All-Purpose MLB Thread! (2019-2021)
- Thread starter SLAB
- Start date
- Status
Well, the bats were really terrible the entire series with the exception of game 1, but even that was a 3 HR game where the Giants were otherwise not sustaining big runs or crowding the bases against their pitching.
The Giants didn’t have a real rally the entire series to where they can do serious damage like the Dodgers did in two games,
The Dodgers on the other hand were using the whole field. The gaps, singles, sending runners, and hitting for power and with the exception of most innings where Webb was on the mound, were constantly putting stress innings together..even in their scoreless game 3.
They could’ve won this series, but they didn’t. I’m not as furious as I thought I would be in the event they lost a playoff series to the Dodgers. They’re just a bit deeper than the Giants in about every facet. Especially with their pitching and bullpen. Giants have a glut of strong grind it out middle relief caliber guys. Dodgers have a glut of late inning power pitchers. I think it was evident Gabe didn’t trust most of his arms outside of Rogers and Doval when it came down to it.
I’m glad the Giants managed to tie the game and avoid having an L hung on a great Logan Webb performance. Logan’s dominance is a silver lining most wouldn’t get out of an LDS exit.
Tyler Rogers had a gutsy series as well. Worth noting. Doval was unfortunately due to get touched at the worse time but still excited for him.
Kris Bryant had a very consistent series as far the offense goes. Probably not enough power and extra bases to really raise his stock but it’s worth noting that he had a very solid series.
In the end, our platoon of non everyday players with pop that got the Giants through the season, couldn’t hit the ball with the exception of the Ruf bomb.
The combined numbers in the series for Yas, Wade, Slater, Flores, Ruf, Dickerson, Duggar, Solano, and La Stella are likely ghastly. Giants become pretty thin offensively when those buttons are broken in a magnified 5 game series
The Giants didn’t have a real rally the entire series to where they can do serious damage like the Dodgers did in two games,
The Dodgers on the other hand were using the whole field. The gaps, singles, sending runners, and hitting for power and with the exception of most innings where Webb was on the mound, were constantly putting stress innings together..even in their scoreless game 3.
They could’ve won this series, but they didn’t. I’m not as furious as I thought I would be in the event they lost a playoff series to the Dodgers. They’re just a bit deeper than the Giants in about every facet. Especially with their pitching and bullpen. Giants have a glut of strong grind it out middle relief caliber guys. Dodgers have a glut of late inning power pitchers. I think it was evident Gabe didn’t trust most of his arms outside of Rogers and Doval when it came down to it.
I’m glad the Giants managed to tie the game and avoid having an L hung on a great Logan Webb performance. Logan’s dominance is a silver lining most wouldn’t get out of an LDS exit.
Tyler Rogers had a gutsy series as well. Worth noting. Doval was unfortunately due to get touched at the worse time but still excited for him.
Kris Bryant had a very consistent series as far the offense goes. Probably not enough power and extra bases to really raise his stock but it’s worth noting that he had a very solid series.
In the end, our platoon of non everyday players with pop that got the Giants through the season, couldn’t hit the ball with the exception of the Ruf bomb.
The combined numbers in the series for Yas, Wade, Slater, Flores, Ruf, Dickerson, Duggar, Solano, and La Stella are likely ghastly. Giants become pretty thin offensively when those buttons are broken in a magnified 5 game series
Last edited:
All the pandering “what an amazing season so much to look forward to!” posts tonight are painful.
They lost to LA. Their starting rotation next year is currently Logan Webb and no one else. The old guys are another year older. The top prospects are still a year away or blocked. There’s zero pitching prospects to speak of.
Farhan will do his thing and the team won’t be a disaster, but this season is going to be such an absurd outlier when we look back, and that’s why losing this one hurts all the more. There’s not gonna ever be another season like this. And we lost anyways.
They lost to LA. Their starting rotation next year is currently Logan Webb and no one else. The old guys are another year older. The top prospects are still a year away or blocked. There’s zero pitching prospects to speak of.
