Sunday, September 29, 2019

It's Over

LA 9  SF 0
Dereck Rodriguez, bless his heart, had to play the sacrificial lamb this afternoon as the Dodgers took control of the ballgame in the 1st inning. He got burned on a few weakly-hit balls, but the boys in blue are absurdly good (106 wins) and the Giants have had no answers at any time this weekend. D-Rod was hit hard this year and mostly unable to replicate his rookie-year successes. Let's hope he can up his game before next spring and compete for a roster spot. The team needs all the young arms it can gather together. In fact, the team needs to improve everywhere. But that's another post.

Bruce Bochy talked about managing Team France in the next World Baseball Classic (2021). That sounds like a perfect fit. He is the only MLB manager born in France. Competitive guys like Boch probably never really retire, they just find less-stressful ways to keep the juices flowing. I thought it was interesting how many people, in their tributes to Boch, remarked on the same personal qualities like his patience, his tolerance, his loyalty, his genuine concern for their well-being, that sort of thing. He cultivated relationships and maintained them with grace and good humor. Boch comes across as a genuine good guy and living proof that Leo Durocher was full of shit.

Giants made history this season. They used 64 players, the most ever by an NL club. They went 35-46 at home (.432), and I think that may be their worst-ever or tied for their worst-ever home record, including the New York days. I saw that factoid on Twitter, but I am unwilling to do the research to verify it. I understand Timmy was in the house today. He's like Area 51, you are never really sure what's true and what isn't. He's alive and was photographed, that I know. Madison Bumgarner pinch-hit against Clayton Kershaw in the 5th (who was a good sport and kept pumping in fastballs) and lined out to third. Kershaw tipped his hat to Boch, and Bum tipped his helmet to the crowd. I hope that is not the last time we see no. 40 in orange-and-black, but I'm expecting a lot of changes and you just never know how things will shake out. I think I will avoid predicting what will happen as I'm usually wrong.

We'll have a lot to talk about over the ensuing months, but for now I think we all need a break!

--M.C.

12 comments:

M.C. O'Connor said...

According to Grant Brisbee this team tied the 1984 team for the worst home record

https://twitter.com/GrantBrisbee/status/1178437025650728960

I went to 25 games in 1984 and the team was 7-18!

campanari said...

What an apposite—therefore not positive—way to end the season: 9-0 is the score assigned to a forfeited game. The Giants again showed that they can’t hit, especially at home, and their pitchers are so terrified of the mighty Bums that they issued an unconscionable number of walks.

I expect lots better next year, though, given what Zaidi accomplished this year. He began with a team whose ineptitude I for one certainly never fathomed. The two young starters who looked promising in 2018, Rodriguez and Suarez, were pretty much busts in 2019; and ditto the one promising vet, Holland. Of the inherited position players, only one got to the minimum fWAR of 2.0 that Fangraphs expects from a starting player; and that one, Longoria, just got there. Crawford and Belt combined didn’t contribute even 1.0 fWAR. The only moderately productive position player that Zaidi inherited, Slater, gave us 0.8 fWAR in fewer than 200 PA, and those came after a change in swing that the incoming FO directed. I take these numbers to indicate that a strong bullpen and two strong starters, Bumgarner and Samardzija, plus one useful bench player, Sandoval, were all that Zaidi got from Evans et al; and that any success that the Giants had this year beyond what that cohort delivered, resulted from what Zaidi brought the team. He did so without sacrificing much in the way of either personnel or financial assets, now or for the future. He also markedly strengthened the farm and cleared enough payroll to leave the team in a strong position to spend this offseason. With such a guy in charge, I feel very good about where we’re headed.

M.C. O'Connor said...

Yeah, I think we have to trust the process and let FZ do his thing. The young guns on the horizon, like Bart and Ramos and such, are products of the previous regime and they will all get their chances before the new crop emerges. But there will be plenty more roster-churning and let's hope that it continues to pay off. I like Yaz, Dubon, Rogers, and a lot of the other fellows recently acquired.

Zo said...

Timmy was there. He was the last player introduced and got the biggest ovation. He seemed a bit overwhelmed, as did Boch by the entire thing. My favorite part, though, was as former (pre-WS) players were introduced, Barry Bonds came out (entering the playing field from center field) in a group with Dave Roberts. As they were walking towards the infield, Barry picked him up like he was a child, then snatched away his LA hat and threw it away (all in good fun, Roberts laughed).

I hope the Giants are suitably embarrassed by the shitty showing they put up. I guess you could say it was better than last year's 15 - 0 drubbing, but not much. And even 1 win this series would have given Bochy a .500 record with the Giants. If anything, the final series just illustrates the vastness of the gulf between the Giants and a good team like LA. The Giants could show steady improvement for years and still be far, far behind.

