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Bay Area News Group Giants beat reporter Kerry Crowley hosts SF Giants Gameday, which gives fans an all-access look at the 2020 season. SF Giants Gameday features interviews with players and coaches, soundbites from pre and postgame and analysis of how the franchise is navigating an unprecedented season.
The 2020 San Francisco Giants have had games where their pitchers let them down, their defense made mind-blowing errors and their offense never came to life.
The Giants didn't have a horrible performance on Thursday at Oracle Park, but it's possible no loss will hurt the club as much as their 11-inning, 5-4 defeat to the Colorado Rockies will.
With a chance to gain a firm grip on the top wild card spot in the National League ahead of a pivotal four-game series against the San Diego Padres, the Giants blew an early 3-0 lead and missed golden opportunities to put the game away in the bottom of the 10th.
A Wilmer Flores flyball died at the warning track, a five-man infield employed by the Rockies actually worked and Evan Longoria watched a 104.0 mile per hour liner into the hole between third and short end up in the wrong glove at the wrong time.
The Giants were nearly two games over .500 for the first time this season, but instead finished Thursday at 28-28 and hoping that the Milwaukee Brewers and Philadelphia Phillies would play some of their worst baseball of the year over the weekend.
Manager Gabe Kapler's club is 1-5 against the Padres and 6-16 against winning clubs in 2020, but for the Giants to make the postseason, the team will likely have to win three of four against a San Diego team that has two of its top starters scheduled to pitch in Friday's doubleheader.
Can the Giants rebound from their worst loss of the season? Can a team that's been defined by its resilience prove that no gut punch is potent enough to knock it out? What will the wild card race look like after a doubleheader that has massive playoff implications?
The Giants will know the answers to all of those questions soon enough.
With four days remaining in the 2020 regular season, the National League Most Valuable Player race remains unsettled.
Braves first baseman Freddie Freeman has had a torrid September, Padres third baseman Manny Machado is the face of one of the top offenses in baseball and Dodgers outfielder Mookie Betts is the best player on the best team in the majors.
When the MVP votes are counted, all three players should appear on every voter's ballot, but it's possible a few San Francisco Giants players will also be on the minds of voters this year. For voters determining whether or not to list a member (or multiple members) of the Giants on their 10-player ballot, there's a legitimate question as to who has made the biggest impact this year.
Should voters include second-year outfielder Mike Yastrzemski, who was one of the top three candidates in the MVP race during the first half of the season and the team's leader in Wins Above Replacement? Should they prioritize another outfielder in Alex Dickerson, who has the highest OPS in the major leagues in the month of September and who has willed the Giants' to a number of several second-half victories? Or should voters look at the collective contributions of first baseman Brandon Belt, who brought his OPS above 1.000 for the season?
With infielder Donovan Solano still competing for a batting title and relievers Tony Watson and Jarlín García headed toward finishing with some of the lowest ERAs of any major league pitchers this season, the list of Giants players enjoying the best years of their career in a condensed 60-game season is extensive.
How MVP voters evaluate the Giants and their top performers remains uncertain, but there's no question the team is in a playoff position thanks to the contributions of a long list of players.
Before Giants left-hander Drew Smyly took the mound at Oracle Park on Tuesday night, the starter watched his old teammates in Philadelphia play a doubleheader against the Washington Nationals.
Smyly enjoyed his time with the Phillies, but not enough to root for them on Tuesday. A pair of Philadelphia victories would have hurt the Giants' playoff chances.
Fortunately for Smyly and Co., the Phillies lost both games against a Nationals team that won't make the postseason and fell to 27-29. After watching one wild card hopeful suffer a few tough losses, Smyly helped the Giants out in a big way as he tossed 5 1/3 innings of one-run ball in a 5-2 Giants win.
The victory moved the Giants to 27-27 with six games to play and it's possible the next time he takes the mound, San Francisco could still be jockeying for a postseason berth. Smyly isn't scheduled to pitch again until the final day of the regular season, but with the Reds at 28-28, the Brewers at 27-27 and the Phillies still within striking distance, anything can happen down the stretch.
Smyly said the Giants always have games from around the league on around the clubhouse, but it wouldn't be surprising if a few players are watching the early games on the east coast and in the midwest with a little more focus. If the Giants sneak into the playoffs, there's a strong chance they'll face the Dodgers in the first round, but it's also possible they could play the Cubs or Braves.
Games from around the league are providing good entertainment these days, but the Giants know their focus must remain on the task at hand at Oracle Park.
After rebounding from back-to-back shutout losses with one of their best performances of the season on Sunday in Oakland, the Giants believed a 14-2 win over the first-place A's was the start of a push to take control of the National League wild card race.
The Giants had won 13 of their last 16 at Oracle Park and returned home Monday with a huge sense of optimism as they opened a four-game set against the Colorado Rockies. That sense, and nearly every good feeling about the Giants' playoff chances, disappeared early as starting pitcher Johnny Cueto turned in one of his worst outings as a member of the organization in a 7-2 loss.
Cueto didn't have command of his pitches and the Giants' offense didn't trouble Rockies right-hander German Márquez in a disappointing series-opening defeat.
The loss won't crush the Giants' playoff chances as they'll wake up on Tuesday 0.5 games behind the Philadelphia Phillies for the second wild card spot, but they're running out of time to take control of the race. Manager Gabe Kapler's squad now has to try and play some of its best baseball of the season during the final seven games of the year while also hoping none of the other teams vying for a playoff spot gets too hot.
With three games left against a sub-.500 Rockies team and four against a Padres team that's given San Francisco plenty of trouble this year, the Giants know they can't waste any opportunities before the weekend. If they do, their hopes of playing into October will disappear as quickly as their chances of winning Monday's series opener did.
With a week left in the regular season, the San Francisco Giants are still thinking about the playoffs.
For a team that entered the year expecting to prioritize opportunities for younger and inexperienced players, the fact the Giants still have a realistic shot of playing into October is a step in the right direction.
Under the leadership of Farhan Zaidi and Gabe Kapler, the Giants have squeezed more production than anyone thought imaginable out of an offense that's been elite at its home ballpark this season. And with the Giants playing their final eight games inside Oracle Park, there's reason to believe the club can actually complete a surprise run and sneak into the playoffs.
The Giants looked overmatched and miserable in their first two games against the Oakland A's this weekend, but the club was reenergized by a 14-2 victory in the series finale that sets the team up well for a pivotal set against the Colorado Rockies.
With Rockies star Nolan Arenado questionable to play due to a shoulder injury, both teams could be down their best hitter as its unclear when Giants outfielder Mike Yastrzemski will be ready to return from a right calf strain. The Giants have the deeper roster and the better bullpen, but the Rockies have won more head-to-head matchups against Kapler's club this season.
With eight games left on the schedule, our SF Giants Gameday podcast looks at where the Giants stand in the postseason picture and what's left to accomplish this week.
When right fielder Mike Yastrzemski left Thursday's game against the Seattle Mariners with a right calf injury, the San Francisco Giants turned to the least experienced player on their roster.
Rookie Luis Alexander Basabe only had one major league plate appearance prior to subbing in for Yastrzemski, but Basabe contributed his first career hit, his first two walks and his first stolen base in a come-from-behind 6-4 win over the Seattle Mariners.
Basabe's performance couldn't have come at a better time for the Giants, who needed nearly the entire 28-man roster to secure a critical win over the Seattle Mariners.
Right-handed reliever Rico García picked up his first career win with a scoreless sixth inning and lefty Sam Selman earned his first career save with a scoreless ninth, but it was southpaw Wandy Peralta who turned in the best performance by any Giants reliever this season in Thursday's victory.
After starter Tyler Anderson was ejected in the bottom of the third inning for arguing a call with home plate umpire Edwin Moscoso, Peralta threw a career-high three innings and didn't allow a hit to keep the Giants in the game and ultimately allow the team to claw back for a win.
The Giants have received critical contributions from unlikely sources throughout the year and Thursday was only the latest example of the roster's depth. With 11 games left to play, the Giants will have to lean on that depth if they hope to withstand challenges in the Wildcard race and fend off other clubs vying for one of the last National League playoff berths.
For the last two decades, many Giants fans have complained that opponents have consistently done a better job of making Oracle Park look "small."
On Wednesday, a road team hit three home runs, but that road team happened to be wearing the Giants' home uniforms.
