That’s A Wrap
Our season collapsed in frustrating fashion but it was really hard to get too worked up about it. Yes, the ump was terrible. But do any of you really think any of our hitters were going to touch Rosenthal? In the strike zone or not?
It was fun to see McCovey Cove filled up under such a resplendent sky. And how great was it to see Hunter Pence take part in the fun? We didn’t make this post season but that is almost a badge of honor. I’m not going so far as to say it’s a sham. It HAS been fun to watch baseball again. But this season was pretty stupid. DH’s, 7 inning games, cut out fans, that dude trotting out to 2nd base starting the 10th……
Our hitting shocked me this year. Kap and his staff deserve credit for that. I think. They certainly went out of their way to TAKE credit for it. I’ll trust them on that one…..
Kap had his moments of idiocy but overall he was fine. I’m willing to believe he’s going to get better. One thing that has to get better is our pitching which was just not very good.
There were many weeks in a row I didn’t think we were going to see any baseball this year. And we got 60 games. Every single one of them did the job of distracting us from the terribleness of 2020.
A Place To Talk About Giants Baseball 
Great post, BF.
2 biggest surprises for me:
1. The resurgence of Belt and Craw.
2. The relatively low amount of disruption (so far) of the schedule by the virus.
Of course that means the two of then and Cueto get a swan song but if there is no similar production (Cueto is iffy) then they should go the way of Smardrmajam by August…
Yeah, they could end up being dealt during next season.
Craw’s defense did seem to resurge along with his offense.
Belt’s defense seemed to go down a little bit, IMO.
I was hoping Bart would come out of the gate faster. He clearly needed time at AAA this season that he wasn’t able to get.
1 and 2 surprised me as well.
I dont think they would axe Kapler now but I think the team played hard but he is not competent with handling pitching. Is there modern day Roger Craig we could employ as a pitching strategist???? Kapler gets one more year.
And the other reason not to get worked too much over this ump who should be disciplined for incompetence and usher in robo-umps is that we likely get humiliated by the Flodgers so f em and f the Lakers go Iggy and the Heat.
I hate to say it, but the Brewers are probably a tougher match-up for the Dodgers, because of Hader and a better overall bullpen than the Giants.
Kapler signed a three year deal with the Giants. He gets “at least” next year. If they ax him before the three years are up, the Giants eat some money.
these guys playing hard for Kap all year can’t be understated. That’s a major job for the manager and he passed that part easily.
well said Flav, and thank for keeping everything real throughout this season, not an easy one for any of us I don’t think to get through.
Kap isn’t going anywhere, and I do believe he learned a lot, about himself, staff and players who cycled in and out of team. He can relay all of this upstairs, and see what he has to work with 2021.
I’m so damn glad we had even a half-ass season. I think Bart’s disappointing debut was a good thing. Now everyone knows that he can’t handle a good inside pitch (either tensing up like a LLeaguer to take a possible HBP or hacking ineffectually while his head bobbles), that he can’t speak Spanish, and that he has a poor mitt but a good arm. I doubt a year in AAA would’ve revealed so much. Let’s just say he’s in the twilight of his career and hope that there’s still more day to dawn. Yaz exceeded expectations; so did Dick and Solano. The geezer IF and the green OF all played pretty well. Pitching — well, Gott and coonrod; but a few guys came through.
Keep the knothole closed. Hit those HRs. Sign some pitchers.
Wow, you really are all-in on burying Bart already.
We’ll see how it plays out.
Most draft picks DON’T work out, but we’ll see what the future holds.
fangraphs had interesting story on A’s vs. ChiSox match up of 2-7 seeds. Obviously Sox are good but also won 35 games and faced 6 other teams that made playoffs. A’s comp had high end teams like Dodgers and Padres, but second place Astros were 7 back of Oakland and all the other teams they faced ranged from average (SF) to worse—Rockies DBax M’s Angels and Rangers.
Giants can certainly feel good about how this season went, but top end of Division is very good.
“The resurgence of Belt and Craw.”
