We Got Better
I’m not under any crazy illusion that Pillar is going to put this team on his back and save the day. But he will be a hell of a lot more fun to watch than the crap we currently trot out there. And we gave up nothing, Hanson wasn’t going to play anymore. Z flipped shit for this guy and that right there gets an A grade from me.
Besides his dominant defense, this guy does have some power that should play well enough in the NL. And he’s hit 35/37/40 doubles the last 3 years. Without looking, I’m guessing that would be at or near the top of doubles production from our best hitters over the same time period. His OPS is just ok. But I’m sick of hearing about OPS. It’s two numbers mashed together like some dumbass 3rd grade art project you brought home and your parents pretended to like. Listen up: a walk is not the same as a single. Not every time as OPS tricks you into believing. Getting on base and bb’s ARE important. But not on this team. Belt takes a walk, struts his ass down to first base, head held high, shoulders de-slumpified, and what happens? He dies there.
Gimmie a guy on second base. Whether by double or stolen base. If we aren’t going to hit home runs that’s where our runners need to be. Doubles and stolen bases are a hell of a lot more exciting than walks, too, in case any of you have forgotten that…..
Kevin Pillar makes this team better, he’ll make it more enjoyable to watch. If that isn’t important to you I’m not sure what to tell ya.
A Place To Talk About Giants Baseball 
and I’m not as down on OPS as I made it sound, I just thought that was funny. It is a simplified stat though. Two numbers added together is about as simple as it gets…..
Belt wouldn’t die there if we had a few other guys in the line-up with a decent OPS.
I’m not super wild about the Pillar move. If Reed slips through waivers and we get to keep him in Sactown, then I am fine with it. I think blowing that guy out after 8 at bats is a ridiculously quick trigger—especially when you look at the minor league season he put together last year.
Good to see us playing competitive games with the Dodgers so far.
If Pillar bats 6th maybe he can double Belt in from first and everyone will be happy.
I’ve been saying they need to get rid of MadBum since before last season. In a twisted way, Madbum’s error last night saved his ERA, as none of those 5 runs in the 3rd counted against his pristine ERA of 1.38. Zaidi needs to work the phones and hope the other GMs are asleep at the wheel and didn’t notice the grand salami, etc., either. Just keep them focused on his ERA. lqtm.
Why there not blowing Joe out of town to Sac is more baffling! My guess they want to try and pack a few more seats from Chinatown/Japan dist population first , another marketing ploy.
Kruk finally did have a good point last night, Joe is now taking his diarrhea bat out on defense, as he clearly had a chance to double off Ryu at 2nd base and never thought about throwing the ball,and that ended up costing the big inning..
Here ya go AK . . .
Awesome Blade!!
Thanks!!!
wonder if Giants analytics guys can figure out how to get Kike Hernandez out. This guy kills us.
Bum said he had nothing going, couldn’t throw strikes or command zone. OK, but still longer you wait to trade him you do run the risk he has more trouble getting hitters out, especially on the road.
I said this before—if you were gonna do it and not extend him, off season would have been time for it. Like Flav said yesterday, every start is being closely watched. Walking the pitcher, screwing up a bunt and then hanging a cutter that winds up no doubt bomb over CF fence isn’t going to help prospect return. And AL teams don’t give rat’s ass how well he hits.
I think we would have gotten very little for Bummie as everyone had questions after his last 2 injury-filled seasons. The risk is to see what he has this season to jack up his value.
but the injuries weren’t to elbow or pitching related and happened early in season. By pitching fewer innings last 2 years, arm and shoulder had less wear and tear. Teams were in the market then and made some big moves for frontline starters like Yanks Nats. If the narrative (which I don’t fully buy myself) is the velo and overall effectiveness is declining year by year and he’s not the same ace he was, then you run significant risk the longer you wait, no?
Agree Willie.
No. Injuries are injuries. He separated his throwing shoulder in the dirt bike accident.
I’m sure most of these GMs that would be interested anyway are taking a wait-and-see approach. He has lost velocity. He is giving up more home runs than before. He’s a little more wild and inconsistent.
The fact he’s still here says something, as if there was a good enough deal out there, he’d be gone. If he goes 4-6 with an era under 3, he’ll be gone.
“Belt takes a walk…” well so far haven’t been near enough of them. OB is at .286 after disastrous series in SD. No problem with him hitting second, but btw Duggar who is hitting .292 with .346 OB and Longo who is only guy to show much pop so far, Belt’s getting going would be big help.
Belt’s looked all right, especially given all the lefties. There’ve been a couple just foul HR misses and line drive outs. He hasn’t appeared lost or overwhelmed, like he did at the end of last year, FWIW.
Hopefully Pillar performs well enough to garner something in return as Zaidi’s 200th trade of the season.
Why are teams reluctant to sign Kuecel &Kimbrel is it just their crazy contact demands??
Spot on AK . . . However, I expect the Yankees to be knocking – either on these dudes or others. Per the NY Times, the list of key Yankees who are either injured or still returning from injury now contains eight players: Stanton, Andujar, shortstop Didi Gregorius, outfielders Aaron Hicks and Jacoby Ellsbury, and pitchers Dellin Betances, C. C. Sabathia and Luis Severino. In that group, there are a combined 17 All-Star appearances, one Cy Young Award winner (Sabathia) and one most valuable player (Stanton).
I’d personally would keep Pillar in CF( his natural postion)and move Duggar to a corner preferably LF to help protect that shoulder that took a big hit on it last night.
