It’s Buddy Kennedy’s World, and We’re All Just Living In It

Aug 15, 2026 | Latest Post, Out of Left Field

by DrLefty

Word of the day: execrable

/ˈeksəkrəb(ə)l/

The word execrable is an adjective that means extremely bad, appalling, or of such poor quality that it deserves to be hated or cursed.

Synonyms: abominable, atrocious, detestable, wretched, abhorrent

Hat-tip to Surf Maui for suggesting this great word of the day to me. We’ve run through putrid, feculent, and others, and it was time for a new one.

When we’re talking about our Giants playing the Colorado Rockies at home on an Orange Friday in a battle for last place, we definitely needed a new adjective. Let’s begin with the Rockies’ starter last night, Kyle Freeland. Freeland has never been a very good pitcher (career ERA 4.69), and he’s having the worst year of his career (current ERA 6.27) since 2019. So, of course, he dominated the Giants (8 innings, 4 hits, 1 run). Let’s continue with our starter, Landen Roupp. Roupp allegedly is now the second-best pitcher in the Giants’ rotation after the August 3 trade of Robbie Ray, but he just hasn’t been very good. His ERA of 4.31 is, to be fair, quite a bit better than Kyle Freeland’s, but Roupp’s been headed in the wrong direction for a couple of weeks. In August, he’s 0-3 with a 5.74 ERA and 12 walks in 15.2 innings. The walks are an important number. In his previous start, earlier this week, he was pitching well until he suddenly walked the bases loaded, was (appropriately) pulled for a reliever, and then he publicly disrespected his manager, Tony Vitello. Um, Landen? There are things to dislike about how Vitello manages, but I’m guessing 100% of all managers would have done the same thing. Last night, Roupp again pitched well for a couple of innings and then fell apart again, walking three, hitting a batter, throwing a wild pitch, and making a throwing error, and finally leaving the game in the sixth inning with his team in the hole 4-1. At least this time he didn’t complain about being taken out of the game.

 

But Roupp, though he wasn’t very good, wasn’t really the problem. The problem was the unrecognizable Giants lineup who could do (almost) nothing against a mediocre pitcher having a bad year for a terrible team. The “almost” is because Bryce Eldridge did go deep, and it was an impressive swing of the bat.

 

 

Eldridge has now hit 13 homers in his rookie season, and if he hits another, he’ll pass Jack Clark and Willie McCovey on the all-time list of homers hit by Giants rookies age 21 or under. Aww, what the heck. Let’s have Jon Miller’s call, too.

With the announcement yesterday that the Giants will host the 2028 All-Star game at Oracle Park, it’s not hard to imagine Big Bad Bryce in the Home Run Derby… He also played 1B for the third straight game and started a 3-6-3 double play that was very reminiscent of Brandon Belt, who consistently made that play as well as I’ve seen any first baseman do it.  More of Bryce in the field, please.

Anyway, back to the execrable game. Other than Bryce’s homer, the Giants did nothing against Freeland, but in the bottom of the ninth, they made a little noise. A lead-off triple by newly recalled Jonah Cox was promptly followed by a double by Rafael Devers, so the tying run is in the on-deck cir–oops, Devers somehow got doubled off 2B. (How does that even happen?!). Victor Bericoto then singled, which would have scored Devers, but–oh, well. The Giants lost 5-2.

 

The Buddy Kennedy Effect

It’s unfair really to pick on Buddy. I’m sure his mother loves him very much. But even when you’re playing the putrid Rockies, it’s tough to mount an offense when there are only two players in your lineup who are established major leaguers–Devers and Jung Hoo Lee–and everyone else is a rookie (Eldridge, Bericoto, Cox), a near-rookie (Christian Koss, Osleivis Basabe), or a minor league journeyman (Kennedy, catcher Andrew Knizner). Devers and Lee both bat lefty, so against a lefty starter, that’s a disadvantage (though Devers memorably has taken Freeland deep).

I mentioned in the comment section yesterday that I was perusing the Giants’ current active roster and realized that only a small number of players (9) were on the Opening Day roster. There is one remaining outfielder (Lee), three infielders (Devers, Willy Adames, and Koss–whom I honestly didn’t remember was on the Opening Day roster since he’s been gone most of the season), and five pitchers (Logan Webb, Adrian Houser, Roupp, JT Brubaker, Keaton Winn).

What happened to everyone else? Well, let’s see:

  • Injured: Harrison Bader, Matt Chapman, Casey Schmitt, Matt Gage, Jose Butto, Daniel Susac
  • Traded: Patrick Bailey, Heliot Ramos, Luis Arraez, Robbie Ray, Tyler Mahle, Caleb Kilian, Erik Miller
  • DFA’d or Demoted: Jerar Encarnacion, Jared Oliva, Ryan Borucki, Ryan Walker

It’s interesting when you look at this. Of course, injuries happen to all teams. Losing three players from your starting lineup, plus the guy who became your primary catcher in May, to season-ending injuries is bad luck. Trading seven players off the major league roster is obviously intended (other teams are not allowed to come kidnap them at gunpoint), but also, just as clearly, was not what they were hoping for back on March 25. Four guys DFA’d or demoted? Doesn’t sound too out of the ordinary, really.

