Alex Pavlovic at NBC Sports has a piece about the changes to the ballpark. The bullpens will be moved from the foul areas to right-centerfield. They'll probably add a new row of premium on-field seating past the dugouts in the new space. That will require more nimble ball dudes, don't you think? A chunk of Triples Alley will be converted to the bullpen area. No surprise, they talked about that last season. Will it change the park dynamic? Some--the current 421 feet will drop to about 410 feet, according to the article, which will certainly turn some long outs and some triples into homers. Brandon Belt might even crack 20 bombs! I suspect it will still be a pitchers' park, just not as extreme. That's OK, a little tweaking never hurt. Speaking of hurt, that will happen less. Ballplayers won't have to negotiate the mound in the foul areas, and that's a good thing. The proximity to the 'pens was a nice feature for fans--you could always wander down there to see the starter warm up before the game even if your tickets were in another section.
December 9-12 is the next big date on the MLB calendar: the Winter Meetings in San Diego. Roster Resource has a projected 26-man roster. (That's another change for 2020.) Cot's Contracts has the payroll picture. And here's the current 40-man roster. You can see that the team looks a lot like last year's team. And despite new people in charge, the club is in the same place. The current roster is not strong enough, and there isn't enough young talent to fill in the gaps. On the plus side, the Giants are a wealthy franchise and have more financial flexibility than they care to admit. Organizational changes are afoot, and that's good. The team needs new blood, new ideas, and new energy. I know they won't call it "rebuilding" because that sends season ticket holders fleeing, but they are clearly "remodeling" and I'm ready to see them pick up the pace.
Perhaps something exciting--or at least notable--will happen in the next few weeks.
--M.C.
15 comments:
Will the shorter centerfield fence of 410 from 421 help or hurt the giants. We seem to have for this year a center fielder who can roam large swaths of ground in the outfield. Not sure if it is an advantage or not. Plus we often have had fly ball pitchers, and with the live ball this could be more of a detriment. Of course getting hitters to come to SF could be 11 feet easier, with the hope that it does not deter pitchers, who otherwise may have chosen somewhere else. I do like the idea of safer areas in foul ground for corner outfielders. Unnecessary obstacles which can cause injuries have no place.
It's hard to say what the outcome will be. I suppose, since all the data are out there on every batted ball since the Statcast system was set up, one could get real numbers on this. I suspect, like I said, it will improve the hitting numbers a little, and not hurt the pitching numbers too much. It will be a measurable, maybe even noticeable change, but not a balance-tipping change. Other than the injury factor, of course. It will still be a pitchers' park. And if they put in more seats on the field past the dugouts that will be fewer foul-outs. Does that help the hitters?
Regardless, it is not the ballpark the Giants need to fix, but the performance of the team. They played really poorly at home last season. The F.O. is going to make a lot of incremental changes, it is going to be hard to sort out which ones matter.
Rule 5 players have to be "protected" by tomorrow. Giants don't have any openings--right now--on the 40-man. That could mean they've already added the players they intend to keep from being selected.
December 2nd is the "non-tender" deadline. Arbitration-eligible players have to be dealt with. The Giants have five guys (Pillar, Solano, Dickerson, Rickard, Peralta) on the list. They have to be offered a contract or cut loose and become free agents. Sometimes those guys come back on minor-league deals.
Pillar is projected to make the most ($9.7M) and that's a big decision. He was a lot of fun to watch in the field and had plenty of pop but a sub-.300 OBP. Should they keep him? His glove might be enough to say yes.
Alonzo Powell takes a job in Japan. Giants will need a new hitting coach.
An interesting article at The Hardball Times called "On Baseball, Game Design, and Output Randomness." Here's the link:
Kenneth Kelly takes a look at the chess analogy that is often used to describe managerial moves and other aspects of baseball strategy and finds it wanting:
" A manager isn’t moving pawns on a board when he makes make a pitching change; he’s rolling dice. No baseball decision is guaranteed success or failure. Baseball, ultimately, isn’t a strategy game. It wasn’t designed to be. It’s designed to be random chaos, a push-your-luck gamble where the best team doesn’t always win, and baseball is so much better for it."
Good stuff!
