Our Pitchers Still Aren’t Pitching
Starting to pay more attention to the box scores with real games starting THIS week. Giants still don’t seem to be stretching any pitchers out, not sure what the plan is there. I understand everyone is worried about what’s going to happen to these arms coming off a season of very light work to say the least. But at some point these games are going to count and your SP needs to be able to break on through to the 3rd inning.
A Place To Talk About Giants Baseball 
Yes, SPs hopefully can go deeper into the real games, but schedule does have 3 open days in first 15 of the month. 3 in Seattle followed by day off, 3 with Pads followed by another day off before home games start. 6 in a row Rox and Reds followed by another day off. The there is first long uninterrupted stretch of 13 games on consecutive days—6 on road at Marlins and phils, return trip home to face Marlins (4 games) and Rox.
Supposedly Giants are going with regular 5 man rotation.
Brief look at box yesterday, noticed most of the prospect kids still around not named Ramos are not doing very well. And Wade Jr. hasn’t hit well at all.
Wade is gone (optioned) and so are 2 pitchers – reassigning pitchers Kazmir and Yamaguchi to minor-league camp.
Ramos. He’s a tad older than that 19 y.o. who got the call-up by Leo the Lip from the Minneapolis Millers farm team back in ’51. He had him a pretty good career. Could Ramos be for real? With mostly lower minor league experience, he’s as green as a gourd. But at least vs MLB scrubbini pitchers he’s been bitch-slapping the bunch of them and does not seem particularly fazed by the established ones.
Yes, it’s tough to make out what the brass was thinking about with those short outings by the starters. Looks as if the staff will be in flux throughout the season. My stab in the dark is that Sean Hjelle, the seven foot Norskie will get the call somewhere in the flow of the year. Toughest road ahead is Cueto, with that huge salary and his generally awful performance recently. Is there any more gas in his tank or will he continue to tank? The single bright possibility in the rotation is Logan Webb. Judging by his stellar spring performance, he may just have found his game.
Wade Jr wasn’t able to replicate OB during his stint in ST with Giants. BA is .182 with OB of .315, 18Ks and 2 bombs (his only XBHs) in 54 PAs. Honest, didn’t seem to add anything at any position and 1b would be a waste.
I realize Dodgers played guys like Hernandez and Taylor all over the place, but I don’t think that’s a great move for Kapler and Giants. Solano and Flores aren’t good anywhere in the field. Playing a good CF at the O does matter, and whether the Dubon experiment there pans out is still open to question.
An OF of Ruf Slater and Yaz doesn’t sound good defensively either, nor does LaStella at 1b.
Patchwork with mostly good bats and tenuous fielders makes for a crunch of confusion. This one is likely to be a yo-yo season with more ups and downs than a herd of kangaroos.
SF will not be good on defense. They just have to be not terrible and catch the balls they get to. Solano is one thing, but Crawford was on pace for 20 errors last year, which just shouldn’t be. I’m guessing Wilmer will get into many games as a PH and start against lefties at 1B, where his D limitations should be minimized. Other than the one absurd moment of indecision, he seemed ok there. He was impressive a few times, handling more than one hard hit ball at the corners. Buster and Casali will be an upgrade at a major defensive position.
Yes, C should definitely be a big upgrade and agree Flores at 1b is OK. I guess I just don’t see point of versatility Giants seem to value. Also little worried about SS–Dubon hasn’t played much there, and if he does due to Craw need for day off (or worse, an injury) then OF defense suffers as well. Pitching will need all the help it can get, no?
Huh? If you haven’t been looking, he’s one of the worst shortstops in the MLB. In his last full season (2019), he was ranked 25th in the league. Don’t believe me? Fangraphs said this about him . . .
“Do you remember when Crawford was one of baseball’s best shortstops? It seems like a lifetime ago. Alas, time comes for us all. And so it has come for Crawford, who has been surpassed by players far younger than him and experienced first-hand the sharp past-30 aging curve of defensive ability. In 2019, the decline came full circle: Crawford’s 0.4 WAR matched the 0.4 WAR he put up in his very first season in the major leagues, almost a decade ago.