The other thing is the timing. The trade deadline was not even two weeks ago, and the season-ending injuries to Chapman, Schmitt, and Susac are all fairly recent, too. So with all of that, plus the 40-man roster/lockout considerations I mentioned here last week, we get…Buddy Kennedy. Yes, we’d all rather see Parks Harber playing 3B. No, we’re not going to get Parks Harber. We should, however, get Marcelo Mayer on the active roster soon, and then it will probably be bye bye, Buddy*.

Anyway, that’s how and why we’re somehow watching Buddy Kennedy now, and it’s fair to note that in the Farhan Zaidi era, there were actually quite a few more “Buddy Kennedys.” Zaidi enjoyed collecting those types of players. What if one of them turned into something and he could remind everyone again that he’s the smartest guy in the room? I don’t think Buster Posey enjoys watching Buddy Kennedy or having him in the starting lineup. I think he understands the ugly collection of variables that brought us to this point.

(*I’m planning to name our next dog Barney, short for Barnabas in the New Testament, the “son of encouragement.” But I also thought that if Barney ever gets a brother, we could name him Buddy because the Mr and I have always loved Buddy Holly, and one of our first dates was watching “The Buddy Holly Story” in a lecture hall on campus for $1.)

 

Some Good News

The rise of the Giants’ minor league system continues to be really the only good thing about the 2026 Giants. Baseball America posted their new post-draft/post-deadline rankings a couple of days ago, and the Giants were at #4. In this video clip, a BA analyst speculates that they could be the #1 system by next year.

Baseball America also had five Giants in their top 100 prospects.

Meanwhile, MLB Pipeline also published their new top 100 list, which also had five Giants (the same first four but trade deadline acquisition Ramon Marquez instead of Davidson), and the Giants’ new top 30 prospects list, which now includes their top four selections from the July draft (Jackson Flora, Carson Boleman, Kaden Waechter, Peyton Bonds). I had fun flipping through that new list the other night. As you may know, the scouting grades are, for some reason, on a 20-to-80 scale. 60 and above is considered an All-Star caliber player. 50 and above is predicted to be an everyday major leaguer. I remember 5-10 years back when you’d look at the list and the Giants would maybe have one 50-grade prospect, a handful of 45s, and then the rest 40 or lower. This year, they have one at 60 (Josuar Gonzalez), four at 55, and six more at 50. You have to go down to #12 to get to someone at 45.

The other thing I noticed about the new top prospects list is where they all came from:

  • the first-year player draft (i.e., drafted by the Giants): 8 (four from 2026, three from 2025, one from 2023)
  • undrafted free agents (signed by the Giants): 2 (one, Trent Harris, is on the major league roster, and the other, Davidson, is in AAA)
  • international signees (signed by the Giants): 9
  • arrived via trade: 10

(I know this only adds up to 29. I’ve been over the list three times and can’t see whom I’m missing or mislabeling. If you can find the error, let me know!)

Recency of acquisition is also interesting. Five of the 10 trade acquisitions on the top 30 list just arrived after the August 3 deadline. Three others were acquired at last year’s deadline (Harber, Yunior Marte) or in a trade earlier this year (Jancel Villarroel, a catcher acquired for Kai-Wei Teng). The other two are Cox (acquired from the A’s for Ross Stripling) and Jacob Bresnahan (acquired from the Guardians for Alex Cobb), both in 2024, Farhan Zaidi’s last year at the helm. Most of the prospects on the list were added to the Giants organization after the transition from Zaidi to Posey in October 2024. Here’s a nice breakdown of the new list by MLB.com’s Maria Guardado.

What does it all mean? Well, only time will tell. As the Baseball America reporter noted, many of the Giants’ best prospects are in rookie leagues or low A, so there’s no immediate help coming (see Kennedy, Buddy). But–and this is for those of you who scoff at any discussion of prospects–it matters, when you want to actually trade for major leaguers, how your farm system and prospects are perceived. It can matter a lot. Just ask the Dodgers, who routinely land superstars in trades, or for that matter, ask Brian Sabean, who did a great job over the years of trading prospects for major leaguers who helped his teams win.

Along with the rankings of the farm system and the individual players, the minor league affiliates are all having good seasons, with three of the four (all but Sacramento) having already punched their playoff tickets.

This is why, despite one of the most disastrous seasons I’ve ever watched in 56 years as a Giants fan, Buster Posey will still be the POBO next year (and probably Tony Vitello will still be the manager, like it or not–Vitello doesn’t get credit for a rising farm system, but Buster does, and Tony is Buster’s guy).

 

Today’s Game

Rockies at Giants, 1:05 p.m., Oracle Park

Michael Lorenzen (3-10, 6.83 ERA) vs Logan Webb (7-7, 3.59 ERA)

Have a nice weekend. Magic number is still 13. Lefty out.