A chaotic, quirky and always-surprising 2020 season led the Giants to host a two-game series against the Mariners on Wednesday at Oracle Park that was previously scheduled to take place at T-Mobile Park in Seattle. Due to unhealthy air conditions spurred by wildfires along the west coast, the teams and Major League Baseball came to a joint decision to move the series to San Francisco.
The Giants wore home uniforms, but batted in the top half of each inning in a 9-3 victory on Wednesday. The Giants' lineup has performed better at home than on the road this year and batting first didn't appear to faze the team's veteran hitters.
Brandon Belt, Brandon Crawford and Evan Longoria all homered Wednesday as the Giants pounded out 15 hits, which helped the club improve to 24-24 with 12 games left to play. Oracle Park may be a bit more hitter-friendly this season, but it wasn't lost on longtime fans that a "road" team enjoyed a strong night at the plate.
The San Francisco Giants are gearing up to ride Drew Smyly's left arm on their postseason push.
After a two-game series set to begin Tuesday in Seattle was abruptly moved to San Francisco due to poor air conditions, Giants manager Gabe Kapler announced that Drew Smyly would start the first game of the postponed series on Wednesday evening at Oracle Park.
Kapler also indicated Smyly will make two more starts for the Giants down the stretch, as he'll likely face the Colorado Rockies on Monday before pitching against the San Diego Padres on Saturday, September 26.
A left index finger sprain has limited Smyly to just 12 1/3 innings this season, but his workload for the season may double over the next two weeks as the Giants try to capitalize on the veteran's late-season return to the starting rotation.
Smyly will have help from others, including a key right-hander who recently dealt with his own injury scare. Veteran Kevin Gausman missed Sunday's scheduled start at Petco Park due to elbow tightness, but Kapler said the Giants received the "best news" possible when a MRI came back clean and showed no structural damage.
Kapler said the team hopes Gausman will face the Oakland A's at the Coliseum this weekend, which would give him two chances to start before the end of the regular season. The club has left-hander Tyler Anderson slated to pitch Thursday against the Mariners, so the former Rockies pitcher will likely be called on to face his former club at Oracle Park next week.
It seems as if Johnny Cueto and Logan Webb will round out the rotation and face the A's this weekend, but the Giants haven't determined what day either of those two will pitch as they're waiting to see when to slot Gausman back in with the group. With veteran Trevor Cahill likely headed to the bullpen and one of the two longest-tenured pitchers on the staff, Jeff Samardzija, potentially set to return from the injured list by next Tuesday, the Giants can remain on a set rotation or mix things up to seek as many matchup advantages as possible during the final weekend of the season when they host the San Diego Padres.
The words "pitcher" and "elbow" are never ones a major league manager wants to utter in the same sentence, because doing so almost always implies trouble.
Before Sunday's doubleheader against the San Diego Padres, Giants manager Gabe Kapler had no choice.
When discussing his pitching plans for two games against the red-hot Padres, Kapler revealed that one of his top starters, Kevin Gausman, wouldn't be available to face San Diego due to elbow tightness.
The Giants planned for Gausman to get a MRI and haven't provided more details on the extent of his injury, but the fact Gausman had to be scratched was only the latest reminder of how important the team's offense is to its playoff hopes.
With No. 1 starter Johnny Cueto battling inconsistencies and the rest of the rotation following his lead, the Giants' ability to secure one of the National League's final playoff spots is largely dependent on how the team's lineup performs over the final two weeks of the regular season.
If the offense produces as it did in San Diego over the weekend, the Giants will be spending October watching baseball from their couches. The team scored one run in three games at Petco Park and was shut down by nearly every Padres pitcher it faced.
The Giants' lineup entered the weekend with one of the top 10 offenses in baseball, but it left with questions as to whether its success this year is sustainable. With 13 games left to play, the Giants can't have their top hitters all sink into slumps at once.
No NL Wildcard challengers are juggernauts and there's not a team that's suddenly threatening to overtake the Giants, but there are several clubs within striking distance of San Francisco. With an unsettled rotation and a top starter potentially headed to the injured list, it's clear the Giants will need their offense to carry the club the rest of the way.
Simply returning to the field on Sunday at Petco Park was a victory for the San Francisco Giants.
It was a big "win," to resume their season against the Padres, but it was perhaps the only bright spot from a harrowing weekend for the organization on and off the diamond.
After a COVID-19 scare led to the postponement of games on Friday and Saturday, members of the Giants traveling party were understandably relieved when MLB cleared the club to play its Sunday.
Left fielder Alex Dickerson learned of his positive test for the novel coronavirus moments before first pitch on Friday and detailed his incredibly challenging and emotionally exhausting weekend that culminated with his return to play for Sunday's doubleheader.
Dickerson was immediately skeptical of the result and subsequently tested negative for COVID-19 on a half dozen occasions throughout the weekend. Under normal circumstances, the experience would be unsettling for anyone. Dickerson, who was required to isolate in his San Diego hotel room with his pregnant wife after learning of the positive result, lost sleep and explained the damaging effects that inaccurate reporting from USA Today had on his family.
"A report from USA Today saying that 'the player who remains unidentified told several members of the Giants traveling party that he believed he was possibly infected by a family member or friend in San Diego,' that is completely false," Dickerson said Sunday. "Those kinds of statements lead to a steamrolling effect that caused my wife, who is 39 weeks pregnant, to deal with a lot of stuff she did not deserve to deal with. It was not easy."
The Giants are grateful Dickerson and his wife are healthy, but they're suddenly concerned about non-COVID-related issues relating to other members of the team. Right-hander Trevor Gott was placed on the injured list Sunday with elbow inflammation and starter Kevin Gausman was scratched from his probable Game 2 start with elbow tightness.
Manager Gabe Kapler said Gausman would get a MRI and it's unclear whether he'll be available to pitch this week for a Giants team that's suddenly below .500 and barely hanging onto the final National League playoff spot.
Giants right-hander Trevor Cahill made the start in Thursday's series finale, but it was left-hander Drew Smyly who appeared better equipped to pitch deep into a ballgame and face an opposing lineup multiple times.
Cahill struggled through three innings of work, giving up four runs on five hits on a night when the Padres took an early lead and never lost control in a 6-1 Giants loss.
In his first appearance since August 1, Smyly returned from the injured list and became the first Giants pitcher in more than 30 years to strike out at least eight batters in relief. The lefty consistently hit 94 miles per hour with his fastball and mixed in a sharp curveball that was reminiscent of the one Drew Pomeranz threw when the Giants moved him from the rotation to the bullpen last summer.
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Pomeranz found an offseason home in San Diego as a full-time reliever, but Smyly is likely to make a return to the Giants' starting rotation. Manager Gabe Kapler said Thursday the coaching staff has discussed the different ways they can deploy a versatile left-handed option such as Smyly, but it seems as if the Giants think it makes the most sense to maximize the number of innings he's on the mound.
With scheduled off days set for Monday and Thursday of next week, Kapler and Giants president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi can tinker with the rotation and adjust it however they see fit. The Giants will play 10 games without an off day over the final 10 games of the season and can insert Smyly back into the rotation while moving a pitcher such as Cahill, lefty Tyler Andrerson or rookie righty Logan Webb to the bullpen.
As Jeff Samardzija nears a return from his shoulder injury, the Giants could bring Samardzija back as either a starter or reliever, but unlike Smyly, it doesn't appear it's a lock for the veteran right-hander to rejoin the club.
The Giants now have a variety of options and it's up to Zaidi and Kapler to figure out how they can best position the pitching staff to guide the club to a postseason berth.
After winning five in a row and 15 of their last 20 games, the San Francisco Giants are one of the hottest teams in baseball.
One of the only clubs that can legitimately claim it's been better over the last few weeks is a San Diego Padres team set to welcome the Giants to town this weekend.
Throughout the 2010s, the Giants were built on pitching and defense, but as they open a new decade in Gabe Kapler's inaugural year as the team's manager, the club has battled its way into playoff position on the strength of its offense.
The Giants have been extremely difficult on opposing pitchers, but the Padres are one of the only clubs with superior numbers this season. After adding first baseman Mitch Moreland and catchers Austin Nola and Jason Castro at the deadline, a San Diego club that is loaded with young talent has the complimentary veteran pieces to make a deep playoff run.