What hurt most was not the meager offense – that has been trending downward for the last four seasons. It was the defense. Back in 2015, 2016, or even 2017, Crawford dazzled at short. In 2019, though, Crawford had negative values in both DRS and UZR for the first time in his career. Outs Above Average was even harsher, rating Crawford in the 12th percentile of all players on defense. That’s after he rated in the 88th percentile in 2018. Crawford’s best days are behind him, and while he might have a slightly better season this year than last year, it likely won’t be significant or sustainable. Life, as they say, comes at you fast.”
WillieD, I think you just need to be ok as a utility guy because your exposure is limited. Slater isn’t a complete dog in CF. Injury to Crawford would not be good.
Crawford did have a better 2020 than 2019 according to the metrics beyond FP. I just hope he keeps the error total in the 10-15 range, and hits like he did last year.
Phillies, I believe it was, just released an excellent defensive shortstop. Yes, released. With 5 players already on the DFA list, could the Z&H duo find another drop-kick to bring Chatham (?) aboard. Didn’t make a note on it and no desire to dig back, so the name may not be correct. It was on MLBTR site.
FWIW, here are the defensive runs saved rankings from last year:
http://www.fieldingbible.com/TeamDefensiveRunsSaved
SF in middle of the pack, which is better than I expected. Assuming this has at least some validity, then improving the fielding % a little will probably make the defense a non-issue. Craw, Solano, and the pitchers and catchers accounted for 29 of the 42 errors they made last year.
Wade will be one of the first brought-up from Sac if one of the other OFers is hurt. struggles, etc.
I’m ready for the season to get going, don’t know if I’ll be able to hang in on those 1AM and it’s only the 7th inning games. One rule I wish that MLB would put in place is to have every team’s opening day be a day game.
On the Giants, Kapler is going to prove me wrong big time, the old ones will prove everyone wrong and the platoon of RufDick will break down just as Ramos is ready to be called up.
I’m going with 82 wins.
My favorite prediction so far.
Get the plastic wrap ready, James. It is going to be an exciting year.
SS is the biggest need for now for the Giants to go out and just find a reliable experienced backup.Dubon are Solano are not an option especially Barrels.
Donnie Bobbles at SS? Don’t even think of that.
Kinda surprised we didn’t keep Daniel Robertson around to serve as backup shortstop among other things.
Don’t understand that Niners trade at all.
all in on a possible franchise QB. if they draft the guy from Alabama I’m heading to the ledge.
So who would you be happy with if Lawrence and BYU guy are gone–which they likely will be?
Lance then Fields and I don’t want Fields. But I’d take him before Jones.
Why not Fields, he fits the new QB’s that are in the NFL. Strong arm, can run and be mobile to extend plays. IMO say no to the pocket passer.
“Wade will be one of the first brought-up from Sac if one of the other OFers is hurt.” In case I’m the only one with the radio on, Yaz got drilled in the hand or forearm and came out of the game immediately. Not clear how bad it is, could be nothing.
Just saw that on Twitter, fucking A’s, hope this isn’t serious.
No real opinion on the the 49ers trade, but thinking about the rationale is interesting. Presumably they anticipate being a playoff team the next couple of years, so their #1’s will be on the lower end. They can start with JG or the new guy this year, and plug in one or the other if the starter falters. Or maybe they attempt to trade JG for draft picks. If 2021 is a bust, something is fundamentally wrong, so they sell off pieces for new draft picks.
Apologies if others have already said something like this or if it’s just ignorant nonsense. Back to being pissed about Yaz.
Trey Lance will be the 49ers pick.You don’t make the jump to 3 unless your totally committed on a player you want.Lance offers the mobility, boot leg option, play action, a gun for an arm, the perfect fit in a Shanahan system.In probably the toughest division in football with 2 very mobile QB’s(Wilson&Murray) Shanny&Lynch realizes they need that player as well then a pocket passer that’s a statue like Jimmy G .Plus his injury history had to have frustrated Shanny to say I’ve seen enough! And you don’t move up to take a same player that Jimmy G is in a chump like Mac Jones who can’t move around He’s not MOBILE!!!, I will be drunk by pick 4 if they pick Jones at 3!! This league is all about mobile QB’s now..Murray,Wilson,Jackson,Allen etc..
