Talkin' Baseball (MLB Podcast) - San Francisco Giants | Profile & Projection | 621

Episode Date: March 7, 2023

Use code JOMBOYPRESEASON for 15% off your next purchase at SeatGeek* https://seatgeek.onelink.me/RrnK/JOMBOYPRESEASON*max discount $50, expires 3/31/2023After winning over 100 games just two years ago, the Giants took what felt like a step back in 2022, then nearly signed Carlos Correa and Arson Judge before losing them too. What moves DID they make and what is their ceiling in 2023? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Gabe. Ho! Kai Karea. Hot. I thought we were going to be talking about Carlos Karea, but we're talking about Kai Karea for your San Francisco

Kiantes. They were in a lot of talks this off season. Carlos Karea, Aaron Arson Judge. was a giant, was a giant briefly. Who they ended up adding after their 81 and 81 season. What's going on, guys?

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Mitch Hanager, sure. When he's out there, there. He rakes. Sean Mania and Ross Stripling to plug into their rotation. Mania coming off a lesser year. Stripling coming off a better year. Michael Conforto. Hello, old friend. He is a San Francisco giant. Some bullpen reinforcements with Luke Jackson and Taylor Rogers to pair up with his twin. Treves Blake Sable should get some run. A couple other names on minor league deals you might see. Piscopi. Perez, Ross, Newcomb. Who they lost, Carlos Rodon.

Rodon? He's with my Yankees. Big Boy contract. Evan Longoria, your guy. He's on my snakes now. Brandon Bell. Long time, San Francisco Giant. He's now a Blue Jay.

Tommy Lestella's out. Who else? Willie Calhoun. A couple other bodies you'd recognize. They add. I think you can say they added outside of losing that big piece in Rodon. Trevor, where does the lineup land, kind of what's been a funky San Francisco Giants lineup?

I think we're mostly locked in here. There will be some shuffling there, probably around first base. What do you call this dude, young prince? The young prince. Tyro Estrada, he'll be seeing time at second base. Is he going to be platooned for and with? that's a possibility. Mike Estremski.

Mitch Hanager, my guy, my Instagram friend, Jock Peterson, Michael Conforto. I love that. He'll be in left field. Wilmore Flores at third base,

shortstop. Good looking. Good field and Brandon Crawford. Late night, Lamont, will be seen some time at first base. Definitely some platoon situations there.

Joey Bart will be catching. On the bench, that piece is J.D. Davis, Roberto Perez, Austin Slade. David Villar. Other guys listed as well, but Bebers.

Take me through that pitching staff because I'm a look and I'm a liking. They have a very interesting pitching staff, and it begins with Logan Webb at the top of that rotation. Then Alex Cobb, Sean Minaya Ross stripling, those two guys have the same contract. Alex Wood, Anthony Descliffeani

should be doing some swing man stuff. Tristan Beck, he's in the mix. for some rotation depth in their bullpen, Jake's guy, Camilo Duval. They got the Rogers brothers, Taylor and Tyler, both of them there. That's fun for the parents. John Brebia, Scott Alexander, Jacob Junis,

some former royals. And Luke Jackson's beginning of the year on the IL. He'll figure to be part of that bullpen at some point this season. The Giants, man. They went deep sea fishing, and they ended up not getting the big fish, but they got, it's fish on that boat. Have you ever been fishing before?

I've been fishing, not deep sea. You know, next time I'm out in L.A., the low brother said to, you know, they love deep sea fishing. We'll figure it out. Trev, the San Francisco Giants, they're coming off the massive, what was it, 107, 108 win season in the last year,

81 and 81 on the nose. they add interesting pieces in free agency. This is a big year to find out what this organization is. Because right now they get the credit, right? Like they tap into guys pitching-wise. You know, they had that year with the lineup when it seemed like they were pressing all the right buttons with your guy Gabe Kapler, who has become the Bay Area.