Come on Zumiee – are you serious? For example, Belt played 51 games, less than 1/3 of a season. Here are some “cumulative statistics” compiled at Baseball Reference for him . . . Career Batting Average in 2019 .261 and for 2020 .263 . . . OBP in 2019 .354 and for 2020 .356 . . . OPS in 2019 .801 and for 2020 .810.
My point is that these would be considered great improvements over the course of a full season, but in my opinion, what he did in this sham shortened season would be considered “got hot” or a “good hitting streak” in a full season.
Most Flappers remember what Craw did in 2018, where on May 13th he went 3 for 4 against the Pirates and just exploded after that (e.g., the 2 subsequent games he went 2 for 4 and 4 for 4 at Cincy). Specifically, he was hot for almost a month, peaking on June 10th against Washington, where he went 4 for 4. In that period, he raised his average from .248 to .338. It was an amazing streak, but short lived. By the end of the season, he was at a .254 batting average . . . meh.
One other thing – no fans watched and they didn’t have to travel hardly at all compared to a normal season. In other words, almost zero pressure to perform. Again, my takeaway is that they both had hot hands in this truncated season, but “resurgence,” no. Let’s put it this way, I will be a true believer if they do it again next season, but I doubt that happens. I will be pleased if Z and/or the GM are able to parlay the two’s performance into a satisfactory trade that benefits the club.
A “relative resurgence”? 🙂
They were watchable in the mini-season, which was surprising.
Agree!
It all matters little. They are signed through next year. Best case for Giants is that one or both get hot before the trade deadline next year, and the Giants can get something for them before they hand them their golden writst watches.
Outside of their record, my biggest surprises were – 1) the season not only making it past the 2 week mark but pretty much all 60 games and 2) Dickerson, I really thought he’d be just another dickless wonder this year.
If Belt’s season was based on the coaching than I’m majorly surprised, if it was based on the changes to the field than not so much. He just never came across to me like a guy who listened to coaches much, not even one-on-one with the Thrill.
i still think we should dump Longo, belt, and Craw. Get whatever we can in a trade or just eat the money. They won some games for us this year but i don’t think the teams wins anything with them in the lineup most of the time. Pitching is a whole other problem since we need both starters and pen guys. We just have to have good evaluators to make it work. Unless a to good to be true position player lands to us in the draft i would draft pretty much all pitching this next draft. Kap did ok with things this year but he’s also the reason we didn’t make the playoffs.
You can wish in one hand and take a dump in the other, and see which one fills-up quicker. All three are signed through next year. Craw – 15.2 mil. Belt 17.2, and Longo 18.6 next year and 19.6 in 2022. No way in hell it makes sense to just eat those contracts now. And no way they get a decent trade for that much cheese being owed.
To me, you hope like hell they all get hot right before the trade deadline, and deal them then. That will probably offer the most in return, and even then, the Giants would probably have to eat some salary.
But bottom line, now way they dump them/eat salary now, IMO.
Nice summary, BF. I hope your sacrifices lead to some better times soon, and thanks for staying engaged with the rest of us geezers amidst it all.
Yes, what James said.
Again, BF, I’m very sorry about my political post yesterday. It was a lapse in judgement on my part.
And then I tried to make a joke about it that was as funny as a pile of rocks.
The blog has been a really cool thing over the years to help us all get through tough times. Thanks for keeping it going.
it’s fine and I appreciate your apology.
Does anyone know if the issues with Minor league baseball been resolved? Are the players that didn’t make each Team’s Covid rosters back in the draft? Will there be extra rounds or maybe an additional draft?
I haven’t heard anything, but the major league teams really need the minor leagues back. I suspect that the simulated games aren’t what they’re cracked up to be.
I was looking forward to going to some Calif. League Single-A games this past season and seeing the Giants young prospects. Losing that season was tough on all the organizations.
There’s no way Belt stays at a 1000+ OPS over a full season, but Crawford’s performance is largely a result of a better slugging %, which may or may not have a little to do with the ballpark reconfiguration. He did make 7 errors, and the number of plays he made relative to the rest of the league was below average. He did also look like his old flashy self a lot.
