San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
ONE GLARING WEAKNESS
Zaidi has done good job refreshing roster, but starting pitching depth is still an issue
When teams commence spring training with a lost season in their wake, there comes a point when things either feel the same, depressingly, or there’s a legitimate surge of enthusiasm.
Farhan Zaidi has put the San Francisco Giants in the right place.
“Beleaguered” would be the word best describing the club’s president of baseball operations as he fended off critics (including this one) over the past two years, but he’s been working tirelessly to spruce up the mood.
For Zaidi and an ownership group responsible for making the big financial decisions, the remake isn’t quite complete. There are pitchers available in trade and the free-agent market, and this is no time to dwell on “risk” or overspending. That’s the kind of feardriven stance that keeps teams planted in mediocrity. It’s painfully obvious that manager Bob Melvin needs an experienced arm to make his rotation respectable.
The Blake Snell stalemate (as of Friday, he remained unsigned) is a puzzler. Having managed Snell in San Diego last year, Melvin understands the frustration of having a pitcher — a Cy Young Award winner, for crying out loud — who would prefer to leave games after the sixth inning, if you don’t mind.
Over the course of last season, Snell pitched into the seventh only three times. Not that it was any type of problem; over those three starts, he allowed a total of one earned run. Snell inevitably departs the scene at a time when opposing hitters are thinking, “I cannot hit this guy.”
In a recent SI.com piece, Tom Verducci noted that en route to a 2023 season featuring a 2.25 ERA and only 115 hits allowed in 180 innings, Snell gave up a hit once every 47 breaking pitches — and with two outs and runners in scoring position, he allowed just one hit out of 128 breaking pitches. That is flat-out nasty.
Whether it’s Snell, Jordan Montgomery,
Dylan Cease or a pitcher who suddenly becomes available before Opening Day, Zaidi has to lock down someone. Even the grumpiest fans, the ones who essentially live to be ornery, could live with that.
It seems increasingly clear that communication skills are not Zaidi’s strong point. J.D. Davis was upset that he “didn’t get a phone call” when Matt Chapman was signed to play third base, and the departing Brandon Crawford sensed personal resentment in the way Zaidi handled the shortstop’s demotion. Players expressed similar misgivings about exmanager Gabe Kapler, but in the blink of an eye — Melvin, Matt Williams, Bryan Price and other coaches sensitive to a player’s feelings and the ever-changing story lines of a game in progress — the Giants fixed all that. For the sake of everyone’s peace of mind, Zaidi just has to stay out of their way.
Assorted thoughts:
Crude as he might have been in the execution, Zaidi was right about Crawford. He’d been finished with the Giants since September, a .194 hitter leaving his best days behind. Given that he intended to stay on the field, in a relevant way,
he should have pursued that route in October. Good to know, at least, that he wound up with the classy St. Louis Cardinals.
The Giants won’t contend for a wild-card spot without airtight defense, so it makes sense that Nick Ahmed most likely will be the shortstop until further notice. Ahmed and Chapman will be a delight to watch on the left side of the infield.
Marco Luciano was going to learn the subtleties of shortstop “on the job” — never a good idea. Let him start the season in Triple-A and see where it takes him. If Ahmed hits .217 and Luciano looks ready, that could be a pleasant midseason upgrade. If not, see what you might get from Casey Schmitt or Tyler Fitzgerald.
For years, scouts wondered whether Luciano eventually might be too big to play the infield. Sooner than later, I’d love to see a Giants outfield of Luciano, Jung Hoo Lee and Luis Matos.
To put it another way, if any trades came down involving Michael Conforto, Austin Slater and Mike Yastrzemski (and Davis, for that matter), would you be at all upset?
Catcher Patrick
Bailey didn’t leave the most favorable last impression, hitting .185 over the last three months of the season and misfiring on several throws, but he has dedicated himself to conditioning — and never forget the grand theater of his breakthrough. In midseason, ESPN’s Jeff Passan called Bailey “already the best defensive player in baseball” and added, “comparing him to Yadier Molina, arguably the greatest defensive catcher ever to don the tools, does not seem far-fetched.”
Heads in the clouds
The A’s released a set of Las Vegas stadium renderings so hopelessly disconnected from reality, baffled critics didn’t know where to start. Even Bally’s, the company that runs the Tropicana site, came out with a statement suggesting the A’s start over. Don’t put too much thought into it, though. That stadium won’t ever get built. And if somehow it does, it won’t look anything like those cartoons.
The Latino Media Network has added a Spanish-language broadcast for the major-league season. Not the A’s, though. Las Vegas has been a Dodgers town for decades, and it will be Dodgers games airing in Vegas, Los Angeles and Fresno.
A lot of baseball people are forecasting Baltimore’s Jackson Holliday (son of Matt) for Rookie of the Year, but don’t rule out the Rangers’ Wyatt Langford, who at Florida terrorized pitching in the College
World Series and then the minor leagues. Bruce Bochy loves him, and he’s nearly a lock to make the club as a designated hitter and part-time outfielder.
The Warriors’ exceptional depth calls to mind their 1975 NBA championship and the masterful work of head coach Al Attles. It’s not easy to keep 12 players motivated, but Attles did that with a starting five of Rick Barry, Clifford Ray, Butch Beard, Charles Johnson and Keith (later Jamaal) Wilkes, a fiveman bench core of Phil Smith, Jeff Mullins, Charles Dudley, George Johnson and Derrek Dickey, plus Bill Bridges and Steve Bracey.
Attles played all 12 in three games of the firstround playoff series against Seattle, used 11 in the tense Game 7 of the Chicago series, opened the Finals against Washington with 11 players in action for at least 10 minutes, and employed 12 and 11 players in the last two games of that fourgame sweep, respectively.