I enjoyed the tribute coverage, and will probably watch much of the playoffs, as there are only 2 teams, 1 in each league, that I abhor. However, I don't expect to pay much attention to the off season. I think there will be big changes on the Giants, and would not bet on seeing anyone who does not have a no-trade clause there next year. And today anyway, I don't really care.

Timmy came up with expectations of super-stardom, and he lived up to them. These days, we hope for 1 or 2 WAR players, are usually disappointed, and frankly, it's become just too tiring. FZ will do his thing, and I can't predict what that will be. I can't develop any kind of attachment to players when the Giants will be a churn factory for....how long? I don't know.

Zo said...

Tim

nomisnala said...

Was interesting that the giants finished 75 and 87, and they finished as if they did not want to even be on the field. Unbefitting finish against the dodgers for one of the great SF Giants managers. Bochy wasn't great all the time, but he sure figured out a way for his team to win in the post season in 2010, 2012, and 2014, in a way that will enshrine him as one of the greats. Some areas that drove me crazy about Bochy some years, (not all, but too many) was that he at times had trouble getting his team off to a good start, and sometimes after the all star break, it would take time for the team to get it together again. He seemed to play the long steady game during the season, and at times did not seem to get the team up when they needed it. Can't complain in the aggregate as I do not think I would have wanted any other manager during his realm. This year was truly an enigma. The giants played on the road as if they were a true contender, but they played at home almost like a bottom feeder. The key issues were they could not hit at home, and when they set the table, they still could not hit. I do not think the team is as bad going forward as I see in some articles on the sports pages. They still seem to have a good core. At some point the league will catch up with the funkiness of Rogers in the pen, but hopefully he may still have so go arounds across the league before they figure him out. These submarine style pitchers (except for a few) usually have a short half life. The off season should tell us if the giants will be serious competitors, or middle of the road rebuilders. I see no reason why a franchise with the capital that the giants have, cannot field a playoff competitive team. With the giants out of the playoffs, I am already looking forward to next Spring. Football and basketball season are okay to bide ones time, but they just do not do it for me like baseball.

M.C. O'Connor said...

Yeah, I don't see any superstars on the team next year, but I don't think rebuilds have to be slow. Things change fast in this game. It may take a while to build a juggernaut like Houston or LA, but a competitive team can emerge quickly.

Timmy was The Man. Even more than Buster, MadBum, Cain, etc., Lincecum was the main event. I'm glad he came back and the fans got to celebrate. He's a goddamn rock star.

nomisnala said...

There was one other issue which hurt the giants quite significantly this year, and that is the issue of the first inning, on both offense and pitching. For some reason the giants just did not seem ready to play at the start of the game. My guess is, if games started during inning two, and we could just erase the first inning, the giants may have a winning record. Did not do the statistics so I am not sure, but it sure seems that way. Why could the coaching staff not make an adjustment in pre-game preparation, so our major leaguers would be "ready to play" at the start of the game. The inability to hit at home, and the slow starts to games, were two issues that seemed to be correctable, but just lingered throughout the season. I guess before the team makes their off season player acquisitions, it would be important to have a new manager in place.

Brother Bob said...

I was present at Roger Craig's last game, back when we had good seats behind home plate at the Stick. It was not much of a big deal. Before any formal ceremonies there was a lot of just hanging around in the infield and I got close to the dugout and could hear conversations. A lot of fans were shouting out friendly things. The one guy I remember shouted, "Thanks for '89!" To which the Hum Baby relied, "What about all the rest of the years?" Everyone laughed. I thought, "Well,'87 was okay too."
2019 wasn't okay. There was one month that was fun.
I predict the Astros over the Braves in four.

M.C. O'Connor said...

I was at Willie Mac's final game. That event had a small-town, homey vibe. Things were different in 1980! Sports is much richer and much bigger these days. And the Giants had their best run ever with Boch, so the party had to be more impressive.

Andrew Baggarly interviewed Dave Roberts about the process he went through to be hired by Andrew Friedman and Farhan Zaidi to manage the Dodgers. Very long and arduous, apparently, they were looking for someone with great patience and great stamina. Roberts talked a lot about being himself and being authentic and not trying to do anything but be open and honest. He was not a favorite for the job but won everyone over with his relentlessness and his optimism. No surprise there, everyone loves Roberts and he has been known since his playing days for his integrity and his personality.

If you want to know what kind of manager the Giants will hire I suspect he will be a lot like Dave Roberts.

nomisnala said...

they did not necessarily have their best regular seasons under Bochy, but they clearly had their best post seasons with Bochy.

M.C. O'Connor said...

One of Boch's great strengths was "tournament baseball." He knew you had to manage differently in the post-season and I think the players responded. Think of Timmy in relief in 2012, for example. I like how he played games (like Game 6 in Philly in the 2010 NLCS) like they were "must-win" even though there was still a Game 7. He knew, like a good poker player, when to go "all-in" and it paid off, big time.