Posey looked slow on the bases and slow behind the plate and slow with the bat, in the games I saw in ST. I hope his hip rotation improves during the year, but he looks to me now even more like an oppo field hitter with gap power at best to left and left center. I’d deal him as soon as Bartilools ready…
I’m ok with Pillar. He’s with SF largely because of the defensive metrics, which have been the target of a bit of skepticism here. He’s got barely passing major league numbers at the plate. I just don’t think he’ll make that much difference, especially if he’s playing with Duggar and Parra regularly.
OPS doesn’t value walks as much as singles, because your slugging percentage doesn’t go up when you walk. If you go 1-4 with a walk and single, the OPS is 650, which sucks; 2-5 with two singles, it’s 800. If Pillar drew 30-40 more walks a year to go with his other stats, he’d be more useful. Or if he hit 25 HRs instead of 15.
Shout out to SD for the Reed observation.
Where do you stand on Joe?
Too bad he’s not 23, instead of 26 …. he’s been fed slop, and it’s found the strike zone. Like Reed, there’s no way he’s as bad as he’s shown so far. Eventually, he’ll have a good game, and it’d be interesting to see what happens once he’s reached some kind of equilibrium.
I was actually fine with Joe and Reed playing. But now that we have Pillar, I’d rather have him playing.
Joe and Reed are barely AAA guys. Not enough time for these guys? They are both 26. It isn’t going to suddenly be Rod Carew and George Brett. Not sure why we are even discussing these guys. Gorkys is Mickey Mantle compared to these guys. These moves were ridiculously dumb as far as building the ML roster goes.
Like I said 3 weeks ago, they are sure filling out their AAA roster though, in the hope they can be 15 day replacement guys.
Their AAA numbers at age 25 last year were comparable to Williamson’s, who’s a year older. The odds weren’t/aren’t good that they’ll pan out, which the ridiculously dumb high IQ guy now running the team probably knows. But they were worth a look because of the combo of power and plate discipline they both showed. That is, after all, the boring 1950s style I hear you need to win in today’s game . . . .
I don’t know. Mac is a pretty low bar himself but neither Joe or Reed have power. It flat amazes me how hard it is for this team to find outfielders.
Like trading George Foster 46 years ago spoiled the efforts of the 6 GMs (?) that have tried to draft an all star outfielder since then.
Harper easily wins the free agent on-field match-up vs. Machado so far. Harper’s OPS is 1.800 and Machado’s is .467.
Connor Joe’s OPS .071 yikes on any level..
Yankees whiff a team record 18 times in 9 innings today.
Tulowitzki injured, too…
Pillar in CF, Duggie bumped to RF…..
lol
Damm that’s something I can’t stop laughing about!!
The dude on the far left has his SD Padre opening day lesiure suit going strong!
And the pimpin Matador look on the far right solid as well! Know all 3 are rocking the bell bottoms as well to complete the lunacy..
it amazes me that anyone got laid in the 70’s.
oh, we did. Just not dressed like that
Yeah for sure Chuck. Chicks dug my muscle car GTO.Couldnt go wrong if you had as hot rod back then, just cruising El Camino on a Friday/Saturday night straight out of American Graffiti lol.. Are racing muscle cars at Brotherhood Way straight away where all the Churches are out we’re awesome before the cops arrived..
Brotherhood way. Remember it well. We cruised Burlingame to RC.
They all look great to me. Why do people think they got it all together now?
Bunch of fuckin’ horseshit…
need to visit that again, my favoirite twitter thing
Nevermind the game, the big story here is that climate change – not LA’s talent – has changed Dodger Stadium’s character. And this from likely Trump voter, despite his taste for fine wine, Kruk!
Jesus. Nice throw, Joe.
Out
Whoops! Add Tulo to the Yankees walking dead injury list. They could actually field a 9 man IL team now.
Only took a week, haha.
“All Of My Love” on the organ is a nice choice in my book…..
Duggar gets one.
There you go.
We got bombs!
Belt with a bye, bye, baby and the Giants take the lead.
“Belted” as Baggs puts it.
There you go!!!
How about these Giants!!
Duggar now Belt cranking them out.
Miller noted on radio Stripling is the guy they took out with a no no first time he faced SF. Won’t leave that way tonite.
Damn, a HBP was not what we needed there.
Morontes with a lead in the 6th would be nice.
Love to see a 0 here.
‘Zombie’ walkup music. That’s what I’m talking about.
DH is effectively wild tonight.
12 different Opening Day left fielders for the last 12 seasons? Unreal, especially when you consider we have 3 rings during that period.
Pillar’s already hurt? And WTF was that throw?
If Dyson and Melancon (93mph) somehow both have good years, no starter other than Bum will crack 100 pitches the rest of the year.
Dyson was fantastic tonight, for sure.
Verdugo looks and acts like Cody Ross.
I don’t like that Verdugo guy, so making him look bad, priceless.
Crap.
Fuck
That pitch shoulda been off the plate.
Was disappointed to hear Dodgers re signed Freese off season. That’s a guy who really could have helped Giants. Now he burns them.
One pitch from getting out of the inning was the wrong pitch..Cant stand these whiny Dodgers!!
I was also expecting Pillar’s first two runs saved there.
Get em back, Giants.
Tough one.
Fun series. Next time these two meet, Giants will be what? 7 games back? 8? 10?
But somehow the Dodgers will choke again in the end. Giants fans always get the last laugh on that.
It wasn’t the wipe-out series that it looked like it might be.
That sucked. Win the opener and lose 2 cloes after. Shit
I predicted one win outta 3.
Giants usually, usually play LA tough, even when the Gyros are bad…
Somebody in the Giants ownership needs to say enough with the Giants starting on the road every season. It’s ridiculous. The team has to battle through that at the start of every season because of Baer.
What have we learned after two series on the road?
The Giants:
Pitching is more than adequate to support a .500 or better team.
Hitting is not…