Well, That Was Ugly
It’s not the craziest idea to think Logan Webb might have an off year. Ray is held together with rubber bands. And Mahle and Houser are journeymen. Roupp a Doop is just a guy. Our bullpen is scary bad.
So how are we going to win games this year? Our bats! The bats that were neutered by Fried last night. Gotta hand it to him, he never threw them a pitch they could square up.
I think we are looking at a long, long year, gents. It might be time to ask the hard question: Does Buster know what he’s doing?
A Place To Talk About Giants Baseball 
Well, you don’t turn around a sinking ship in a season. They need to draft much better than their recent track record.
And hey, it’s one game. Everyone was at 88-90 wins a week ago.
i didn’t. I never threw out a win total. I was concerned with our staff then and am concerned with it now. The bats will probably be fine
Yeah, that’s been the worry all offseason for me as well. Verlander would have been an easy signing. And them banking on Walker as the closer is a pretty big risk. And the rest of the pen is a bunch of scrubs/hopefuls.
I pay too much attention to velo thanks in part to Lincecum’s steady fastball decline matched by a proportionally ever lousier ERA. Webb was between 90-92 yesterday. Last year 92-94. A lot of the hard hit balls last night were off the change up per Gameday. Could be that’s just enough of a velocity drop to wait comfortably on the change.
The good news is I think we’ve seen Webb’s fastball down over stretches before.
yanks hitters seemed to have the right approach vs him. Look low, attack early.
Yeah, and if you can’t throw 93-94 at the top of the zone to keep ‘em honest, they can just keep doing that.
Webb reminds me of Krukow. He had a few excellent seasons in him. That starburst is over. Hope not.
Krukow was 34 when he won 20 for the Giants. Hope we don’t have to wait that long.
Then again, this is Webb’s 12th season in organized ball. He came in as a 17 year old.
I don’t know. Bummie started his fade at 27ish (his era was decent) and fell off the table at 30.
I’m not concerned so much with the longevity of the arc, but with its apex — the mix of stuff that made them excellent when they were excellent. Nothing overpowering, but a good, active mix, well pitched. There are many differences. Krukow threw 10 CGs the year he won 20. Obviously, that’s not going to happen now.
Both Lincecum and MadBum peaked more spectacularly. Lincecum may have been the best pitcher in baseball for two years. Even in 2010 and 2011, he was still fine. whip near 1.2. I recall a classic 140+ pitch shutout vs the a’s in ’11 that seemed like just another Happy Lincecum Day. I doubt Webb’s going to do that now.
I fear Webb’s best days are gone for good. With his durability, he’ll probably pitch five more years, slipping further and further down the rotation rank as he goes.
and a couple of 92.8 mph four seamers at the top of the zone to Judge doesn’t look like “good, active” to me. Luckily, Judge was somehow fucked up yesterday. But, maybe Webb was, too.
I guess the comparo most aligns with Matt Cain, Another guy that came out of HS and pitched a shit-ton of innings early in his career and burned out hard and fast at a fairly young age.
Like all these guys that lose 10 feet on their fastballs, they need to figure out different ways to get the job done. I have no idea how fast Krukow was throwing by age 34, but he was a power pitcher early/mid career.
Timmy’s game 1 – 15 strikeout win vs Atlanta in the 2010 playoffs is still one of the greatest games I’ve ever seen by a pitcher. Unreal stuff that night. An through 2008-2011.
Cain did take a couple mph off his power fb to improve command, but he was never as crafty as Krukow or Webb, at their best. He did eat the IP, though.
Well it wasn’t just Webb getting lit up, Pirates Ace Paul Skenes gave up 5 runs with 38 pitches in the first inning only got 2 outs and is outta there!No help from his CF for sure,O’Neil Perez butchered 2 plays coming in on a ball that sailed over his head for a triple clearing the bases for 3 runs then losing a ball in the sun for another..
Bottom line get the pitcher early for your best chance before they hit a groove
I blame the WBC . . . Looked at the relievers and ???
Caleb Killian?
JT Brubaker?
Killian looked sharp yesterday. He sorta counts as another homegrown product, too! Forgot about Flav fav Keaton Winn. The roster’s crawlin’ with ’em.