AS the cardboard cutouts stare in mute awed fascination toward the scoreboard celebrating the virtual presence of their avatars, so do we look over this Giants' season-like-no-other. Considering how many viewed the belated start of the season with skepticism, it was a pretty good one after all for those of us pledged to the orange and black. Universally discounted by almost everyone as a last-place team not even ready yet to begin a needed rebuild, the Giants spent the year doing just that, and in the process carried the chance at a .500 record and a crack at the expanded postseason right down to the last game. Throughout the year Gabe Kapler and his coaches quite consciously never let up from their plan to "find out who can play and who can't," and at the same time pushed this team to fight through, and in some cases overcome, their own limitations as well as their on-field opponents-- not to mention a grim national landscape marred by a real pandemic and a real overreaction. Those who wished it had never started, or just wanted it over with-- well, we hope enough of y'all stuck around to enjoy the ride. Because it was quite a ride, wasn't it, sports fans?
Who can play? Well, we know Mike Yastrzemski, Wilmer Flores, Austin Slater, Mauricio Dubon, Alex Dickerson, and Donovan Solano sure can play. We know Brandon Belt and Brandon Crawford still can play-- or could in 2020, anyway. We know Joey Bart will play. And the jury is still out on a whole bunch of new pitchers-- Sam Coonrod, Jarlin Garcia, Wandy Peralta, Caleb Baragar-- and some younger ones such as Shaun Anderson and Logan Webb, plus the two MIAs, Tyler Beede and Reyes Moronta. And, as is part of every build, we bid farewell to some good guys-- to Pablo Sandoval (best wishes in Atlanta, big fella), to the ineffable Hunter Pence, and to our own Rodney Dangerfield, Jeff Samardzija.
It's unfinished business for sure-- not just the improbable season, but the team. Of the "guys who can play" mentioned above, only Flores, Bart, Slater, and Dubon are under 30. The Giants still put forth the oldest team in baseball this year-- average age 29.8. The Brandons remain signed through next year, and Evan Longoria through 2022-- average age 34. Yaz will be 30 next year, Dickerson 31, and Solano 33. By the time the Giants are fit to win 90 games again, names like Daniel Robertson, Jaylin Davis, Luis Alexander Basabe, Heliot Ramos, Hunter Bishop, Marco Luciano, and Seth Corry may be dominating the 25-man roster.
Oh, we can blame Sam Coonrod or Gabe Kapler for the Giants' blown postseason chance, but keep in mind that Friday-night decision was part of finding out who can do it and who can't. Coonrod hits 100 on the gun, and when he's on he can't be touched. He's also a veteran of only 42 major-league innings and, at 28, may be on his last chance. You don't give up on a guy like that after one spectacular failure-- not if you're a rebuilding club, that is. And this team is full of Sam Coonrods-- and, as we noted back when the short season started, it's full of Gabe Kaplers, too.
They done all right, these Giants. This team is in a lot better shape than it was a year ago.
Okay. The Giants finished eighth in MLB in runs scored, averaging five per game, and broke even on runs scored/runs allowed. (Yep, Pythagoras had 'em in the playoffs, but ol' Pythagoras don't make the rules.) Among all the ballparks, Oracle Park was fourth-- fourth!-- in runs scored, behind only Coors, Fenway, and Angel Stadium. The Giants were fourth in doubles and second in triples, sixth in slugging and OPS. (This is out of all 30 major-league teams, remember.) On the negative side they were eighth in men left on base and fourth in GIDP. Both their walk and strikeout totals were slightly below league average.
The pitching numbers are decidedly less stellar; their 4.64 ERA is below average, as are their strikeout and walk totals. Remembering how awful the defense was in the early weeks, we see that the Giants finished with 30 unearned runs allowed, not good but not the worst, anyway. They remain in the bottom third in fielding percentage, errors, and double plays. The determination to improve the offense, which certainly worked, seems to have been paid out in some measure by weakened defense, which in turn shows up, to a degree yet generally unknown, in pitching stats as well.
The Giants' 2019 success in one-run games did not carry over to this year: they were 4-8 in such. They were 22-19 at night and 7-12 in the day, and 19-14 at home as compared to 10-17 on the road. Three of those home games were, of course, "switch games" where the Giants batted first; they were 2-1 in those. Saturdays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays were their best days of the week (6-2 on each), while Thursdays, Fridays and Mondays were land mines (a combined 6-19). They broke even on Sundays.
Team records for the starters: Anderson 6-5, Cueto 6-6, Webb 5-6, Smyly 4-1, Cahill 4-2, and Gausman 3-7. (Shark was 0-4 and the Giants won Caleb Baragar's "opener" game.) Quality starts: Gausman 7, Cueto 6, Cahill and Anderson 5, Smyly and Webb 3. "Tough losses" were Gausman's specialty; he had five. Webb picked up three "cheap wins;" those are hard to really quantify this year since so many starters on all the teams were pulled after two or three innings regardless of the score.
The Giants' best start and worst start were by the same pitcher against the same team six days apart. Tyler Anderson was brilliant against Arizona on August 22 at the O: complete game, one unearned run on three hits, Game Score 82. A week later he was pounded by those 'Snakes in their ballpark to the tune of nine hits, three walks, and seven earned runs in four-plus innings; Game Score 18. Combine 'em and you've got the definition of an "average" start-- 50.
