As I see things...

[klaiggeb]

I'll say up front that this is a long post, but it is my post All Star Break evaluation...
As I see things…

1- Tommy La Stella-Early on in the year, La Stella was getting blasted on the board for his inability to hit. I preached patience saying I’ve followed him for quite a while, and the guy can flat out hit!
Now that he’s healthy, we’re all seeing what a solid hitter he is and what excellent control of the bat head that he has.

Austin Slater-Or as I like to call him: Captain Enigma!

Tremendous power, but a poor eye. IMHO, he is strike zone clueless.

I’m sure he thinks he has a very discriminating eye, but I would argue that he does not, and that his at bats this year prove that conclusively.

How can I say that?

As I’ve pointed out before, he simply takes too many pitches right down the heart of the plate, and, just like last night, all too often is left just holding the bat, doing nothing, and then chasing crap that’s not close to the plate for strike 3.

Starting Pitching Part I-Since the All Star break. Too many times they go 0-2, 1-2, and then fall behind 3-2.

Too many two strike hits. Saw it again last night.

Too much nibbling and way too many walks. Saw it again last night.

They come into an inning with the pitch count under control, nibble-nibble-nibble… and things fall apart.

If I’m the pitching coach, what I’m telling them is to attack! Attack! Attack!

But they don’t, and what happens is what I said in the opening line.

Yaz-He has been in a year long slump, and that nonsense has to come to end right the stink now!
He needs to pull his freaking head out of his fanny, stop pulling off every pitch or trying to yank it to his pull side and starting hitting like we know he can
I never thought I’d see Dickerson fixing his problem this year, but he did. And if Dickerson fixed his problem, Yaz can too. He’s better than this; much better.

Evan Longoria-I’m sure he pressured the powers that be to get him back up with the big club, but that, IMHO, was and continues to be a foolish mistake.
He’s having to go through a spring training-like process now, and it’s going to take him 20 or 40 at bats to get back to normal.
Until he gets those at bats, he’s simply hurting the team.

I would much rather have him at Sacramento getting those at bats and have stuck with Flores while he was doing so.

What the Giants did, again, IMHO, was foolish.
Donovan Solano-Having played and coached for so many years, it is my opinion that there is no way to “soften” a player’s hands.
And Donovan has hard hands. He is a defensive liability and I, for one, don’t believe his hitting makes up for his continual mistakes in the field.

Gabe Kapler and starting pitching Part II-These 5 inning outtings are going to kill the bullpen.
That’s a fact. Kapler, I’m sure, knows that. They can’t be asked to pitch 4 or 5 innings every night.

Brandon Crawford-Wow! I don’t think I’ve ever seen any player this late in his career make the changes he’s made and be this successful! I mean, for crying out loud! He’s hitting .304 last time I checked! I’m impressed! I never, ever thought I’d see that!

Lamont Wade Jr.-We’ve all seen it over and over again. This kid knows how to come up big, be it on offense or defense. And he’s really just a rookie! Perfect kind of player for this team.

Logan Webb-Did anyone really see this coming? I didn’t. Not after last year and the start of this year. For me, he still nibbles too much, but he’s getting better and better each time out there.

Gausman & DesClafani-Don’t know if it’s fatigue or not, but these two are trending the wrong way.
I was not impressed with Gausman last time out, and I wasn’t impressed last night.

When you’re not locating your pitches, as neither he nor DesClafani are doing, you run your pitch count up and shorter outtings follow.
That needs to change and change pretty darned quickly or we won’t have a bullpen worth a darn come playoff time.

[Islandboagie]

I was optimistic about Webb, he has great stuff, and he was good last year. I don't know why last year made you feel like he wasn't going to stick. I also like that he can swing the bat too.

As for the offense...I'm not going to nitpick about a player swinging through a fastball over the plate. As a whole, this is the best roster of position players I've ever seen. They grind and work pitches out of the pitcher better than any Giants team in the past 30+ years I've been a fan.

[klaiggeb]

Aug 17, 2021 17:15:09 GMT -5 Islandboagie said:

I was optimistic about Webb, he has great stuff, and he was good last year. I don't know why last year made you feel like he wasn't going to stick. I also like that he can swing the bat too.

As for the offense...I'm not going to nitpick about a player swinging through a fastball over the plate. As a whole, this is the best roster of position players I've ever seen. They grind and work pitches out of the pitcher better than any Giants team in the past 30+ years I've been a fan.

boagie, you misunderstand.