With Kapler's team attempting to lock up a surprise playoff berth, there's no question the Giants' road to the postseason hopes depend on how the club fares against a Padres team that owns the second-best winning percentage in the National League.
The Giants have proven they can play the first-place Dodgers tough as they went 4-6 against the heavy favorites to win the NL pennant, but they'll play seven of their last 16 games against a Padres team that sees itself as a strong bet to challenge Los Angeles in the playoffs.
If the Giants handle the Padres and win four or five of the seven matchups that remain, they could find themselves with a better first round playoff matchup and potentially face the Cubs or Braves. If the Padres handle the Giants, San Francisco could fall to the dreaded eight seed and face the Dodgers or miss the playoffs altogether.
We'll soon know if the Giants are capable of sneaking up on teams in October. Their games against the Padres will show us how they stack up.
A manager can only do so much to put his players in the best possible position to win.
The ability to execute ultimately comes down to the people who take the field on a daily basis. When things go south for a team, however, a manager often takes criticism for decisions that led to undesirable outcomes.
There was a point in the 2020 season when Giants manager Gabe Kapler saw his club fall to 8-16 and when his defense and bullpen consistently squandered opportunities for a group that appeared destined to have a firm grip on its position in the National League West cellar.
After the Giants overcame a four-run deficit to beat the Mariners 6-5 on Tuesday, that low point feels like a distant memory for Kapler and the team's fans.
Kapler enjoyed what may have been his best game of the season from a decision-making standpoint against Seattle as both sluggers he used in the second slot in the order hit home runs and the defensive replacement the club added to the roster minutes before first pitch made a critical running catch in the gap.
The Giants' manager waited until a few hours before first pitch to ensure Alex Dickerson was healthy enough to start in left field a night after he exited a game with a right knee contusion. Dickerson homered, but came out of the game when the Mariners put a left-handed reliever on the mound in the bottom of the seventh.
Dickerson's replacement, Darin Ruf, also homered. His go-ahead blast gave the Giants control of a win that helped them move above .500 for the first time since they were 5-4 on August 1.
In the top of the eighth, the outfielder who replaced Ruf, Luis Basabe, made a terrific running catch in the left center field gap that showed why defensive replacements be so important.
Aside from all the production the Giants got in left field Tuesday, Kapler received praise from starter Logan Webb for helping him navigate through five tough innings and also made all the right moves in a bullpen that turned in four scoreless frames.
At the outset of the 2020 season, the Arizona Diamondbacks were a trendy pick to finish near the top of the National League standings and make a deep postseason run.
With three weeks left in the season, the San Francisco Giants are now a surprise playoff contender thanks to their dominance over the Diamondbacks this season.
After wrapping up a 4-2 win over the D'backs on Monday at Oracle Park, the Giants finished 8-2 in their 10 games against Arizona this season and consistently shut down an offense that entered the season with high hopes. The Giants won all three series against the D'backs, riding strong performances from their bullpen and a relentless approach from an offense that has steadily improved its plate discipline throughout the season.
A D'backs team that added former Giants ace Madison Bumgarner and former Pirates star Starling Marte over the offseason thought it would compete with the Dodgers near the top of the division. Manager Torey Lovullo has instead seen Bumgarner miss half of his starts due to a back injury and watched Marte be traded away to the Marlins at a deadline in which Arizona dealt a handful of its top performers.
With 18 games remaining this year, the Giants have a long way to go to lock up a playoff spot, but they've proven they have a superior roster to Arizona and are pushing Colorado for third place. With seven games remaining against a tough Padres squad and none left against the first-place Dodgers, the Giants could end up challenging for second place if they perform well against San Diego.
There's a generation of baseball fans growing up around the Bay Area who experienced the joy of three World Series titles in five years during their formative years.
Many fans fall in love with the game at an early age and for young Giants fans born in the 2000s, it's hard to imagine a more rewarding viewing experience than seeing a team lift a trophy three times before they graduate high school.
In a special episode of the SF Giants Gameday podcast, beat reporter Kerry Crowley and KNBR host Adam Copeland look back at how they fell in love with baseball and the years they spent watching Barry Bonds reach new milestones at Oracle Park.
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Crowley and Copeland both grew up in San Francisco and became lifelong baseball fans at a time when Bonds was climbing up the all-time home run leaderboard. Too young to know the science behind steroids and too mesmerized to turn away from the television when Bonds came up to the plate, Crowley and Copeland witnessed his career from the perspective of Little League players who wanted to grow up and hit homers.
In this episode of the podcast, the duo discusses their favorite Bonds homers, the most significant home runs they witnessed in person and how they look back on Bonds' legacy now that they've gained new perspective on his controversial career.
It was easy to buy into the Giants' playoff chances after they dismantled the Rockies in a 23-5 blowout win on Tuesday at Coors Field.
It was even easier when the club jumped out to a 4-0 first inning lead against Rockies left-hander Kyle Freeland in Wednesday's series finale. Yet every time the Giants look like they're about to turn a corner, they find new adversity.
Two of the cardinal rules of winning baseball games at Coors Field are scoring early and scoring often and while the Giants picked up where they left off in Tuesday's game, they didn't do enough to add on.
Recently acquired Rockies center fielder Kevin Pillar helped turn the tide of the game against his former club, bashing into the center field wall to rob good friend Evan Longoria of extra bases in the top of the seventh before driving in the go-ahead run with a two-run triple in the bottom of the inning against reliever Tyler Rogers.
The Giants ended up losing their five-run lead in Wednesday's game and fell 9-6 to drop to 18-20 on the season. With 22 games left to play, the Giants need to start winning series to improve their chances of securing a playoff spot and they'll have a great opportunity with a four-game set against the Arizona Diamondbacks that begins at Oracle Park on Friday.
In this episode of the SF Giants Gameday podcast, beat writer Kerry Crowley is joined by longtime Giants fan and youth baseball coach Chris Romeo to provide different perspectives on questions from readers. Crowley gives his point of view from covering the team while Romeo dissects the game from a technical standpoint as a coach and fan.
San Francisco Giants executive Farhan Zaidi admitted he considered trading for another left-handed bat to fortify the team's lineup ahead of Monday's trade deadline.
The Giants didn't end up making that move, but their lineup against right-handed pitchers may improve down the stretch anyway.
If Alex Dickerson stays this hot, he could be the difference-making run-producer the Giants need to sneak into the postseason. Dickerson went 4-for-5 with three home runs and a double in the club's 23-5 win over the Rockies on Tuesday and carried over momentum from Sunday's game when he homered and singled in the go-ahead run in a 4-1 win.
Dickerson opened the year in a platoon in left field with Hunter Pence and has performed well below league average, but the Giants learned how streaky of a hitter Dickerson can be when he carried the offense through the month of July last summer during an incredible hot stretch.
With Brandon Belt hitting like the middle-of-the-order force the Giants have always expected him to be and Mike Yastrzemski still setting the tone for the offense in the leadoff spot, the 2020 club is much tougher on righties than it was at the beginning of the year and will only improve if Dickerson continues to hit the ball hard.
“We saw him catch fire last year and I think that’s kind of the same time that we started playing really well as a team," teammate Brandon Crawford said after Tuesday's performance. "I think if that can happen again this month, it definitely gives us a better chance. I think for the past week or so he’s looked a lot better at the plate.”
The Giants may not have acquired a big bat at the trade deadline, but if Dickerson acts like a late-summer pickup with a resurgence at the plate, Gabe Kapler's club is capable of securing a playoff berth in an expanded National League field.
Kapler called Zaidi's lack of activity at Monday's deadline an "endorsement" of the current group, and now it's up to Dickerson and the rest of the Giants to prove their front office made a wise decision to keep the roster intact.
The San Diego Padres are going all in for their playoff push as general manager A.J. Preller spent the last several days acquiring players to beef up his major league roster.
The Arizona Diamondbacks are waving the white flag for the 2020 season as general manager Mike Hazen spent the hours leading up to the trade deadline shipping Starling Marte, Archie Bradley, Robbie Ray and Andrew Chafin to new clubs.
How did Giants president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi spent the trade deadline?
He says he was discussing a variety of different need-for-need trades, but nothing materialized. Ninety minutes after the trade deadline passed, the Giants did announce a transaction as the club acquired left-hander Anthony Banda in exchange for cash considerations from Tampa Bay, but the Rays had recently designated Banda for assignment.
