The Most Important Game of the Year
Huge game. I simply will not tolerate losing 2 of 3 to the shitty Nats at home. Verlander will bring his A game. Lol. I hope. Gore can be tough when he’s on. Expect lots of K’s today….
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A Place To Talk About Giants Baseball 
Crappy? I love it!
Flav love the 8:24 from last night. re: “Chapman is not the problem.” Can we just leave off batting average behind as something that matters? Cal Raleigh is hitting .248, Juan Soto .249, Kyle Schwarber .253, Eugenio Suarez .235 as 3b…Luis Arraez is at .294 and nowhere near as valuable a hitter as anyone listed.
you listed off a bunch of the league’s best home run hitters. Of course batting average isn’t as important to those guys.
Gee, you think the HRs and RBI matter? Raleigh has 44 HRs. Chappie 44 RBI!!!!! Then you turn around and give Adames shit for his .231 even though he leads the team in RBI?
What’s important is OBP Slugging and OPS. The other guys all have OPS from .850 to .960. Those 2 stats are what contribute to team scoring runs more than BA. Chapman and his .790 OPS last season are nothing to dismiss because he hit “only” .247.
After today next 16: Padres Rays at home Padres (4 in Petco) @ Brewers Cubs. yikes
Unca at his best 🤣🤣🤣
unca_chuck said, on August 10, 2025 at 8:08 am (Edit)
Getting tired picking cherries?
OK, I’ll bite, Chapman is better than Mays. You got me.
The sweetest cherry of all!
https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/m/mayswi01.shtml#players_batting_postseason
btw we have exactly 4 guys hitting over .250 (and Koss doesn’t really count as he hasn’t been here much). Our offense sucks. You can use batting average as a sign of that.
Good point. But they are also at near bottom of NL in OB and slugging, main reason they score so few runs. check out NL Summar column on B/R above standings and you can see their stats compared to entire rest of NL for runs per game. Also how well their pitching is doing.
The worst thing about Crappy’s contract (as James said) is probably the NTC. Although the money, years and his age probably make him immovable anyway. The NY Rangers (a hockey team) have suffocated themselves by handing out a bunch of contracts with NTCs.
Here’s a list of 3rd basemen:
https://stathead.com/tiny/fvNui
About half of the teams don’t have particularly great options at third. I could see him being moved, if it weren’t for the no-trade clause.
Just thinking losing Wilbur and Chappie would allow Schmitt to go back to 3rd and Devers to be DH/1st.
Nats Ferrer struck out Crappy swinging with two on to end the eighth last night (0 for 4 entire game) . . That has been typical Crappy all season, particularly at home.
In summary, while his hitting has had some ups and downs, Crappy’s combination of power, plate discipline, and elite defense has made him a very valuable player for the Giants in 2025. Maybe just me, but I want to see by end of this season – mid to high 20s in bombs; raising his batting average to at least his career mark of .240; and, his OPS at .750 or better (currently at .767, which is good).
Right now, he stinks – especially at home, with a .199 BA and .273 OBP.
He also runs very well for his age…
earlier this season Buster seems to have noticed that the top of the order, Lee, Vamos, Adames, Chapman, lacked pop, even assuming Willy and Matt matched their career levels. He addressed that problem.
Bottom of the order hasn’t been so easy to improve. Dump late night, Yaz, fitzfuckup, in favor of what? Schmitt? Dom’s been ok. But Matos, Koss, Wisely? Not to mention unbudgeable Bailey at the very bottom. But Chapman’s the problem? Hilarious.
Chapman would not be a problem if he were pulling checks the size of those other dudes you mention…
The contract certainly overvalues him and we are stuck with him, but that doesn’t change what he is or isn’t doing at the plate.
The point is that if, if Schmitt could do a similar job at third defensively, and I think he clearly can, and do a similarly OK job offensively, that Chapman contract severely hamstrings other moves to upgrade a toothless offensive lineup. I think Chapman’s ability to turn really amazing plays at third into outs is not that important over a very solid glove and arm like Schmitt’s. Two seasons in, Chapman’s supposed huge “leadership” skills is not overtly evident on the field nor certainly in the standings…
I don’t disagree with any of this. But Chapman is not the reason the offense has sucked this year. He’s doing what you’d expect of him, based on the evidence of his career.
You’re correct James about him doing what he has always done. However, he’s under the microscope right now – because he is slumping over the last 7-12 games, as I indicated earlier.
Schmitt is good defensively and he may get even better. But he’ll never be as good as Chapman. The contract is big. Bet it doesn’t look so bad couple years from now by comparison with league averages if the D is still stellar.
