Looking into the crystal ball for the Giants of 2018
Let’s get a jump on the burning questions for the Giants in 2018, shall we?
Or would you rather hash out Monday night’s loss to the Bucs? Should the Giants shrink their ballpark? Larry Baer, Giants’ head honcho, has long insisted the team won’t consider tinkering with the park’s dimensions. Baer makes his case with three rings.
But is it time to re-think? The Giants have resisted the urge to join the home-run craze, where you stock up on brawny all-or-nothing swingers, but come on. Going into Monday’s game, the midget-hitting Giants were dead (as in dead) last in the majors in homers, with 79. Next lowest: the Pirates, with 95. The dazzling Astros had 163.
Andrew McCutchen hit a homer off Matt Cain
on Monday that barely cleared the wall in left field. Several Giants’ hitters looked at one another and asked, “You can do that?”
During batting practice there are signs posted around the perimeter of the field, “Stay on the warning track.” Giants’ hitters, hello, those signs aren’t meant for you.
The thing is, if you’re not going to hit homers, you have to do something else well, and the Giants haven’t found that thing. Like, if you’re going to manufacture runs, you need to get on base and run. Entering Monday, the Giants were getting out-on-based, .335 to .303, and out-stolen-based, 49 to 47.
The park won’t change, so the team has to.
Are there any freeagent sluggers worth pursuing?
McCutchen is one. Big slump last season, but he’s bouncing back. Hasn’t quite returned to super stardom, but .291 and 18 homers, and a good glove would make McCutchen a nice upgrade in center field, and he’s three years younger than Denard Span.
Mike Moustakas is a big homer guy, but he plays third. J.D. Martinez will be on the market, and the Giants have had strong interest in him before.
And looking waaay down the road, after the 2018 season, Mike Trout and Bryce Harper could be free agents.
How about Yonder Alonso?
Hell yeah. He’ll be a free agent. Isn’t it about time the Giants took advantage of the nearby A’s playerdevelopment program?
Good glove at first base, good clubhouse guy, and he’s Latin American. Those guys have long been the heart of the Giants. Would be risky, though. Did Alonso really convert himself into a home-run hitter last offseason, or is this season an aberration?
If Alonso is your first-sacker, Brandon Belt either moves to left field, in which case you’ve upgraded two positions, or he gets traded. Panda: Yes or no? Pablo Sandoval is either the best attitude-rehab story in baseball, or the world’s most desperate suck-up. His all-apologies return to the Giants’ organization was so well done. He hit all the important points, took all the blame and made you almost forget why you hated him when he left.
Panda even convinced manager Bruce Bochy that he has changed his immature ’tude, which must have driven Bochy crazy when he could see Sandoval squandering his vast potential.
Monday Bochy said, “I think he’s handled (his return to the organization) well. From what I read, he’s been humbled. He’s learned a lesson. He’s very hungry to come back and be the player he was before he left here for Boston . ... So our hope is that’s the case, and he comes back a different guy than he was the last couple of years, the guy we knew when he was playing well here.” But slimmer. Bochy said it will take two or three weeks for Sandoval to earn his way back, but if Eduardo Nuñez gets traded soon, someone’s got to play third. Rumors have the Red Sox interested in Nuñez, so possible funny switcheroo: Nuñez traded to Sox, Sandoval fills the void.
If Sandoval is really back, what happens next season to Christian Arroyo?
Panda is still a long long shot, remember. The Giants could try Arroyo in left, but they really like his glove at third, and they see him as the future there. So maybe move Sandoval to first, Belt to left.
Hey, we’ve just upgraded the team at four positions!
Time to move Buster Posey to first base?
Shuddup. Out of the question for at least the next two seasons.
Is it time for Bochy to retire?
Some say the Giants lack energy and fire. The thing is, every losing team looks like it lacks energy and fire. That’s what losing looks like.
Bochy hasn’t lost the fire. It’s not like he was a raging bull in 2010, ’12 and ’14 and now he’s a tired old bear. His guys just aren’t as good.
Sunday, Bochy chewed out Nuñez in the dugout moments after the game for not running on a flyball with two outs. Monday night, Bochy got run for sprinting (Bochy style) to home plate to beef about the ump’s strike zone, in defense of Matt Cain, who was getting rocked.
If Bochy wants to come back, to steal a Bochy-ism, “He’ll be fiiiine.”