Full season leagues were idle as usual on Mondays.
ACL: Giants edged out the Guardians 3-2.
Luis Hernandez SS(17 yo)- 1 for 4. BA= .315.
Luke Mensik RHP(18 yo(- 3 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 2 K's. ERA= 5.40.
Chen-Hsun Lee RHP(24 yo)- 2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 2 K's. ERA= 1.93.
Melvin Pineda RHP(22 yo)- 2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 5 K's. ERA= 1.93.
Samir Chires RHP(22 yo)- 2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 2 K's. ERA= 2.65.
DSL: Angels outscored Giants Black 7-6.
Keiberg Camacaro SS(19 yo)- 4 for 5, HR(2), SB(8). BA= .400.
Dennys Riera 3B(21 yo)- 2 for 5. BA= .343.
This is Keiberg Camacaro's 4'th season in the DSL. Is this a late breakout for him?
DSL: Mariners blasted Giants Orange 10-1.
Juan Colorado RHP(19 yo)- 2 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 2 K's. ERA= 12.27.
Juan Colorado is a converted shortstop pitching for the first time this season.
At the MLB level, the Giants are a reeling organization with no sign of turning it around anytime soon. They have consistently underperformed for an extended period to the point where there appears to be something fundamentally wrong with their talent evaluation process. Whether that is a personal failure on the part of individuals or a system failure is unclear. If it is an individual failure, it involves multiple simultaneous failures by multiple individuals. On top of the performance failures on the field, they have now drawn national attention for a divisive failure in an historically successful community outreach effort. Whether that is an additional factor in poor on-field performance remains to be seen, but it can't be helping.
Yesterday, multiple baseball writers broke a story confirming discussions we have had on this blog that the Giants are gearing up to go full sell mode as the trade deadline approaches. These reports indicate that not only obvious trade candidates whose contracts expire at the end of the season are available but they are gauging interest in the the players with more problematic contracts like Willy Adames and Rafael Devers with some analysts believing those players are probably not tradable.
We, as fans, are disappointed and angry in the face of a complete breakdown by the team we love to root for. Some of us are saying "I told you so." Others of us were cautiously hopeful and now disappointed but not particularly surprised. We've seen reports that Buster Posey and the Giants front office were not only deeply disappointed in the team's performance last year but surprised, even shocked. Bob Melvin ended up being the scapegoat. At this point, Buster et al must be in a state of proverbial shell shock. I agree the team needs to be in full sell mode and start a rebuild from the bottom up, but there also needs to be a full on organizational evaluation starting with ownership control and decision making. Any residual denial needs to be stripped away.
When Buster Posey assumed the job of POBO, he indicated he gave himself a 3 year window to turn things around and at least implied if he couldn't, he would voluntarily steop down. It's now clear it's going to take a lot longer than that. I don't necessarily think that means Buster needs to resign but if he moves ahead with a full fire sale, the rest of ownership should move their timeline for a full organizational evaluation up to the All-Star break rather than waiting for the end of the season.
Key questions are what process was used in signing the Adames and Devers contracts? How did internal scouting evaluate these players? Did they support the signings or did Buster overrule the scouts and go with his gut feelings? On top of the big names, it's alos fair to ask about the Houser and Mahle signings as well as the failure to address the Closer role and bullpen. Has Buster learned anything about free agent evaluations from these bitter disappointments? How will he operate differently going forward?
This year's trade deadline and next offseason loom as maybe the most difficult and explosive in the history of the organization.
That penultimate paragraph sets out the key questions. Likely we’ll not get direct answers but perhaps we’ll be able to infer them from events in the coming months.
ReplyDeleteHonestly I never understood the signing of Adames. I get that he is a big name and was thought to have leadership skills. But for a GM who wanted old-fashioned pitching and defense, signing to a huge contract a free-swinging shortstop who’s defense was, charitably, mediocre seemed like getting off on the wrong foot.