Third Place?
What’s our best case scenario this year? Third place in NL West, right? Colorado sucks and is almost guaranteed last place. AZ is a little trickier but assuming MadBum is still terrible and this Zac Gallen injury is legit then the D-backs look up against it this year, too.
Thoughts?
A Place To Talk About Giants Baseball 
Equal pct to last year would leave them 78 -ish Ws. Interesting that team OPS 2020 was .785 (!), trailing only Braves Dodgers Padres and Mets, who are likely to be among best NL teams this season as well.
If Giants can continue to score runs on similar pace they will at least be interesting enough to watch. 3rd in NL West seems best possible finish; gonna be lot of comp for second WC spot,
Another interest will be how well Kapler’s platoon ball holds up. How many positions can say LaStella Flores Solano Dubon play well, and how much offense are they adding? Giants are an old team compared to most others, so obvious elephant in room is how well the 30 somethings hold up.
I saw a headline the other day from the Merc but did not read the story saying something along the lines of Farhan promoting further changes in baseball including making all games 7 innings. Anyone see that story? Is that an accurate description? If so, how asinine.
Can Logan Webb be the real deal??? At least to top out as a #3 in the rotation for the future???? What say you?
Agree GH. Addressing the symptoms and the patient still dies. Shorter game of little or no action (and probably same amount of commercials or even more commercials). lol
Will they cut the concession prices 20%? Parking? 7 inning baseball gives you 4 inning wins?
Like I said, Manfred is pissing off the fans he has to chase fans he won’t get.
Fuck Manfred. Worst fucking commish in a long time. Fucker is totally screwing with the game.
From the Athletic
Fans returning to ballparks this spring, albeit in limited numbers, was the first step in baseball’s return to normalcy after 2020 was dramatically altered by the pandemic. The next step will come April 1, when minor-league baseball returns with the start of minor-league spring training. But because COVID-19 protocols are still in place, there’s a twist — a group of minor leaguers from each organization will be in an alternate site near their major-league teams, rather than in minor-league camp.
For Ed Sprague and Kyle Haines — farm directors for the A’s and Giants, respectively — it is just another logistical curveball in a year that has featured more of them than a Barry Zito start. While noting that everything is subject to change with the pandemic ongoing, the plan is for the A’s to hold their alternate site camp at the home of the Low-A Stockton Ports, Banner Island Ballpark. Same as last summer, the Giants will be at the home of the Triple-A Sacramento River Cats, Sutter Health Park.
The current plan is for the A’s and Giants alternate site groups to square off four times a week, with two games at each stadium, for the duration of the alternate site schedule. The hope is that pandemic conditions will have improved enough by early May that the alternate sites can give way to a regular Triple-A season when that is scheduled to open (May 6 for Triple-A West).
“The hope would be that as soon as things are really safe — safety at all levels but especially players coming and going to the major leagues, I think that’s going to be the indicator of when the right time to open Triple A is,” Haines said Friday. “Also, you want to make sure that the fans can get in there and it really looks like a Triple-A season for the affiliates. You don’t want to force them to where they’re running Triple-A games and there’s no fans.”
Rosters for the alternate site groups won’t be set until the end of major-league spring training, but the groups of roughly 28 players are expected to closely resemble what the Triple-A rosters will look like for the Las Vegas Aviators and the River Cats come Triple-A West Opening Day. Both the A’s and Giants will send their Triple-A coaching staffs to their alternate sites, which means those coaching staffs won’t be in Arizona when the rest of their organization’s minor leaguers report to camp.
The biggest question heading into this minor-league season is how players will perform after no season in 2020. A handful of prospects from each organization got on the field last summer as part of their team’s alternate sites, but the day-to-day competition at those sites was limited to intrasquad games. It’s too early to tell what impact last summer’s alternate site experiences will have on the prospects who participated in them, but Sprague has been pleased to see several of those who participated in the A’s camp in San Jose last summer have solid performances in major-league games this spring, including Tyler Soderstrom, Logan Davidson, Daulton Jefferies and James Kaprielian.
Sticking to 80 wins. 3rd? Sure.