The former D'backs and Rays prospect will head to Sacramento and work at the alternate site, so the Giants won't look much different on Tuesday when they open their two-game series in Colorado against the Rockies.
The club will have to make at least one roster move as it must replaced Joey Rickard (left elbow inflammation) on its 28-man roster, but the Giants won't be calling up a ton of prospects or bringing in veteran assets acquired in the types of win-now deals the Padres made.
With the Giants' 17-19 record, Zaidi wanted to keep the roster intact and give the club a chance to sneak into an expanded postseason field and didn't feel any of the trade possibilities he discussed with other clubs were worth executing.
On a day where the Padres (and Rockies) both got better and the D'backs became much worse, the Giants stayed the same. It's too soon to know whether the lack of moves will pay off with a surprise postseason berth, but Zaidi wanted to at least give the 2020 team a chance before focusing on the future this offseason.
It felt as if Giants president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi was the busiest executive in baseball in the hours leading up to the 2019 trade deadline.
Zaidi took calls about nearly every reliever on his pitching staff and swung deals with the Braves, Brewers, Twins and Rays. The Giants didn't make the blockbuster moves many in the industry expected such as parting with ace Madison Bumgarner or All-Star closer Will Smith, but Zaidi still made several important moves at the deadline that told us a lot about the way he approaches the process of building a roster.
Heading into Monday's trade deadline, the 17-19 Giants can go a variety of different directions.
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Zaidi and general manager Scott Harris could turn into a "buyer" and make a move for a left-handed outfield bat and or a right-handed relief option. They can enter "seller" mode and trade starting pitchers such as Johnny Cueto and Kevin Gausman, who would both be attractive to playoff contenders for different reasons. They can also execute a need-for-need trade or remain quiet, choosing to keep the roster as is with so much uncertainty on how the season might shake out.
With an expanded playoff field, the Giants already know several teams in front of them in the standings view themselves as legitimate pennant contenders. The Dodgers and Padres think they're positioned for deep postseason runs while the Braves and Cubs made win-now trades on Sunday.
The Giants have the talent to remain in the postseason mix until the end of the year and potentially sneak into the postseason, but with each potential trade, Zaidi and Harris must weigh the benefit of competing for a playoff spot in a season in which the club likely wouldn't play deep into October against the opportunity to stockpile talent for the future.
The Giants' front office is in a challenging position, and while the club gave Zaidi and Harris no clarity on how to proceed with a 3-3 week, it won't be long before we know exactly how the team's executives view the team's chances in 2020.
The San Francisco Giants didn't give Kevin Gausman any help on Thursday, but that doesn't mean he's begging to get out of town.
After tossing 4 2/3 innings of two-run ball in a 2-0 loss to the Dodgers, Gausman was asked about the realistic possibility he could be on the move ahead of Monday's trade deadline.
“Obviously, I don’t want to leave these guys," Gausman said. “It’s been really great. They’ve made coming to the ballpark really fun.”
The Giants signed Gausman to a one-year deal over the offseason with the hopes he could could become an anchor in the team's starting rotation. He's pitched well in San Francisco and consistently generated swings and misses with a mid-to-high 90s fastball and splitter combination, but the Giants' front office might consider trading the free agent if an intriguing offer comes their way.
Gausman has the potential to help postseason contenders in the rotation or the bullpen and while the Giants still see a realistic path to a playoff berth, they're also building toward the future and could acquire a young, controllable player or two if they part with the veteran right-hander.
Gausman was traded by the Baltimore Orioles to the Atlanta Braves at the 2018 deadline and posted some of the best numbers of his career during the second half of the season despite initially feeling frustrated about the move. The hard-throwing starter says he's better prepared if a trade does happen this season, but indicated Thursday his preference is to stay put in San Francisco.
“I definitely feel more comfortable this time around," Gausman said. "Whatever happens, it’s just part of the business. It has no bearing on where I end up next year. I could get traded and definitely see me re-signing here. I really like this team. I really like all these guys.”
SAN FRANCISCO -- When the San Francisco Giants and Los Angeles Dodgers agreed to postpone Wednesday's game at Oracle Park in the wake of the police shooting of Jacob Blake, an unarmed Black man shot seven times in the back by a Kenosha, Wis. police officer, they were agreeing to mutually partake in a historic moment.
Giants manager Gabe Kapler and Dodgers manager Dave Roberts have made several public statements in support of the Black Lives Matter movement, but on Wednesday, their teams made a collective decision to take greater action to protest racial injustice and police brutality.
The Giants-Dodgers matchup was one of three postponed across Major League Baseball on a day when the Milwaukee Bucks set the stage for protests across the sports world by refusing to come out of their locker room for Game 5 of their postseason series against the Orlando Magic.
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Roberts and Dodgers players spoke at length immediately following the announcement Wednesday's game would be postponed about expressing support for Mookie Betts, their superstar outfielder who informed teammates he would not participate if they chose to play.
“For me, I think no matter what I wasn’t going to play tonight," Betts said postgame.
Pitcher Clayton Kershaw said the decision to support Betts and elect not to play was made by the entire Dodgers team.
”As a white player on this team, how can we show support?" Kershaw said. "What’s something tangible we can do to help our black brothers on this team? Once Mookie said that he wasn’t going to play, that started our conversation as a team.”
The Giants, it appears, did not have unanimous support within the clubhouse to move forward and play Wednesday's game. They did have several conversations, both as a team and in small groups, about whether or not they wanted to take the field.
"What I can share with you is that when you're dealing with 26 personalities in a Major League clubhouse, you're going to have different viewpoints and different opinions. I don't think that's any secret," manager Gabe Kapler said. "I think what's really cool about this day and age that we're in is players are using their platforms to express themselves, and in exactly the way they want to express themselves and exactly their own words."
The Giants didn't have any players join Kapler in a postgame press conference, so it's difficult to know what "their own words" might sound like. That will change in the coming days as Giants players will be asked to recap how the team handled Wednesday's postponement and whether or not there were conflicting opinions on how to approach the possibility of playing.
Regardless of how the Giants' conversations unfolded, the Dodgers planned to support Betts and not take the field. Kershaw and Roberts both said the Giants understood, supported and agreed with the decision to postpone the game.
“We did talk to the Giants as well," Roberts said. "And they were in lockstep with our thoughts."
SAN FRANCISCO -- Ninth inning deficit? Here's a Brandon Belt home run.
Tenth inning deficit? Here's a Mauricio Dubón infield single.
Eleventh inning deficit? Here's Evan Longoria's fourth hit of the night, a game-tying poke through the right side of the defense.
The San Francisco Giants played from behind all night on Tuesday at Oracle Park, but when Donovan Solano sent a slider into the left field bleachers in the 11th inning, the Giants took the lead at the only time it truly mattered.
Solano's stunning walk-off home run against Dennis Santana extended the Giants' win streak to seven games and pulled the team within a game of .500 at 15-16.
The Giants are comfortable playing from behind in games because they've done it in the standings since day one of the season. After suffering back-to-back blowouts against the Dodgers to open the year in Los Angeles, the Giants have won four of their last six games against the juggernaut from Southern California.
Where does Tuesday's 11th-inning walk-off win rank in the rivalry games beat reporter Kerry Crowley has covered between the two teams? What has Belt accomplished during his incredible hot streak? How does the Giants' success against the Dodgers set the team up moving forward?
We cover all that and more in the latest edition of the SF Giants Gameday Podcast.
During the Giants' hottest stretch of the season, talk of the organization being one of the trade deadline's top "sellers" has cooled.
The Giants have officially played their way back into the postseason conversation and finished the first half of their season ahead of the D'backs and Rockies in winning percentage.
With six games remaining until the trade deadline, Giants president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi is now being forced to consider multiple different strategies.
Should Zaidi prioritize the long-term health of the organization and trade away veterans for prospects regardless of how the team performs this week? Should he and general manager Scott Harris prioritize "need for need" trades that would allow the Giants to part with players in exchange for major league talent that can help them right away? Or should the Giants defy all expectations, go for broke and become a "buyer?"
It's extremely unlikely the Giants would part with any top prospects to improve their chances of securing a 2020 playoff berth, but it wouldn't come as a surprise if the team added another major league-caliber outfielder or a right-handed bullpen arm at this year's deadline.
