Free fall

The Giants have played seven games since the All-Star Break and they've lost all seven. Today they had Logan Webb on the mound pitching well late in a tie game and it all fell apart and turned into another depressing loss. Getting swept by the Dodgers was one thing, following that by getting swept by the Diamondbacks is quite another. The team is in free fall and in danger of letting the whole season slip away. They are now 48-50 and only three games up on Arizona and 3-1/2 on Colorado. The problem is there are no quick fixes. There are no trades that will turn things around, and no prospects to promote that will make a big enough impact. The team has to get better performances from the people they have in uniform right now.

Read 'em and weep:

ARI 7  SF 0 (Mon)

ARI 7  SF 3 (Tues)

ARI 5  SF 3 (Wed)

The Cubs come to San Francisco for four games starting tomorrow night at 6:45 Pacific. Alex Wood gets the start.

Go Giants!

--M.C.

 

p.s. I'm having surgery on my right hand tomorrow. That's going to slow down my keyboarding for a bit, I expect, and thus my posting will be a little irregular. It should be a routine procedure, I've got a big chunk of collagen growing in my palm (Dupuytren's contracture) that has to get cut out.

Golden Sombrero

The Dodgers had an answer for everything the Giants did in this series. And the Dodgers punished the Giants for everything they failed to do. The weaknesses of the team are many but two really stand out and were on display in this four-game set: fielding and relief pitching. Poor defense cost the Giants both early and late, and poor execution from the bullpen corps sabotaged any comebacks. Last season the Giants could match up well and compete with the Dodgers but this year the talent gap is too big. LA has three of the best hitters in the game--Mookie Betts, Trea Turner, and Freddie Freeman--hitting in the top three spots of their lineup. Few teams can match that and the Giants are clearly over-matched. Although I must say it was great to see Darin Ruf hit two game-tying homers (a grand slam Thursday and a two-run homer today). He's a good hitter having a rough season which is sort of a bellwether for the whole offense. Maybe as he heats up the rest of the team can follow. And Austin Slater is really hitting well this month, perhaps he can keep that going the rest of the way.

Here's the damage:

SF 6  LA 9 (Thu)

SF 1  LA 5 (Fri)

SF 2  LA 4 (Sat)

SF 4  LA 7 (Sun)

Not much to say that the scores don't tell us. The Giants got pasted 25-13. They had four chances to win a ballgame and they whiffed on all four. That's a Golden Sombrero! Let's hope they do better when the Dodgers come to San Francisco in the first week of August.

Jakob Junis gets the start tomorrow night in Arizona at 6:40 Pacific.

Go Giants!

--M.C.

Go Giants!

The Giants resume their season tonight in Los Angeles. Southpaw Carlos Rodón gets the start and the Dodgers counter with righty Mitch White. The Giants played better baseball just before the Break and the question is, can they sustain that over the final 71 games? The gap between the second-place Padres (52-42) and the third-place Giants (48-43) is only 2-1/2 games. That can change in a weekend. That's the team goal right there: overtake the Padres. One team at a time! It will take more consistency from the club than we've seen so far this season. I think we all want to see a more consistent team. The Giants have been all over the map in terms of performance and it's hard to know which version will show up each game.

Game time is listed as 7:09 p.m. Pacific.

GO GIANTS!

BEAT LA!!

--M.C.

The Draft

The Giants were the last pick of the draft. That's because they had the best record in baseball last season! Here's a list of their picks and a quick summary:

1. (#30) Reggie Crawford, two-way player at Connecticut, lefty reliever and first baseman. High risk pick but the Giants like his size (6-4, 235) and athleticism (he was a HS state champ in swimming).

2. (#66) Carson Whisenhunt, lefty starter at East Carolina. Here's a video of him being interviewed in college. Seems like a really solid pick.

3. (#106) William Kempner, RH starter at Gonzaga, he's from San Jose and grew up a Giants fan.

4. (#136) Spencer Miles, RH starter at Missouri.

5. (#166) Liam Simon, big (6-4, 230) righty reliever at Notre Dame.

6. (#196) Hayden Birdsong, another big (6-4, 205) righty reliever, this time at Eastern Illinois.

7. (#226) Zach Morgan, catcher (plus 1B/3B), RH hitter at Fresno State, from Stockton.

8. (#256) Wade Meckler, IF/OF, RH hitter at Oregon State, from Anaheim.

9. (#286) Jack Choate, huge (6-6, 249) lefty starter at Assumption University (div. II, Worcester, MA).

10. (#316) John Bertrand, another big (6-3, 205) lefty starter, this time at Furman and Notre Dame.

11. (#346) Sam Bower, RH starter at St. Mary's, from Visalia.

12. (#376), Tyler Vogel, RH reliever at Jacksonville.

13. (#406) Thomas Gavello, infielder, lefty hitter at Pacific, from Antioch.

14. (#436) Nomar Diaz, righty hitting HS catcher from Puerto Rico (Carlos Beltran Baseball Academy), turned 18 in April.

15. (#466) Tanner O'Tremba, Honorable Mention All-Name Team, outfielder, RH hitter at Texas Tech and Arizona.

16. (#496) Andrew Kachel, infielder, lefty hitter at Fresno State, from San Jose.

17. (#526) Justin Bench, IF/OF, RH hitter at Mississippi, NOT related to Johnny Bench.

18. (#556) Tanner Thach, full-grown (6-3, 215), lefty hitting HS 1B from North Carolina.

19. (#586) Cade Perkins, HS lefty pitcher (and 1B/OF) from Kansas.

20. (#616) Ethan Long, 1B/3B, righty hitter at Arizona State.

It's worth remembering that it takes a minimum of three years for most ballplayers to make it to the majors and five years is quite common. We won't see the impact of this draft for some time. I'm certainly no scout or talent evaluator, I leave that to the professionals. And I should also note that not all the players a team drafts will sign with that team. Some will go back to school, some will want to negotiate, some will drop off the radar for other reasons. We'll see who will stick in the organization in the next few weeks. Giants are generally good about signing their picks. I believe they signed everyone last year.

For now, I'll just go with "Welcome aboard!" to the new crew of youngsters.

--M.C.