Coming Home
Well, they held on. Butto–Walker—R-Rod. If those 3 can cobble together something useful in the last 3 innings we just might have a chance of finishing over .500 this year. And that would be an accomplishment.
Despite the fact that we should have won 5 of the last 6 it should still feel pretty good winning the first 2 series’ on the road…..
Now a 9 game homestand which will tell us how exciting September might or might not be.
A Place To Talk About Giants Baseball 
Surprised you are up already. Been averaging 2-4 hours sleep since I have been in Sunnyvale. Anyway, I posted this a minute ago on the previous thread, regarding your statement about Dom:
“As I have stated all along, agree with what you said above . . . James’s take is “wet” until it isn’t. Right now, Dom is playing outstanding baseball for the Giants, both offensively and defensively. I could give 2 shits what he did at his previous stops.”
I’m a huge Dom fan. I just don’t know if he he can keep all this going next year. The defense will be there for sure but the clutch hitting can come and go. Regardless, he’s a great guy to have on the team.
His Estes interview after the game yesterday was outstanding Flav. He’s a really down to Earth person. Apparently, religious (but not “in your face” religious), and a self-effacing ego, where he always credits others for his success. He’s a throw back to another era.
Definitely true about great D and unreliability of “clutch” hitting. Hope they can find room for Smith next year as back up/D replacement/PH ala Flores. After bouncing around last few years seems to have found a home.
Eldridge was moved off OF pretty early last season by Giants to be 1b/DH only in Sac so doubt he’s going back to RF especially at O. I think Flav is right about Devers not being a 1b at all, but I guess this had to be part of Posey’s plan for him. He’s really raw and liability over there right now.
I’m skeptical he learned anything special about hitting coming up in the Mets’ minor league system, a take that the evidence of 2000+ ABs supports. If Dom’s been resurrected and plans to shine a light of endless two strike clutch hits on us, any assist would seem to go to the Giants’ otherwise incompetent hitting coach.
oh man Latin music lost another hero, NYC’s Eddie Palmieri dead at age 88…as one of comments in NYT obit said, how symmetrical the great pianist dies at that age. Saw him live couple times in 70s, at Cesar’s club on Green street in North beach and at afternoon show at Greek for Berkeley Latin Jazz Festival. So many great recordings over the years.
With his great glove and immovable contract, Chapman will be at 3rd for years to come. Maybe Devers who should mostly DH can spell him once or twice a week in the field and Chap can DH or rest as he approaches his mid 30’s. Dom is unlikely to hit enough to play every day (who knows?) so maybe they work out some kind of rotation at first with Eldridge. Dom has also played about a quarter of his career in LF, although it feels like a waste of his 1B glove to put him out there, it’s just something they’ll have to figure out…
Right now we really know nothing about Eldridge…
When was the last time the Giants had a 20-year old 900 and rising OPS hitter at AAA? That’s mostly a sincere question.
A sincere answer: I wouldn’t have any idea how to look that up…
I asked ChatGPT, and the answer is Wade Meckler in 2023 . . . for 25 ABs. In any case, he’s really tall, which as Snarkk pointed out is not usually great. He’s also very young for AAA, which combined with good numbers is usually a real positive. I don’t think Buster trades him unless it’s for an established mid-20s star who *doesn’t* play 1B or DH.
Agree with what you said yesterday and echoed by snarkk – Eldridge is perhaps, at best – a trade chip. McCovey was 6’4″ . . . Eldridge is 6’7″ . . . My biggest concern is injury.
There’s a real traffic jam at 1st and DH . . . I would have zero problem with perhaps, trading Eldridge and Ramos for an elite left fielder, where Devers is DH and Dom Smith plays first. I hope Smith gets the majority of time at 1st for the remainder of the season, to see if he can maintain his current hitting? Based upon this, perhaps Buster will have a clearer idea of what he wants to do next season?
Bryce Eldridge’s fielding at first base is considered to be decent for his size and experience.
There is the Aaron Judge example, FWIW. I’d take Eldridge at half the production.
Regardless of what happens this season, I think Buster and ownership have an outstanding path going forward. To date, Buster has demonstrated that he has zero interest in being “static” or some kind of “figurehead” in the front office. Buster has been competitive his entire life . . . I would imagine he hates to lose in “tiddly winks,” as well as baseball or any other thing he does in life.
I didn’t always get that feeling about Zaidi. Buster would quit his job if he perceived ownership wasn’t on the same page as him, which is to say – Buster is all about winning.
When you have really inexperienced players at 1B for long stretches, it highlights the more complex scenarios you encounter at the position. The inexperience shows with poor decisions and awkward plays (Devers has actually looked pretty good on the one-hop picks). But more complex doesn’t mean complicated beyond the ability of a typical major leaguer, given enough reps. It’s always been a truism that 1B is one of the two least important defensive positions, and that hasn’t changed in the age of advanced metrics. I think we’re overemphasizing the importance of having a plus defensive first baseman because of the current situation.
The DH enables you to hide the big lugs that used to have to play 1B (Boog, Killebrew, etc.). The great fielding ones like Hernandez, Snow, Thrill, Mattingly, Wes Parker were still good to great hitters also. No idea where I’m going with this…
I note the lack of Brandon Belt in your list, and inclusion of JT. BB9 was the better hitter, but I never quite got his defensive reputation. He rarely made diving stops and, although he picked plenty of errant throws, he always seemed to miss a short hop or two that the opposing first baseman didn’t. He threw the ball well, or at least fearlessly, and I don’t recall many weird plays, despite the goober personality. He was smart out there.
JT was the best I ever saw chasing down pop-ups in foul RF territory…
Also the lack of bunting has mostly removed that responsibility from the 1B. Hernandez was incomparable at that…
I’ll bet if you look at the stats, good D was a cherry on top and bad D an irritation.
