It would appear that our favourite baseball squadron is a steaming heap of canine faeces
I said that in the classiest, most British way I could
1985 was an awful year for the Giants. They lost 100 games for the only time in franchise history. They gave Manny Trillo 500 plate appearances of 66 OPS+ ball, batting second in literally every game he started. They fired their manager and GM in September. Brad Wellman was there. It was a mess.
Also, I was born in 1985. Just a truly, truly awful 12 month stretch for Giants baseball.
I bring up 1985 because, as you may know, the Giants just went 0-7 on a 7-game road trip for the first time since 1985. If you did not know that before this paragraph, I am sorry I brought it up and hope I didn’t ruin your day by making you think about the Giants, who are currently playing like dog shit.
I’m going to make you think about the Giants, who are currently playing like dog shit, multiple times over the next few minutes, so if that’s not your thing right now, I respect that and hopefully I’ll see you next week, perhaps (if we’re being super optimistic) after the Giants, who are currently playing like dog shit, have won a game in the second half.
The Giants, who are currently playing like dog shit, are in a losing streak. When teams are in a losing streak, what does the fanbase do? That’s right:
I don’t want to make it seem like this sentiment is universal. For every “Fire Kapler!” tweet there’s another one saying “No, that’s dumb.” I also don’t want to make it seem like I don’t understand the reasoning here. The Giants, who are currently playing like dog shit, do not have the personnel to start the same lineup every day no matter what, and then leave them all in for nine innings. They therefore have to change up their lineups, and pinch hit, all of which are decisions that put the manager in the spotlight.
This has not gone well lately.
The Giants, who are currently playing like dog shit, also do not have starters who reliably pitch late into games. They therefore have to go to their bullpen early and often. Every time the manager puts a new reliever in the game, that reliever’s performance is a referendum on the manager’s decision making.
This has not gone well lately.
When you add all that together, what you get is a manager who is pressing the wrong lever at every opportunity. That’s bad! That’s the opposite of what you want. You want a manager to press the right lever, not the wrong lever. Why wouldn’t the Giants, who are currently playing like dog shit, get someone who does that?
The problem, of course, is that there is no right lever.
Let’s start with the lineup. In the second half (not counting yesterday’s game), the best hitter on the Giants, who are currently playing like dog shit, has been Luis Gonzalez, who is hitting .412/.500/.529. Their second best hitter has been Evan Longoria, currently injured, who is hitting .222/.300/.556. Then Darin Ruf, at .176/.300/.529. Next up is Yermin Mercedes (.214/.313/.357), followed by Austin Wynns (.200/.333/.200) and Thairo Estrada (.200/.304/.200, though that certainly went up after his 3-hit day yesterday), and we’re not even to the bad half of the position players yet.
Coming into yesterday, the team as a whole in the second half of the season was hitting .179/.259/.282. Yes, the Dodgers, who are currently playing quite well, have lots of good pitchers, and the Giants, who are currently playing like dog shit, played them four times. But they’re not turn-the-entire-opposing-team-into-garbage good.
Over the last week, basically the entire team hasn’t been able to hit. There’s nothing a manager can do about that. I mean, he can pinch hit, but he’ll be pinch hitting for someone who can’t hit with someone else who can’t hit. Not an upgrade!
The bullpen has been awful too. As a whole, they have an ERA of 9, and that doesn’t even include the four unearned runs that Sam Long gave up against the Dodgers. They can’t get guys out. Their FIP and xFIP are both around 6.6, so it’s not like they’re actually good and just happen to be getting bad results. They’ve been awful. Lefties, righties, anyone. Terrible. There’s nothing a manager can do about that, because if he takes out one bad pitcher, he just puts another one right in.
And the defense. The defense has been the most catastrophic thing about the Giants, who are currently playing like dog shit. You can never trust them to catch the ball. You can never trust them to hit a cutoff man, Austin Slater. You can never trust them to make a routine throw. The only thing you can trust them to do is completely screw up whatever play they’re trying to make.
There’s nothing a manager can do about any of this, other than put in different players, who will also be bad. Gabe Kapler is in a bind here: all of his players are playing badly, and so is his team, the Giants, who are currently playing like dog shit.
This team does not deserve to make the playoffs. This team should obviously be selling any players another team might be interested in acquiring. I don’t know if ownership will go for it or if they’ll say no, we have to compete, do whatever it takes, but the core of this team simply isn’t good enough. It’s not a managerial problem. It’s a problem with every player (other than Rodon and Webb) not living up to what he should be doing.
By the way, that tweet wishing for Bochy to come back, even if it’s joking or half-hearted? Let’s not forget who was managing in 2017, when the entire team played like absolute garbage. Let’s not forget who managed the 2018 Giants, who went 5-21 in September. These stretches can happen with any manager. We know that because they did.
This team has failed. The Giants, who are currently playing like dog shit, have failed. It’s still possible that they’ll pick themselves up, right the shit, and squeak out that 6th seed in October. But that’s their absolute ceiling, and at the moment it doesn’t seem likely. They don’t have the ability to compete with the class of the National League, other than the Brewers for some reason. They’re just not good enough. Last year’s 107 wins might as well be 107,000 for how different the talent level is. They’re mostly the same players, except they’re bad this year. There’s no denying it anymore.
The Giants are playing like dog shit right now, by the way. Just want to make sure that part is clear.
Nice selection of tweets there. Out of the 4 I had two blocked and one muted.
Good to learn I'm not missing anything substantial.
I just got used to pronouncing IWBNITGWeB, so please don't change the name of this blog. I am not ready to learn to pronounce GWACPLiDS.