Take It Away, Stix
It’s been a while since he guest-posted.
| Carstie Clausen | Sun, Jul 10, 11:56 PM (4 hours ago) |  | |
| to Flavor |
Flav: It’s been a confounding and confusing several weeks as the Giants prospects have seemed to be on the edge of going down the Big Swirly. So here’s my present take.
Shit or get off the pot. That is the question. With the apparent collapse of the bullpen, the offense and the defense, all adding up to a seeming crumbling of team morale; the question of whether the Giants should be sellers instead of buyers during the great garage sale looming with the trade deadline fast approaching. A sell-off of valuable pieces for a combination of replacement parts and quality prospects appeared to be in the works right up to this series in San Diego. Today’s 12-0 humbling of the Padres, featuring a complete game gem by Carlos Rodon and a full-on 17 hit attack by a virtual exclusion of the “Bore Corps/Sore Core” ,is giving me second thoughts. After those first two defeats by the Padres, a sell-off appeared to be the only logical approach. Now, just maybe, it’s time for re-consideration.
Positives: Though we ultimately lost Webb’s sterling performance to yet another bullpen breakdown and shaky defense, as well as Machado’s three-run opener against a non-rotation starter; game three featured an excellent start by Wood and then today’s Ace performance by Rodon, whom several suspect once again reached his peak to enhance his trade value and a huge salary resurrection. Cobb’s latest start was a major improvement over his post D.L. re-entry efforts. Jacob Junis looks to return in a matter of days. So all of a sudden, the Rotation solidifies. Also, soon to possibly begin earning his 6M salary, Boyd looks to return in a short while. So just maybe, the Giants have them a reliable rotation.
Second positive was the first explosion in many a week of base-hits, including Wilmer’s pair and Thairo’s blast, from just about right across the lineup. Villar may not be the flash in the pan which so many of the dumpster-dive acquisitions proved to be. He simply was a much overlooked 11th round choice of the Giants, who no longer could be kept quiet down on the farm. Hell, even Bart got a piece of the action. Yaz did his thing and Gonzales keeps upping that batting average, continuing to prove that Zaidi’s pickups include a genuine gem here and there. Slater is solid. He sports the second highest OBP right after Pederson. Another much overlooked development of the team’s evaluation, scouting and farm system. Wynns has a surname that simply begs for some surprise clutch delivery before the season concludes. A walkoff RBI would make for a nice headline: “Wynns it for the Giants”.
Maybe team morale has finally gotten past that extreme case of the heebie-jeebies. Just maybe, but hope does spring eternal even though half the season is in the books and the All-Star game is upon us next week. With an uptick in team spirit, it may be in the books of the future that those deadly defensive lapses will quieten down. Wait and see, I guess.
Needs: The big one is fairly simple. Bullpen. McGee has been dropped like a hot potato and Littell is back to Sac-town. Fortunately for the Giants, there is a virtual host of decent to really good relievers who will be on the market over the next three weeks. Generally speaking the price should not be prohibitive. High-end prospects are almost never sacrificed for bullpen help…even for late-inning effectives. Some of the “going nowhere” teams, such as Detroit and Cincinnati sport some pretty good late-inning specialists. MLB Trade-Rumors just posted a listing of no fewer than 50 possible trade availabilities. Close to half of them are relievers. Giants need two reliable relievers…plain and simple. Maybe even three.
Could be that the “Bore Core” vets will not have to carry a heavy load. Occasional starts and pinch-hitting roles may suffice for Belt, Crawford and Longoria. Ruf’s value is mainly as a pinch-hitter and occasionally as an outfielder. Perhaps if some team with even a slightly above average first-baseman, maybe now likely to be replaced by a hot rookie, could be had for the price of a second-line prospect and a throw-in, a guy who would also be good to go for next season, could be added to two or three bullies. It might be a tall order to pick up an overlooked spark plug. What I’d like to see in an added hitter would be a high OBP guy who hits a lot of doubles. The team is weak in that category. Guy could hit sixth, right after the Enforcer. Today’s RISP record looked decent for a change. Gotta keep that line a-going.
Kapler needs to get his shit together when it comes to that over-analyzed, data-driven right-left pinch-hitting situational mania. Addition by Zaidi/Harris of two or three quality relievers could relieve the manager of incipient hemorrhoids or something similar. He needs to study up on Casey Stengel when it comes to managing by the seat of his pants, as well as intuition. Maybe he has that capacity, maybe he doesn’t . If not, “hit the road, Jack” if he keeps on over-managing.
