Take a look at the chart below (click on it to get a larger image). You can see the names on the left and what I want you to look at is the number on the far right. It is OPS+ and it measures OPS against a league-average hitter. A hitter rated 100 OPS+ is at league-average level, and a hitter rated 120 OPS+ is 20% better than a league-average hitter. All these hitters had at least 200 plate appearances (from Baseball-Reference).
Almost everyone on the list was over 100. That's like Lake Wobegon where everyone is above average! Seriously, the Giants were able to run out a lot of good players every day who could hit the damn baseball especially when given favorable match-ups. Even the guys who under-performed (La Stella and Dickerson) were expected to do better, and those expectations were reasonable given past performance. Casali was the backup catcher and thus subject to a different standard, and I think 42-13 in his starts works as a standard.
The rest of the list (under 200 PA) is Mauricio Dubon, Mike Tauchman, Thairo Estrada, Jason Vosler, Chadwick Tromp, Jaylin Davis, Joey Bart, and Skye Bolt. Only Estrada (52 G, 132 PA) delivered the goods (.273/.333/.479) with an OPS+ rating of 118. I hope he's a big part of next season. Even though the other names are underwhelming, remember of course that Tauchman made the play of the season in LA, which goes to show how many heroes it takes to win 109 games.
Take a look at the same page for the 2014 Giants. That team had a lot of good hitters up and down the lineup.
It seems like a no-brainer that the team will pick up Posey's option. They could offer Belt a QO, much like they did with Gausman. Bryant will be one of the more desirable free agents, and he does fit the Giants nicely, but that's too big of a picture to speculate about. Too many moving parts! Mostly I expect FZ & Co. will continue to acquire talent and keep the level of competition for roster spots at a high level. The 2021 Giants enjoyed some fine work by young pitchers that were promoted from within, maybe there will be some hitters in the system that will make highlights in 2022.
--M.C.
20 comments:
I'm reading an AP story that says that the Giants will exercise Posey's $22 million option.
Frankly, I didn't understand the La Stella contract, when they offered it. And, based upon this last year, I still don't. He has a lot to prove to me. My main concern is the wimpy OBP. Career-wise, it isn't that good, either. And, he's not a young guy. So, what gives?
I think they thought they were getting Frazier but they got Lastella. He did have several injuries so that may have affected him significantly this year. One wonders if he will have surrgey on his achilles tendon. Dickerson also had a subpar season, and he also could not seem to stay healthy. It seems the only issue with Posey is that he has given some hints that he may want to retire. I suspect the giants want to increase his contract to 3 years. Bryant is the quintessential giant, but for some reason he may garner a larger price tag than he is worth. I think if the giants can sign him and work on his plate discipline he could go back to being a superstar. His biggest issues were his lack of plate discipline (which seemed to improve during the playoffs), and his throwing from third base when he only plays third intermittently. At this point I am most interested as to what the giants rotation will look like next year. Is there a chance that they could sign Wood, DeSlafani, and Guasman? Do those guys actually love being giants? Is the fact that the giants did not move on further into the playoffs a factor on which guys want to re-sign with the giants? It will be a Winter of Rosterbation, and we all have to wonder if the giants brass can repeat their success and move on even deeper into the playoffs. What a great season.
FZ coveted La Stella for some time. This year he was too banged up to really show what he could do, I think. He played really well last season (between two teams) and only struck out 12 times in 55 games. That's the sort of thing our PoBO gets excited about.
That was the best strike out rate of his career. Although his strike out rate has never been that high, his 2020 figures were kind of an outlier. We may not be re-signing Solano? If so will Estrada or Dubon be able to take his place? Also will LaStella be healthy next year barring any unknown injury that could come in the future. I will not, but I almost want to turn off all my baseball sports information and tune in at the end of Spring training in 2022 and see who is on the roster.
I'm enjoying watching the Braves beat the Dodgers. It seems like Roberts is trying to prove he's as smart as Kapler, but he's not.
Roberts is a good manager, and he will sometimes do some things or go some places that no manager has done or gone before. Kapler is the manager of the year. Can he reproduce this season in 2022? Giants players will be aging and they probably need to infuse some new talented young blood into the MLB roster. I just read an article that said the giants will not sign Casali. I think that is one writers opinion and I hope they do. It may be possible to carry 3 catchers next year, especially if one or more of those catchers is available to play an additional position. The article said that Bart needs to come up or be traded. However, I read where Kuip said he would be fine if Bart had another year in the minors because his catching skills need more work. He had many good things to say about Bart, but the one problem is that he has not had enough reps behind the plate to get his skills totally MLB ready behind the plate. Casali's record when starting, despite his mediocre hitting speaks volumes of the importance of managing the game from the catchers position.
Bart has all his options remaining and his service time clock has barely started so there is no urgency with him. He did have an excellent year at AAA. Casali goes to his final arb year in '22 and is a free agent in '23, so I expect he'll remain in SF at least one more season. Ricardo Genoves got promoted to AAA near the end of the season after a strong showing in A+, so there may be some depth there.
By the way, league average OBP this season was .317, Giants as a team were .329 (5th). The league average typically does not get much more than .325, so a career .340 OBP ain't too bad.
I assume that the OBP comment was back to La Stella. Yes - that is his career OBP. But, just to frame it further, in the first year of a 3-year Contract, he had career-worst numbers in nearly every offensive category (incl. OBP), & he's 32 years old. That's what worries me. I'd love for him to be awesome, but he has a lot to prove.
