Roster-ing

The Giants have re-signed Anthony DeSclafani. It's a three-year deal for $36M. Sounds good to me! They are supposed to be close to a deal with Alex Wood, too. MLBTR says they are also interested in Alex Cobb. He's a 34-year old righty who came up with Tampa Bay and most recently pitched in Anaheim. He's thrown 174 games across ten seasons, all as a starter, racking up over 1000 IP with a 3.87 ERA (3.94 FIP).

The Giants also traded Jay Jackson to the Braves for cash or a PTBNL. They had to make room for some Rule V guys. And speaking of clearing space on the 40-man, Alex Dickerson was DFAd.

Buster won Comeback Player of the Year for the NL.

I think the Giants need to go all-in on Seiya Suzuki.

--M.C.

2021 NL MVP

Brandon Crawford finished fourth in the voting, behind winner Bryce Harper and runners-up Juan Soto and Fernando Tatis, Jr. I thought you might like to see the voting breakdown:

Crawford was named on all 30 ballots. Andrew Baggarly (on The Athletic) wrote a piece breaking down his vote. He put BCraw #1 and is responsible for the lone vote for LaMonte Wade, Jr.*

If you enjoy debating the merits of the MVP this was a good year in the National League. There were a lot of deserving players. I think we'd all agree that BCraw was the MVP of the Giants. (And the Giants were the best team!) I'm glad he was named by all the writers, I think that says a lot about his impact. I don't really care so much who wins as it is too hard to separate individuals and teams and too hard to define "value" in the context of an entire season. I think Baggs was making a point: context matters. You don't just pick the guy with the best stats, you pick the guy who (in your view) made the biggest difference for his team. He also felt BCraw's fielding was under-valued, and I can't argue with that. And I can't argue with his ballot:

Shohei Ohtani was such an obvious choice in the AL and he won unanimously. Only the NL decision provided any barstool-argument fodder.

Congratulations to Brandon Crawford on an outstanding season!

--M.C.

 

*p.s. FanGraphs has a stat called WPA (win probability added) and Wade finished 11th in MLB and 6th in the NL. That was with only 381 PA. He sure got a lot of clutch hits!!

Coup for Kap

To no one's surprise Gabe Kapler was named NL Manager of the Year. He got 28 of the 30 first-place votes. He deserved it. The Giants were the most actively-managed team in MLB and they far exceeded all pre-season expectations. They won 107 games and captured the NL West flag on the final day, denying the Dodgers who were expected to run away with the division.

Congrats to Kap!

--M.C.

Q.O. for the C.O.

The Giants gave Brandon Belt a Qualifying Offer. (If you want to know the ins-and-outs of the QO follow the link.) Belt has until November 17th to decide. In short, if he says "aye-aye" the Giants keep him for another season (at $18.4M). If not he's a free agent.

No mutiny here--I say bring back The Cap'n!

 

 --M.C.

Gerald Dempsey Posey

Buster is supposed to announce his retirement from baseball tomorrow. What fortunate fans we were to watch his entire career!

You can click on the image to em-biggen.

The San Francisco Giants enjoyed their greatest successes when Buster Posey strapped on the "tools of ignorance" and led the team for over a decade from the backstop position. I can't complain about a single thing associated with Buster. He was the ideal baseball player and he will be greatly missed.

And he goes out on top with the 2021 NL West champs!

Aloha, Buster.

--M.C.

The Calendar

The Atlanta Braves win the 117th World Series over the Houston Astros. Thus ends the 2021 season. Now the off-season madness begins! Here are a few important dates to pay attention to (from MLBTR):

November 3: The beginning of a five-day period where teams and players must decide whether to exercise or decline contract options and opt-out clauses for the 2022 season. Eligible free agents cannot sign with anyone but their current team for five more days.

November 7, 4:00 pm CST: The deadline for teams to issue qualifying offers (one-year, $18.4MM contracts) to eligible free agents. For a breakdown of the draft choices teams would forfeit by signing a qualified free agent, see here.

November 8: Free agency officially opens.

November 8-11: General managers’ meetings, hosted in Carlsbad, California.

November 17: Deadline for players tagged with a qualifying offer to accept or reject the QO.

November 19: Deadline for teams to add players to the 40-man roster to keep them from selection in the Rule 5 draft.

December 1, 11:59 pm: Expiration of the current collective bargaining agreement. If MLB and the MLBPA do not agree on a new CBA by then, the league may institute a lockout that freezes teams’ ability to make transactions until negotiations are resolved.

It's difficult to know just how perilous the negotiations are. Early in the process you see a lot of over-heated rhetoric. What they actually say face-to-face does not get reported! Let's hope they can hammer something out and we can have a regular baseball season in 2022.

--M.C.