that I don't know. I don't know. You could spin yourself in circles on this team, and I don't know who's right. I think that this team is going to be better than a lot of people are going to give them credit for. A lot of the negative reaction to this franchise over the off season was because they went out and tried to get people,

and it didn't work out. Carlos Correa, they had them, and they didn't have them after the physical. Aaron Judge was never there but it was reported that's not even fair to like the organization whatsoever

like the fact that they went after these guys that's a good sign for your organization the fact that neither of them are there that's not so good you did bring in

some really good talent so I think that we have to talk about this off season like that they made some good additions here now is it going to be enough to compete with the Dodgers

and the Padres for this division probably not but again with the expansion wild card six teams per side I think that this is a team that's going to be on the cusp of that wild card spot again I think we're going to need a little bit more slug out of this offense if they want to have a chance bullpen needs to be a little bit better probably strike

out a few more people this year miss those bats if you will but again if you kind of look around the roster see where they're at knowing how they exploit platoon advantages I think they were going to see a competitive team here in 2023 for the San Francisco Giants. Let's start off with what I like. Part of their beautiful... Miller DeVal. I actually was heading there. Part of their magical 20th.

I was shocked. His stats last year were good. He just got off to a slow start, and I remember people being like, Camillo DeVal. He was awesome last year, and he's still young, and he's still disgusting. Anyways, they were the number one ERA, I think Whip. I think basically anything you were looking for in 2021, their magical season,

the best bullpen. And they were hitting you with Rogers. Deval at the end came up. They, I like what they've done back there. I love Deval. You got the Rogers from each side. That's a freak show. Brebeah can put a season together.

Scott Alexander's back there. Like we mentioned Luke Jackson when he comes. comes back. You know, I like that as a depth bullpen piece for them. So I think their bullpen that last year was 20th in ERA, 23rd in WIP. I think they will come back to a higher class bullpen team, to what level I'm not sure. What scares me, and maybe I'm giving away too much here, the starting pitching. They were seventh in ERA.

They were high in strikeouts. How much of that was tied to Carlos Rodon, who was one of the best pitchers in baseball? A chunk of it. And you're trying to replace that with some bodies. You know, Mania and Stripling, who I, you know, I like one of the non-overlaps for me and Jim. I like the way Mania pitches.

I think he's going to bounce back in a big way, especially in that ballpark and kind of getting in the, the lab after a down year. Stripling was great last year. So, you know, does that continue? Does that carry over? Replacing Rodon and what he provides once every five days, that's really tough to replicate. The lineup will be better to what degree?

I don't know. You know, can Jady Davis? That guy's been looking for a home for a while. Does he get a lot of the first base at bats and it starts to click for him? I don't know They get graded differently and they should after that magical season But man, on paper Like even especially we're now coming off of a few teams

That if the Okay, we love doing this game, right? If the Angels roster Was on the Giants I think I might like the Giants If the Giants roster was on the angels, I think we would be rude. Rude.

So I guess that's, that kind of drives my point home. That's, that's an interesting take. I can get behind that. And we see that. And this is, what's the opposite of recency bias? History bias? I don't freak it. It doesn't, is there a term for that?

Did I just make it up? We think about the Giants as having, and rightfully so, I, Yeah, like as one of the better player development systems. But let's look at this roster. Like, there's not a lot of homegrown talent on here. Like, one of the reasons that we have an article here, why Giants fans are mad. It was written by Grant Grisbee, Bisbee.

I'm sorry. I must have messed up that. Bisbee, sorry. And he's talking about, like, we need the young guys to come up and be, like, good major league players. And that's, you could say that about every organization. They're the lifeblood of your org is the guys that come up that you've grown yourself

that don't cost anything that you have control over that you can send up and down. You've got to have those guys be good quality major leagueers. Right now we're looking at Logan Webb and we're looking around and saying, okay, can we get some more of those? So they haven't been that awesome player development. They've been able to take some guys from other organizations and kind of tweak. that's kind of where they've found their secret sauce in 2021 is, hey, we can get some of these older guys and find value here.