(H/T Baseball Musings)
Statistics and probability maybe make it a little less like chess, but certainly does make it a strategic deliberation, despite a certain degree of randomness. It is certainly not chaos. Although in the N.L. one can walk the 8th place hitter, only to get burned by the pitcher, the odds are certainly not totally random over the course of a season. Anything can happen during one AB, but clearly to get into the playoffs their is a 162 game season, and the correct decisions based on mathematical probabilities or even gut feelings, or knowing a pitcher has a hangover, or a hitter has a sore wrist all come into play when it comes to making wise decisions. If we were talking about pure chaos we would not need a manager. I would argue that baseball is a game based on mathematics more than almost any other major sport. The percentage effect that chaos has on the game is probably also able to be calculated. There is just enough chaos to make the outcomes slightly unpredictable. This is good. But how many baseball experts thought that there was so much chaos in the game that they did not predict the unholy dodgers to win the N.L. west?
What do I want in a hitting coach besides someone who can communicate and get his points across to the players with good results?
I want someone who will enhance plate discipline
I want someone who will enhance pitch recognition
I want someone who will get the players to use the whole field and be able to have some control over the direction that the ball is hit.
I want someone who can increase the contact rate of putting the bat on the ball
I want someone who can recognize flaws in a players approach and fix it.
I want someone who can increase the batters bat speed.
I want someone who can give the batters a plan, an approach and instill confidence in their ability to hit.
Perhaps I am asking to much but that is what I want in a hitting coach.
A hitting coach has to get the information to the players that helps them improve, that is, to be the best they can be. Not all hitters have to have the same skills, but they have to be in a position to make the most of their talent. Some guys may never be particularly disciplined, but they can still be good hitters if they hit the ball hard regularly, for example, or as you say use the whole field. Ideally I'd like .300/.400/.500 guys at every spot but that's asking too much!
Ted Williams said the most important thing is "get a good ball to hit." Barry Bonds said he never swung at a pitch he didn't think he could hit out. Those are your paragons of plate discipline and pitch recognition.
I like what you said about confidence. Player development is supposed to be Kapler's strength. We need guys who can help our younger hitters in particular emerge as major-leaguers.
Did you know the Giants had a 'Coordinator of Pitching Sciences'? His name is Matt Daniels. That sounds like a great job. Anyway, the team's picked up another arm, a 30-year old with no MLB time, named Trey McNutt. From MLBTR:
Daniels tracked McNutt at least through his independent league days, and the Giants’ pitching coordinator seems to believe in the righty’s ability to continue to improve, despite being quite a few years older than most farmhands. Still, after the success of Nick Anderson in Miami and Tampa Bay (whose career tracked a similar path), McNutt’s chances of making his major league debut are far from dead, and a year from now, he could very well be the Merrill Kelly to Anderson’s Miles Mikolas.
Nick Anderson, Merrill Kelly, and Miles Mikolas are all late bloomers (29, 30, and 29). Ryan Vogelsong didn't really put it together until he was 33. One good thing about roster churning is the great variety of stories. Lots of ballplayers out there--it is always interesting to see the different paths these guys take. And of course everyone loves the story of the marginal player who becomes an All-Star and kicks ass for a championship team. Kinda like Vogie.
one reason Vogelsong put it together late had been earlier nagging injuries. He clearly was a talented pitcher even at the time the giants traded him away.
Well, I haven't been a big Bernie Sanders supporter up to now, but that might have to change.
https://twitter.com/BernieSanders/status/1199027511604260870
Minor-league teams are an appendage of MLB. They aren't independent entities. They used to be, but they haven't been for decades. You can thank Branch Rickey for that! So if MLB wants to trim the fat then they will be on the chopping block. If the teams and leagues were independent, then they would have the freedom to expand or contract as they saw fit. Currently a minor-league team is just a vessel for an MLB club to shuffle its prospects through.
If we want viable, independent baseball, then get rid of the monopoly and get rid of the draft and make it a truly competitive capitalist entertainment industry. Then the good products will survive and we'll have a dynamic market and more interesting options.
As much as I have enjoyed minor-league parks and games, they only exist because they've been subsidized by MLB.
Matt Duffy is a free agent!
A lengthy and detailed overview of the Giants farm system and top prospects. It's FanGraphs so it is not behind a paywall. It's a long piece, I'm still working through it!
Stephen Vogt goes to the Diamondbacks. He was great last season for the Giants. They will need to find a good backup for Buster. I wonder if Aramis Garcia is ready for that role?
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