Except for who won SB last.
Geez how could I forget Mahomes, the best of the best with all tools!
Seen opinions on who fits best in Shanahan O, and couple guys said Fields and Jones would work better than someone more prone to run around. I watched Bama a lot, and Jones was accurate, unloaded quickly, and extremely successful. Niners beat Murray last year; mobile or not he’s beatable and they lost Drake. Niners should be better defensively this season too.
“If we could get Fields, I’d be ecstatic”—said our own expert Unca Chuck on main thread of his blog 3 days ago.
wanted to ask him about story I saw on cbs sports site where someone claimed Niners are totally bluffing on JG being #1 QB, and will move him for right offer.
I’m be more ecstatic with Wilson.
He will end up being “Fields of Disappointment” like all previous Ohio St QB’s!
Earl Campbell is 66 today. Talk about Beast Mode. Cool unis too of old Oilers.
Yeah I loved Earl Campbell even back in the days with the Texas Longhorns. And yes he was a punishing Beast in his running style.I liked those jerseys as well Willied, especially when they had the tear apart to them.It would be cool to have those jerseys back in the NFL today..
Rotation looks like exactly one lock after Spider went 6 vs the A’s, giving up one earnie on 4 hits and a walk. The Webb- spinner’s ERA for ST now rests comfortably at 0.53, with his solo BB overmatched by five special K’s. Curiously, when Oakland did get hits, the balls were knocked pretty hard, with 3 of the four being of the XB variety, with Olson and Murphy (sounds like a St. Paul law firm) each banging out a double, while Kemp tripled.
Amazingly none of those extra-base raps resulted in a run. Looks like the kid is not wilting under pressure, perhaps bearing down intensely with runners in scoring position…Oakland stranded runners like a sinking schooner fast aground on a coral reef.
Besides the 6-inning effort from our Webb-Spinner, the rest of the action was somewhat pedestrian in the 7-2 victory vs the A’s, as except for Alvarez, our bullies continued the good work on the mound and the team scored runs every which way, including a four-run outburst.
More and more, Spiderman has been putting on a pitching clinic during each one of his spring outings. Should this trend (especially today’s 6-inning gem) continue, at least one of the 5 rotation pieces looks like a lock. Coming into the spring few would have thunk it. Even my Polly pre-ST accolades now look like a thin brew compared with Webb’s actual achievements. His minor league stats looked quite promising, but they do not always carry over once a kid hits The Show. Webbmaster must have quite some spin-rate on those BBs he’s firing towards the plate.
Awesome re-cap, Stix…
My worry with Fields is that he’s a one-and-done guy. He doesn’t seem to get to his 2nd reads much. I’m torn between Lance and Fields. I wish Wilson was the one we would get. Hoping the Jets fuck this up is a distant prayer.
I think Lance has the potential to be really good, but he’s not very seasoned, even for a college player. And I’ve said before, if they keep Jimmy G, it raises the possibility that they are going after Lance. Fields though has all the tools. Big arm, mobile, and can throw on the move.
If they traded this hard to get Mac, I’ll be sailing off the ledge. It will go down as a monumental fuck up that will set the team back 4 years as they jettison the front office and start over again with a new cast and crew.
As far as the Giants go, still at 80 wins. I thought I’d be the most optimistic with that number, but hey, if we don’t hit, it will be much lower.
Strangely nonplussed about this upcoming season. Too much fucking real-world shit I suppose.
I’m most interested to see our 14-headed bullpen. Or if any of our starters reach 5 innings in April.
A friend texted that if SF fails to reach 500, it’ll be the first time in franchise history the Giants have 5 straight losing seasons.
Some friend…
well, their pythagorean w/l was .503 last year.
Yes, in my heart I know that’s what counts.
Problem with worries about defense then stick the Great Duggar in at center!!!!
The Kings went into San Antonio and got the win tonight. The Kings’ 5th win in a row. That’s crazy talk.