He’ll probably muster another run (maybe two) of 30 good ABs. Hope he starts today.
As Loo said, he runs well for his age. I’m sure he also wanted to add that Chapman’s bat is still quicker than average, exit velos are good etc.
LHP Gore today has been absolutely hammered by the league in his last 4 games. If I’m Verlander, that means I better throw a shutout while I’m in the game, and hope Gore gets tired early from striking the crap out of the Giants lineup…
Particularly Crappy, whom is 0 for 4 against Gore with 3 strikeouts.
the Giants are a major market team raking in the dough, both at the park and across the cove. Old gripers said they’d never spend in the off season. Then Buster signed Adames and extended Chapman. Well, not enough, the gripers said, and they’re too cheap to spend more. Then Devers. Well, that spending is irresponsible is the new gripe? My gawd.
The unapologetic irrationality and contradictions of a baseball blog for old men.
Very Red Smith-like, James…
I could be wrong but I think Chapman’s extension was courtesy of Zaidi…
May have fucked up that detail, don’t recall, but it’s not crucial. The horrible, stubbornly stingy owners approved the deal.
checked. The Giants let Zaidi announce the Chapman extension in early Sept. even though they (as it would become obvious) had already given him his 30 day notice. maybe Zaidi is the culprit responsible for the NTC, but I doubt it.
Zaidi was negotiating it and St. Buster swooped in to close the deal per scandal monger Baggs. It was quite the news story, the weak, ineffectual Cal PhD baseball know-nothing foolishly trying to play hardball with Chapman, only to have our common sense hero humiliate the little muslim twerp and rescue the deal. I’ll bet you anything the no-trade clause was one of the big hangups, cuz you know Zaidi hated the idea of signing a 32 year old to that contract.
that’s unfair to Zaidi. Two years earlier, he went toe to toe with Boras over Correa and didn’t waste a dime!
If Correa and the Astros win another WS, Buster might want to re-consider any future employment of the doc who assessed that injury, assuming he hasn’t already.
Blah blah blah. They needed 1st base help, could have had Alonso, and didn’t do it. They needed OF help and didn’t do it. The Chappie deal was, well, Buster’s opening salvo. Stuck with that.
Adames and Devers are fine, they’ll do what they should eventually.
talk about blah.
Can’t blame the player for taking the money…
I think Schmitt has 2 months to show Posey he can handle 2b full time, make more contact and be on base more often. Otherwise Posey will has another position to fill in off season.
Schmitt can play every IF position now except, possibly, SS, and there he wouldn’t be a disaster in an emergency. Doesn’t he have a place on the roster even if Posey finds a 2Bman who can hit and get on base regularly?
The thing is, 2nd is the only position open for Schmitt to play. If you get a real 2nd basemen in here, Schmitt is a man without a role except playing once in a while as utility. His sporadic bat becomes even more sporadic and he’ll likely swing more at crap again, though now with a position, he seems to be slowly getting more patient at the plate. IDK if he can play OF, he probably can in a pinch…
If the Giants did a complete review and down-to-studs renovation on the scouting, drafting and development of the farm and international, maybe in future they would not have to overpay for FA position players to populate positions of need at the big club. If that’s been done, it’s news to me. Spending millions of renovating the Papago complex in Phoenix is a good step and PR move, but then again, spending more on physical infrastructure is no guarantee of MLB success if you don’t have the right people to scout, draft and develop talent into real MLB players. Many of the Farhan-era people in those functional areas are still around. The Giants sainted mission statement of pitching and defense has proved to be a paper tiger over the 2015-now period of just two one-and-done playoff appearances interspersed with rank medicocrity, pathetic scoring, and worst of all, boring-ass baseball…
Where will they find all these uber-talented scouts and developers of baseball skills? Why did the ones who provided Cain, Lincecum, Posey, Crawford, and Belt not continue to bring us good players? What were they doing before they arrived at the Big 5 of the 3 in 5? Buster could do the overhaul you suggest, and, over the next couple of years, they might still not be in a position to draft a slam dunk pick like Bryce Harper and continue to get unlucky with the draft picks they do have.
You’re right. Stay the course.
Thousand points of light
I’m sure Buster will drain that swamp eventually, install all the right people, and return the Giants to greatness. Sometimes it takes a while.
On this team Chappy is not the problem. On a team that could hit he would hit 7th. Don’t forget that signing chapman was a start of getting a legit MLB player to sign here. Adames followed. We were all fairly excited by those 2 when they signed.