Splitting the series with the Dagos tells me that with a few adjustments, this team is capable of getting it’s act together and at least become a spoiler come the Post-Season.
A Place To Talk About Giants Baseball 
Good to hear from Stix.
competition among contenders for pen help might be fierce, driving up price. Not sure about Giants “prospect capital” as it were.
If Zaidi is a buyer at the deadline, Josh Bell would be a great fit for us. It’s the last year of his contract so as a rental shouldn’t cost us much, he’s a switch hitter so when Belt is healthy, he could just DH.
Belt is still too important to the infield defense. Doubt they’d take him off the field especially when we’ve got like 9 other DH’s already on the team.
True, but I don’t count the likes of La Stella as a needed DH or bench guy and Belt’s defense is only good when he’s on the field. I’d rather have Bell at 1B than Ruf, when Belt gets injured again.
LaStella is really kind of clogging up a lot of their options (in the field and at DH). If they just cut bait with him that would open up some things.
LaStella gets a raise to $11.5M next year.
Stuck with him…
He’ll probably hit .320 next year and get a new deal like Belt and Crawford did last year…
They’re only stuck with LaStella until they aren’t. If he can’t play the field, then he might as well be on the IL til he can with Gonzalez back. Sure he’s an option for next year until Will Wilson or someone else is ready to help on IF, but as Flav says since Giants have Joc and bunch of other candidates to DH, why bother?
Second time iirc that Wilmet has homered off Padres non pitcher. Hit one off Myers (like Joc did too) earlier didn’t he?
i’m with Snarkk. MLB needs to send out a memo discouraging all these position players from pitching in blowouts. Besides the novelty having completely worn off it’s damaging to DFS with something you can’t anticipate having a pretty big impact on teams and their placement in the standings.
Can’t hit,Can’t run,Can’t play the field,worst year of LaStella’s career .240 avg,OBP laughable .296 DH? (Designated Hurt) He’s not an option when the team has the whole roster who could do it, why bother to continue using him as an IL option? Cut bait like they did with McGee, LaStella is done and Z should own up to his terrible signing and move on. He didn’t get the controlled bat, on base machine he expected..
LaStella went on the IL on May 4 with a hammy.
2+ months later, he still can’t play, now back on IL supposedly with Covid protocol — I’ll believe that since Covid is all over the place right now, but nobody seems to care anymore.
What’s really wrong with this guy?…
I don’t really give a shit either way, but’s pretty dumb what with teams carrying 14 pitchers that they can’t put pitchers in to pitch. Regardless of the score.
Maybe just limit it to the 9th inning?
Can’t let the gambling sites make the rules.
Or can they?
One of my neighbors just came come down with Covid.
For the 4th time in 2 years. Never vaxxed, never will. Never mask.
Yes, 4th…
I can’t remember which game it was, but the most ridiculous instance of using a position player to pitch was when Kap put in someone, probably Gonzalez, to pitch the 9th in a blowout that the Giants were winning.
The Cards did it too with Pujols in a blowout over the Giants.
Blockbuster of story in Chron by Shea, that Lacob had offer in to buy A’s before Selig nixed it and give them to Fisher and Lew Wolff, guys Selig knew at the time. Lacob said he still has standing offer to Fisher, which would be every A;s fans dream. Also said he thinks he could make a go of Coliseum site should Howard terminal fall through.
Now just have to hope A’s don’t trade Montas or Laureano off to NL team Giants chasing for WC. Love for Giants to get either one but chances of that slim and none I guess.
Headline in Sunday Chron was “Joe Lacob (still) Wants to Own the A’s.”
why would Fisher sell? He’s making money hand over fist and when he gets the move to Vegas he’ll make a shit load more. He’s got no reason to sell unless he hates money.
From a quick look online, the A’s receive way over $100 million in annual TV contract revenue.
Most of this TV money is from their equal 1/30 share of the national MLB contracts with the TV networks, + a much smaller revenue sharing they get that is 3.3% of a pot = 48% of all teams’ local TV contracts. Latest A’s total salary for 2022 is somewhere in the mid ’40s $ millions tops before any salary dump before the trade dealine. So, A’s are sitting on something like $75 million or more in gross margin from TV money alone, before any gate and concession and parking even gets counted, low as that may be. It’s a money machine with NO butts in the seats. Howard Terminal thing is just an attempt to cash in on a massive development; the A’s baseball thing is a side deal just to push it politically…
according to column, Forbes puts $1.18 billion price tag on A’s. Cohen paid $2.4 billion for Mets I think. Fisher could cash out and ride off into sunset or partner up with Lacob who could turn things around in hurry.