Farhan will do his thing and the team won’t be a disaster, but this season is going to be such an absurd outlier when we look back, and that’s why losing this one hurts all the more. There’s not gonna ever be another season like this. And we lost anyways.
For sure, we won't win 107 games again anytime soon, but I think you take the win in finding some real future core pieces: (Webb, Doval, Castro especially for arms) and while Wade might not be a star, he's certainly a quality starter with positional versatility. It's pretty telling in a series where Buehler/Urias/Scherzer pitched that Webb was pretty clearly the best pitcher in the series. Looks to be a CY young candidate for next season
Giants should be the front-runner for resigning Bryant and Gausman and it's pretty likely we start to see some of the Bart/Ramos/Bishop core move up and maybe even Luciano next year. If you can get at least one of those young guys to pop, that could be the edge the LU was missing in this playoff series.
Giants should be the front-runner for resigning Bryant and Gausman and it's pretty likely we start to see some of the Bart/Ramos/Bishop core move up and maybe even Luciano next year. If you can get at least one of those young guys to pop, that could be the edge the LU was missing in this playoff series.
This is just the salt talking, but how about Doval drilling Turner then immediately reverting back to the tail between his legs afraid of his own stuff kid he was earlier in the season. 14 straight sliders after that, and lost to _____ing Bellinger.
He’ll be fine. But man, he chose a helluva time to have his first meltdown in front of the entire baseball world.
He’ll be fine. But man, he chose a helluva time to have his first meltdown in front of the entire baseball world.
Terrible call, for sure. But so was the no-call on Ruf’s clear swing earlier in the season that aided the Giants to win the division by a single game. They don’t get that call and it likely changes everything.
Shouldn’t subjectively complain about one and ignore the other.
That said, it was an awful call nobody wanted to see. Furthermore ball and strike calls were also awful — as has been my pet peeve for a long long time with baseball.
With replay in place, balls and strikes are really the only way the umpires can severely impact and influence games. It’s long past time to eliminate that by going to the “Hawkeye” technology tennis has been using for years now and just leave the umpire behind the plate to call safe or out at home plate and rule on check swings. Hawkeye is accurate up to 3/16 of an inch. Far better than the subjective strike zones of all the different umpires.
None of that fixes the check swings problem, though.
Shouldn’t subjectively complain about one and ignore the other.
That said, it was an awful call nobody wanted to see. Furthermore ball and strike calls were also awful — as has been my pet peeve for a long long time with baseball.
With replay in place, balls and strikes are really the only way the umpires can severely impact and influence games. It’s long past time to eliminate that by going to the “Hawkeye” technology tennis has been using for years now and just leave the umpire behind the plate to call safe or out at home plate and rule on check swings. Hawkeye is accurate up to 3/16 of an inch. Far better than the subjective strike zones of all the different umpires.
None of that fixes the check swings problem, though.
The check swing call looked straight-up awful live, though this angle makes it look a lot more...borderline
The problem with the check swing (and I suppose there are a few other things in baseball, like establishing and staying in a running lane) is that it's completely subjective. There's no good criterion to say what a swing is. So I'd be surprised if there's a solution anytime soon. What is and is not a swing, what is and is not an offer, is just going to have to be determined by judgment call of the umps, I'm pretty sure.
The strike zone? I'm totally 100% down for robo-zone. It wasn't just this series, it has been the entire year, in every game that I have watched, that the strike zone has flat out sucked. Nearly every game has seen very wide plates, particularly on arm-side pitches that didn't have a chance to actually cross the plate. I think it was worse than last year, by a noticeable amount, and my only explanation is that it's a conspiracy of umpires. They WANT robo-zone, because they'll have less work to do and less pressure. So they intentionally called a bad zone all year to get robo-zone implemented. As far as I'm concerned, let them win. Robo-zone will be better anyway. (Also, robo-zone would eliminate the ridiculous trend of catchers sweeping the glove a foot and a half back towards the zone on every bad pitch trying to "frame" it. I hate the pathetic desperation in that more than anything.)
