by
Greek Giant
Even though the Giants are only two games under .500 with 42 games to play it feels like the Giants are 42 games under .500 with two games to play. This has been a terrible, downward spiral trend of a season thus far for our heroes from San Francisco and it is time to admit this Giants team is not a postseason contender. Mathematically they are still alive. But, aesthetically, the “eye” test tells us they are deader than dead. Last night’s 5-1 loss to the Padres at Willie Mays Field was eerily similar to the previous night’s 4-1 loss to the same San Diego team.
How bad was this latest loss, you ask? Allow me to elaborate, dear Giants fan. Let’s begin with the top of the first inning. After Ray gets Tatis on a pop up and Arraez on a strikeout the fun ensues. With two outs Machado hits what looks like a routine pop up to short right, behind second and in the Bermuda Triangle of right/first/second. But in this moment, somebody, somewhere decides to play Tyler Fitzgerald in right field. He was making his first appearance of his career in right. He has had previous experience, a grand total of 17 games, in center and right. On the pop up Fitz ran in and looked completely lost, like he needed to read the instruction manual on how to play right field in the Major Leagues. Rafael Devers ran back looking for help instead of the fly ball. Casey Schmitt over-ran the play and expected the right fielder to catch it. Instead the ball dropped and it was comical. Machado, because he was not hustling, only made it to first base. But this is the Padres and good teams like San Diego jump all over the other team’s mistakes. Xander Bogaerts doubled off the wall to put runners on second and third. Had Machado chosen to run out his fly ball he would have ended up on second base and then scored. Robbie Ray could still get out of the inning without allowing a run but this is the 2025 Giants so instead Ray balks when a spike inexplicably gets caught on the rubber. A run scores and the game begins to turn ugly. Instead of three up three down in the top of the first with Ray dealing the Giants gave up a run and made their pitcher throw at least 15 extra pitches.
Fitz had no business playing right field. His bat is not good enough to risk the inexperience in defense. That managerial decision is highly questionable and perhaps a sign of desperation. Bob Melvin is grasping at straws.
In all Ray would throw 113 pitches and complete six innings while allowing four runs on seven hits. He would give up a two-run homer to Jose Iglesias, his first of the year (that’s how this season is going) and the Padres were up 3-1 after the Giants plated a run on a Devers single. The Devers liner that scored a run in the bottom of the first should have been caught by Machado but it appeared he lost the ball in the lights or in the stands. Later, the Giants had the infield in a a line drive to Schmitt’s right would have ended the threat and maybe lead to a double play. Instead Schmitt missed it and a run scored. It appeared Schmitt was caught by surprise.
It was that kind of game. I could go on and on about Carson Seymour and the most recent homer he gave up but there is nothing to be gained from it.
Last night’s loss puts the Giants at 12 losses in their past 13 home games and have scored a total of 24 runs, definitely a franchise record and a truly ignominious one at that. It’s a string of baseball decrepitude that’s hard to fathom. I always believe that a good team must play at least .600 baseball at home to be champ. The Giants are far from that now at 29-30 overall. It’s worth taking a look at what kind of team San Francisco is that it cannot win in its own ballpark. Is it structural? Do the Giants have the wrong players for their park? Is it psychological? Is San Francisco with its chilly, windy, foggy and damp night-time weather freaking out the players? Is it a Managerial/preparation issue?
What is going on here? Why can’t the Giants score at home? It seems to me there is enough talent for the Giants to be a better than .500 team at home and it also seems to me that the lineup deficiencies, the weak outfield and the holes in the starting rotation mean this Giants team, to quote Bill Parcells “Is what its record says it is.”
Around MLB
This is a fascinating moment in Major League Baseball, aside from the Giants descent into oblivion. The Milwaukee Brewers have won 11 games in a row and have a record of 75-44 that is far and way the best in baseball. They are a team to behold with no real weaknesses. What intrigues me and impresses me most about them is how hard they play and how disciplined they are. They are strong in all phases of the game and never give up an at bat or an out. They just got better with Brandon Woodruff’s return to the rotation and now they are running away from the NL Central and the Cubs. After the Brewers took two of the three games in San Francisco earlier this season from the Giants I wrote that I could see the Brewers winning the division. It turns out that is likely to be the case. They are a lesson in great all-around baseball and how to run an organization for perpetual success.
Andy McCullough of The Athletic wrote a deep profile of the Brewers and how they run that team, from top to bottom. It’s a fanatastic article and one I hope Buster Posey and every Giants coach and executive has read. It should be printed out and taped to the wall of everyone who works for the San Francisco Giants Baseball Club Limited. Here is one quote from the article on how the Brewers never surrender draft picks and focus on developing young talent.
The Brewers added all those players weeks before the deadline. The deal for Priester demonstrated the team’s ability to utilize its market size to its advantage. The club received two compensatory draft picks last winter, one for losing Adames, who signed a seven-year, $182 million contract with the San Francisco Giants, and another as part of an initiative in the collective bargaining agreement to aid teams that draw the least revenue.
In April, Arnold bundled that second pick, which was No. 33 overall, along with two prospects to acquire Priester, a first-round pick in 2019 who had not made Boston’s Opening Day roster.
“You have a lot of guys in our clubhouse who have been overlooked for a long time,” Arnold said.
The Giants, meanwhile, signed a mega-deal for Adames, who is nursing an 0-20 streak but has generally been a solid player this season. It shows you two different ways to build a team. The Brewers are doing it through drafting and development and the Giants are somewhere between the Yankees and Milwaukee in this road
There is another aspect of the Brewers that fascinated me. It’s called accountability and the Milwaukee team seems to have instilled it into their culture and their players:
“It’s professional baseball, at the end of the day,” Yelich said. “I think people lose sight of that sometimes. Like, wanting it to be like, ‘Oh, you’re doing great and it’s OK.’ Sometimes, it’s not OK. It’s the big leagues. There’s a league for other s—, and it’s not this one.”
In other news, with the Padres win and another Dodgers loss San Diego is now tied for first place. The Giants are nine games way behind and might as well be 90 games behind. They are not catching San Diego or Los Angeles.
Giants Farm System Rankings Jump
I am one of those who believes that prospects’ value are meaningless until they prove it in the Big Leagues. I could not care less about farm system rankings or the promise of players. But yesterday MLB released the latest team system rankings and the Giants are at 18, a big jump from the previous rankings. The Dodgers and Brewers are 1 and 3 respectively, Just saying…
Today’s Game
The Final Game of the series against the Padres takes place today at 12:45 PM with Nick Pivetta (11-4, 2.94) facing Kai-Wei Teng (1-1, 5.40)
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