There are 2 things about Belt’s out of the blue season that are signs that he might still have a couple more productive seasons in him. After a terrible start, he was able to handle the mid-90s stuff well enough to see more pitches in favorable parts of the strike zone. He also claimed not to be bothered by the lingering injury that was supposedly nagging him the latter half of 2019. We’ll see. I’ve been partial to him, and hope he gets to enjoy a Will Clark-lite like end to his career, even if it’s not with SF.
agree about Belt, grudgingly. The fact that he was able to prove he can still handle the mid 90s FB is encouraging.
On the other hand, Longoria….
He just seemed to run out of gas in the mini-season. Lots of balls pounded into the ground to infielders at the end.
He’ll be the starting third baseman for the next two seasons, so hopefully he finds his own relative resurgence.
Posey will be back at starting catcher. Maybe the season off rejuvenates him physically. Maybe.
*Kapler, his staff, and the GM (they all meet daily) decided to use a pitcher (Gott) with an ERA of 10.03! and a pitcher (Coonrod) with an ERA of 9.82! to be their closers in key games and it cost the Giants the opportunity to participate in post season play. Yes, the players played hard, but the Giants didn’t have a quality bullpen and the bullpen didn’t have defined roles.
*This season really gives you an idea of how long the regular season really is. Without Rona, there still would be 102 games left! I agree with most posters on this board, Crawford and Longoria looked to be fading, and now throw in another 100 games, I see their play really declining.
*I hope they keep the DH. I don’t like the keeping the pitchers in to throw to three batters (or close out the inning). It didn’t speed the games up. I think a manager should be able to use their bullpen strength’s of lefty vs lefty or righty vs righty in the 8th or ninth inning when the game is on the line.
*Bart was disappointing. Maybe the front office saw something in his play last year and that’s why they drafted Bailey. I really thought Bart would step into one on occasion, but how many balls even made it to the warning track? Posey is still the catcher for next year, but does now Bart only play C or 1st base on occasion? We all thought Bart would be a much bigger threat, I hope that still happens.
*Ramos and Bishop will get long looks in Spring Training.
*I still have confidence in Zaidi and his decision making. Not sold on Kapler, let’s see what he does with a quality bullpen.
Zaidi said all along Bart needed more development, which imo was borne out… expectations of fanbase notwithstanding. It’s unfortunate he had to be promoted but certainly did him more good than practice squad games in Sac.
He’s still a highly rated prospect, and could likely use couple months at least in AAA ball after ST.
C isn’t a position for Giants to worry about–Posey should be fine enough next year and they have Bailey too.
CF, replacing 3b and SS, different story. Small sample size of some of hitters who did well as Blade said still a concern. And yes without a DH whereinell could Giants play Flores and Solano at same time? Still wondering how many will be allowed on ML roster. If it’s only 26, OF will be quite a battle.
wow watching tennis at Roland Garros, a commercial for Crown Royal featured a lady singer in white and then a man doing a verse of Sly’s “If You Want Me to Stay”, fabulous tune.
Pitching, pitching and more pitching. Unless something sweet comes along, ’22 will be the swan-song for the Bore Core. Could Robertson play an adequate 3B? Longo with two more years to go tailed off like a knuckle-curve. If any position players are to be targeted, third is the obvious for an uptick. If some team loaded with prospects needs a pinch hitter who can occasionally fill in at third, a veteran presence–trade him for a second tier prospect who still has some upside.
Pitching, yes pitching, should be the free-agent (and possibly trade) focus. Bauer is everyone’s top target. Giants have been burned on major starter pick-ups, think Smardj, but Bauer has stated he would prefer to go short contract (a year or two) with top dollar for that quick span. SF can do this–big $ out for a probable huge return. A genuine ace at the top added to Cueto, Gausman, Anderson, Webb and possibly Smyly would take the team to the top quarter or maybe third of starting rotations. So if the ownership circle is willing to do what they did for a certain FA outfielder who had starred for the Pirates,then go for a two-year contract.
