve who was going to pick up the remainder of his contract (about $125 million including this season). That is a big ask for any trade partner.
ReplyDeleteBottom line is if Posey didn’t invest in Adames, Devers and Chapman then the Giants would be in a much worse place. I don’t know if you guys realize but they are clearly our best players? And yeah they are all doing really bad and we obviously have a poor record because that’s what happens when your top three hitters are performing horribly. But if they didn’t have those players do you guys really think they would be a better team? If they signed any of the high priced guys in free agency like Framber and Bichette does that make them better and do those guys even do good with us? Also we would have had to overpay any of the high free agents even more than they were already overplayed because of the high CA taxes. Posey had to do the trade for Devers and sign Adames and Chapman because the roster was left in such a talentless state guys. Posey isn’t blind and he see what we see. He saw what we saw when the horrible Farhan was blundering about. Posey clearly didn’t feel comfortable overpaying for guys in this free agency and he also clearly is hoping some of the young guys step up and take spots because that’s what happened when he was playing and that’s how the giants won three World Series: by developing home grown guys.
ReplyDeleteYou sound like the baseball front office version of White House Press Secretary.
DeleteHey Doc, have you seen the Dow Jones lately? Why talk about the state of the Giants-- We should be talking about how great our retirement accounts are doing. (only kidding)
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