When Devers hits they are all better. Lee’s contract will be more of an issue than Chappy. Schmidt stays at 2nd and we get a legit 1b and RF and our young pitchers continue to develop and we are a contender. What else can be done? Right now none of our guys on the field are tradeable:(
Chappy WAR 3.7. No hitters on the team are over 1.8 (Adames)
Ray 3.5. Webb 2.4 Chappy is the least of our issues:)
Schmidt .7 Devers .6 with SF
I don’t even want to think about our current win total if Chappy hadn’t been on the team this year.
FUCK !!
can we get a little luck on occasion ? FFS .???
I’m just tuned in to see Wilbur being stymied!
I’d like to think about our win total without Verlander this year.
Verlander getting hammered.
At least we have the Chapman ABs to entertain us today.
Single!
Verlander’s season in microcosm, right there.
On the verge of getting the final critical out, but then Pffffft, can’t put him away, 2 run shot. Followed by more Pfffft carnage on an 0-2 count advantage, getting him to an 4 earnies disaster inning. Giants really looking uphill in this one. At this point, bring up Tidwell and say “thanks, it was nice knowin’ ya” to Verlander…
Flav right as usual about lots of K’s.
A Verlander shutdown inning.
With another two hits.
9 allowed in only 3 innings. 9. Including 2 HRs and a double. Ouch.
How many more hits/runs will BoMel risk before taking him out? Giants need a comeback win to avoid another embarrassing home series loss to a team the league treats as a hapless opponent…
I foolishly thought tomorrow night’s game would mean something. Another hit, another chance for a shutdown inning, Verlander style.
Gore looks like what I expected to see with Harrison.
Mets lol…
Man, what a brutal loss.
This is NUTS.
Verlander is seemingly helpless out there. 11 hits in 3.2 innings, 5 earnies.
Get him out !
It’s been Gore vs. gored.
Michele and I back from late brunch and already a near rout in the 4th inning. Oy!!!!
BoMel, Buster and Giants now officially in “tilting at windmills” territory throwing Verlander out there in game after game. If they are serious about actually winning games, and not just giving him more shots at adding to his career win total, they would cut him or nicely trade him to a playoff team for a bag o’ balls…
Verlander with a chance to finish strong! A pro’s pro eating up the innings.
I shoulda stayed at Pick N Pull.
I like this kid Gilbert, despite the early futility. What I read about him (after the trade) was all GOOD. He has a good swing. Equally important, he seems to be a good fielder (e.g., see that diving catch in right he made a couple of days ago).
Anyway, I hope he plays for the rest of the year. Matos, McCray, we all KNOW what they can do and it’s not much.
5 more seasons of Chappie?
Be still my heart. Please.
Fuck me, this has become unwatchable!
there’s still time for this game to get worse.
LHP Gore, as predicted, who has been NatCrap vs. the league, is Sandy Koufax clone today vs. Giants.
He had no Ks in his last start, none. He has 10 already in 6 frames vs. the hack-away, hapless Giants…
Someone’s DWAR about to take a hit.
Chapman with an error on a routine play. Sure, why not? Now, 2 more runs on a 2-strike count RBI hit. Xoot, your 2:47 was spot on, and probably still true…
The Gods piling it on Chapman now with that AB, LOL.
heckle him tomorrow. I still haven’t seen public signs of his well reported Tourette’s.
Regardless, of what K&K like, that caught the “grid” and Crappy grabs some pine.
I almost, almost would prefer a visit to my urologist over actually being a paying customer at this debacle of a game today. She’s definitely got better hands than Ramos…
Look at the bright side: Dever’s D at first has not been an issue today.
Likely wont happen, but another week of this futility, I hope Posey cans Melvin and promotes Hallberg (1st base coach) to manager for almost 2 month audition . . .
I still like competing baseball .. switching over to watch anything but this crap fest
very cheesy made for tv Rockford files movie on
should do the trick, thx
A sad / pathetic effort. Why are we so bad against bad teams?????
Equal opportunity disappointers.
So far, yet another finals candidate for “worst game of the year”…
Chappie and Turdlander can take a slow train to TJ.
Play the kids.
Trader Joe’s ?
Tijuana.
Si …
Yeah, blade — what can BoMel say after this mess is over? Now, Koss is pitching — I hate that — a sign of giving up and a middle finger to paying fans.
If the Bay media weren’t so toothless, they’d give Melvin a massive grilling. An embarrassing beat down today and another home series loss to a league doormat.
Pfffttt. Adames now batting a “robust” (not) .229 . . . Him and Crappy battling to the bottom.
Good luck with the Pads, James. You’re going to need it…
Ha, thanks, we’ll make sure to go a little early to enjoy a drink, some good food, and walk along the Embarcadero beforehand. The Giants can only do so much damage to our evening then.
Buster will say or do something significant this week. I guarantee it.
