Drew Gilbert had a big game at the Dawn of the Bo Davidson Era while Tristan Beck picked up Blade Tidwell who exited with what appears to be another elbow injury for a Giants pitcher. Key Lines:
Drew Gilbert CF- 3 for 4, HR(11), 2 R, 3 RBI. BA= .237. Gilbert led off the Giants half of the first inning with a single, advanced to 3B on Bo Davidson's first MLB hit and scored on a single by Brett Harris. Gilbert later drove in 2 runs with a single and drove in the Giants 5'th run of the game with a HR in the 5'th. The 3 hits gave Gilbert a .333 BA over his last 7 games. It looks like he'll compete for a platoon role as as OF next season.
Jonah Cox 2B- 1 for 4, 2B. BA= .280. I think I hit a wrong button on a commenter yesterday which I wanted to respond to. The comment was that while FZ aquired Jonah Cox, Buster's development emphasis on more of a contact/line drive approach unlocked his potential including swinging earlier in counts to avoid strikeouts. My response is that may be true but the jury is still out on whether Buster's favored approach results in more runs. Although the Giants rank #11 in team BA and surprisingly #9 in SLG%(a lot of that is due to Rafael Devers and Bryce Eldridge coming on strong in the second half), they rank #30 in BB%, #28 in OBP and #24 in Runs.
Bo Davidson RF- 1 for 4, SB(1), R. BA= .250. Bo singled in his first MLB AB, stole 2B and came home on Harris's single in the first inning.
Bret Harris 1B- 2 for 4, 2 RBI. BA= .194. Harris drove in the first two runs with the first inning single with runners at 2'nd and 3'rd.
Blade Tidwell RHP- 3.1 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 0 BB, 4 K's. ERA= 4.45. Tidwell looked sharp until he spiked a curveball in the 4'th inning, made a funny motion with his right arm and signaled the bench to come out. As Kruk noted in his commentary, they way he held his arm as he walked off the mound looked like another elbow injury which was confirmed by Tony Vitello in the postgame presser. Tidwell will undergo more testing today. After many years of historically low rates of elbow injuries, Giants pitchers now seem to be in the midst of a cluster, including Hayden Birdsong RHP, Trevor McDonald RHP and Carson Whisenhunt LHP. In addition, Adrian Houser RHP is out with a forearm strain which seems to sometimes be a precursor to elbow injuries.
Tristan Beck RHP- 2.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K, 5/2 GO/AO. ERA= 5.94. What got into Tristan Beck? He rolled out of bed firing 97 MPH darts at the edges of the strike zone. The Giants may want to run him out there at least one more time before the end of the season. If that's the real Tristan Beck they might want to keep him around over the winter. Beck's big problem has been consistency though and one game does not prove he's suddenly found that.
Trent Harris RHP- 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K, Save(2). ERA= 2.14. A clean Save! It was with a 3-run lead but as Kruk pointed out the Giants have not had many of those this season. Giants will probably try to acquire a proven Closer over the winter but until then, it looks like Harris is the guy for the 9'th inning.
Anthony Molina RHP tries to secure a series win this evening facing Taj Bradley RHP who comes in with an ERA of 3.81.
Giants over .500 since Adames on IL, even with Vitello throwing games. Just sayin.’
ReplyDeleteBuster said he had not been offered a contract extension by ownership. This is complicated by Buster being one of the owners. I think they did an excellent job of rebuilding the minor league system but maybe the big club’s season carries more weight?
ReplyDeleteThe approach for Posey with contact and controlling the strike zone obviously isn’t working with the veterans on the big league club because we got all these veterans who are three true outcome players and a tiger can’t change its stripe. Where the huge difference is that is very noticeable is with the young guys in the farm system. In 25 years ive never seen so many young players thriving in the minors. The farm systems under Farhan were trash, and it didn’t help that he constantly wiffed on draft picks. Yeah he hit on a few guys, when you are in charge for 6 years you’re going to hit on a few players. It’s already noticeable under Poseys two drafts that he’s drafting a lot of players who are making noise and producing and providing excitement. Guys who seem like they can be part of the future. And we are also seeing minor league players that he inherited from Farhan thrive under Posey’s regime. For everyone who’s complaining about the big league club, the true results are the farm system. The farm system is the foundation for which we can provide the big league club with useful talent, and it’s something Farhan managed very poorly. Posey is building the farm system into something special and as these guys come up you all are going to start seeing how talented these guys are and the level of excitement they can bring. For anyone with a trained eye on paying attention the minors and analyzing talent, it’s really obvious.
ReplyDeleteI'm excited about the farm system too and certainly Buster Posey's regime has added to it with what so far look like a couple of good drafts and acquiring more talent by being more decisive at the trade deadline but this might be reading more into it than is warranted.
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