A billion dollars for the fuckin’ A’s. That’s just absurd.
that $ billion for the A’s was 27th out of 30 as per column.
That’s part of my amazement. The Giants must be somewhere around $5-6 billion?
guys who are already billionaires don’t *ride off into the sunset*. This is what they do. They control shit. They make a shit load of money. Fisher doesn’t care that the A’s are terrible. As Snarkk noted above, he’s making it regardless.
I think Snarkk is right about Fisher’s development greed. Always been that way. Fremont plan included huge development; San Jose, also (land now being used for Google Park, or something like that); and Howard Terminal resid, hotel and office side includes a couple of towers that will be taller than any existing building in Oakland.
RRs CEQA challenge is headed to hearing in about a month. The other challenges to the EIR are scatter-gun, but UPRR (16 long freights per day) and Capitol Corridor JPA (more than thirty passenger trains per day) know their issues well and have good arguments in the big opening brief. Hell, no one with any sense wants to see drunken post-game fans climbing over or between rail cars blocking the crossings — which will happen with current design.
@bozo Yesterday I was watching horse race from Los Alamitos CA and in 3rd race the winner was the favorite named Beignet.
I’ve never had one but neighbor friend of mine from Dallas said they’re great.
Good luck to East Coast with 4 more night games from left coast this week.
Ha, gotta bet that horse. Tasty yeah, but it’s basically a fried doughnut with powdered sugar on it. I’m not sure if it still is, but Cafe Du Monde was 24/7 which came in handy at 4 in the morning when you needed a little grease before bed.
And Cafe Du Monde only served coffee (black or au lait), milk and chocolate milk for drinks.
Cafe du Monde coffee is infused with chicory.
Kind of an acquired taste, but is good with some cream in it.
Hot beignets there are tasty with the coffee, not good for your cholesterol…
Snarkk is right about the coffee being roasted with chicory, I think all the local coffees are. Besides Cafe Du Monde’s brand, I know Community coffee and CDM are also roasted with it.
The beignets are off the hook. Great hangover cure when you need that morning grease infusion.
Yeah, their coffee is strong and will get you totally wired.
When I was hungover in LA, I would usually stagger over to Winchell’s for an apple fritter…
At least you didn’t say Kripy Kratz. Most overrated donuts on earth.
1. LaMonte Wade Jr. (L) 1B
2. Joc Pederson (L) LF
3. Wilmer Flores (R) 2B
4. Brandon Belt (L) DH
5. Luis Gonzalez (L) RF
6. David Villar (R) 3B
7. Brandon Crawford (L) SS
8. Mike Yastrzemski (L) CF
9. Joey Bart (R) C
P: Alex Cobb (R)
Isan Diaz up. Last time I heard of him he was with Miami and now we have him. Didn’t see that transaction.
Diaz was raking in Sac. 16 HRs in 183 ABs, slash line .257/.357/.574.
played 35 games at 2b 8 at 3b 7 at SS. Looks like hist is mostly 2b/3b. Hits LH.
Looks like Farhan is just going to keep bringing dudes in and up from other orgs until somebody sticks in positions of need. Not sure he gives them enough time to show they should stick. As for Villar, so far he looks to me like he can take over for Longo, long term. He’s got to get 100 ABs to see how he adjusts to MLB pitching. Definitely has pop, decent to better glove, which should improve with reps and MLB coaching…
As of an hour ago, Pavs said Diaz has a locker and “is here on taxi squad. ” But no official move from Giants, yet.
Game logs show Diaz first game in Sac (after Marlins DFA’d him) was early June. June he hit 8 HRs with slash line of .282/.381/.690 in 71 ABs.
July 2 more HRs 12-35 slash line .343/.410/.571 in 35 more ABs.
The Mendoza line is his dream…
Yeah keep dreaming another Z dumpster dive of Mendoza hitters along with pitchers of ERA’s over 6 are higher.
I’m sure Z never played baseball are was the last kid taken on a team, so he fights for the underachievers all the time..
