I got in the car this morning, and the radio was still set to the AM dial from yesterday's game. Too early for game-time, KNBR was on some sports talk show (I abhor sports talk radio). Before I could switch the channel, I hear some dickhead talking about how Madison Bumgarner would look great in a Yankees uniform.
Madison Bumgarner would not look great in a Yankees uniform. Madison Bumgarner in a Yankees uniform would be a fucking tragedy. Moreover, it would be a glaring indictment of how badly our former mis-management had let our farm system go to hell. We will soon, as the constant stream of commentary would have it, be trading away our best players. Think about that for a minute. Trading away your best players. Why? Because that is the corner we have been backed into, and nearly everyone else has a no-trade contract or has no value. Maybe back a few years we got a bit more out of some players coming up through the farm system than we should have (Tim Lincecum comes to mind). Maybe we got a bit less than we should have more recently (Mac Williamson, perhaps). But what is stunningly clear is that there was no plan to replenish our team with young talent from within or from outside the country. Instead we went with the "sign a name and hope the band-aid works" style of management and pissed away our future. As a result, our wonderful, wonderful core players; Buster Posey, Brandon Belt, Brandon Crawford, Joe Panik, and yes, Madison Bumgarner are sure to never see another world series, at least not in a Giants uniform.
LA has a team with a 2016 Rookie of the Year, a 2017 RoY and NL MVP, and Walker Buehler, who debuted at the end of 2017 and pitched LA to their only victory in the 2018 World Series. The Giants rookies are 25 and 28 years old. The Giants lost 1 - 0 and are now 18 games behind.
Madison Bumgarner threw a great ball game. He was allowed to stay in for 7 innings (removed for a pinch hitter in the bottom of the 7th with no one on and 2 outs. He threw only 86 pitches, struck out 5 and walked 1. He gave up 4 hits. Unfortunately, 1 of those was a home run to Max Muncy in the 1st inning. (Muncy's 13th. He is third on LA in home runs. The leading Giant is Belt with 9.) Walker Buehler pitched 8 innings, struck out 9 and allowed 5 hits and walked 1. The Giants were 0 for 7 with RISP, including the bottom of the 5th when they had a runner at 1st and 3rd with no outs.. Yesterday, they were 1 for 11.
3 comments:
The lineup was ultra-lame these last two games, both winnable contests if the Giants could get an extra base hit with men on base.
When you are winning the World Series, you tend to have a "don't fuck with the program" kind of mentality. So, things get neglected. A more modern outfit would perhaps have been more self-critical, and asked "how can we keep our edge?" or "how can we get better?" but that's not what happened.
And that's it. That's not what happened. It matters not anymore, because "happened" is the past tense.
So, let's see what we can do going forward. The Giants are in a pickle, what with the un-tradeable contracts (note I don't say "players") and the depleted system. Let's see how they build a new team. Don't feel bad for Posey and Belt and Craw and Bum, they had more glory than most will ever have, and their team kept them together as long as possible, too long in fact as we can plainly see.
The "Bumgarner in pinstripes" meme was on MLBTR this morning, and it was just a NY media story where some guy said the Yankees need pitching and ought to target Bumgarner. So, the schmuck on the radio was just parroting the internet.
The Yankees could probably give us their 137th prospect for Bumgarner and he'd shoot to the top of our rankings!
The headline of the continuation of the article in today's chronic: "Bumgarner's Last Start in SF vs LA?" What is the purpose of that headline? There is 0 information about a trade of any sort (and it would be too soon if there was), so unless the Chron's intent was to drive attendance down, there is nothing there. Schulman states that Bumgarner would be attractive because of his passion (and pitching skills, and accomplishments) to a contending club. Well, duh. So would Max Scherzer or any other top-tier pitcher. Not that I want the home town media to be a bunch of homers (although, they never seem to have a problem with the 49ers). Maybe there is just nothing to write about a lot of times except "Giants lose" so they feel they have to go somewhere. But it's not journalism, there is nothing learned there. I just hate it being shoved down my throat because I do not want to see Madbum go. I expect I will, but I won't like it.
I don't want to see Bum go, either. But they made no effort, it seems, to extend him, just exercised the club options, so my guess is that they are ready to let him go. (I wonder if the dirt bike thing was part of that.) I keep hoping he will play out the year and the team will give him a QO, and he'll take it from there, and they'll get compensation if he says "no" and another year if he says "yes." He'd probably leave a lot of money on the table if he says "yes." Dallas Keuchel didn't get what he wanted in the off-season, but he wanted five years or somesuch, which isn't playing well in today's FA market. Bum is not a Boras client, however!
I don't expect "journalism" when I read the sports pages. I just want information, specifically information that reporters have access to that we mere fans do not. This is why I like MLBTR: they make no bones about what they are reporting (rumors!). They gather all the "noise" they hear and present it (and source it!) and the reader can decide how credible or useful it is.
Sports-writing and journalism can mix, certainly. I think Andrew Baggarly at The Athletic does a fine job of that. I think that's the best site for good writing about baseball (Eno Saaris, Grant Brisbee, Melissa Lockard, etc.). I consult FanGraphs quite a bit, and they have interesting stuff covering the whole spectrum (I ignore the fantasy department, called RotoGraphs, which is about half of the content). There's more than enough good stuff to read, it's just all on a screen.
Giants get another OF, another lefty (Alex Dickerson)in a trade with SD. The Pads get All-Name Team All-Star RHP Franklin Van Gurp.
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