A three-game series against the red-hot Los Angeles Dodgers could knock the team back to reality, but there are several struggling teams in the National League who could fade down the stretch. Even if the Giants don't keep up their current pace, their recent success has given the front office reason to believe the club can compete for a postseason berth.
How that belief translated into a trade deadline strategy remains to be seen.
SAN FRANCISCO -- A week ago, the San Francisco Giants were in utter disarray.
The club had lost five straight games, fallen to 8-16 on the season and had fans thinking about 2021 draft position instead of the rest of the 2020 season.
The heartbreaking nature of the Giants' losses led to widespread frustration, but the ninth-inning collapses also obscured the improvements the club was making. The rotation was stabilizing, the defense was making strides and the offense had given the team late leads to play with.
At the end of the first half, the Giants have won six consecutive games and have forced fans to recalibrate what the 2020 club is capable of. With an expanded postseason field that now allows for eight teams from each league to make the postseason instead of five, the Giants are starting to think one of the last playoff spots is a realistic target.
On the shoulders of NL MVP candidate Mike Yastrzemski and a pitching staff that's limited opponents to just over two runs per game over the last week, the Giants see themselves as a threat.
The red-hot Los Angeles Dodgers roll into town Tuesday for a three-game set at Oracle Park, but after a series against the top team in the National League, the Giants' schedule gets softer.
Over the final four weeks of the season, the Giants will play four games against the Seattle Mariners and six against a fading Colorado Rockies team that has lost nine of 10. The Padres and A's present significant challenges, but the Giants have already shown they can handle the Diamondbacks and have demonstrated their plan of attack at the plate works against Arizona's inexperienced pitching staff.
It's too soon to know if the Giants' hot streak is a legitimate sign of what's to come, but it's clear the team wasn't as bad as its record suggested a week ago.
In a condensed 60-game season, all we can expect is chaos. For the Giants, that's probably a good thing.
SAN FRANCISCO -- Joey Bart is accustomed to being told to wait his turn.
During his sophomore year at Georgia Tech, the Giants' new catcher said he dreamed of making the collegiate national team and put a ton of pressure on himself to crack a roster where spots were reserved for only the most elite players.
Bart didn't ultimately make that team, but he did learn a valuable lesson.
"I think that experience has really helped me be patient and understand that things all happen for a reason and my time is going to come," Bart said ahead of his debut Thursday at Oracle Park. "And when it is here, I'm going to make the most of it."
So when Bart was left off the Giants' Opening Day roster this summer, he knew all about the work left in front of him. The Giants' top prospect and the No. 2 overall pick from the 2018 MLB Draft admitted he was disappointed, but he worked diligently on his defense in an effort to prove to the franchise's top decision-makers he was ready for the spotlight.
On Wednesday night, the call came from Giants president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi, who was huddled with general manager Scott Harris and field manager Gabe Kapler as they were ready to deliver the news.
Bart would be coming to the big leagues.
"I was shaking for what seemed like 30 minutes," Bart said.
The Giants' catching prospect used his disappointment in being left off Team USA as fuel to become the top collegiate catcher in the country and did so by the end of his junior season.
Four weeks into the Giants' 2020 regular season, they could no longer ignore the fact Bart presented them with their best option to win. He joined the roster Thursday, debuted with a double and will be the starting catcher for the foreseeable future.
The man who has held that job for the last decade, Buster Posey, even sent Bart a congratulatory text to celebrate the achievement.
“He shot me a text and told me congratulations, that meant a lot to me, he’s an unbelievable guy," Bart said. "I’m glad that he and the babies and the family are healthy.”
The wait is over for Joey Bart, San Francisco Giants fans and the growing list of players who wanted to see the top prospect in the big leagues.
Bart, the No. 2 overall pick in the 2020 amateur draft, will make his major league debut on Thursday against the Los Angeles Angels and catch starter Kevin Gausman.
Giants president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi said the team's top decision-makers weren't certain Bart would debut this season, but his work at the club's Sacramento alternate site left them with no choice but to promote the catcher.
"We came into the year with a strong sense that his development wasn't complete," Zaidi said. "That was through no fault of his own. Obviously the unfortunate (hand) injury last year limited his ability to work through the system and we talked through that with Joey and how we felt like going to Sacramento and continuing to work on things and refine things was the right step.
"Our part of the bargain was we were going to keep an open mind to his progress and calling him up this year if his progress was good and if we thought the timing was right and that's where we are today."
SAN FRANCISCO -- With a second consecutive blowout win over the Los Angeles Angels on Wednesday, the San Francisco Giants will wake up Thursday with a chance to secure their first series win of the month.
Times have been tough for a Giants team that's blown three ninth-inning leads in the last week, but Gabe Kapler's club has consistently demonstrated resilience and it's paid off with back-to-back victories over an American League West foe.
The Giants last won a series against the Texas Rangers and despite being swept by the A's, the Giants were in position to take the first two games of their three-game set over the weekend.
Kapler's team remains in last place in the NL West, but it's worth considering how the Giants would fare if they played the 2020 season in the AL West instead.
When the coronavirus pandemic began, there were all sorts of ideas tossed out about how to build a condensed schedule and while the interleague play ultimately consists of one-third of this year's games, it's interesting to think about how the Giants would view their chances of contending if they matched up more frequently with teams such as the Mariners and Angels.
With 40 total games against their four NL West peers (all of which are above .500), it's hard to see a path for the Giants to reenter a playoff race no one expected them to be in anyway. If the 10 teams in the two West divisions formed a super conference, it's much easier to see how the Giants could push for a postseason berth.
Realignment isn't happening, but given how much better the club has performed against AL West teams, it's interesting to think what the 2020 Giants could accomplish in another division or over the course of a full 162-game season.
After five consecutive discouraging losses, the San Francisco Giants picked up a much-needed blowout win over the Angels on Tuesday in Anaheim.
Seven of the team's nine batters recorded at least one hit while a struggling bullpen combined for five innings of one-run ball to capture an 8-2 win.
The Giants emerged from a nightmare with one of their best performances of the season and will return to Oracle Park with a chance to split and potentially win a four-game home-and-home set against the Angels. Right-hander Shaun Anderson had trouble with his command in the ninth inning, but the one run he allowed was an improvement for a Giants team that had watched Trevor Gott blow three consecutive save opportunities in heartbreaking fashion.
Manager Gabe Kapler and several Giants players have reiterated their confidence in the club's overall potential in recent days, noting how well the team competed on Friday and Saturday against a red-hot Oakland A's club. Veterans including first baseman Brandon Belt said they would remain optimistic because of the way the team's offense has performed in recent days and while no one is expecting the Giants to make a surprise playoff run, a solid lineup should help the club turn its fortunes.
Can the Giants use Tuesday's win as a springboard to more success in the coming days? The schedule doesn't get any easier, but it is possible the club's worst days are behind it.
The Giants haven't invented new ways to lose during the 2020 season, but they have found ways to hit new depths over each of the past four days.
Right-hander Trevor Gott blew his third save in three chances on Monday against the Angels as the reliever gave up a two-run, walk-off home run to second baseman Tommy La Stella in another demoralizing 7-6 defeat.
The Giants' offense has played well and consistently given its bullpen opportunities to win games, but the club fell to 8-16 on Monday after another late meltdown.
Manager Gabe Kapler said postgame that he will look for a "softer landing spot" to find Gott work, but the Giants will likely look to give him a few days off before sending one of their most experienced relievers back to the mound.
For the time being, the closer role will remain up for grabs although it seems Kapler will likely be inclined to give veteran left-hander Tony Watson the first crack at the job. Tyler Rogers and Jarlín García are also candidates to pitch in high-leverage situations in the ninth inning, but for now, the Giants have to pick up the pieces and reevaluate every reliever's role in a struggling bullpen.
Can Gott and the Giants recover from all the heartbreak they've experienced over the last week? Does it matter for a team that's already eight games under .500? In this episode of the SF Giants Gameday podcast, beat writer Kerry Crowley looks at a team and a bullpen that's living through a nightmare.
SAN FRANCISCO -- When the San Francisco Giants dealt away Mark Melancon, Sam Dyson, Drew Pomeranz and Ray Black at last summer's trade deadline, it was an acknowledgement that an overmatched 2019 roster didn't have much use for a good bullpen.