Wade at 1st. Huh. Not our worst lineup. Be nice to see the bottom of the line up produce. Then again, so would the middle and the top.
Thought I posted that 2 hours ago, but nice play by Wade.
Cobb not making this easy.
Watching Gonzalez hit made me think of Terry Whitfield. 4 yrs with SF he hit .289 without lot of power but above average hitter with .338 OB and .405 slugging. Plus, #45 same as Purvis Short.
Jesus. Cobb is in struggle mode.
Gonzalez 4th error already, yikes.
Tonight?
ESPN replayed their 30/30 documentary “The Fall of Bobby Knight” last night. Well done documentary, but sad and depressing. He’s a rotten human being and was a sadistic abusive coach. I always wondered why more ex-players didn’t speak out about him, but I didn’t fully understand the power someone like him had in his state. He was arguably the most powerful public figure in Indiana for a number of years. Any player that spoke out ran the risk of one or more of their parents losing their job because their boss was a big Knight supporter. Or if one of the parents owned a business, having their business boycotted. It was a very real danger to any player that spoke out. In addition, people that spoke out about Knight got death threats from demented fans.
I’ve been occasionally flipping over to this live-cam of bears fishing in Alaska:
Good God. We can’t score with a runner on 2nd EVER!!!!! What the actual fuck??
AZ with the assist.
Nice having Gonzalez back on the roster.
K&K going on and on about how strong Barry Bonds was. I guess they missed the steroid news.
Belt crushed that ball and only Oracle kept it out, as it’s a HR in any other park.Belt looked pissed off, don’t blame him he knew nobody was going to knock him in..
I guess that qualifies as a quality start.
Boom. Still miss these blasts….
I became a Tim Salmon fan for life that night…
Yeah Salmon was a real solid player.Use to draft him back in the days when I was playing fantasy baseball with my buddies.He scored a ton of FB points..
Me too!!
Six of our 9 hitters .ave below .231. Pathetic
Llovera not fooling anyone inside 3 spash cove balls foul, now a basehit RBI on a shit relay play.Heads up play by the 3rd base coach being aggressive, something are guy doesn’t do.Of course not much to work with with slow base runners..
Back to reality. Back to shitty defense, walks and late inning pen meltdowns.
Goes with the flow even the ball dude has 2 errors.And K&K let him no it by ripping the poor guy..
And the Llovery run looms large.
How can’t you love Mr. Ed?
I would cry along with Wilmer if they even considered trading him! Might boycott the Giants for the rest of the season if that happened..
And will he be re-signed?
I wonder if OSF is okay.
He really disappeared from here…
Do you remember how *old* Old Seals Fan is/was?
Can only guess, Paul.
I remember him being very concerned about Covid when it started up, but he didn’t say he had it or anything…
Yeah… hope Clubber is ok.
Krukow overly impressed by Slater ground out…
They really crank the sound of the crowd in the sound mix these days in sports broadcasts. You can hear individuals screaming all kinds of crazy stuff.
You’re right, Zum.
WTF is going on with some of those maniacs?
Not a lot of fun sitting near one of the maniacs, I’m sure. One of the guys sounds like Charles Manson.
Was OSF posting earlier this season? Thought I remember seeing him here.
One fricking double?
Safe!
Hit the fucking ball in the air. He’s fucking out.
Yet another bases loaded fail.
Aaaaaand here we go. The play pen of horrors.
Augh…
A 4-3 game is approaching the 3 1/2 hour mark.
Kuip never says that they’ll also go home if they don’t score…
Loo gave the best description of Melancon. He said Melancon looks like he’s pitching a bowling ball.
If they call him out, baseball is dead.
Melancon is Dean Smith running the 4 corners.
AZ broadcaster noted that last year, Giants were something like 31-17 in 1-run games; this year so far, something like 10-18…
Craw is such a dud this season. He was in the running for the NL MVP last season. Maybe he got injured in the off-season, and we haven’t heard about it.
If Mercedes couldn’t hit those hangers that Melancon threw him, there’s no point in having him on the roster.
Well, looks like yesterday’s 12-0 win very well could have been the mirage I feared…
Last game in AZ was supposed to build momentum and then SF went flat in SD first 2 games.
Rodon gem and blowout Sunday were feel good games and then, Giants lost 3rd of 4 vs. DBax.
They can hang with good teams like LA and lose to chumps. All I could think of was Jim Mora rant.