After yesterday’s 5-bomb blastoff, the Giants are 5th in HRs this spring with 30, behind the Royals and Brewers (38), Cubs (34) and Red Sox (33). Giants also are 2nd in strikeouts at 219, behind only the Pads (220), and tied for 4th in walks, so they’re built for 2021 baseball!
NY feedback on guy ejected at the Garden for wearing “Ban Dolan” Knicks shirt?
Thx Winder, read the other column by Baggs on how different O will look for the 8K fans allowed in to start season. Still no word on whether the cloths blocking the archways will be in place or not.
and this for those fans of Giants minor leaguers: “When Minor League players arrive in Arizona to open camp April 1, they will be able to take batting practice and scoop up ground balls on four new fields that are part of the organization’s new player development complex at Papago Park.”
I still think the best case with available talent/past performance is 84-86 wins. Nearly all the coin flips have to turn up heads for that to happen.
And I thought i was optimistic!
If you think of their chances in terms of ten consecutive coin flips, with 9 of them having to turn up in SF’s favor, is that optimism? https://tinyurl.com/6dnz3fs
Well, now you tell me.
Buehler and Bauer both recently had 3 HR innings. Makes me feel a tiny bit better about SF starters not named Webb.
74 wins and I’m sticking to it, and that’s with a new staff leader Logan Webb and his 12 wins leading the way!
Kat- 74 wins is where I am at too.
Signed K’Waun and CJ signed by the Jaguars. So i guess backups will be Rosen and Mullens.
Going with 4th place and 65-70 wins. By the by, Mac mentioned KC above. They have the “secret sauce” this year, e.g., Mondesi (not that one, his son) and I have them 1st in the American League Central.
KC? Man, they have been all over the place these past few years.
CJ and the Baalke? The Jags look to go 3-13.
I still like CJ but I hate Baalke and wonder what the Jags were thinking. He probably came cheap.
I’m predicting the Giants go .500 this season. I think they’re going to get off to a good start, and then kind of wobble their way to the end.
If our Bullpen can hold some games we just might do that. The Giants have always been a streaky team.
If the Giants get off to a fast start do you think we jettison parts at the deadline? Or will this be another mirage that was the Flap infusion of 2019 and they hold?
ala 2019, depends greatly on who/what is return offered. I don’t think anyone (BC or Flores Solano specifically) gets back near what would help in near future other than low level lottery picks. I’d hope the opposite–if some of the pitching, especially starters, work out then I’d hope we keep them for another year or two.
I can’t see the Giants jettisoning any quality players if the team is staying within a few games of a playoff spot. If they really drop way off playoff contention, then, yeah, I think a lot of trades could happen.
I think Z/Harris have a pretty good sense of what the Giants fan-base will accept regarding tearing-down to rebuild.
The problem with that is, like before, we could have gotten more value when their worth was higher. All to chase a dream. I guess the extra playoff spot plays into this as .500 may be in the hunt.
I found this early piece on baseball’s “crisis” after a cursory search:
https://slate.com/culture/2018/12/major-league-baseball-ban-shift-strikeouts.html
It echoes my own view that where baseball finds itself is the result of inevitable processes and that attempts to recalibrate will likely be futile. Written in late 2018. Baseball — love it or leave it!
As the owners get more desperate, they will be willing to try some big changes.
Yes, I believe that, too. I just don’t think they’ll produce the desired outcome. The so-called problems are more complex and interwoven than they were in 1968.
It’s an interesting situation, isn’t it? Golf is a slow-moving sport, but it feels no need to make big changes. It accepts the basic size of its fan-base. But baseball has memories of golden eras when it was dominant in the sports world, and it harkens back to that golden time.
For me, I’m just tired of all the strike outs and left-handers grounding out to short rightfield.
That’s on the players. And the coaching, for fuck’s sake. And the owners/front offices. Not the game. The way to get into the pros now is to be a decent high school player, roid up in college, and hope you can progress so you can hit 500′ bombs.
This shit about getting new fans is like Nixon’s silent majority of the 70s. A vast majority of the people like the game the way it is, but will be alienated by the stupid changes.
