2023 draft paying off

Bryce Eldridge was the #13 pick of the 2023 draft. He's looking like a polished MLB hitter in his first season and he will not turn 22 until October. He's the only one from that Giants draft class with positive WAR. No one else has made the majors.

Except for Drew Cavanaugh! He was the 510th pick in the 17th round. The 24-year old lefty-swinging catcher has nine hits (all singles) and seven walks in his 42 PA across 13 games. He slashed .273/.406/.439 in 209 minor league games (882 PA).

Last night's star, Landen Roupp, was also a late pick (the 12th round, #356) but from the 2021 class. Carson Whisenhunt and Hayden Birdsong were picked in the 2022 group. We'll see if they can develop into consistent major league hurlers.

Logan Webb starts today and the game is on Fox at 5:00 Pacific.

Go Giants!

--M.C.

The looming deadline

The MLB trade deadline is Monday, August 3rd, at 6:00 p.m. ET. This deadline matters to teams that have a good chance to make the post-season as they can improve their rosters before the stretch run. This deadline matters to bad teams because they have a chance to "salvage" their shitty seasons by picking up some fresh talent for future seasons. As a bonus, some crappy teams will dump some salary and thus be better positioned to make more lousy payroll decisions at a later date. Teams in the middle—the ones that can't decide if they are legit contenders or not—generally make no one happy as they try to play it both ways.

In short, like most things in sports, the hype exceeds the reality by orders of magnitude.

We've all seen good teams get better by taking advantage of a poor team's "fire sale" and we've seen teams (like the 2025 Giants) make big moves and get nothing out of them. I like to use the phrase "it's a crapshoot" a little too often but in this case the MLB trade deadline truly is a crapshoot.

So what dice should the Giants roll this summer? The season is lost, obviously. The big contracts (Devers, Adames, Chapman) aren't going anywhere. That is unless the Yankees or Dodgers suddenly need a 1B/DH, SS, or 3B right now. A season-ending injury to Freddie Freeman, Mookie Betts, Max Muncy, or their NYY equivalents (Paul Goldschmidt, Jazz Chisolm, Ryan McMahon) would move the needle a little. Other than that, don't expect big changes to the SFG 40-man.

The word all season has been that Luis Arraez is the obvious trade candidate as he's on a one-year deal and he's hitting like a batting champion again (and playing well in the field). What's he worth? An AA pitcher, perhaps? The Giants could use an ML-ready starter but that would take more than just one player. So they'll trade Arraez for a kid who might help the club in two years. Or they could get a decent relief pitcher, something they could use, but that's not much. Bye Luis, hope you enjoyed your time in SF.

There's Robbie Ray as well. He's a free agent at the end of the season. A pennant-chasing team can always use another starter. What can you get for Ray? Again, not a whole lot.

This year's trade deadline will pass for the Giants without a bang. It'll be a whimper. Maybe we'll see a couple of guys go and a couple of fresh faces emerge. In the very best case, one of those new faces will actually make a positive contribution to the club in 2027.

The Giants travel to Seattle for three on the weekend and then to KC for three until an off-day on the 23rd.

It looks like Roupp-Webb-Ray to face the Mariners.

Go Giants!

--M.C. 

Jackson Flora, RHP

The Giants took the best pitcher available in the draft with their #4 pick. It's a smart choice. And he's a local boy: born in Walnut Creek, went to Foothill HS in Pleasanton, pitched for UC Santa Barbara. There's a lot to like here. He's a big guy (6-5, 205) in a well-established NCAA pitching program. He went 12-0 in 16 starts for the Gauchos with a ridiculous 1.06 ERA (only 55 hits in 102 IP with 133 K). He's the real deal.

There are no sure things, of course. But this is the best the Giants could have done. He's the consensus #1 amateur pitcher in the nation. No one knows how it will all play out but it is certainly exciting to get a young, live arm who is also a polished pitcher. He apparently can hit 100 mph.

In the meantime the Giants lost a stinker on Friday but pulled out a nice win today.

The Giants picked a HS southpaw from South Carolina named Carson Bolemon with the #29 pick. With the #55 pick they took another HS pitcher, Florida righty Kaden Waechter. And with the #90 pick they nabbed Rutgers OF Peyton Bonds, nephew of you-know-who. His dad is Bobby Lee Bonds, Jr. (brother of Barry), who played pro ball for eleven years but never made the majors.

I have to say I'm happy. There was a lot of talk about the Giants getting Flora because three players (UCLA SS Roch Cholowsky, Texas Christian HS SS Grady Emerson, and Georgia Tech C Vahn Lackey) were considered the best prospects overall and were expected to go right away. The Rangers took a HS lefty with the #16 pick and the Guardians took a college righty at #19. They were the only other pitchers in the top 20.

Trevor McDonald gets the final start (1:05 PT) before the Break.

Go Giants!

--M.C.

5th inning: 9-9

 1st inning: 6-12

2nd inning: 8-10

3rd inning: 8-10

4th inning: 7-11 

5th inning: 9-9 

The 10-1 win to open the Toronto series was the 90th game of the season. I'm a little tardy once again on my "innings" post. We've had five 18-game stretches, five seasonal innings, and we've four more to go. As you can see, things are just piddling along like before. Well OK, they at least had a .500 spell. 

They lost the next two to the Jays. Logan Webb gave up his first-ever grand slam. There are four more games (with the Rockies at home) before the blessed relief of the All-Star Break. The 38-54 (.413) Giants are only the fourth-worst team. The Royals, Rockies, and Angels are worse but just barely—the whole bunch is separated by a mere two games. Colorado is 38-56 (.404) so I expect a free-wheeling brawl-a-thon for the NL West table scraps.

There's talk of the Giants drafting UC Santa Barbara righty Jackson Flora with the #4 pick. A high school shortstop (Jacob Lombard) is also supposedly on the radar.

Webb and Luis Arraez will represent San Francisco at the 96th ASG in Philly next week.

--M.C.

Giants hang on for win

SF 6  AZ 4

The Giants finally beat the Diamondbacks. They had a 6-0 lead but almost blew it. I couldn't watch the 9th. Thankfully Caleb Killian got it done.

The hitting stars were Heliot Ramos and rookie Victor Bericoto. Both had two hits (one a homer) and two RBI. Luis Arraez went 0-for-5 which is not something you see often.

It took another good start to subdue Arizona, this time it was Trevor McDonald who threw six scoreless and allowed only one hit. Ryan Walker was a disaster in relief (4 batters, 4 H, 4 R). This team really needs to improve the pitching staff!

Travel day tomorrow—they go to Colorado for the weekend.

I'm on the road today and will be back next week. Have a Happy Fourth and Go Giants!

--M.C.