Hope you are right.
This weekend is a berry, berry bad look…
I hope you are right Blade
It’ll be Go Time! round 3.
Verlander is clever, draws attention to himself by getting bombed early, but then by the end we’re again led to reflect instead on the Giants’ failure to score.
0 for 0 with RISP! What is Laura Britt gonna harp on?!?
Whether he gets hammered, or the Giants don’t score for him, or they play Keystone Kops defense behind him, or all of the above, a Verlander start has proven to be essentially a guaranteed loss. Sending him out there every 5th day is official insanity …
Post-game Kruk comparing Gore today to Steve Carlton at his best. LOL…
Frank Gore could shut out this team.
if he was still alive, Buster could hire Dr Kevorkian as the team Doc.
I watched very little of this game but caught a few innings on the radio. Around the 3rd or 4th Flem goes “man the ball is REALLY jumping out of here today.” And I was thinking “I bet we get shut out” and sure enough lmfao
On the Sunday ESPN game someone said Benji Molina won a championship with the 2010 Giants. I guess that’s technically true. He contributed to their season, and was given a championship ring.
But lost to the Giants in the 2010 World Series, in one of the great coincidences in baseball history.
Actually his name is spelled Bengie.
Melvin has zero passion, no intensity, little energy, and he is boring . . . Giants play exactly like their manager. To wit . . .
We scored 7 runs in 3 games against the team that allows the 2nd most runs in MLB. We struck out 15 times in this Sunday game. The Nats had 17 hits versus our 3 hits. Gore had given up 14 runs and 20 hits in 8 1/3 innings prior to pitching today . . . The Giants were the “medicine” he needed to get healthy.
The “Steve Carlton” Gore (just “tip the cap” to him) of course only shows up when he pitches v. the Giants!
Like all other HOF starters, especially lefties, seem to show up channeled by any random pitcher from any random team that plays v. the Giants. I’m sure there are stats showing how poorly the Giants ABs are recently and indeed all season since early May, but I’m not going to research them. With less than 1/3 season left, they’ve proved to be truly a stupid situational hitting team. They either are getting no coaching on trying to improve this, or ignoring such coaching, either of which is bad, the latter being worse, or are just bad hitters with no hope of improvement this season, or going forward into next season and the next…
At least there were no situations today.
they did not fail with RISP.
Anybody get the Athletic?
Is Baggarly or any of the beat writers writing anything about what is really going on behind the scenes, inside the locker room, or outside — to explain why this team has absolutely cratered? They are now 7-17 in their last 24 home games. That is beyond pathetic…
I had nothing better to do…
https://tinyurl.com/4mmsxx6p
I ripped Bochy plenty during the pre 3 in 5 years, and some even then. But, I think he would not allow the piss poor play that has been going on with this team without some resulting disciplinary actions unknown and some visible to the public at large. He usually didn’t wait long to make it known he didn’t appreciate crappy, stupid play or lackadaisacal efforts.
.
I remember when Rosen traded for Melvin and praised his “soft hands.” At the time that was code for this Bob ain’t going to hit anywhere near as good as Bob Brenly. Now I guess it’s just a cheap metaphor.
Hunter Bishop – today, he was placed on the “Development List” (not exactly the waiver wire, but the same message – we have no room for you on any of our minor league teams).
Yet another wasted first round pick. No value obtained after 6+ years of investment in this guy. Another example of why the Giants are flailing at the level of the big club…
https://community.fangraphs.com/success-rate-of-mlb-first-round-draft-picks-by-slot/
“In 2019 Bishop batted .342/.479 (5th in the league)/.748 (2nd; 8th in the nation) with 67 runs (4th), 16 doubles (tied for 7th), 4 triples (tied for 6th), 22 home runs (2nd; 5th in the nation), 62 RBIs (4th), 50 walks (4th), and 12 stolen bases (tied for 7th) over 222 at bats in 57 games.[12][8] He was named Perfect Game and D1Baseball Midseason Player of the Year, First Team All-West Region by the ABCA, CoSIDA Academic All-American with a 3.41 GPA, and the NCBWA National Player of the Month for March.[4] He was also named a First Team All-American by D1Baseball, Baseball America, the National Collegiate Baseball Writers of America, Perfect Game, and the American Baseball Coaches Association, and a Second Team All-American by Collegiate Baseball News.[12]”
The baseball draft is a major crapshoot but really, Sabean had 5 good drafts from 2006-2010 and he won 3 championships. He focussed on the pen when other guys weren’t and he picked up a lot of complementary guys.
But it was the drafts that set everything in motion.
Hard to begrudge year to year fails in the draft, but overall their drafts have sucked for 15 years.