In my last post I said that "Webb can't do it alone" but it seems he took exception to that tonight and damn well tried to do it all alone. Fortunately his fielders made the plays and the the lineup eked out the bare minimum of runs to edge the Padres. Webb gave up a run in the 1st on a dinker, a double, and a dunker, and it looked like Blake Snell and the Padres bullpen (and the Giants offensive ineptitude) would make the 1-0 lead stand. Webb kept throwing his nasty stuff and kept grinding out one scoreless frame after another and it finally paid off in the 8th. Marco Luciano, who had a great night, doubled after LaMonte Wade, Jr. walked with one out. Joc Pederson was walked to load the bases and Patrick Bailey forced out Wade at home. Is there any team in baseball lousier with the bases loaded than the Giants? Michael Conforto, however, knocked in two with an opposite-field hit to give the Giants (finally!!) the lead. In a surprise but well-deserved move Kap eschewed his closer and sent out his ace to finish the job. Webb quickly got in trouble with back-to-back singles but once again Kap stuck with him and he got three ground balls from the next three hitters to complete the game and seal the win. One of the outs was a close play at home and I thought I was going to pass out from the tension. That was one of the best finishes we've seen in this agonizing, frustrating season.
We all know Webb is the star of the club and it's great that he had one of his best performances at home in his penultimate start. It was also good to see young (22 years old) Luciano put his stamp on the game. He's the 2024 shortstop at this point. Brandon Crawford is the greatest SS in SF history but I think we can all see that he's at the end of his illustrious career. I hope he retires and gets a proper send-off in the final home series vs. LA this weekend.
Webb's final line: 9 IP, 9 H (8 singles), 1 R, 0 BB, 7 K, 110 pitches (76 strikes), and 15 ground ball outs. He was masterful. I would like to note that Cy Young candidate Blake Snell (14-9, 2.25 ERA) threw 100 pitches in his six shutout innings. He leads all starters in walks with 99! I prefer Webb's efficiency (only 31 free passes). Snell averages just under 5-2/3 IP per start (180/32 = 5.63); Webb almost an inning more (216/33 = 6.55).
Kyle Harrison, who looked a lot better in his last outing (and the team played one of their worst games of the season), gets the start tomorrow night (6:45 PT).
Go Giants!
--M.C.
10 comments:
I think Webb at this point is the new Greg Maddux. I still notice that after around 96 pitches, he starts to unintentionally get some balls up. He still managed to complete the game. The hitting has been more than disappointing. It has almost disappeared. the Giants have the worst OPS in the league. I expected them to be somewhere in the middle. They are hitting for a low average, not walking as much as the last few years, but they are in the middle of the pack on walks. They are striking out at a record pace along with the lowly Rockies. I have read that Conforto may opt out of his contract. Don't know if he can get more for next year, but he may be going for a multi-year deal. I am not sure how I feel about the team losing him. He was hurt so often. He did get the game winning hit in Florida at the game I went to. Pitching for next year could be. Webb, Harrison, Beck, Winn, and Manaea, with Stripling as possibility. Of course they can make trades, or sign a free agent, but they look solid. We may also have another prospect or 2 that could step up. I am more worried about the hitting. The new baseball rules have made speed a premium asset, and teams with good speed came out better than predicted. The giants have some prospects with speed but can they get on base? The giants fielding this year, when viewed in reference with the other teams in the N.L. was terrible. Not only did they make the most errors by far, but they also made a ton of mental errors, some of which cost them games. Another problem the giants had this year, was how they played against bad teams. They just did not take care of business against the bad teams. For a while they had the Rockies number, but not in September when it counted. I am still not a big fan of many of this year's rule changes, and I especially find interleague play in September, to be counterproductive to my interest in watching a game.
I see both Greg Maddux and Rick Reuschel. Both worked fast, threw sinkers, got a lot of weak contact, and didn't walk people.
Yeah the hitting has been shockingly inept. I'm not as shocked about the fielding, that was a potential weak spot, but I really thought they'd hit better.