Relief: Watson is eligible for FA and up to the last few games I was high on another year for him. Now, I’m not so sure–even though up to ten days back or less was a sterling 0.53. Garcia looks like another Z&H bargain that paid off…a for sure keeper. Two and maybe three more worth hanging around, like Selman and Baragar. So the answer likely is in the FA market, moreso than the garbage bin. Couple of reliable right-handers should suffice. Moronta will return, so the dipping does not need for a total remake.
Bill Fleming cited Ramos and Bishop. The latter may be a couple years away but Ramos may be ready for the Show. Outfield of Yaz, Dick and Ramos/Slater looks plausible. A trade of Wilmer, Barrels or Mauricio for an elite starter prospect could be a payoff over a year or so. Both the Ohio teams seem to be loaded with starters, but Cleveland , at least, could use for more punch in the lineup–particularly if the NL retains the DH. Wilmer could really thrive in the Great American Bandbox. The Reds have done well in trades with SF over the years and might drool a bit over a guy who could readily knock out 30+ taters in that venue.
Upticks do not have to be huge. That is the big takeaway from this attenuated season. An ace starter and a pair of quality bullies, could make for a better than average staff. An upgrade at third would tighten the infield and make for a more efficient chorus-line–particularly if SF could land a guy with a .350 or higher anticipable OBP. Some changes along this line and the team could possibly achieve a .600 winning percentage next year–not at all probable to reach the NLC or even win the division, but quite respectable and poised for a real run in ’22.
SSS, but Robertson looked like he could play just about anywhere. Light hitter though.
I believe this team is 2-3 years, if not more, away from being a competitive play off team. We had some unbelievable and surprising performances this season.
However, I think every effort should be made by Z and Harris to look at ALL OF THESE PLAYERS as placeholders. Yes, that includes Yastrzemski too. Consequently, I want them to work the phone lines 24/7 in the off season and try to parlay these performances for draft picks and/or younger, better players that may have not performed as well this year, but have “upside” in future seasons.
So question for the blog . . . Is anyone untouchable?
“Untouchable” from the Giants POV or the rest of mlb? Posey.
Giants will NEVER get rid of Posey, especially after Bart essentially was “meh” (as you pointed out and I agree). Posey would have to crater like Timmy did his last few seasons before they made that decision. He’s the “face” of the franchise.
Yaz is both cheap to hold on to and still presumably a bit of a question mark to other teams, perhaps making any trade return value less certain. Not sure if this qualifies him as untouchable.
I think Yaz is upper caste in the mlb world.
That pedigree may give him a little boost.
Hey, if it helps Yaz, who am I to argue?
Yaz is untouchable. You won’t get what he’s worth and he could be really good for 3 more years and the elder statesman for the next wave. He’s not going anywhere.
Great thread, Craig. I agree with all the main points you made. Bottom line for me is that it was an entertaining year of Giants baseball. I think it was the best from an entertainment perspective in the past couple of years.
Looking forward to kicking things around the Hot Stove. I don’t see our team changing measurably in the off-season, but it is always fun to speculate.
This is by far the best place, and best group of Giants fans with whom to talk sports. This place is family for me, and I want to thank you again Flav for providing this space. Wishing you and Katie, and grandpa the best in dealing with your current situation, Craig.
Big love to all you Flappers. Thank you all for making this place kick ass. All the best to you and yours.
I hope we can get back to a semblance of normalcy next year, and perhaps put together another Flapalooza.
One Flap Down….
Is your power still out Chi?
Nope. Was restored around 11:30 this morning. Which was cool, as we were expecting no power until about 10 PM tonight.
What Chi said BF!!
It’s been a fantastic 10 year run with your blog, lots of great knowledgeable Giant fans who like to both be excited and pumped up when the Giants are playing great are venting venom when they struggled.But they’re will never be like those satisfying 3 in 5 W/S rings which ironically was the year in 2010 when are fearless leader Big Flavor started this amazing blog up and running. hell I remember posting that 1st day it was up and running wow 🤩 2 thumbs up 👍 and a knowing nod of keeping the best baseball blog by far with many close friends even if it’s only in type I feel a special bond with you all!!
Thank you Flavor!!
And best to u and Katie and Gramps?
