I'll take Mark's hopefully brief absence to chime in. I've been travelling lately, mostly my baseball watching was confined to checking box scores. I did tune in on an app not long ago, 6th inning against LA, saw Joey Bart hit an infield single to load the bases with no outs and the Giants one run behind, and......you know what happened. And that seems a microcosm of where the Giants are right now. But if I had a wish to wish, I wouldn't waste it on the Giants, they seem like pretty much a lost cause this year to me. I'd wish that the McKinney Fire that is burning right outside Mark's door doesn't get any closer, and no more harm is done. I'm sure things are anything but pleasant, I'm wondering if some of the haze I saw in the middle of Nevada the other day was from there (or maybe the Oak Fire, which is getting under control.
Blame the Giant's losses however you want - they are not playing baseball that compels one to watch right now. I found the trade deadline news depressing, and to me it further indicates that Major League Baseball is becoming a small squadron of upper tier (read: big money) teams and a bunch of feeder teams that exist to develop talent and then watch it leave. The Giants are stuck somewhere in between. They are a low budget team and one can only assume that the owners want it that way. Their plan, to build from within, is a fine plan, but meanwhile they are getting steamrolled and their building blocks look like cheap imitation Legos. Really, Logan Webb and Thairo Estrada (currently IL) are about it, one home grown and one found. Ruf was traded, he might see a world series, but he was hardly setting the world on fire here, and he was no worse than most of the remaining players. Crawford, Longoria - hurt. Pederson, DeScalfani - hurt. They're about to drop further behind in the "wild card race." They are "in it" now only because of a hot start. But, it could be worse. The 2022 Giants are, at best, a mid-tier team, although those won't exist much longer if the current trends continue, but consider the alternative. Would you be a fan of Pittsburg? How about the Nationals? They won the 2019 World Series. Everyone knew Scherzer was a mercenary and would leave, but then they watched Rendon walk, and they threw in Trea Turner to be extra nice to the doggers, and now Juan Soto is a Padre. The team is for sale but they are doing their best to decrease it's sale value. It's like putting your house up for sale and then going around and breaking all the windows. It's hard for me to separate my disappointment with the Giants, although I don't blame them for not bankrupting the system for a rental player, with my disappointment at seeing the Padres, and Yankees, and Braves, and you know whom else, just stockpile wealth. We already know who is going to be in the playoffs, why watch the rest of the season? You can argue that it's always been this way, or whatever, but really, the sport is becoming less and less watchable by the day.
5 comments:
The USFS fire analyst said he thought the high temps and possible T-storms this weekend would re-create the initial conditions that started the McKinney Fire! But he also said they have lines (and contingency lines) around the entire perimeter. The map showed the strongest containment on the SE portion of the fire which is the edge closest to us. And they were all looking forward to the slight cooling trend coming mid-week. They've got over 2000 people on the fire now and the helicopters and tankers have been overhead daily. We are still in a "warning" zone but life in town is close to normal and everyone seems to think we are past the worst. We'll see! By the way there is a brand new 'dozer line running up the hillside just NW of town, I can see it from my window as I bang out these keys one at a time with my left hand! (Cast comes off Tues).
I think modern MLB execs and their fin-tech toadies see the English Premier League as the Holy Grail of sport business. They are the richest, by far, and have the global reach, but of course only a handful of teams (Man City, Liverpool, Chelsea, maybe Man Utd & Arsenal) have a real shot at winning. The rest are nobodies but the lack of competition doesn't seem to hurt the product. Personally I think it sucks!
Expanded playoffs is the only way to keep the Yankees and Dodgers (our version of Man City and Liverpool) from winning every year. The more teams in the post-season the better. Last year was a great example with LA getting bounced before the Series.
And despite the crappy Giants season it is worth noting that AJ Preller has been the GM/PoBO at SD since 2014 and now it is 2022 and they have FINALLY assembled their dream roster! It takes time to re-build. I hope Giants ownership has the necessary patience. Andrew Friedman has been at LA since 2014. That system is the model for how to build a talent pipeline. Of course both FZ and Kap learned at his feet. We have the right people in place. I hope they get the support they need to build a winner. And I hope Giants fans recognize that it won't happen overnight despite last year's marvelous season.
