The 2025 Giants (52-45, .536) find themselves six games behind the Dodgers and a half-game behind the Padres. There are three Wild Card spots allotted to the NL and the Giants are a half-game behind that bunch. The Brewers and the Mets have the top two seeds right now. It will be hard for three NL West clubs to get in to the post-season. The Cardinals and Reds aren't far behind, either.
The team ended April with a 19-12 record. They had a nice opening to the season scoring 142 runs against 119 allowed in the 31 games. Since that high point they've been a .500 club (33-33).
FanGraphs projects the Giants to go 33-32 in their final 65 games for an 85-77 finish (tied with the Padres!). Currently the Giants score 4.11 runs per game and that's projected to go up a bit (4.28). The pitching, currently allowing 3.94 rpg, is projected to regress a bit (4.16). 85-77 would be their best record since 2021 but might not be enough for the playoffs.
Buster Posey took a big swing in the off-season to land Willy Adames and took an even bigger swing last month to get Rafael Devers. On one hand, the team is winning. On the other, neither player is contributing close to what was expected from them. Devers is injured. Is he hurt bad enough for the nuclear option? That is shut him down, get him fixed, and have him healthy for 2026? They did that with Robbie Ray after all—he was on the shelf when they acquired him. They were patient and now that he's fully healthy it's paying off. He's kicked ass all season.
We'll find out soon enough whether or not Devers can help in the stretch run. They could use another arm or two, especially a lefty reliever, and it wouldn't hurt to pick up a right-handed OF bat. Unless you think Luis Matos can play that role the rest of the way. It doesn't look like they'll get any help from Bryce Eldridge although we might see Carson Whisenhunt. Otherwise all the youth has already been promoted to the big squad.
They open the second half in Toronto on Friday afternoon (4:07 Pacific). The Blue Jays are a good team and lead the AL East by two games. It looks like Verlander-Ray-Webb for the weekend series.
Go Giants!
--M.C.
2 comments:
The Giants drafted 18 players including three high schoolers.
The top two picks (IF Gavin Kilen, Tenn.; OF Trevor Cohen, Rutgers) are bat-to-ball guys. Michael Holmes has run the draft since 2019. He said things went much the same this year as before under Farhan Zaidi. Most of the work and decision-making is done in advance, of course. Apparently the organization likes polished, college contact hitters and that was a priority.
Since 2019 (the Holmes Era) the notable draft picks for the Giants are Tyler Fitzgerald, Patrick Bailey, Casey Schmitt, (Kyle Harrison!), Landen Roupp, Mason Black, Hayden Birdsong, Carson Whisenhunt, Bryce Eldridge. Last year's #1 (James Tibbs) went to Boston for Devers.
In 2022 the Giants used their first six picks on pitchers (if you count Reggie Crawford who was listed at the time as a two-way player). One of them, Birdsong, is on the big club. In 2021 they used their first nine picks on pitchers. Black is the only one to see ML-time. Landen Roupp was their 12th pick that year.
Last year's and this year's drafts flipped the script. They took position players early and filled in the rest of the rounds with pitchers.
It's an interesting notion. Power bats (unless you're Barry Bonds) don't play all that well in SF. Line drive hitters and all-field hitters will probably be better fits for the club.
non power hitters that helped the giants included Melky Cabrera, Marco Scutaro, and many years ago before he was traded Dan Gladden. I guess Randy Wynn for a while could also be included on that list, although when he first came to the giants he showed a surprising temporary uptick in power.
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