In this crazy difficult year for lots of people.2020 sucked just hoping 2021 won’t, time will tell,
Well said, Kat.
Amazing job Flavor’s done all these years.
We owe him big time…
Hah!
Beautiful tweet
Ouch.
🙂
There’s a midget standing tall;
And the giant beside him about to fall…
I’m not down on Bart at all,he was just thrown into the fire when the Giants finally realized that there catching situation sucked balls. Bart got 33 games of major league experience under major league coaching instead of being in Sacramento with his thumb up his ass in meaningless scrub games.
I believe more then anything he felt isolated coming up when Posey wasn’t there to help mentor him, it’s a big deal to have a 3 time W/S Veteran to help u with your transition to the bigs. Next year with Posey back it will be so much more of an easy transition for Bart. He will improve , he’s just raw still , he will be a fine major leaguer, I have no doubt in his ability..
Maybe Bart Wars will eventually replace Belt Wars on Giants blogs everywhere.
He’s definitely raw. I hope he has a hard working off season, a great ST, and then comes out of Sac strong mid season. (I can’t recall–did his arb clock start this year, or will he be a rook again next year?) Brisbee, who I generally don’t enjoy, had an excellent piece in The Athletic, Sept 6, about all this. He doesn’t trash Bart. Far from it. But he makes the points about the holes the guy’s game. I’ll try to post a link to the swinging strike heat map Brisbee used in his discussion. It’s odd.
https://tinyurl.com/y59x59ln
Sorry the date of Brisbee’s piece was Sept 16
Thanks for the link.
I’m almost certain he’s still a rookie next season.
I hope you appreciated the pretentious Waldenesque twilight metaphor I included in my original comment.
I don’t think Bart is a rookie, but his arb clock didn’t tick off a year.
41 K – 3 BB – 0 HR – Defensive issues – Lack of fire
Posey has a lot of mentoring to do in what will likely be his final season in SF…
We know the power is there in his swing. The contact rate has to improve, obviously. It was disturbing to see him swing through so many fastballs.
Was Posey ever a “fire” guy? Perhaps. I do remember him slapping the podium hard at the ‘10 Championship rally and saying “we want to win it again.” That was a fiery moment, without yelling and screaming it. It set a tone. Not everybody has to be a Pence or whoever to be a leader. I believe you need a mix of both types.
Well “fire” in an athlete can be displayed in different ways.
Bart looked like his pilot light went out…
He needed Roger Craig to tell him to not get his dauber down.
This is a nice bracket graphic of the MLB tourney. It doesn’t show the first round TV coverage, though.
https://img.mlbstatic.com/mlb-images/image/private/t_16x9/t_w1024/mlb/s2vzyvhmy9wcg9zufrwz
eight games on Wednesday should be lock-down fun
And eight more on Thursday.
Oh wait, Thursday is only possible if all four AL series go the full 3 games, which isn’t likely.
yeah. I wish one of the a’s WC games was at night — I could admire the lights. But mlb has it’s prime time preferences.
Regarding Bart, it’s a little bit interesting that he is a Sabean/Evans draft pick, and does that affect how committed Z/Harris are to him long term? Maybe not. Z has already said he likes to stockpile catchers; he did that with the Dodgers, and Will Smith has emerged as a strong player for that team out of their pool of catchers.
The $7.5M signing bonus SabEvans paid Bart was the highest ever for a position player. They have to do something with him. The kid the WSox picked third in 2018, right behind Bart, has turned into a 2B stud this year iirc. Stuff like this looms. Bart has work to do.
Win or lose, this turned out to be an awesome season because Stix was able to watch Giants baseball again.
good point
Great point, John. It was fun to have Stix in the Mix for this season.
Hey, thanks,Bozo. Very thoughtful and much appreciated…the games and the good company as well and this IMac is such a sweet machine. Helps me get back to listening to music, starting out with a lot of Bluuz…Like Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker and in a slight segue, Eric Clapton wowing them at Budakan. Been listening to that when the game is over and I’m composing and coloring the 50 states for the NWCA coloring book.