These were, as I said, observations and nothing more.

As I see things, to me, is me seeing this group through the eyes of a coach.

Are you familiar with Harry Chapin, the singer?

My wife and I are huge fans, and even though he died in the 1980's of a heart attack, I still love his music.

They are all "story" songs.

One of my favorites is "Mr. Tanner."

Late in the song there are these lyrics:

"...The evening came, he took the stage, his face set in a smile
And in the half filled hall the critics sat watching on the aisle
But the concert was a blur to him, spatters of applause
He did not know how well he sang, he only heard the flaws..."

Fortunately, or unfortunately, that pretty much sums up me and my perspective on things.

That type of "seeing" is just the way I'm wired.

I look at my accomplishments, and they are many! But I also see the flaws.

To me, it's just me being honest and my way of NOT wearing the proverbial "rose colored glasses" when I look at our guys.

It's important to understand that I'm not trying to denigrate any of our players.

Quite the contrary.

I love this group! Just love them! You said it perfectly: they grind through at bats like no Giant team I've ever, ever seen!

For me, I love them more than any of Baker's teams, and quite likely any of Bochy's teams.

They are, in a word, "special!"

But I also see the flaws.

That's not a bad thing and I don't mean it to sound like a bad thing.

[Islandboagie]

I didn't misunderstand you, Boly. I totally get where you're coming from. I too see things. I can tell when someone is not seeing the ball well, I can see when someone is about to break out of a slump, I can see when a pitcher is on the ropes. I think everyone here has pretty good vision and intuition when it comes to baseball. I've been watching games for too long not to see things that the average fan cannot.

I ALWAYS appreciate your point of view on what you see on the field, afterall, that's why we're here isn't it?

During last night's game it just hit me all of a sudden, we have a murders row, and it extends onto our bench. It's almost like we don't have a bench, we have a bunch starting caliber players that are constantly rotated in and out of the lineup. We even have some solid bats in the minors who could be starting at the major league level. It hit me like a ton of bricks last night..it doesn't matter who bats where, they're ALL fricken good. They ALL put the pressure on the pitcher, they ALL get the big hit when we need it, and they ALL can get on base AND drive in runs consistently.

I love watching this team, it's exciting again, just like it was back in 2010-2014. I just wanted to express that here on the board, and your post was an opportunity for me to do that.

[klaiggeb]

Aug 17, 2021 22:14:14 GMT -5 Islandboagie said:

I didn't misunderstand you, Boly. I totally get where you're coming from. I too see things. I can tell when someone is not seeing the ball well, I can see when someone is about to break out of a slump, I can see when a pitcher is on the ropes. I think everyone here has pretty good vision and intuition when it comes to baseball. I've been watching games for too long not to see things that the average fan cannot.

I ALWAYS appreciate your point of view on what you see on the field, afterall, that's why we're here isn't it?

During last night's game it just hit me all of a sudden, we have a murders row, and it extends onto our bench. It's almost like we don't have a bench, we have a bunch starting caliber players that are constantly rotated in and out of the lineup. We even have some solid bats in the minors who could be starting at the major league level. It hit me like a ton of bricks last night..it doesn't matter who bats where, they're ALL fricken good. They ALL put the pressure on the pitcher, they ALL get the big hit when we need it, and they ALL can get on base AND drive in runs consistently.

I love watching this team, it's exciting again, just like it was back in 2010-2014. I just wanted to express that here on the board, and your post was an opportunity for me to do that.

boagie, it's odd, no downright strange how my mind and imagination work.

While reading your post, I suddenly flashed back to 2017, my last year teaching, to one of the goofy things I did in the classroom to get student's attention.

Make no mistake, that and story telling to fill the last 2 or 3 minutes of a period, was my trade mark.

I've always done bizarre things with my students.

For example, sometime around 2015 or 16, I noticed a drift in focus from most of the class.

Can't be allowed to happen too often, and is usually a sign a teacher is not doing a good job.

So what did I do?

As a former singer in a local band we called "One Shot," I broke into the song: "Hair."

"She asked me why...I'm such a hairy guy.

"I'm hairy high and low... and so forth..."

Just a line or two more.

Total silence.

Total rapt attention.

They didn't know I could sing, much less sing a Capella!

I chose that song because the drama department was doing "Hair" for their production.

But back to my memory-moment.