The problem with the check swing (and I suppose there are a few other things in baseball, like establishing and staying in a running lane) is that it's completely subjective. There's no good criterion to say what a swing is. So I'd be surprised if there's a solution anytime soon. What is and is not a swing, what is and is not an offer, is just going to have to be determined by judgment call of the umps, I'm pretty sure.
The strike zone? I'm totally 100% down for robo-zone. It wasn't just this series, it has been the entire year, in every game that I have watched, that the strike zone has flat out sucked. Nearly every game has seen very wide plates, particularly on arm-side pitches that didn't have a chance to actually cross the plate. I think it was worse than last year, by a noticeable amount, and my only explanation is that it's a conspiracy of umpires. They WANT robo-zone, because they'll have less work to do and less pressure. So they intentionally called a bad zone all year to get robo-zone implemented. As far as I'm concerned, let them win. Robo-zone will be better anyway. (Also, robo-zone would eliminate the ridiculous trend of catchers sweeping the glove a foot and a half back towards the zone on every bad pitch trying to "frame" it. I hate the pathetic desperation in that more than anything.)
As a Dodger fan, I completely understand the outrage cause I thought it was an awful and still do.
But Ruf’s no-call swing was worse as he went much further around than Flores did.
While that was a regular season game and not gm5 of the NLDS, it was quite important in terms of deciding the division championship.
If the right call is made, maybe SF doesn’t win the division outright. Maybe they lose the 1 game playoff. Maybe they lose the wildcard game. And then we’re not even playing that game last night.
Everything changes regardless. That’s how important the other call was.
But Ruf’s no-call swing was worse as he went much further around than Flores did.
While that was a regular season game and not gm5 of the NLDS, it was quite important in terms of deciding the division championship.
If the right call is made, maybe SF doesn’t win the division outright. Maybe they lose the 1 game playoff. Maybe they lose the wildcard game. And then we’re not even playing that game last night.
Everything changes regardless. That’s how important the other call was.
Heard Affeldt on the radio moments ago saying that it was likely Buster calling all sliders. Doval didn’t shake him off or anything and there was a mound meeting. They either thought Doval was overthrowing his fast ball as evident by the Turner plunk..or with no outs they didn’t want Bellinger to hit a fly ball and have the runners advance with only one out(assuming Bellinger didn’t leave the yard or find a gap)...or both. They wanted something in the ground and they got it. Just nobody was there
but since Posey didn’t call a show me fastball outside of the strike zone to set up any sliders, he likely thought Doval had no control of his fastball. Maybe Doval confirmed that in the mound meeting
but since Posey didn’t call a show me fastball outside of the strike zone to set up any sliders, he likely thought Doval had no control of his fastball. Maybe Doval confirmed that in the mound meeting
Posey was a 100% class act, and a great baseball player. He has my complete respect.
Hall of Famer? I'm not sure. Most of the HOF numbers don't like him at all, but they probably don't account for position. JAWS does account for position, and puts him kind of right in the middle of HOF catchers, although with less longevity than typical for a HOF. I've seen people saying "first ballot!" but that seems iffy to me. If I had a vote, my gut feeling is that I'd start voting for Posey on his second ballot.
Hall of Famer? I'm not sure. Most of the HOF numbers don't like him at all, but they probably don't account for position. JAWS does account for position, and puts him kind of right in the middle of HOF catchers, although with less longevity than typical for a HOF. I've seen people saying "first ballot!" but that seems iffy to me. If I had a vote, my gut feeling is that I'd start voting for Posey on his second ballot.
DeSclafani is back, 3 years / 36mil … I’m still mad at him for getting beat up in his final game so he can kick rocks still. Was honestly pretty good against everyone except LA.
Wood’s close to returning, who I never really trusted.
Also saw they were linked to Alex Cobb of Anaheim, who I know nothing about.
At least they’ll have starters as Webb was the only one under contract before today.
Wood’s close to returning, who I never really trusted.
Also saw they were linked to Alex Cobb of Anaheim, who I know nothing about.
At least they’ll have starters as Webb was the only one under contract before today.
- Status