The Giants hung onto left-handed relievers Will Smith and Tony Watson so they could retain a glimmer of hope and remain somewhat competitive in Bruce Bochy's final season, but all of the deadline moves signaled the organization's desire to completely overhaul the team's bullpen.
Giants president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi and first-year manager Gabe Kapler are in the beginning stages of a multi-year project to build a competent relief corps, so growing pains are expected.
The pains, of course, felt particularly sharp throughout a miserable three-game sweep against the Oakland A's this weekend.
Giants relievers gave up seven home runs, coughed up a pair of ninth inning leads and watched the A's add to their slugging percentage throughout a nine-run fifth inning in a 15-3 blowout on Sunday.
Giants relievers Dereck Rodríguez and Wandy Peralta were the pitchers the A's feasted against in the series finale, but nearly every pitcher coming out of the bullpen this season has been forced to live through a nightmare at least once.
The Giants as a team seem to live through them daily.
In this episode of the SF Giants Gameday podcast, host Kerry Crowley looks back at an awful weekend for the club at Oracle Park and explains why the organization is only taking the first steps of building its future bullpen during the 2020 season.
On Saturday, February 15, the San Francisco Giants and Oakland A's broke with tradition.
The Bay Area rivals hadn't executed a trade since 2004, but Giants executive Farhan Zaidi and A's executive Billy Beane finally broke the drought when San Francisco sent right-handed pitcher Burch Smith to Oakland in exchange for cash considerations.
The deal wasn't exactly a blockbuster considering there were no guarantees Smith would make the A's Opening Day roster, but it's turned out to be a great move for Oakland. In five games this season, Smith has thrown 10 1/3 scoreless innings while racking up 10 strikeouts and allowing just four hits.
The Giants haven't provided any details on what they've done with the cash they received, but it's safe to say the trade is working out in the A's favor.
With roughly two weeks to go until the 2020 trade deadline, the Giants and A's could once again line up for a deal as the two teams are logical trade partners. The A's are in first place in the American League West and could use another pitcher to fortify their rotation while the Giants are in last place in the National League West and could use a prospect or two to add to a robust farm system.
In this episode of the SF Giants Gameday podcast, Giants beat writer Kerry Crowley and A's beat writer Shayna Rubin discuss this weekend's Bay Bridge series at Oracle Park as they preview pitching matchups and discuss the season to date.
Crowley and Rubin also talk about what's expected of each team moving forward and why the A's and Giants could soon be in discussions about a possible deadline deal.
The San Francisco Giants are likely at least two or three years away from contending for a division title, but it's becoming easier for fans to get excited about the organization's future.
Many of the Giants' top prospects have been standouts at the team's Sacramento alternate site this summer as young talents including Marco Luciano, Alexander Canario and Hunter Bishop are taking advantage of an opportunity to receive high-level instruction during what's become a lost season for most minor leaguers.
A franchise that has long struggled to develop homegrown talent in the outfield finally has a promising group of sluggers who project as key pieces of the team's next core, but the outfield isn't the only area of depth in the Giants' system.
In this episode of the SF Giants Gameday podcast, host Kerry Crowley talks with freelance reporter Marc Delucchi, an expert on the Giants' farm system who recently released a list of his top 31 prospects.
Delucchi is as knowledgable about the Giants' minor league talent pool as anyone outside the organization and he shares his in-depth analysis on why Luciano could be the sport's No. 1 overall prospect in the near future, how the Giants fared in the 2020 amateur draft and which relatively unknown prospects could be poised for breakout seasons next year.
San Francisco Giants manager Gabe Kapler has shouldered a lot of criticism for his team's performance in his first season at the helm.
So when things work out in his team's favor, it's only fair that Kapler receives praise for strategic moves that paid off.
Kapler made several difficult tactical decisions during Tuesday's 7-6 comeback win over the Houston Astros and helped give the Giants a chance to steal a series win in Wednesday's finale.
Keeping the faith in veteran outfielder Hunter Pence hasn't been easy through his 2-for-32 start to the season, but Kapler has insisted Pence's track record for producing big numbers against left-handed pitchers will eventually lead to positive results.
The Giants' manager was right about that on Tuesday when he called on Pence to come off the bench and face Astros southpaw Blake Taylor in the seventh inning of a game Houston lead 6-2. Pence promptly delivered his first home run of the season, a three-run blast over the right field fence that gave the Giants new life.
When his club carried a 7-6 lead into the bottom of the 10th inning, Kapler made another move that showed his conviction in a key reliever and his coaching staff's decision-making process. Despite right-handed reliever Tyler Rogers' struggles in a few high-leverage situations this season, Kapler turned to Rogers to shut down the Astros and was rewarded when the rookie picked up his first career save.
With a runner on third and one out in the 10th, Rogers needed a strike out and got the job done against Astros shortstop Carlos Correa, the leading hitter in Houston's lineup.
Things haven't been easy for Kapler this season, particularly as he attempts to win the trust of fans who watched Bruce Bochy lead the Giants over the last 13 years. Tuesday's win was a confidence-builder for the Giants' manager, his players and in turn, some skeptical fans.
Outside of Colorado Rockies star Charlie Blackmon, no player in baseball is swinging a hotter bat than Giants infielder Donovan Solano.
Solano picked up two more doubles in the Giants' 6-4 loss to the Astros to improve his average to .458 this season, but with a porous glove, he's playing his way toward the designated hitter role.
Giants manager Gabe Kapler started Solano at third base on Monday in Houston to get Evan Longoria a day off, but the move backfired in the bottom of the third inning when Solano made a costly throwing error and also let a relatively routine grounder through the left side of the infield for a single.
In the bottom of the fourth, a botched groundball forced Kapler to give starting pitcher Logan Webb an early hook as the Giants' defensive miscues required Webb to throw far more pitches than he should have in the first few innings against the Astros.
Solano isn't the only Giants defender struggling on a team that leads the league in errors, but it's odd to see the journeyman infielder become a liability with the glove. He's had plenty of experience at third base, shortstop and second throughout his career in the majors and minors and until a breakout 2019 season at the plate, Solano was known as a glove-first player.
In 2020, Solano is one of the most consistent hitters in baseball and owns a league-best 15-game hit streak, but things have gone south for him in the field.
In this episode of the SF Giants Gameday podcast, host Kerry Crowley touches on the Giants' defensive miscues in Houston, another catcher's interference call, Austin Slater's performance against right-handed hitters and more.
The San Francisco Giants got their best start of the season from right-hander Kevin Gausman and received a clutch two-strike, two-out hit from Mike Yastrzemski to give the club the lead in the middle innings, but Gabe Kapler's club couldn't hold on to secure a series win in Los Angeles.
It was Kapler who once again ended up the spotlight on Sunday as his late-inning decision-making came under fire.
The Giants' first-year manager removed Gausman, who had thrown just 80 pitches, after the veteran gave up a single to Cody Bellinger in the bottom of the seventh. Even though the single came on a 99.3-mile per hour fastball from Gausman --his hardest pitch of the day-- Kapler elected to pull his starter in favor of reliever Tyler Rogers, who the coaching staff felt gave the Giants the best opportunity of inducing a potential double player grounder.
Rogers instead gave up a singe and ultimately gave up the lead when he left a 3-2 slider over the plate to Dodgers slugger A.J. Pollock.
The Giants ended up losing 6-2 after another right-handed reliever, Shaun Anderson, gave up a three-run home run in the eighth inning to star right fielder Mookie Betts, but fans will look back on the decision to remove Gausman as the moment the game turned in the Dodgers favor.
In this episode of the SF Giants Gameday podcast, beat writer Kerry Crowley breaks down the team's frustrating series finale in Los Angeles and also looks at a trade the Giants executed Sunday that brought Chicago White Sox prospect Luis Basabe into the farm system.
The San Francisco Giants should have had a marquee win on Thursday at Coors Field.
One of their promising young talents, Mauricio Dubón, made a leaping catch at the wall in center field and hit a go-ahead three-run home run to push the Giants ahead 3-1 in the seventh inning.
A pitcher that Giants president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi acquired for nothing, Tyler Anderson, threw five shutout innings against a Rockies team that gave up on him last winter.
The Giants had a chance to show their inexperienced bullpen had the poise and talent to finish off the Rockies and earn a series split, but another seventh-inning implosion doomed a San Francisco club that's now 6-8 on the season.