All to appease a fan base that doesn’t exist.
I don’t follow TV ratings news much, but I guess ratings for the televised games are a big concern.
Everything is down. There are too many ways to get games now. Tell ya one thing though. Streaming games a la Bilasport or liveonscore.tv pretty much blows.
Bilasport was locking up every 30 seconds. The other one actually worked ok.
Sticking with 78 and 3rd place…
Season hasn’t even started and Giants relievers are beginning to drop like flies, e.g., Tommy John surgery for Nunez and Garcia. Pfffttt!
The genius of Zaidi’s stockpiling. Plus they won’t get blamed for making the wrong decisions about who makes the cut.
After reading some piece about the closer that mentioned Rogers as a candidate, I have a prediction for 2021 that I can issue with 110% confidence: Tyler Rogers will generate about 3X as much fan hatred as he deserves.
The problem for him is the same problem that Romo has (although in his prime Romo was the far better pitcher), when they hang that frisbee and it gets crushed 450 feet, it looks really hittable and makes fans very nervous.
Regarding baseball’s “silent majority,” it absolutely exists, but a significant chunk of that number is older folks. I know several people in their 80s who are avid Giants fans. They watch pretty much every game. It’s a wonderful thing. But….the sport doesn’t value them the way it should. They are seen as not a great demographic for advertising because they don’t make a lot of big purchases anymore.
Good post. True. Entire Flap is entering this demographic . . . or is already there. lqtm.
My point entirely. Those people like us teach their kids about the game and the intrinsic beauty of a well-pitched game, a well-executed bunt, hit and run, etc.
The game isn’t being taught that way anymore at any level. Mainly because of the steroid era that brought crowds back to the game.
We are out there keeping score and following along despite the newly added bullshit of walk-up songs, and incessant noise. And there are enough people keeping the game alive
Hate it when I post something that doesn’t post. This was supposed to go 3 hours ago.
MLB’s counting on technology. They accidentally juiced the ball in 2016 when they changed the yarn slightly. These days they carefully tune the structure. SABR was barely a start. Here’s a new approach (from the athletic):
‘To combat pitcher use of foreign substances, Major League Baseball this season will collect baseballs for testing at an outside laboratory and will track which pitchers threw those that test positive. The league is also directing security personnel assigned to each team to watch for potential violations. On top of that, the commissioner’s office will use Statcast data to “to analyze changes in spin rates of pitchers suspected of using foreign substances,” per a memo sent to all 30 teams on Tuesday.’
Well, this is a fairly big purchase I plan to make…
Love ’em and leave ’em. LOL!!
couldn’t do it. I better get creamated or I am not dying.
If baseball shrinks the strike zone and goes with Roboumps, we’ll be reading about Belt’s maladies for the next 10 years.
Belt the heel can have his heel-ness removed? He should have done that 10 years ago.
Vosler optioned. He was hitting the ball well, though without power. It’s like they invited all these guys to camp knowing none of them were going to displace the most underwhelming of incumbents.
Jesus Christ what a fucking joke. Lame-onte?
um his other twitter stuff seems out of LF.
Injuries to projected starting position players can influence who makes Opening Day roster. Vosler could still make it if Longoria or Belt have to be IL. He always seemed like depth guy behind LaStella Don’t see what that would have to do with Wade Jr. If Crawford were to be hurt, all hell could break loose in OF.
According to Ms. Guardado twitter, Giants are at 36 on the roster, so 10 more still have to be sent out.
“walk-up songs, and incessant noise”
I’ve been at Giants games in the last few years where the pre-game music was blaring so loudly it was really hard to chat. I hate that.
woo hoo!
Carstie Clausen
7:20 PM (23 minutes ago)
to me
Flav: Thanks again for caring. Just got back from trip to homestead about 2 hours ago. Exhausted. Amazing time. Over 200 more e.m.’s to go through—unread—will do a posting soon to give details—maybe tomorrow. Had to postpone “chemical evaluation” session several times as unable to find a ride back to Twin Cities. Finally, through track phone just getting acquainted with got through to bus company to get a ride this morning. -stix
There you go.
that’s almost funny–Myers homers to opposite field, even in exhibition game he still kills SF.