I’d agree with that even without the stats…
I didn’t care that Jim Ray Hart was an awful 3B when he was having his great offensive years. And McCovey was definitely nothing special at first in my memory anyway…
cherry on top? I bet Jeff Kent would agree
And it’s not like Kent was a really poor fielder, either.
I thought Kent was a solid 2B…
replacement level career wise. (Actually a hair negative dwar). Sandberg was well over 10.
not that it’s easy to compare the value of stellar D at 2B and 1B. But with the DH spot available for a slugging lummox, …
or even a lugging summox
May be chance but Dom looks good off the bench (4 for 8 in games he hasn’t started) and his D is far superior to Devers or Wilmer. I’d much rather have him guarding the line and stretching to finish DPs.
His splits v LH pitching follow the usual pattern. I’d use RH Schmitt at 1B when necessary. Koss can play 2B. .
next year? WTF knows.
who’ll replace Jerar in the OF platoon? Matos with his .098 BA with two strikes? (I came across that yesterday.) Fuck it. Why not give Gilbert a shot? Roster issue, but can’t Jerar’s injury open a spot? (He’d be done for the season I guess. Terrible luck.)
anyway, play Dom as much as possible now.
oh yeah. Don’t discount Dom’s skill at feeding the ball to the pitcher covering.
Back in DC A’s are finishing off Nats ahead 6-0 in 9th. Nats fly here for 3 before Giants host Padres. Nats have won only 45 games, 4 fewer than Pirates.
I’m going to the game on Monday night. I can accept if it turns out to be The Last Sorta Important Game of the season. I cannot accept that happening over the weekend.
Very cool James.
Flav: what was that stat you used to quote about teams taking long trips and how it affected them? BMI?
VMI. I was mostly for a team’s first game in drastically different weather– like a big change in temp or humidity.
Thanks. SF at night tomorrow won’t be anything like day game in DC even if it was only high 70s.
My BMI is over 30. Not good.
I just got a used exercise bike off of Facebook Marketplace. Maybe I can get to 29.
Mrs. Snarkk gives me 3 weeks before I either mothball it or put it back on Marketplace for the next sucker. I’m determined, though. A month, at least. Already today I started out with 12 minutes — want to ease my knees into it. Did it while watching a bike video on a trail in Kauai. Made me want to buy tickets to Hanalei…
I often ride mine while watching the ball games. I’m up to 60 minutes straight of pedaling in the highest gear. BMI is not the motivation, it’s cholesterol and blood pressure. I really want to control them with as few pills/low dosages as possible. The liver still needs to withstand the wine and cocktails.
Watch the HIIT exercise video I sent you Snarkk. It’s 10 minutes total workout, with 2 minutes set at an easy (normal) magnetic resistance; 20 seconds at high magnetic resistance; 3 minutes at easy magnetic resistance; repeat 20 seconds high magnetic resistance; and rest of 10 minute duration at normal magnetic resistance. Do at least 2-3 times a week, preferably with EHIIT 20 minute weightlifting routine (2 times a week). Total time weekly – 60 to 70 minutes. Disregard all that bullshit about working out for 1-2 hour daily sessions. Give me a shout if you want me to send you the 2 videos again.
Heading to Hawaii on monday. Gonna go night snorkeling with the manta rays on kauai.
This was the last trip out of Lahaina.
Nice
After having guys like Burrell, Morse and Joc Pederson in Left, I’m not that worried about Ramos, but RF and catcher are problematic going forward IMO.
At least Bailey is proving that his prior two late season collapses weren’t because he was exhausted. I’m still holding out a little hope that he’ll be ok. Those low and in breaking balls, how hard is it to not swing at each and every one of them?
I hope SF bring up Jesus Rodriguez to get look see if he can be RH complement to Bailey.
I did a search for hitters with a minimum of 3000 plate appearances between 2015-now.
https://stathead.com/tiny/p4q4s
There are just 116 that have an above avg. OPS of 750+ across the 30 teams. 60 of them, or two per team on average, have OPSs of 800+. Of those, 3 came up through the Giants org., Belt, Posey, and Reynolds. Duvall just missed the larger cohort at 749.
The non-Latin players are mostly first and second round picks, with more of the former as you’d expect. I remember reading as much in at least a couple of detailed articles on the rarity and randomness of draft pick success.
some tall players aren’t lummoxes.
https://x.com/mlb/status/1953604672805339174?s=46&t=k0FDC_rVBvlG86Y-OHTiNQ
I always liked Kingman.
Ahead of his time in multiple ways! That long hunched frame undoubtedly cost him a few walks, helping suppress his stats below the Schwarberesque heights he could have approached.
Fun Giant. 1972 they tried him at 3b and he made 14 errors in 59 games. We used to make jokes about keeping eyes open sitting 1b side. Stole 16 bags that year only 6 CS.
Fun facts Yaz ranks in HR’s for SF Giants? 20th 1rank more than Chilli
Xtra base hits? 20th 1 rank ahead of K Mitchel
Games?29th 1 rank above Hac man
WAR 23 1 above felipe Alou
Never would have guessed in games played, and HR WAR Runs scored he was that good:)
Toronto outscored Colorado 45-6 in a recent series. The Rockies have a good chance to be the worst team in MLB history.
They currently have a -316 run differential. That’s pretty dire.
The WNBA dildo incidents made it onto CNN coverage today and USA Today. Some stupid group is claiming responsibility, and are doing it to promote a cryptocurrency or something. None of it makes sense, but it’s 2025 and how much makes sense these days?
Imagine if more of the news media had the courage of South Park. We can only imagine.