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Dubón's home run celebration in which he dropped his bat and shouted toward the Giants' dugout should have become a the game's defining highlight and an example of the joy, energy and intensity young players looking to prove themselves bring to the table. Instead it was a secondary highlight to Rockies first baseman Daniel Murphy's celebration of a home run off Giants reliever Rico Garcia as Murphy glared at Dubón out in center field as he circled the basepaths.
A potential 3-1 win ended up as a 6-4 loss as the Giants and manager Gabe Kapler continue to face questions as to whether their bullpen is competent enough to navigate through a daunting schedule. A four-game set at Coors Field was theoretically the easiest part of a 10-game road trip that includes series against the Dodgers and Astros, but the Giants are now three games under .500 on the trip and trying to keep their season from unraveling.
The Giants billed the 2020 season as the year they'd learn all about the unproven talent in their organization.
Thirteen games in, they're beginning to get some answers.
Rookie right-hander Logan Webb turned in the best outing of any Giants starter this season in Wednesday's 4-3 win over the Rockies, throwing five innings while allowing just one earned run.
Webb has outperformed veterans Johnny Cueto, Jeff Samardzija and Kevin Gausman to open the season and has been the starter responsible for snapping three separate losing streaks this season. With a low-to-mid 90s fastball, an improved changeup and a sweeping slider that has more bite than his breaking ball did a season ago, Webb is showing he's much improved after making his debut late last summer.
In Thursday's episode of the SF Giants Gameday podcast, we look at how the Giants' 2020 outfield experiment has played out and examine how two players the front office talked up this offseason have ended up at different ends of the playing time spectrum.
Jaylin Davis is still struggling to find a rhythm at the team's alternate site in Sacramento, but Mike Yastrzemski has exceeded expectations and morphed into a reliable everyday player with the type of power that will give him a chance to lead the Giants in home runs for a second straight season.
Yastrzemski was never considered a top prospect during his time in the Baltimore Orioles organization, but he has become the Giants' most consistent player this season and his breakthrough shows a player doesn't necessarily need to have the attention of every scout to have a successful major league career.
With that being said, great farm systems produce great major league players and the Giants have taken a step forward in accumulating depth at the minor league level in recent years. MLB.com released its top 100 prospect ranking on Tuesday and we took a look at players such as Joey Bart, Marco Luciano and Hunter Bishop as well as the prospects the Giants selected in the 2020 amateur draft.
It's difficult to envision the Giants remaining as consistently bad on defense this season in part because they're so much worse than every other team in the National League.
The Giants finished Tuesday's 5-2 loss to the Colorado Rockies with three more errors, giving them a major league-worst 16 on the season. The defense has been sloppy, unacceptable and frustrating for first-year manager Gabe Kapler, but it's hard to run a few infield or outfield drills and expect everything to suddenly improve.
No other team in the National League had more than nine errors entering play on Tuesday and logic suggests that even if the Giants have the worst defense in the league, they won't continue to play so poorly.
The team is adjusting to new shifts while some players are getting acclimated with new positions. A handful of less experienced players such as Mauricio Dubón and Tyler Heinemen haven't played many major league games, so it's hard to anticipate everything going smoothly right away.
The Giants know their defense is a concern and it will only become a greater focus as the team attempts to find some momentum in a difficult 10-game road trip. Back-to-back losses against the Giants have already put the Giants in a deep hole on their longest road trip of the season and while the Rockies are off to a hot 9-2 start, the Dodgers and Astros are expected to provide even greater challenges over the next seven days.
Kapler and Giants president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi are facing some difficult decisions this week as they'll need to trim the roster by two players on Thursday. The club has a handful of struggling hitters including Dubón and Pablo Sandoval, but both recorded hits in Tuesday's loss as they were given opportunities to dig out of their slumps.
With two games left at Coors Field, the SF Giants Gameday podcast evaluates what needs to change for the club in Colorado.
Through 11 games, the San Francisco Giants have proven that Gabe Kapler's first team isn't all that similar to the final two or three rosters Bruce Bochy managed.
Bochy's clubs were built on pitching and defense and struggled to hit during his final seasons in San Francisco. In Kapler's first two weeks with the Giants, his lineup is emerging as one of the more intriguing groups in the National League, but his defense has been awful.
The Giants committed two more errors in Monday's 7-6 loss at Coors Field and should have been charged with a third when right fielder Alex Dickerson dropped a flyball at the right field warning track that was ultimately ruled a triple.
Dickerson was involved in another defensive miscue on Monday when he overthrew a cut-off man and watched catcher Chadwick Tromp scramble away from home plate in an effort to corral the errant ball. Tromp's decision to vacate the plate led to a Rockies run and ended up haunting a team that mounted a ninth-inning rally but fell a run short in the first game of a 10-game road trip.
The Giants have averaged more than six runs a game over their past six games and have quickly improved against right-handed pitching after a few rough showings early in the year, but their defense has shown no signs that the sloppiness fans saw during the season-opening series in Los Angeles will be going away anytime soon.
Kapler has so many moving pieces on defense that it's hard to keep track and it's especially clear the Giants have struggled to field the ball when infielders are positioned in shifts. Third baseman Evan Longoria was charged with the team's first error on Monday when he had trouble back-handing a ball while playing on the right side of the second base bag.
If the Giants hope to climb above .500 and stay there for awhile, they'll need better pitching and a much-improved defense to do so. Until then, fans can at least enjoy an offense that's proven more entertaining than expected.
SAN FRANCISCO -- Ten games into a 60-game season, the Giants are beginning to develop an identity.
An offense fueled by unlikely standouts, Mike Yastrzemski and Donovan Solano, is showing resiliency and the ability to expose opponents' bullpens. A pitching staff filled with inexperienced and unproven talent has enjoyed moments of dominance and extended periods where strike zone command proves evasive.
In a 9-5 loss to the Rangers on Sunday, the Giants' lineup overcame an early four-run deficit thanks to home runs from third baseman Evan Longoria and catcher Chadwick Tromp before its bullpen melted down in a brutal top of the seventh.
In his 2020 season debut, right-hander Andrew Triggs walked three consecutive batters before lefty Tyler Anderson entered and made a location mistake with an 0-2 fastball to Rangers slugger Joey Gallo. Gallo sent the pitch over the 415-foot sign on the wall in Triples Alley, putting the game out of reach for an offense that scored 38 runs during a six-game homestand at a ballpark that's historically ranked among the most pitcher-friendly in baseball.
Through their first 10 games, Giants hitters are outperforming expectations while Giants pitchers are still battling some inconsistencies. First-year manager Gabe Kapler has used about half of his staff in consistent roles while others including relievers such as Shaun Anderson, Rico Garcia and Conner Menez have appeared in several different types of situations.
It's too soon to make any firm evaluations on what the 2020 Giants team is capable of, but the club is now entering a portion of the schedule where some of the sloppy mistakes we've seen could really haunt players.
Coors Field is unforgiving to pitchers while Dodger Stadium, the second stop on a three-city road trip, is home to a team that's 5-1 in its six games since the Giants left town. The Giants will finish their road trip in Houston to play a loaded Astros club that's dealing with several pitching injuries, but still boasts one of the best lineups in the American League.
Things can spiral out of control quickly in a 60-game season and the Giants know their longest road trip of the year represents a daunting challenge.
SAN FRANCISCO -- It's too soon to know how long Giants fans will hold Gabe Kapler's 10th-inning gaffe against the team's first-year manager.
If history is any indication, Kapler's self-proclaimed "screw-up" will be difficult to live down.
In his seventh game as the Giants' manager, Kapler went to the mound in a disastrous 10th inning in an attempt to remove reliever Tyler Rogers. It took a few seconds, but umpires finally informed Kapler he was unable to do so because pitching coach Andrew Bailey had also made a mound visit during Padres catcher Austin Hedges' at-bat.
After returning to the dugout, Rogers was summoned back to the mound to finish his at-bat against Hedges. The Padres catcher ended up reaching on a fielder's choice on a play that took place when the game had already been decided, but Giants fans won't forget Kapler's early mix-up, particularly because he's succeeding a managerial legend in Bruce Bochy.
Following a quick discussion of the mistake, our SF Giants Gameday podcast welcomes in its first-ever guest.