This last stretch of road games in August and September they went 7-23. That's as bad as a road team has ever played in SF/NYG history.
I think it's fitting that the Giants were eliminated on the night when they wore the worst uniforms in MLB. I think San Diego has also been eliminated because they have a losing record vs the Cubs, even though they could theoretically tie them at 82 - 80. ESPN's standings don't show it though.
Now I see that Manaea is also opting out. So both Boras guys that signed a deal with an opt ou in year 2, are opting out. I think the giants may have fixed Manaea, and perhaps conforto will improve during his second year back from major injury. This should teach Zahdi to not make these kind of deals so easily, especially with Boras, if he wants to hold on to guys for a second year. I see a lot of fans have soured on Pederson, I still like him as a piece of the team who is a threat at the plate, and I do not find his fielding as bad as some folks seem to think it is. the recent reports of Joc, and Yaz having different clubhouse styles is a bit problematic, as Yaz seems to be more serious, and Joc tends to want to lighten things up. Perhaps if the team did not collapse this would not have been viewed as a problem. Zaidi's one year opt out deals did not seem to take into account that this year would be a weak free agent market. The calls for Kapler to be fired, seem to be ridiculous to me. With all the injuries this year, it is amazing that we have won 78 games at this point. I have been whining for a new hitting approach since early August, but the giants still believe in launch angle, and guessing at pitches with 2 strikes with runners on base. That worked in 2021, but now teams know the giants approach and have made adjustments.
If players think they can do better on the FA market, that's OK by me. Manaea was crappy for 5 months! I like him as a pitcher but he did not perform very well for most of the season. That would be a red flag for me on a long-term deal.
Agreed about Kap. With only two starters and no hitting it is amazing they were in the race until the final weeks.
I'm fine with Joc coming back. He's a useful player and can still mash. He has said he many times that he really likes the organization. And it is good to have a little conflict. You take a bunch of competitive people and put them together day after day and there is going to be friction. Especially if they and the team perform below expectations. Too much is made of clubhouse harmony. You want harmony ON THE FIELD fer chrissakes!! No one has to be pals off the field.
What's the diff?
Yaz Joc
HR 15 15
AB 325 351
Avg .237 .239
OBP .329 .353
BB 42 56
Yaz can play some defense. Neither one is worth spit, IMO.
The "diff" is two arb-years left for Yaz. Right now Joc is the highest-paid player! He won't get another QO, of course, and I doubt if the Giants will outbid anyone for his services, but they will make an effort to keep him.
Neither may be very exciting but as we've seen it is not easy to get above-average major-league outfielders (see Haniger, Mitch and Conforto, Michael). You'd think there would be lots of guys out there you could plug in and do better but there aren't. We saw that it's hard to plug in minor leaguers and hope for major-league production, too!
Now, if the Giants sign Shohei Ohtani and Cody Bellinger as free agents then I think that would improve the offense. But I'm not sure that's very likely. We just have to hope guys like Matos can hit and guys like Slater (one more arb-year) hit better.
Ideally you could trade a surplus of talent in one area for young players from other clubs but I don't know if the Giants have that. Maybe someone like Camilo Doval would be a good trade piece?
Looks like Webb had his last start. It's Winn, Beck, and Harrison for the weekend.
It was probably WEbb's choice. If he wanted to shoot for 200 K's or not. He had a great year whether he gets another start or not. It may not be possible, but I hope that Webb can kick it up one more notch next year.
The calls for Kapler to be fired, seem to be ridiculous to me.
Agreed about Kap.
Don't look now, but.....
Yup, heard that the giants have fired Kapler. I think that is a big mistake. ESPN said players lost confidence in him. I actually think he did miracles with this team. Pisses me off about the players. They don't know what they have til its gone. But I am sure there are plenty of other good managers around. I just thought that Kapler was exceptional. Without a really good manager, with all the injuries this team had, they would have been lucky to have 70 wins. This actually kind of really ticks me off, but of course the game goes on.
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