Doing retakes on about 20 of the fifty. Halfway through that stage with Ohio finished (4th take) yesterday for 40 ready for the press. Tonight I’m considering a re-do of North Carolina. Double handled states are always more tricky to do the aesthetic harmonizing and balancing. Even Ohio ended up including 13 colors (including the background shade of spring-green.) Plan is to have a 500 copy privately printed edition out this winter.
BTW: Didn’t really watch the games as no Social Security income till maybe December. So I kept track on MlB’s Game Day. Was able to work on the states while glancing over from time to time and then sounding in at the Flap when something completely snagged my interest.
Damn straight!!!
Here Here I will lift my glass of Beer 🍺 for that safe return of Stix back to human civilization, and back with one flap down full time where he belongs with his witty post unlike me lol 😂 Very nice Bozo mentioning the Stixster!!
Looks like the Giants have a bright future ahead of them. All we need are a few good decisions and a little luck. i would definitely keep Yaz it’s possible that he’s just hitting his stride a little late in life and possibly has 4/6 years left in him. I would keep Posey around as long as possible also since we are certain to have quite a few young pitchers coming through.
Oh yeah no doubt Yaz is back, believe are not he has taken the reigns as a clubhouse leader and spokesman and now the prestigious Willie Mac Award
and his active involvement in Black lives Matter (even though I still say it doesn’t matter when it came to Jaylin Davis) ok I’ll get off my support for now for a player that I still feel could of gottthem in the playoffs if he was recalled.And I don’t believe one iota it was all about a Swiss cheese bat with to many holes in it.BS when they constantly went back to GraveDuggar, Robertson are Wasabi instead all callups their is something rotten in Denmark going on..
did you say the Grave Duggar? Sweeeeeeeeeeeeeet.
Bring on the Robo Umps! Robo Robo Robo!!!
Wasn’t Drake the guy who said he was buying high-powered weapons if Trump was impeached?
It all makes sense now.
O\f the 27 bad ones, how many on the Giants and equally so on the Pads. Was there big discrepancy?
One of the surprises I was going to highlight as a team headed into the weekend thinking we just had to win one game and surely we were about to Friday night and then certainly we would pull one out Saturday and trr hen oh fuck how did we lose three frickin games at home to a team with nothing to play for was the play of Longoria and then he just stayed in a covid like chamber and showed now heart IMO..
I would have taken some soulless, mechanical play from him on that top of 7th grounder.
We have no idea how the players on SD felt (playing for nothing). Bottom line, the Giants got their asses handed to them by a superior team. We can only hope to make such a transition in the next year or two.
it’s outrageous that Bart didn’t hit a single home run. Not one. Not even by accident.
Yeah, even Jaylin Davis got 1 in his very brief stint of haplessness.
Yeah Bart no homeruns, oh and btw did GraveDuggar, Robertson are Wasabi Basabe hit a HR ?? Nooooo
But did my boy Jaylin Davis hit a HR Yes! All in less AB’s then all of them!!
Free Jaylin Davis give him his just do shot!!
Yeah, the Davis thing is extremely odd to me given how many chances they gave Pence, Ruf, GraveDuggar, S-later, Dubon, and even Wasabe. They gave Davis no rope but he did have a big fly and some hard-hit balls. Do other teams care about K rates? Hell to the no.
And ditto from me for keeping this blog alive and kicking, Craig. Even through (well, ESPECIALLY through) these fucked up days. This little oasis of fun, laughs, enjoyment, and knowledge is a necessary break from the bad craziness of the outside world. Thanks again.
Good post Unca. “Little oasis of fun…” Yeah.
For what it’s worth, Bart missed an HR by about 5 inches on a bullet line drive. He did hit 2 triples.
Using those Brandon Belt excuses, I see.
Hey even those 5 inches off the top of fence didn’t help Ian Kinsler in the World Series!
So clear that bitch and hit a legit homer is what I say..,
Bart’s BRef WAR was positive: 0.1.
Not baseball but I think this one is pretty rad
That’s badass Dirt!
Those were the real bare knuckle men days!
They would fight 50-60 rounds are more?
