Giants win their third straight with a three-homer attack. Panda got it started in the 4th driving in Belt with a bomb, Pillar added a solo shot in the 5th, and Young Yaz drove in Pillar with a dinger of his own in the 7th. Drew Pomeranz kept the Brewers in the yard for five innings and the 'pen did the rest. Mark Melancon had a little trouble in the 8th but Reyes Moronta, Sam Dyson, and Will Smith all threw scoreless frames. Smith is Mr. Automatic: 17 for 17 in save chances.
Drew Pomeranz has had a pretty rough 2019 so it is good to see some effective innings from him. He labored: 24 batters and 93 pitches, but he didn't implode. Maybe this can be the start of a better stretch for him. He certainly has an impressive curve ball that can get a lot of swinging strikes and his velocity seems decent, regularly hitting 92-93 mph, so there's hope.
Milwaukee is a tough opponent, the rest of the weekend will be a challenge. Madison Bumgarner goes this afternoon (1:05 Pacific). At this point every start of his is an audition, I suppose.
Go Giants!
--M.C.
3 comments:
I have a better idea. Endeavor to keep Madbum and trade Dyson, Watson, Smith, Melancon if anyone wants him. The Giants have been able to find those guys in the past, they can do so again. You want the team to improve, right? All we're going to get is draft choices, so all we're really discussing is who might net us more or higher draft choices, and they're all crap shoots. But you want a rotation, and Bumgarner and Cueto would make a great 1 - 2 punch at the top. Or do we want bad hitting AND bad pitching to go with our crap shoots? I know there is a lot of free agency involved.
I'm thinking about what other teams might want and they might rather have Reyes Moronta (still under team control, low-cost, high-ceiling with his 98 mph) instead of Will Smith (older, more expensive, short-timer). Would the Giants trade their promising youngster? At this point I'd have to say 'yes' to any trade that helps the Giants improve despite my desire to keep all the young talent, esp. young arms.
Moving older, expensive guys like Melancon means the Giants eat salary, much like the Sox did with Panda. They'd have to say "he's a sunk cost" and cut him loose. They don't get any salary relief, and they still have to fill that spot on the roster. And there's no guarantee that Ray Black or Pat Venditte or etc. etc. will do a better job.
If the Giants trade Bum (or anyone else) they will want players, not draft picks. They might be minor-leaguers, so in that sense they are a crapshoot, just like the draft. The Giants will get draft compensation if they give Bum a QO at the end of the year and he rejects it.
If they DON'T trade Bum there is no guarantee he will stick around and sign a contract with the Giants. He'll be a free agent.
We need to make sure that the giants do not significantly move into wild card contention before we start trading off one of the best bullpens assembled in baseball.
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