Yeah, like I said, we saw an injured version of La Stella. I expect he will be better (closer to his career norms) next season, assuming he's healthy.
Think about the guys (non-pitchers) that FZ targeted these last few seasons: Wilmer Flores and Tommy La Stella. They are the only two guys he signed on multi-year deals. It's worked out with Wilmer. He's a solid guy. I suspect it will work out with Tommy, that is, they'll get a valuable player out of the deal. He doesn't have to be awesome, he just has to be the best version of himself.
Since I'm in a crabby mood, because LA won, I need to whine about Yastrzemski. He takes called 3rd strikes endlessly - yes, I know that some of this is 'by design', but I think that that's a silly premise, too. His overall 'K' rate went from bad to even worse. Like I said a few days ago, we don't have a single everyday OF - it was supposed to be him. We need to find that guy. Supposedly, they're prioritizing Starting Pitching, but, w/ so many more Bullpen Games, that seems a little weird, too. One quality OF would be high on my list.
I guess I'm not too concerned about next year. Too early. And there's too much residual joy from this season to be crabby. I'm still enjoying what went RIGHT this year! (I've also learned not to care about results that don't actually involve the Giants.)
Yaz struggled, no doubt. His K-rate was the same as last season but last year he walked more and of course hit a lot better. Even with the off-year he still hit 25 HR and 28 2B. I suspect, like most extended slumps, there was an underlying physical reason. It's all about health!
The 2021 Giants had really good starting pitching, it was a big part of their success, so I'm not surprised they will prioritize that. Plus everyone but Logan Webb is a free agent. I want to see Gausman back. That's more important to me. He was one of only seven guys to make 33 starts and his 192 IP was 6th-best. I suspect OFs will be easier to find than elite starters.
MLBTR says Hiroshima Carp might "post" (make available to MLB bidders) OF Seiya Suzuki. Here's his info:
https://www.baseball-reference.com/register/player.fcgi?id=suzuki001sei
He's young and has lots of pop.
Perhaps another part of Yaz's prolonged slump was that the league adjusted to him and found that he cannot hit the high 4 seem fast ball at the top of the K zone. He continued to struggle with that pitch throughout the season, only getting a few hits all season on that pitch. His approach with 2 strikes was to look for a particular pitch, I suppose the one the giants staff deemed most likely to be thrown in that situation. Unfortunately other teams had the same data, and often went against the trends seeing Yaz stand there on a fast ball right down the middle while he was looking for an off speed pitch. I might be okay with that approach in games where the team is winning or losing by more than 3 runs, but in a one run game, I would like to see similar pitches being fouled off if they are looking for something else. I do think your hypothesis that he was probably playing with injury is very likely and it did have an overall effect on his hitting. We can see how injury affect hitters as the always difficult out, Justin Turner of the dodgers, was playing hurt in the playoffs, and was no where near the threat that a healthy Turner can be. Injuries take their toll. Yaz was a great find, and I am glad he is and has been a giant the last few years. I look forward to watching his at bats, and his playing the outfield.
Getting back to Bart, the only urgency in Bart's case, is Bart himself, getting uneasy about his situation in the giants organization. Supposedly he is and has been frustrated but as long as they can keep him in a positive state of mind, and part of the giants MLB future, all should be fine. Otherwise, if he is traded, he had better yield a very significant return.
It's got to be frustrating being behind Buster Posey! Those are tough shoes to fill.
Bart's got 197 G and 845 PA in the minors. It's not that much time. Even Buster, a more polished player, had 172 G and 750 PA before call-up.
Buster will catch 100 games or thereabouts. The back-up spot is important. Bart will get a chance to compete for the job. Casali is in his final arb-year. Then he's a free agent. He made $1.5M this season. I suspect they'll give him a nice bump for a job well done and he'll be in the fold for cheap insurance for 2022. Bart can play himself on to the team and that's the way it should be.
I think they like Yaz and want him to be a regular. I've no doubt they are going to work with him. And I don't think Yaz liked seeing .224 next to his name. I'm looking forward to a better season in 2022.
I'm going from being a very temporary Cards fan to being a temporary Braves fan. The enemy of my enemy is my friend. Now I think I'd prefer the Astros, partly because of Dusty, partly because I admire Altuve, and partly because, since I was and am a fan of Barry Bonds, I don't hold it against jocks who cheat to succeed.
Personally, I'm a little sick of both the Astros & Altuve. It's not Altuve's fault, but, now, any time that anyone on the Astros does anything good, the first thing that the TV Producer HAS to show is Altuve's reaction - I'm really sick of it. It's at about the same level of consistency as when they did that w/ Lasorda.
So, 'F' the Astros. I'm an NL Fan, so, for me, it's the Braves for a week. That dude whiffing Pujols, Souza, & Betts in the 7th Inning, w/ runners at 2B & 3B, & all of the momentum shifting to LA, was absolutely incredible. Amazing performance! That, & Eddie Rosario (who I saw hit for the cycle [on 5 pitches] in SF). That, & Georgia, at this point, being slightly less despicable than Texas.
We don't watch a ballgame on TV. We watch a TV show. That TV show just happens to be about a baseball game.
Thus we are subjected to THEIR narratives. And when an outfit like ESPN or FOX gets a hold of a narrative, no matter how trivial, insulting, or stupid, we get it over and over again to the point of nausea.
If Altuve were 6'2" we'd never see him. Because he's "short" we get "short man making it in a big man's world" shoved down our throats.
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