In this episode of the podcast, Bay Area News Group Giants beat reporter Kerry Crowley chats with longtime San Francisco Chronicle Giants beat writer Henry Schulman who shares stories from his 30-plus seasons covering baseball.
Schulman explains why he thinks MLB has already lost the integrity of the 2020 season and also shares stories from covering other famous stoppages in the game's history. Some of the best untold stories in baseball take place on the road and Schulman details his experiences driving across the United States and covering unique stories.
From interviewing local residents during New York City's 2003 blackouts following a Giants-Mets series to racing to a Chicago airport to escape Hurricane Sandy in Detroit following the 2012 World Series, Schulman describes the thrills and challenges that come with navigating around unexpected obstacles on the road.
Schulman and Crowley also discuss their early impressions of Giants manager Gabe Kapler, comparing him to the four other managers Schulman has covered during his time on the beat. Kapler's desire to advocate for his players through the media differs from the way legendary manager Felipe Alou handled his interviews with beat reporters and Schulman shared some of his favorite memories of covering the Giants during the Alou era.
The San Francisco Giants haven't made anything official, but manager Gabe Kapler sounded optimistic that a pair of starting infielders would return to the lineup Thursday.
The Giants have missed third baseman Evan Longoria and first baseman Brandon Belt so far, but both players are expected to make their 2020 debuts against Dinelson Lamet and the San Diego Padres.
It was natural for the Giants to be concerned as to how their offense would fare without two middle-of-the-order bats, but six games into the season, the club has displayed impressive resiliency and hopes to welcome Longoria and Belt back following a stunning four-run comeback win over the Padres.
Donovan Solano yanked a game-tying three-run home run to left field in the bottom of the eighth inning before outfielder Mike Yastrzemski pulled his second home run of the night into McCovey Cove to seal a 7-6 walk-off win on Wednesday.
Solano, Yastrzemski and a handful of other players have kept the Giants afloat with a 3-3 record, giving the team a chance to capitalize on the return of two veterans.
Longoria was one of the team's top hitters during summer workouts before a moderate right oblique strain sidelined him in the final week leading up to Opening Night. Belt never had a chance to get going at the plate as he dealt with a right heel injury for much of summer camp, but Kapler expects the Giants will receive a boost from having a pair of veteran hitters back in a lineup that has struggled against right-handed pitchers.
When asked about Longoria and Belt potentially debuting together, Kapler said it will give the Giants much-needed depth and improve the defensive capabilities of an infield that has struggled so far.
The Giants entered Wednesday's game against the Padres with an MLB-worst nine errors as several players including Wilmer Flores and Solano have been asked to play out of their natural positions. Kapler wants Solano to play against left-handed pitchers and take down most of his reps at second base while he prefers for Flores to play first, making him a platoon partner for the left-handed hitting Belt.
Heading into a series finale against the Padres, there's no question the Giants need more of a spark from their offense. Belt and Longoria will be counted on to provide it.
SAN FRANCISCO -- The San Francisco Giants' $10 million scoreboard was malfunctioning, but no one needed a hi-definition video board to see that left-hander Drew Pomeranz looked untouchable on Tuesday evening at Oracle Park.
That's a trade-off the Giants would have taken in 2019, but the scoreboard was installed more than a year ago and Pomeranz now pitches for a different National League West team.
Not exactly an ideal home opener.
The Giants entered the bottom of the ninth inning in Tuesday's game against the San Diego Padres trailing by two runs, but stood no chance against Pomeranz, who struck out the side with ease.
San Francisco traded Pomeranz to Milwaukee last summer for Mauricio Dubón, who started at second base and played center field in Tuesday's 5-3 loss. Dubón has the potential to be a solid contributor for the team's next core, but they'll need to find more players who can help the team close talent gaps with at least three of their NL West foes.
Dubón brings energy to the park on a nightly basis, but energy is exactly what the Giants lacked in the first regular season game without fans in Oracle Park history. Veteran Jeff Samardzija's fastball velocity was down, the bats were quiet and the Giants didn't do themselves any favors with opportunities to cut into the Padres' lead in the seventh and eighth innings.
The club will return to action Wednesday at Oracle Park, where Johnny Cueto will attempt to build off a strong Opening Night effort in Los Angeles against Chris Paddack, a young Padres right-hander who boats a similar confidence to former Giants ace Madison Bumgarner.
The Giants traveled to Los Angeles for a four-game series against the Dodgers and never sent the second-highest paid pitcher on their team to the mound.
Jeff Samardzija is in the final season of a five-year, $90 million contract, but first-year manager Gabe Kapler is waiting until Tuesday's home opener at Oracle Park to have the right-hander make his season debut.
It was curious the Giants never had Samardzija pitch at Dodger Stadium and never gave an explanation for the decision, but it seems Kapler and president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi are intent on treating every game of the 2020 season like it's the postseason.
And in the postseason, Samardzija wouldn't face the Dodgers away from Oracle Park. A lineup loaded with left-handed sluggers including 2019 MVP Cody Bellinger, Max Muncy and Corey Seager spells trouble for Samardzija, so the Giants will instead have him pitch Tuesday against the Padres and likely again on Sunday against the Rangers.
A pair of Giants rookies and timely hits from a lineup loaded with right-handed bats helped manager Gabe Kapler secure his first win with his new club Saturday.
After his unconventional strategy for deploying pitchers came under fire --both from opposing manager, Dave Roberts, and his own veteran starters-- Kapler and the Giants picked up a crucial win Saturday and will have an opportunity to split the series on Sunday Night Baseball.
Right-hander Logan Webb and lefty Caleb Baragar shut down the Dodgers by combining for six innings of one-run ball while first baseman Darin Ruf, second baseman Wilmer Flores and third baseman Donovan Solano all contributed key hits in Saturday's victory.
The Giants were outscored by a combined total of 17-2, but with a new look lineup against Dodgers left-hander Alex Wood, San Francisco found immediate success. Kapler's club scored at least one run in the first four innings of the game and helped give its young pitchers a much-needed cushion.
Kapler entered the matchup after fielding criticism from Roberts for waiting until hours before first pitch to announce his starter in each of the last two games, but exited it ensuring his team would avoid a sweep against the National League West favorites.
It's hard to imagine the Gabe Kapler era getting off to a worse start than back-to-back blowout losses to the Los Angeles Dodgers.
As the Giants may find out over the next two days, things can still go down from here.
Despite losing their first two games of the season by a combined score of 17-2, Kapler's Giants have already used three of their four best starting pitchers and will be without three of their middle-of-the-order hitters.
Buster Posey isn't walking through the doors to the clubhouse anytime soon, but the losses of third baseman Evan Longoria and first baseman Brandon Belt due to injury have clearly hurt the Giants at the outset of the season.
Kapler's three, four and five hitters on Friday at Dodger Stadium were Pablo Sandoval, who returned to the team as a minor league free agent over the offseason, Alex Dickerson, who was designated for assignment by the Padres last year, and Joe McCarthy, who made his major league debut Thursday and is now 0-for-7 on the year.
What should Giants fans expect over the next two days? Is it too soon to evaluate the state of the 2020 club? We answer those questions and more in the SF Giants Gameday podcast.
Gone are Bruce Bochy and Madison Bumgarner. Missing were Buster Posey, Evan Longoria and Brandon Belt. And while the Los Angeles Dodgers were without ace Clayton Kershaw, the Giants' rival replaced their presumed Opening Day starter with a rookie who throws 100-mile per hour sinkers in Dustin May.
The Giants needed so much to go right to have a chance to open the Gabe Kapler era with a win, and in the midst of a seventh-inning meltdown, nearly everything went wrong.
Our recap from Opening Night looks at the miscues, but also the reasons the Giants are staying optimistic in 2020.
The Giants' 2020 season starts Thursday, July 23 in Los Angeles with a heavily anticipated showdown against the Dodgers.
Beat reporter Kerry Crowley looks at how the coronavirus pandemic impacted Major League Baseball, how the Giants are preparing for the 2020 season and what will look different for the club this season under first-year manager Gabe Kapler.
Beginning Thursday, July 23, Bay Area News Group San Francisco Giants beat reporter Kerry Crowley will chronicle an unprecedented baseball season with updates and analysis on a daily basis. Crowley will give you an all-access look at the team with soundbites from players, coaches and executives.