John Sullivan was the king I believe? But there were a lot of tough brawlers ready to get pulverized at any given moment..
Entering this season*, I had said that my only real interest would’ve been watching players who were going to be part of the resurrection of the next 3-in-5 dynasty. If they weren’t going to be part of that, this seemed like the perfect season* to start fading out the bore core etc. That partly happened, I guess. Still seeing Longo and even the Brandons next year just seems fruitless to me. Yeah, I know, contracts, yada yada, but that’s what a good GM is for. I’m still hoping next year’s team does in fact look very different, with an eye almost solely on the future. They could be just a year or two away from being real contenders, but it will be longer than that if they trot out a bunch of the same ol’ same ol’ in 2021. I’m part realist but also part idealist…
Problem is, this team has proven time and again that they won’t eat gobs of salary. Rowand and Zito got Bowtie fired. But they kept repeating their mistakes as they moved through the 3 in 5 era and beyond.
I was hoping beyond hope since the end of last season they would simply cut Crawfish and trade Belt somehow. Posey did us a favor and didn’t play, but they went and signed Pence and Pablo for no particular reason other than to appease the casual fans. I really like the Wilburr signing, and yeah, keep Yaz. I don’t think the league really sees much in him despite his numbers and his pedigree. He won’t be too hard to keep.
As far as the pitching goes, I’m encouraged by guys like Gasman and Slymy. They did well. Webb and Anderson can fight amongst whoever they bring next year, Cahill can hit the bricks. Cueto looks out of sorts, but maybe an offseason of healing can help. They do have some live pen arms (not named CornDog) in guys like Selman, Garcia, Menez, and the other Anderson.
The hitting was a big surprise. Was it merely a short season? Could be, but a ton of guys who were great last year fell way shot this shortened season. Solano and Wilbburrr are defensive liabilities, but they hit like no one’s business. Dick Dick Duck! also hit very well as he stayed healthy. S-later? If he can stay healthy, yes. Grave-Duggar needs to either reinvent himself as a hitter or find a new line of work.
Alas, I fear that Belt Longo, Crawfish will still be there to play. Posey as well falls into the bore core. Surprisingly Belt and Craw hit very well. Craw especially looked totally disinterested when this midget season began.
I guess that is a tribute to Mr. Kotter as this team came back so many times. Form large deficits even. They played hard through the end of the season, despite some fuckups from Gabe.
It TRULY sucks that if just one of those fuckups was unfucked up, we’d be in the playoffs. Not that we would have made any kind of hay in the playoffs, but to be in a position to knock off the Dogs would have been exquisite ecstasy to pull that shit off.
Wow. Longer than I thought. But really, I think this team can be competitive in 2 years. Or even next year should they choose to really cut the chaff and get an SP, a 3rd baseman, and a hitter in the OF. And a couple pen guys. Not too big a lift.
I just wonder if they adopt the DH. I’m afraid the answer is yes.
I think it’s a slamdunk the DH stays in the NL.
Next year they’ll probably bring back Matt Duffy…
John L. Sullivan is probably the first major sports hero in U.S. history. He was a huge deal in his era.
I would define a major sports hero as someone so famous that even people who don’t follow sports know about the person.
Good thread. lots of thoughtful posts. Thanks again Craig for another great year! last thought on today. The biggest reason we missed the payoffs? Posey opting out. Never thought it would matter but between the scrubs and then Barts poor numbers ( terrible K/W ratio and zero homers?), with the interference issues and the Bart defensive issue getting in sink with the pitchers, issues that cost us how many games? More than 1 for sure, more like 3-4 if i had to guess. And that doesn’t even take in to acount his calming effect he likely would have had on the young bullpen guys.. Who knew?
All that said i’m glad Bart was up vs doing nothing. Glad Poseys family is ok, glad we had an exciting year.
Lastly, I went a WS game with my dad, and we won game 2 2010. So did my sister (Bosox game 1 2013). I really rooting for the A’s to get there. My brother and i will go to Texas, and hopefully bring a pinch of my dads ashes with us so we can have a great end to a really crappy year. Stay safe my Flapper friends! Mike