Among the MLB leaders, Mike Yastrzemski is eighth with 2.5 WAR, second in triples, ninth in adjusted OPS. Brandon Belt is 9th in OBP (.425) and Donovan Solano finished at .326, sixth in the majors. Belt, who hit .309 in 149 AB, had a 1.015 OPS that would rank fourth-- ahead of D.J LaMahieu and Mike Trout-- had he enough PAs to qualify (he missed by 7). Alex Dickerson and Austin Slater put up .947 and .914, Wilmer Flores .830 (44th), Donovan Solano .828 (45th) and Brandon Crawford, who, like Belt, really bounced back this year, was .792, 12th among MLB shortstops and 72nd overall. Meanwhile, Evan Longoria tied for the league lead with 10 GIDP.
The Giants had only one pitcher, Johnny Cueto, qualify for the ERA title with 61 IP. No Giant starter averaged six innings per start. Kevin Gausman (59.2 IP in 10) was closest; his 3.62 would have ranked 26th and his 1.11 WHIP 18th, ahead of Max Scherzer and Zack Greinke, had he gotten one more out. Caleb Baragar's team-leading 5 wins rank 19th in MLB, tied with a whole lot of guys. His WHIP was 0.99 and he struck out 19 in 22 IP while walking 5. The young man can pitch.
Farhan Zaidi today mentioned Smyly and Gausman as possible returnees, talked of adding one more good starter, and identified a need for additional left-handed power. Sounds like a way to keep the team in the hunt one more year while waiting for the youngsters to break through in 2022. As long as there's no more talk of moving Buster Posey to first base, we're down with it. At this point Wilmer Flores, who just turned 29, is a better hitter. Buster's value is defensive, and it is considerable.
Roll the Statistical Parade
Shane Bieber, despite being shelled in the first game of the wild-card series, is the consensus Cy Young favorite for the AL. He's a generational talent like Clayton Kershaw. Pity about the Indians, who got a huge bounce-back year from one of our favorites, Jose Ramirez, but are already eliminated... Yu Darvish of the Cubs is the only other pitcher to win 8 games; he and Trevor Bauer are the leading NL CYA candidates, but don't rule out Zach Davies of San Diego... Ramirez is a AL MVP candidate for sure; he and Mike Trout had essentially the same numbers. D.J. LeMahieu of the Yankees led the league in OPS, the only ALer over a thousand... Teammate Luke Voit slugged .610 and led everyone with 22 homers-- in only 213 at-bats. Those are McGwire numbers... Juan Soto and Atlanta's dynamic duo, Freddie Freeman and Marcell Ozuna, are tops in the NL, all over 1000 OPS. Do the NL teams love the DH? The Braves sure do... Soto also beat out Freeman for the batting title. Last-place team or no, he's the NL MVP favorite... In this swing-happy game, you gotta love Soto and Freeman, both of whom walked more than they struck out. Yes, in 2020! Our own Mike Yastrzemski, Paul "Stealth MVP" Goldschmidt, and the Mets' Brandon Nimmo were in that same territory as well, and even rookie Fernando Tatis drew 27 walks in 224 AB, remarkable for a kid of 21... Wilmer Flores' average, slugging, HR, and RBI were almost a perfect match for Bryce Harper's. The difference? Walks. Harper scored 11 more runs and his OPS was 130 points higher... Pete Alonso's sophomore numbers fell off from his epochal 2019, but he still hit 16 homers, scored 31, and drove in 35 while batting .231... Can you believe the Cubs' trio of Anthony Rizzo, Javier Baez, and Kris Bryant hit .222, .203, and .206 respectively? Hey, they won their division anyway... In the ex-Giants department, Adam Duvall, now 31, bounced back big with 16 homers for Atlanta. He's in the playoffs along with Pablo... Andrew McCutchen, now with Philadelphia at 33, hit 10 homers with a .757 OPS. He's in left field these days... Bryan Reynolds, who looked like a star in the making a year ago, slumped to .189 and a .632 OPS, symptomatic, perhaps, of the Pirates' whole season... Trevor Story is the best base-stealer in the game: 15 for 18. San Diego's Trent Grisham, of Friday-night infamy, was 10-for-11. The Padres as a team are outstanding: 55 steals in 68 attempts (81%)... Christian Yelich, hailed as the best player in the game not named "Mike Trout" the past two years, slumped to .205/.356/.786, though he did hit 12 homers. He was only 4-for-6 stealing bases too, which pales against his best-of-breed career numbers. Wha'appen? -- and let's hope this year was just a fluke. He's been the epitome of a great all-around ballplayer... Outliers just aren't as much fun in a 60-game season. We'll pick on only one guy this time: Kansas City's shortstop Nicky Lopez. 0-for-5 as a base stealer is what leaps out at you, and .201/.286/.552 in 56 games isn't exactly thrilling either. Is he so remarkably good on defense that you can live with all this plate-and-base negativity? Not really-- his range is a little better than average, he doesn't make too many errors, but he's not exactly Andrelton Simmons out there. And he's not 21, he's 25. No team needs two DH in the lineup, Lopez: forget about stealing and start getting on base. We're all pullin' for ya, kid.