I don't think that's like a sustainable model, to be honest with you. Like we got to get the homegrown guys back up here. You got to add a little bit of what I just talked about, tweaking some guys, bringing guys over. But I don't know how fair it is to think about this giant's organization. Like, yeah, this is, they're churning them out right now. I don't think that's necessarily the case. No, you hear anyone talk about Farhan Zaidi, their president and baseball ops guy, and they preach.

Like, you know, I think there's very few people on this planet that you talk to them and you're like, that person's different. But the way everyone talks about that guy, he has some access to some different sauce. And that sauce and the weakness and opportunity they found in the market, Jake talking about SWAT, huh, was tapping into veterans. It was, you know, the whole thing, and I just talked about this in the Texas Ranger TPP a little bit, is like baseball, they figured out an equation that was, would I rather sign a veteran for $1.5 million, or would I rather give three kids the chance at the minimum, and one of them clicks?

And that was kind of the financial model that a lot of teams tapped into to try to be successful. What San Francisco did was how can we make these already proven MLB players, what are they good at or what can we tap into more? And that was their opportunity in the market. And they, you know, they won the NL West over the Dodgers, over the Padres with that equation, which was highly impressive. The one thing that I keep circling back to,

and you mention young talent, and I see Joey Bart on here, a guy that was, you know, a top prospect. I'm trying to see what was his highest rank. Joey Bart, 14 on one list, 31 on another list, whatever. The other guy in that 21 season, magical, and hey, there's some good platoons. Dude, Buster Posey. MVP, Hall of Fame, Buster Posey was playing every game down the stretch for that team to fend off the Dodgers.

That guy was special. And I don't want to full moneyball it because we talk about the money ball movie and yeah, let's get on base. That was their opportunity. You know, they also had what, Chavez, Tejada and three Sy Young potential winning pitchers. You know, I...

Are you talking about the A's? That Buster Posey guy. You know, we have end of the year, every year for the rest of our lives, Trev, we'll have debates what most valuable player means. I might point to Buster Posey for a while on what valuable means because catchers, dealing with the pitchers, what he did offensively, I think he was also a big part of that secret sauce.

And they're still missing that. They're still very much missing that. Grant Brisby, I apologize. In his article, I just talked about guys, can they churn him out? Can they bring these guys up? can they be quality major leaguers? He mentions a couple guys here.

You know, we're not always familiar with everybody in the farm systems, but he mentions Kyle Harrison, Southpaw pitcher. Yeah. He says might get a chance, you know, postseason time. If they're maybe in September, if they're in a run and need somebody, like they can bring this guy up. And then he mentions Casey Smith, who is a third baseman. And they expect him to be like a guy guy there.

And sometimes you've got to pay attention to how people talk about players. The way that the guys talk about, this guy, it seems like he's going to be at least a solid regular for the Giants, if not more than that. So they're banking on, you know, you bank on a couple of these guys to get up. Maybe they help you this year and they put you over that hump. Maybe they get you into the wild card. Maybe you sustain a winning streak or you hold off on a big losing streak because some

guys come out and help you up during the middle of the season. That would be what the Giants need here this season. So I think if you look around the roster, there's enough. talent to do it. And with the expanded postseason, man, I just, I just can't, a team with this quality of a roster. And I said this about the Angels and the Rangers, and I feel like they're all kind of around the same. Although I might put those two rosters ahead of this one. I'm not, I'm not sure how I feel. They're close. That last wild card spot is up for grabs.

There's no doubt about it. I'm glad you mentioned Kyle Harrison. I, me and BVD on Wake and Jake, we saw him on a list and we're like, okay, that's, who are you, man? And you're right. I mean, something like that. If he is a dude, that can change an outlook of your season pretty quickly. Organizationalally, right now they're getting the credit, and their starting rotation can pitch, which is a really strong formula.