I'm very happy that the fire danger appears to be diminishing.
Giants' baseball is desperately boring &, as it pertains to winning, hopeless. Actually, right now, all baseball is desperately boring.
Personally, I hate the modern-day 'business' of baseball - there is no continuity, there is no Team identification, there is dwindling interest in a Team, because there is basically no such thing as a Team. With the latest rules about optioning, IL, fake IL, & other Roster adjustments, Rosters cycle through Players by-the-dozen. And, the Giants do it about as bad as any of them - I don't think that there's been a day this year that I could have named the entire Roster, something that I used to be able to do without batting an eyelash. If Farhad Z. could trade his first-born for Player-to-be-named & an Equipment bag, he probably would.
Yet, even if I were to surrender my normal Fan values (e.g. I really liked Darin Ruf - at this point of this Season, to trade him for another version of Darin Ruf is just bizarre???) to the modern times, what-the-f were the Giants doing at the trade deadline??? Why didn't they trade Rodon? Why didn't they trade (alleged All-Star) Pederson? They are now going to lose them for zilch. They can't even effectively play their own stupid Game of modern-day Roster bullshit.
And, the Team Owner is a major contributor to the (politically) worst of the worst. So, what's to like about the current iteration? I'm having an existential baseball & Giants' crisis. I don't believe in the product anymore, because I think that the business is lousy & rotten.
So, have fun, elite Teams who seem to have unlimited money, & an unlimited way to somehow flaunt the Salary Cap. It's gonna be years & years of Yankees, Mets, Dodgers, Padres, Astros, & Red Sox. (The Angels & the Blue Jays will still out-spend everyone, but never win anything.)
Ruf's 36, Davis is 29. Neither is known as a glove man but Davis plays 3B as well as OF, Ruf only 1B and OF. Both mash lefties but Davis has less of a platoon split. I like Ruf a lot but the trade makes sense even if straight up.
But the kicker is that the Giants got THREE OTHER PLAYERS in the deal! All are starting pitchers: one to AAA (Thomas Szapucki) and two to A+ (Nick Zwack and Carson Seymour).
The Mets are in a pennant race and can afford to overpay.
I'd like to see the Giants sign Rodon longer term but he might walk (exercise his option). If he does they get a compensation pick (2nd or 3rd round). My guess is they would have traded him if they got a offer > or = to that pick value, but they did not. I think the concussion made Pederson's trade value plummet.
I should note that the Giants like local boys. Davis is from Elk Grove (and of course Joc is from Palo Alto). Davis is under team control two more years and Joc is a FA in 2023.
The sports business is a lousy, rotten one. Always has been. There's just SO MUCH MORE MONEY in that business today than there used to be that it smells worse than ever before. So we either hold our noses or follow something else.
I would hope that we can sign Joc again. Also I would love to extend Rodon for a few years, and pick up another ace, too bad we let Gausman go. He pitched 6 shutout innings yesterday leaving ahead 2-0. Although Toronto won, they could not hold Gausman's lead and he did not get the win. They have done this to him several times as did the giants. A staff leading with Rodon, Webb and Gausman, probably would have assured the giants a playoff spot. Too bad DeSlafani got hurt, he had a good spring and then injuries just screwed him up. Also this year the infield defense, not to mention the outfield defense has hurt giants pitchers in so many ways. Even Crawford who has missed a bunch of games already has 12 errors. Very few giant fielders have positive fielding WAR's. The defense has lost them quite a few games this year. Perhaps with a few more strike out pitchers those pesky infield hits would not be as much of a problem, but we must be leading the world in infield hits allowed, and in botched plays on ground balls in the infield with the game on the line.
Gaus signed 5-yr, $110M deal and he's 31. Rodon is two years younger. The Giants don't seem to like those $100M+ long contracts but maybe this time they will go for it. His injury history makes it a tough call, but I think it might a good risk. He's been great this year in SF.
DeSclafani's injury was a big blow. He threw 167-2/3 IP last year (31 starts). His season was rated 3 fWAR (4 bWAR). A valuable guy--they signed him to a 3-year deal. The Giants were lucky to have Junis step in to that role. A healthy DeSclafani will be huge in 2023.
Joc is a good low-cost LH slugger and I could easily see him returning. And as I say often--he's a local boy!
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