Yay!!! Welcome back carstie!
Still wasn’t certain on trip north on 8th with friend living in Colorado, but he came through on that day and at hotel cued me in on abandoning the last 10% of population w.o. a mobile device. Yup, this 76 y.o.now knows how to use track phone on limited basis, so no internet use due to lack of electricity there and no working cig. lighter in brakeless car at place, thus saved on battery time by keeping it light.
Thanks to Flav, MSD, Loo, Xoot and all Flappers for the concern and welcome wagon parade. Fantastic friends up home too. First two days up there was put up by Doug and Kathy on their organic homestead and then picked up by Markko and we towed his “ice palace” on wheels to the place so I could set up camp after the next four days at Cate n’ Al’s place, where another cherry got popped as I got to working schlepping maple sap buckets and helping in his syrup camp on Maple Ridge.
Monday of last week Al and his son, Caleb, up visiting from Mpls, drove me 100+ miles to the little town of Perley to pick up a ’97 Chev Lumina I had bought from 69 model Mikey Boone (relatively recently sporting 3 strokes and heart failure) for a bargain price. So now its parked at only 20 miles away. Still yet to pass Mn’s written drivers exam (changed drastically since last taken in ’62). So still not driving. Tuesday the 15th Caleb drove me to the homestead on Echo Ridge and Markko came by to hook up the propane tanks for heating and cooking. Food from just about everyone and a drive with Sir Paul, the B.S. Valley Hermit this morning to catch bus connexion.
More tomorrow on the adventures, which were extensive.
Giants: Read tonight through fan graphs/foghorn, MLB site, et al. Intuited earlier this pre-season that Webb would make his jump this season. So far, so great. Just from his MiLB stats he struck me as a keeper. We should know more in a few weeks.
Chi-Power and I seem to be on the same page with 78 win predictions. Sticking with that one I’d blurted out on the Flap just before start of S.T. Even with a couple DL’s from the reliever stockpile, there is still an excellent possibility for a strong bullpen.Selman optioned to SacTown was a shocker. Rotation still looks iffy. Patch and scratch Z & H dumpster-diver mavens have created offensive depth that is not totally dependent on repetition by the Bore Corps. Biggest concern for me currently is Longo. If team is obviously not gonna make post-season, Solano, having an excellent spring, might be our most marketable trade commodity. Centerpiece for a trade with the Rox for far pricier Storey?
Really frazzled right now, so composition is not up to usual standards. Apologizing also for not forewarning of my “spring training”trek northwards to the homestead. In 6.5 days there I got in close to 60 hours of heavy-duty manual labor. Needed it. Loved it. Spirit soars. Even wearing heavy-duty winter gloves (though the weather was moderately moderate) the handling was pretty rough. But one marker of pride. For the first time in many months, the right hand now boasts four official calluses. So I can walk into a working-man’s watering-hole and once again be able to pass the mustard.
More tomorrow. Go Giants and don’t let a piss-poor commish fuck up the game any further on behalf of marketing metrics and similar tomfoolery on behalf on a gaggle of greedy owners and other commercial interests who simply could care less about the beauty of baseball and always adhere like superglue to bottom line mindedness.
Just now checked out the score in the 8th vs the Dagos. In a four inning start DiSclafani struck out 8 Pads. Not a particularly bad outing. Encouraging, much like Webb to date. So maybe there is a bit of hope for the rotation, which looked to be a patchwork of rags and tatters.
If both of those guys come through and should pricey Gausman live up to last season’s performance, we should all bow down to our designated dumpster divers as Los Gigantes could develop a passable rotation. Should that melange of moving parts prove to be other than a Rube Goldberg contraption I might need to join the Lite Pollys and go for a .500 prediction.
Still no chance at the post season, though. Pair of nasties at the top of the NLW and high potency teams in the Eastern division and gotta pick one for the Central. So no room at the inn for a team unlikely to come close to a 90 win season. All said, SF may provide some fun baseball this year. ‘Bout time.
https://www.si.com/mlb/2021/02/09/mlb-ball-is-live-daily-cover