Like, that's, you know, that'll be proven in Major League Baseball until the day we die. Logan Webb is a stud. Cobb, like people thought he was going to break out there, and he basically did as a 34-year-old. old. Manaya Stripling Wood, those are major league guys. You're going to get major league efforts from them. So if the bullpen turns, like I think it's going to, and you believe in their organization,

while tapping into Conforto and Hanager, you know, those are, you know, Conforto and Hanigur's best seasons. Those are all-star level corner outfielders that, yeah, a team that won 81 games can get better. I think the division deserves to be talked about. You know, not lofty goals for our Rockies who have already been talked about. Similar for our snakes and what's hopefully a finding out year for them with a couple big prospects. The Padres were 89 and 73. They got a good taste of the playoffs.

They signed Bogarts. Their money is no object to them. They just extended you Darvish till he's 42. and the Big Bad Wolf, the Dodgers that, again, reminder, did win a buck 11 last year. That's 111 games in the regular season. So I guess when it's all in the pot, one of my favorite phrases, man, I'm nervous for the giant season. We're at 81.5, I believe, draft king's over under here, which is, you know, right around. It is what the Angels were.

one game behind the Rangers. They won 81 games last year, and I feel like when I think back on the 22 Giants, I'm like, you guys weren't very good. No, I mean, their only hitter that went was Jack Peterson, and he missed a chunk of time. But they all said Carlos Rodon. It was really good.

He's really good. What teams he on? I'd have to check our notes. Dahl? Where are you, Trev? I'm giving you the honors again. I think this is a franchise that always wants to be competitive. They're not going to throw in the towel.

I feel like we've seen that over the course of the last couple of years, even five years going back, they'll stay in contention and they'll make moves to win instead of trading guys off. I think if they get some bullpen help at the deadline, they're hanging around 81.5 with that division. I know we got the schedule. I'm going to take the under, man.

Mm, wow. Trevor. I love you, Gabe, and I think you can, I think you can make magic happen. And I love our coaching staff, Kai Correa, J.P. Martinez, these guys are so nice to us. We love them. I love what they do. Please prove me wrong. Please.

I think I just see some other rosters and I like them just a little bit better. I know you got to play the games, but before we do that, I'm going to say under. I'm with you, and Trev, I'm proud of you, and I think the people are proud of you. You're showing your unbiased analyst mysticity. I'm trying, man. Because, you know, I know Gabe's your guy and you love what they're doing there. I guess I want to circle back, 2021. They win 107, and that's where we're, this is where a lot of their credit comes from.

Let me read off there, guys that had monster years. Brandon Crawford had a six-war season. I still like him. I don't know if he's got that in the bag. Kevin Gossman. He's in Toronto. Logan Webb, he's still there. We like him.

Nice. Descalfani. I think he's going to be in a lesser role for them. Maybe he does go. Whatever. The point of this exercise. Buster Posey, retired. Collecting on that vitamin water money.

Darren Ruff had a nice year for them. He's out. Brandon Belt had a nice year for them. He's gone. So they're top seven in war that season, that magical season. Most those guys are out the door. And I believe in players. That's who I am.

I like organizations. I believe in dudes. And boy, do San Diego and Dodgers. They are covered in, covered in dudes. I'll go under. Actually, mm-hmm.

Don't you feel like the chalk is taking the under? Because they could win 82 pretty easily. It's 81.5. I feel like a smart gambling man would take the over. But I'm not.

I'm a horrible gambler. I'm taking the under still. You can't convince me otherwise. Padres probably got better. Tatis is back. Dodgers, will they win 111? They don't care about the regular season anymore. I'm going slide over.

I just... Oh! The Giants are my circle team. I could talk to myself in circles all day. We could do a 24-hour Giants super binge, and I would flip-flop every hour. 82 wins over. Jimmy's under.

Coaching staff. I believe in the coaching staff. I love them. You know that. I would be on that. staff and I'll fit right on. I do Pilates with Gabe in the morning. We eat a steak together and drink a black coffee. Woo!

No veggies in these body. No need. Just meat. That green stuff's bad for you. Meat in that body. Mmm.