It was a hot day in 2017 and focus was drifting. I began to notice something I rarely saw; quite conversations that were not subject oriented.

From the front corner of the classroom I whispered..."I see dead people."

You could have heard the proverbial pin drop.

Faces near me literally paled!

Jaws slid open and every eye in the classroom was suddenly on me.

Now some of the class recognized the line from the movie "6th Sense," but even them, if just for a moment wondered, "can he really?"

It was a classic moment I've repeated other places, I did the same thing in the Viking Crown lounge on a Royal Caribbean ship once, too, but that moment in the classroom was the best it's ever come off.

So when you said, "I, too, see things," that's what I flashed on.

[reedonly]

Even though descalfani's injury showed up that particular play, you have to wonder if it was there before?

[klaiggeb]

Great point, Reed!

I didn't see him twist that ankle or land on it awkwardly.

We should all be VERY concerned right now. Or at least until we get more information that he's okay

[reedonly]

According to Zaidi yesterday, he said on KNBR that desclafani should make his next start (no structural damage). Also, it might have been from a bruise that occurred in the first inning Wednesday.

[reedonly]

Aug 17, 2021 12:58:17 GMT -5 klaiggeb said:

Starting Pitching Part I-Since the All Star break. Too many times they go 0-2, 1-2, and then fall behind 3-2.

Too many two strike hits. Saw it again last night.

Too much nibbling and way too many walks. Saw it again last night.

They come into an inning with the pitch count under control, nibble-nibble-nibble… and things fall apart.

If I’m the pitching coach, what I’m telling them is to attack! Attack! Attack!

Farhan mentioned this in an interview yesterday.  They are well aware. 

[klaiggeb]

Aug 20, 2021 9:21:23 GMT -5 reedonly said:

Aug 17, 2021 12:58:17 GMT -5 klaiggeb said:

Starting Pitching Part I-Since the All Star break. Too many times they go 0-2, 1-2, and then fall behind 3-2.

Too many two strike hits. Saw it again last night.

Too much nibbling and way too many walks. Saw it again last night.

They come into an inning with the pitch count under control, nibble-nibble-nibble… and things fall apart.

If I’m the pitching coach, what I’m telling them is to attack! Attack! Attack!

Farhan mentioned this in an interview yesterday.  They are well aware. 

Thanks for this info, Reed. I figured he had to be well aware. Had to be!

I mean, if I can see it, if other fans can see it, he must, too.

Thanks again!

[Islandboagie]

Our pitching staff normally cannot outduel other good pitching staffs, the only one capable of doing that is Webb. Our other pitchers simply don't have the stuff to keep hitters off balance the entire game, they have to rely on our offense to put up runs so they can pitch aggressively in the zone. When they nibble and are afraid that one or two runs will lose the game, they nibble too much to the point where they have to throw a strike and that's when they get burned.

Back in 2010-2012 we had the pitchers that could outduel the other pitching staffs. They wouldn't give in to any hitters. A lot of their walks they'd give up were planned because they knew they could get the next guy out. It was very rarely a matter of not locating their pitches, it was a matter of an elite hitter just not biting.

Our current pitching staff is not going to save us, the bats need to wake up soon or we're going to find ourselves in second place.

[klaiggeb]

Aug 21, 2021 11:43:19 GMT -5 Islandboagie said:

Our pitching staff normally cannot outduel other good pitching staffs, the only one capable of doing that is Webb. Our other pitchers simply don't have the stuff to keep hitters off balance the entire game, they have to rely on our offense to put up runs so they can pitch aggressively in the zone. When they nibble and are afraid that one or two runs will lose the game, they nibble too much to the point where they have to throw a strike and that's when they get burned.

Back in 2010-2012 we had the pitchers that could outduel the other pitching staffs. They wouldn't give in to any hitters. A lot of their walks they'd give up were planned because they knew they could get the next guy out. It was very rarely a matter of not locating their pitches, it was a matter of an elite hitter just not biting.

Our current pitching staff is not going to save us, the bats need to wake up soon or we're going to find ourselves in second place.

You nailed this one, boagie!

And thus our biggest Achilles Heel.

Prior to the deadline Farhan frequently talked about the need for starting pitching... but wasn't able to get any...

That inability to add a quality starter will likely put an end to however far we get in the post season.

Meanwhile, we have a staff full of 5 inning pitchers... at least until Gausman and DesClafani get their acts straightened out.