It was The Veteran Savvy Clutchness Show last night in San Francisco. Starter Blake Snell threw a great game and team MVP Matt Chapman delivered the winning hit. Snell was unscored upon through six frames but came out for the 7th and gave up a run. The home squad didn't get anything going against Marlins righty Adam Oiler but managed to load the bases against reliever Mike Baumann in the 8th. Chapman knocked in all three with a double to left-center. Tyler Rogers and Ryan Walker got the last six outs.
The website says 24-year-old Mason Black is the starter tonight (6:05 Pacific). He hasn't pitched in the bigs since his debut in May when he had three starts and a relief appearance. He's a 2021 third-round pick from Lehigh and has been pitching for the River Cats in the meantime.
Go Giants!
--M.C.
8 comments:
Just a week ago we were ahead of the Cubs in the wild card spot. Of course trailing the Braves and the Mets by a bit, but nothing a decent winning streak would not have helped. We were several games ahead of the Cubs, and the giants were/are playing and making moves as if they are giving up. Yet the Cubs have decided to compete as best they can, and if they win today they will now be 5 games over 500, and putting pressure on the Mets and the Braves. With the wild card being what it is, if a team is 500 or above in August a strong September can still get a team into serious wildcard contention. It seems the giants are just not mustering up the ability to turn it up a notch. Lately the giants pitchers are walking batters, in numbers we had never seen in the Kapler years, and not even in the first half of the Melvin year. Our pitchers are striking out more hitters, but our hitters are striking out a lot more this year too. Patrick Bailey hitting 112 since the all star break, while Joey, not good enough to be a giants, is hitting 302 since the all star break. Cobb today pitched 6 plus inning giving up 2 hits, and only one unearned run, after he was removed from the game. Lets spend the time getting these guys better and out of their injuries or slumps and just when it is time to make a run for the wild card, trade them. I would rather have Cobb in the rotation, and Birdsong learning his craft in the minors. I don't know if what Zaidi did this post all star break was fair to the fans. Maybe in the long run, some of the moves will bring back dividends. Difficult to tell, but with the Zaidi Churn, hard to know if anyone we received in return will remain in the giants system.
I think Ray was supposed to pick up the slack for Cobb. Not to mention the Giants save a few million by moving him. You have to look at the accounting these days. Modern GM/PoBO types are much more ruthless about costs and make a lot of moves that don't make sense unless you look at the bottom line.
I think they gambled on the young players, esp. the two young pitchers (Harrison and Birdsong) and it isn't paying off. Both are still too raw. It doesn't help that veteran young stud Logan Webb gives up six runs to a piece-of-crap team today! Yuck!
They look like they have a couple of regulars for next year (Ramos and Fitzgerald) which is nice to find out. But there's no thump in the lineup. They still need the ever-elusive "impact" bat.
In July the Giants scored more runs (100) than they gave (89). It's the only month they did that. They went 13-12.
I see that Taylor Roger's is back with the club, so no one wanted a fairly good, but pricey left-handed reliever, I guess. Tyler Matzek is now back in the Braves system, and long-time Diamonback Nick Ahmed has signed on with the Padres, his third non-diamondback NL West team this year.
The umpiring this series has been especially egregious. The announcers went on and on about Tyler Fitzgerald being called for obstruction, when it clearly wasn't (that runner scored), and today he was called out at second when the Marlin's second baseman blocked the bag with his foot.
The Giants have only won 5 games in their last 4 series, 12 games including the 2 worst teams in baseball. I don't expect the Giants to win more than 8 to 10 more games of their remaining 24. I expect them to finish worse than last year, 77 wins tops. I will say, though, that I think the team has potential. Not with our current roster, but with some health, maturity, an extension for Chapman, and a decent bat or two.....
Today watching the orioles white sox game, they mentioned that the whitesox have only won 4 games since the all star break. And we all know that one of those games was against the giants. Of interest, Austin Slater is 3 for 3 and a HBP so far today, against right handed pitchers. Who said he can't hit righties. At the moment, Slater is 13 for 43 as an Oriole, for a 302 Average. Of interest since the all star break Patrick Bailey is hitting 110 with a 286 OPS. This does not make up for his elite framing and elite popup time. The offensive combination of Bailey, Casali, and of course Murphy, have helped to bury this team.
Makes you wish for Blake Sabol! I do see that Joey Bart is on the IL. Anyway, I have a "water under the bridge" attitude toward players who moved on. It was usually the right move at the time. Slater really played poorly early on, for example, and Baltimore is his third team this season. And he's 31. So, keeping him would not have moved the needle. The guys they have are the guys responsible. They need to play better for the team to be better.
The moving of Slater made some sense at the time, although the idea of a player moving toward the numbers reaching the mean of previous years suggested that Slater was due for a better second half, of course unless the team thought it was not going to happen. But paving the way for Matos, or as it turns out Encarnacion seemed ok. I will never understand the Bart deal. The third overall draft pick, who also had an excellent Spring. The potential and the power potential was always there. And to get rid of him with the plan being Murphy (at way too high a cost) as the backup seemed foolish and I said so at the time. I am old enough to remember the giants getting rid of George Foster. But if the giants got a decent return for Bart it would not have seen quite as foolish. I have to wonder, what a catcher like Melvin thought of the move. It is not in hindsight that I am upset with that move, it was in real time. I thought in the past Farhan had done a decent job, but this year his moves have me completely flummoxed. His continued signing of former injured guys to a one or two year contract with opt outs, is just not working for the giants. Takes half a season to fix these guys, and if the giants do fix them, they are gone, if they do not, they opt in, and it seems the giants get very little out of these contracts. Just does not seem to be a reasonable approach for the long run, and it is not working in the short run. Also the constant Farhan churn has to take it toll on player morale. The team seems awfully flat after the Estrado move. On paper it may have been the right move, but clubhouse wise, not so sure. Taylor Rogers did not pitch so well after the teams move. I was hoping he would be picked up by a definite playoff team. But the idea of splitting twins, one would think would also not go over too well in the clubhouse. If these moves were meant to shock the team into winning, it did not work. If one has to give Farhan a report card for his moves this off season, and during the season, it would not be a great report card.
I think the key to the Bart deal was that he was out of options. It's not like the Giants didn't give him a chance, it just didn't work out. I hope he finds success.
It's all about the draft picks. If the young players in the system emerge this season and next and they form a nucleus to build around then FZ & Co. have done their jobs. Putting Luciano at 2B for example is what needs to happen. They gotta get the young talent developed and into the big leagues.
The Giants have always refused to "rebuild." They always claim they can "be competitive" while re-tooling and so we get stuck with a half-assed team that doesn't really have the guns to win but doesn't really suck, either. I'd rather them field an entire team of rookies and see what they have and then go out and get the vets to fill in the gaps!
Agree about the Bart deal. The Giants did not receive anything in return and he had a nice Spring. Also the move for Murphy at significant cost, seemed quite foolish when Bart was already on the Roster.
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