Happy Easter Fellas
“If it’s players you want to worry about it’s not Adames , It’s Wade &Bailey for me ..”–AK
Bailey is just not a hitter. His .230ish batting average across his first 2 seasons seems to be who he is. If the defense is good, and it’s been spotty this season for sure, I’m not too worried about him. Wade on the other hand is a big concern. We got lucky with Wilmet but with Wade it just seems like the sun has set on him. Still very weird that the Giants decided to go into the season with such an underwhelming platoon at first base…..
A Place To Talk About Giants Baseball 
Agree with mild concern about aging Wade and Bailey maintaining defensive prowess given his meager offensive production. Also concur on Adames eventually rediscovering his bat.
My bigger concern three weeks into season is Verlander & Hicks. I recognize Verlander may be 5 or 6 inning starter at best but if he yields 3/4 runs every outing that won’t cut it over full season. Given contract he has long leash from Posey to find his groove. Hicks on other hand might be better in bullpen with Birdsong moving into starting rotation.
I said before marathon trip started that I’d sign for 5-5 record. Facing two of arguably four best teams in baseball followed by cross country trip without off day to play Halos was tall order. Last night’s win was really sweet. Win today would be icing on cake and give Giants 5 series win and one split out of first 7 series.
I’m not gonna worry about those guys till at least the middle of May. And Hicks was amazing to get thru 7 the other day. How did he do that?
Agree, we have been far from perfect but this team has shown they are gamers. Might as well enjoy the ride while we have it.
Props to T Wolves for hammering LA and taking away home court advantage. Now finish it!
Flav indicated that Verlander still has a good fastball and is an acceptable #5 pitcher. I was one of the ones that criticized Verlander, so despite Verlander’s record not being very good at the moment, I was still remiss in criticizing him, not only because of what Flav said, but I did a deep search on his pitching metrics and apparently, he has NOT digressed as much as I thought. Consequently, it may be more due to injuries last season, as he dealt with neck and shoulder issues that likely impacted his performance and limited his innings. These are the metrics as of today:
Four-Seam Fastball: Averaged around 94.5 mph, topping out at 97.9 mph. This velocity is slightly above the league average for fastballs. Slider: Averaged around 87.9 mph, topping out at 90.2 mph. Curveball: Averaged around 78.8 mph, topping out at 81.9 mph. Changeup: Averaged around 85.1 mph, topping out at 86.9 mph. Sweeper: Averaged around 79.1 mph, topping out at 81.0 mph.
Batting Average on Balls in Play (BABIP): .303. This is somewhat high, suggesting he might have experienced some bad luck on batted balls. However, it doesn’t fully explain the high ERA. Strikeouts per 9 Innings (K/9): 7.37. While not drastically low, this is below his career average and indicates a reduced ability to strike out batters compared to his prime. Still Limiting Hard Contact: Interestingly, his hard-hit rate in 2024 was still in the 92nd percentile, suggesting he was still capable of inducing weak contact. However, this didn’t translate to overall effectiveness.
Anyway, I can see why Buster wanted Verlander on the team, particularly since we play half our games in SF. I can see him actually getting in a groove (today, he looks outstanding) and getting better and better.
hmmnn see what happens here after 8 pitch AB vs. Rengifo (following double by Ward on hanging slider). Previously one AB like that seemed to have lasting affect on V.
Followed by 8 pitch battle vs. Trout that ends with BB. 18 pitches/1 out this inning so far.
Nice!
JV got his 5 innings in, now get him some runs and let the pen do the rest.
verlander’s still tough. Calif. spring weather may be helping. I can see him as a five at this rate. Speaking of tough, Ramos nearly destroyed kikuchi at 3B.
Got one.
dang Flores Ks as Giants make Kikuchi work through 28 pitch inning. Ramos double plus overthrow and Adames rbi single put them up 1-0.
April 20 1923 borned day of Tito Puente in NYC, someone I saw play few times around bay. Many good recordings from 50s through Concord days of 80s and beyond.
I heard a dj on kpfa say yesterday that puente recorded more than a hundred albums. He only played cuts from about ten. lol.
Shoulda, woulda, coulda.
Lead didn’t last long. Fastball at 93 (down from 96-97 earlier). from V sent out of yard by Neto
well tee it up. Damn. Still, solo shot. Now get thru 5.
Huffy!
HUFF
“He Huffed and he Huffed and blew the house down.”
97 to waste Trout. That’s insane, that man is 42
there ya go boys, Verlander is fine. Now let’s close this shit out.
Untranquillo warming up in the pen.
Tranq gets out of it.
Doval just made best pitch possible–the one that results in ground ball to Chapman for inning ending DP.
d p. !
Good at bat by Huff.
Nothing is Easy for Ian Anderson and his 8.64 ERA
To our Benefit.
Stand Up effort by our rep Mr. Sportsdude this weekend
Nice.
As inherited runner scores ERA goes up to 9.72.
This fucking ump. Villar got rung up on a FB 6″ higher than that curve.
ruh roh
Trout was out.
It all started with a walk.
on a bad laz Diaz call.
Fuck.
Fuck my ass.
Day game save after a night game save was not happening. Hicks in the pen would give Melvin more options in the eighth and ninth.
True.
Walker had some difficulty last night as well. Hitting Neto when he was ahead in count really hurt. Just too wild today. Hard to believe that happened.
That was the worse loss of the year.
I missed game today. Just be watched the condensed game on MLB. Yes, that was brutal. Glad I didn’t sit through the entire ordeal.