Wednesday, July 22, 2020

The Yaz & Dick Show

SF 4  OAK 2
The two outfielders combined for five hits and three runs scored, both launching homers in their first at-bats. Yaz' led off the 1st and Dick's the 2nd. The Giants 9-man staff subdued the Oaklanders on two hits and it was another nice win. The A's had a beef in the 2nd when Chad Pinder's long blast was ruled a two-run triple and not a three-run homer, but otherwise they couldn't get anything going against the Giants one-man-one-inning approach. That's 18 pitchers, 18 innings across the two practice games! I'd love to see that in a regular-season game. I remember, many decades ago, telling people that in the future baseball teams would use three guys for three innings apiece instead of starters and relievers. I was mocked, of course, but if any manager and team would try something like that it would be Kap and the 2020 G-men. No one anticipated the use of "openers" and now it is part of the league's repertoire. With this weird season ahead of us, it behooves us to remember Hunter S. Thompson's immortal words: "when the going gets weird, the weird turn pro."

Neither Brandon Belt not Evan Longoria will be on the Opening Day roster due to nagging injuries. Johnny Cueto will get the start in LA on Thursday against Clayton Kershaw.

Go Giants!

--M.C.

3 comments:

M.C. O'Connor said...

Here's Kapler:

“I’m especially pleased to come out of these games with our arms healthy, fresh and our volumes built to where we expected them to be,” Kapler said. “We have relievers built up to go up and down and pitch multiple innings. We have bulk pitchers who can give us length throughout the game. If you asked me at the outset of camp what my wish would be, it would be to break with healthy and fresh arms. And I think we’ve done that.”


link:
https://theathletic.com/1944545/2020/07/22/giants-notes-a-night-of-dominant-pitching-and-empowerment-at-oracle-park/

M.C. O'Connor said...

The Giants are going into 2020 with a team that is really lacking talent especially compared to front-running teams like the Dodgers. They are projected (via FanGraphs and SportsBettingDime) to win only 25 games!

So, it will "take a village" for the Giants to be competitive. Expect to see a lot of over-managing in an attempt to get the best matchups.

I have no issue with that. If you have horses, you let them run. The Giants don't have Mookie Betts or Cody Bellinger, the kinds of players you leave out there all the time because they are MVP-caliber.

The Giants will likely only have one position player (Yaz, I imagine) who will be out there every day in either CF or RF. Dubon might get the next most appearances but only because he can play multiple places. Either Solano or Flores might see as much time on the field. The rest of the guys should expect to be platooned. They will be pinch-hitting, pinch-running, coming in as defensive replacements, getting spot starts, etc. They should prepare to be as flexible as their skills allow them to be.

Anything can happen in 60 games. If the Giants have a good Dickerson-fueled run like they had last July then they could disrupt the race. I think the odds of that are low. In the end, talent really matters the most.

But I think the 2020 Giants will be fun and interesting even if they are a weak club. And I think we will get a chance to see some young players who could emerge as regulars for 2021 and beyond.

M.C. O'Connor said...

Get used to seeing Mookie Betts. He just signed a 12-year, $365M extension with the Dodgers.

Think about how wealthy an organization has to be to have ONE EMPLOYEE with a $30M+ annual salary!! That's a big goddamn monthly check.

Betts turns 28 in October and isn't the best player in baseball only because of another guy in LA (fortunately on the other LA team) named Mike Trout.