While I have been a fairly solid Zaidi fanboy, I have questions about whether he knows how to handle stars. As the Dodgers GM, he took a good team and made it perpetually great. But, if I recall correctly, he came in after the Adrian Gonzalez trade and left before the Mookie Betts trade. His term was similarly in between both Kershaw signings. Mostly his moves have been good in isolation team improving moves, which are great, but unless I’m missing something, there doesn’t seem to be a real team defining move for either the Giants or Dodgers. (I’m probably missing something.)
So, what we’re left with is a lot of good depth piece style players. The Giants have 10 offensive players with 0.8 WAR or better. The same can be said of the Braves, the Rays, and the Orioles, while the Dodgers only have 8 such players. Admittedly, noting that the Giants don’t have stars may have been done a few times before. But, I think there is more to it than that. They seem to get flawed players who aren’t expected to have 500 PA (only 3 on the roster, and those 3 just are barely over 500 PA), but the Giants are hoping their depth is there to overcome a single player’s inability to avoid injury or hit lefthanded pitching or just stay fresh during a grueling schedule. With the third wildcard, this mostly works, and it worked really well in 2021 when everything seemed to go right. However, over the last two seasons, we’ve seen multiple players at the same position get injured at the same time. I’ve previously noted about them losing Estrada and Crawford simultaneously. And, similarly simultaneous injuries occurred in the outfield too. Even a deep team, like the Giants, is going to struggle with simultaneous injuries. It forces the manager, who wants to platoon, to play players who clearly weren’t meant to play in certain conditions (see Casey Schmitt and Luis Matos for example).
My hope is that the FO thinks hard about this over the offseason. Having a lot of depth is cool, but it just doesn’t appear that they have enough depth to overcome an entire roster full of players who are going to have fewer than 500 PA.
It seems like he's really good at avoiding risk. He doesn't give out long-term deals, and he does ensure that the team has lots of players who are passable enough that an injury to one won't lead to a Bocock situation. No, you don't want 2023 Casey Schmitt in your lineup, but you do want him on defense, and maybe he'll figure enough things out offensively that he becomes passable over there. It's not a great Plan A, but as Plan E goes, you could do worse.
But as for acquiring impact talent? He's never shown he can do that, and that's going to be his big test this offseason.
I did circle around to glance at the 2021 Giants offense. Despite having few players with more than 500 PA (only 2), they 12 players with more than 0.8 WAR. The lowest of those 12 was Estrada at 1.1 WAR. So, if say 2 of Villar, Haniger, and Bart worked out even remotely, they likely would have had the depth needed to make the playoffs.
The question I keep coming back to is this - is this platoon-heavy, advanced-metric-devoted style something that Zaidi & Kapler prefer, or something they believe the are forced to use until the talent level rises?
Just as I thought that the Michael Tucker Experience (tm) revealed who Brian Sabean really was (a reasonable scout but a lousy GM), I think the Tommy LaStella Experience (tm) told us who Farhan Zaidi really is - along with the questionable promotion of Wade Meckler. I have to conclude that this is the style that Zaidi prefers.
Rather than out-play other teams, he believes he can out-think them. Improvement at the margins will lead to improvement in the aggregate.
I think he would rather have a superstar in the lineup than use a platoon, but he wants one that he's sure about. He seems really uncomfortable living with risk. He seems so scared of a big signing turning into Anthony Rendon that he's going to miss out on JD Martinez. Maybe he's right! But you can be right all day and not make the team better like you need to.
While I have been a fairly solid Zaidi fanboy, I have questions about whether he knows how to handle stars. As the Dodgers GM, he took a good team and made it perpetually great. But, if I recall correctly, he came in after the Adrian Gonzalez trade and left before the Mookie Betts trade. His term was similarly in between both Kershaw signings. Mostly his moves have been good in isolation team improving moves, which are great, but unless I’m missing something, there doesn’t seem to be a real team defining move for either the Giants or Dodgers. (I’m probably missing something.)
So, what we’re left with is a lot of good depth piece style players. The Giants have 10 offensive players with 0.8 WAR or better. The same can be said of the Braves, the Rays, and the Orioles, while the Dodgers only have 8 such players. Admittedly, noting that the Giants don’t have stars may have been done a few times before. But, I think there is more to it than that. They seem to get flawed players who aren’t expected to have 500 PA (only 3 on the roster, and those 3 just are barely over 500 PA), but the Giants are hoping their depth is there to overcome a single player’s inability to avoid injury or hit lefthanded pitching or just stay fresh during a grueling schedule. With the third wildcard, this mostly works, and it worked really well in 2021 when everything seemed to go right. However, over the last two seasons, we’ve seen multiple players at the same position get injured at the same time. I’ve previously noted about them losing Estrada and Crawford simultaneously. And, similarly simultaneous injuries occurred in the outfield too. Even a deep team, like the Giants, is going to struggle with simultaneous injuries. It forces the manager, who wants to platoon, to play players who clearly weren’t meant to play in certain conditions (see Casey Schmitt and Luis Matos for example).
My hope is that the FO thinks hard about this over the offseason. Having a lot of depth is cool, but it just doesn’t appear that they have enough depth to overcome an entire roster full of players who are going to have fewer than 500 PA.
Also, they should sign Shohei Ohtani.
It seems like he's really good at avoiding risk. He doesn't give out long-term deals, and he does ensure that the team has lots of players who are passable enough that an injury to one won't lead to a Bocock situation. No, you don't want 2023 Casey Schmitt in your lineup, but you do want him on defense, and maybe he'll figure enough things out offensively that he becomes passable over there. It's not a great Plan A, but as Plan E goes, you could do worse.
But as for acquiring impact talent? He's never shown he can do that, and that's going to be his big test this offseason.
I did circle around to glance at the 2021 Giants offense. Despite having few players with more than 500 PA (only 2), they 12 players with more than 0.8 WAR. The lowest of those 12 was Estrada at 1.1 WAR. So, if say 2 of Villar, Haniger, and Bart worked out even remotely, they likely would have had the depth needed to make the playoffs.
Bring back Righetti.
Then fire him.
Problem solved!
The question I keep coming back to is this - is this platoon-heavy, advanced-metric-devoted style something that Zaidi & Kapler prefer, or something they believe the are forced to use until the talent level rises?
Just as I thought that the Michael Tucker Experience (tm) revealed who Brian Sabean really was (a reasonable scout but a lousy GM), I think the Tommy LaStella Experience (tm) told us who Farhan Zaidi really is - along with the questionable promotion of Wade Meckler. I have to conclude that this is the style that Zaidi prefers.
Rather than out-play other teams, he believes he can out-think them. Improvement at the margins will lead to improvement in the aggregate.
I think he is mistaken.
I think he would rather have a superstar in the lineup than use a platoon, but he wants one that he's sure about. He seems really uncomfortable living with risk. He seems so scared of a big signing turning into Anthony Rendon that he's going to miss out on JD Martinez. Maybe he's right! But you can be right all day and not make the team better like you need to.
Right amount of snarl in logical presentation. Thanks!