HOT San Francisco Giants vs. MIAMI MARLINS - Series Preview 4/16/21

It's time for another series preview and this time the San Francisco Giants are headed east to take on the Miami Marlins. The Giants have been incredible so far in 2021, having won 3 out of the first 4 series including series victories against the San Diego Padres and Cincinnati Reds. The Giants are 8-4 this season, a .667 winning percentage. Unfortunately, before diving into the actual series, there is some bad news and that is that Johnny Cueto, who has been brilliant this season, has landed on the 10 Day Injured List with a lat strain. The Giants recalled right hander Camilo Doval and also put Lamonte Wade Jr on the IL with a left oblique strain and called up Steven Duggar. Alex Wood should be coming off the injured list for Sunday's game, so more roster moves are going to be happening.

Friday’s Lineups

Tonight's ballgame will feature Anthony DeSclafani, who has simply been dealing. He is 1-0 with a 0.82 ERA on the young 2021 season and will be taking on the team he made his debut with, the Miami Marlins, who are 5-7 this year but 1-5 at home. He'll be facing a lineup which has one name that has had success against him and that's Corey Dickerson, who is 4 for 13 with 2 home runs off Desclafani, and the only other hitter with significant experience is Starling Marte, who is 3 for 23 without an extra base hit.

Regardless of past experience, DeSclafani seems to be rolling right now and should be able to handle this lineup quite well. For the Marlins, it will be the lefty, Daniel Castano, who had a 3.03 ERA in 2020, starting 6 games out the 7 games he appeared in.

He was 19th round pick out of Baylor and will be making his 2021 debut. This is a 6'3" lefty with a fastball in the mid 90's and good stuff but making his debut, might be some butterflies and that's what the Giants will hope for; this guy generally has good control so don't expect a bunch of walks but he can be hittable and I'm looking for

the Giants to jump all over him, but when he's on, he can shut down a team as well. The Giants have no experience against him but I'm confident this team can string together some good hits and get on the board early. I got Desclafni continuing to roll and the Giants taking this one tonight; in other words, the edge for Game 1 definitely goes to the Giants.

Game 1 Edge: Giants

Probables for Saturday as of now look like Aaron Sanchez and the very good Sandy Alcantara. Sanchez has been very solid this year although he hasn't gotten a win yet. He gave up 2 runs in 5 against the Reds and has a 2.7 ERA so far this year. Only Corey Dickerson has double digit at bats against Sanchez and is 2 for 11 with 4 strikeouts. Sandy Alcantara has only started against the Giants a couple times so not a ton of experience against him either for San Francisco, but he really pitched well and generally seems to dominate the Giants, although Brandon

Belt is 3 for 5 with two doubles and should definitely be in the lineup against the right-hander. Both pitchers are 0-1 on the season and both seem deserving and ready to go out and get a win. Alcantara has thrown nothing but quality outings all season, however, and due to his success against the Giants in the past and the fact that I can see the Giants scoring a ton of runs tonight and maybe flatlining a little tomorrow, I am going to give the Marlins slight edge for this matchup.

Game 2 Edge: Marlins

The final game of the series should - as of now and this could change - feature Alex Wood making his San Francisco Giants debut. He has been looking good at the alternate camp throwing rehab games and gave up just 1 run in 3 Spring Training innings with 2 strikeouts. Unfortunately, we just haven't seen enough to really know what to expect on Sunday but this is a guy with 8 years of big league experience, a former All Star who knows how to pitch.

I expect he'll be able to handle this lineup pretty well and he has had success against some of these players like Starling Marte, who is 4 for 22 with zero home runs. Corey Dickerson is some one the Giants need to really be careful about all series long because he's also his Wood well, going 3 for 7 with a double.

The Marlins will go with Pablo Lopez, who has give up 3 home runs in his last 10 2/3rd innings. He pitched well against the Giants in 2019, giving up 1 run in 6+ innings, but hasn't faced them since. He was a bright spot for Miami last year but hasn't gotten off to the best start this year. The Giants need to not let this be his confidence-building start.

In reality, this game is the toughest to predict with Alex Wood, some one who hasn't really pitched great in a few years coming off the IL and making his debut this year and a young 25-year old very talented pitcher who has struggled with the long ball facing a team that has been crushing a lot of home runs this year. I can see it being a bullpen game and both teams have some solid relivers, but both bullpens - including the Giants as proven on Opening Day - can give up some runs.

I'm going to say Alex Wood has a nice debut for the Giants but Lopez also pitches well and this game ends up being decided late in the game where the Giants bullpen holds a small lead and the Giants take it. I'll give the Giants the series and the edge in Game 3.

Game 3 Edge: Giants

Heliot Ramos Goes Deep TWICE! SF Giants Sign Jose Alvarez

The San Francisco Giants are seven games into Spring Training and it’s time to look at some of the biggest contributors and players who have shined so far.  Before getting into that, the Giants have a new player for 2021 – Jose Alvarez, a 31 year old left handed reliever, has been signed to a Major League contract.  The deal is for one year at $1.15 million with a club option for a second year.  In the meantime, Jordan Humphreys was claimed on waivers from the Padres – he just keeps coming and going. 

Jordan Humphreys

Jose Alvarez had a sparkling ERA of 1.42 in 2020 but the bad news is it was in only 6 1/3rd innings of work, making it not as impressive.  His season ended early by a line drive to the groin.  Over his career, he hasn’t had an ERA over 4 since his rookie season in 2013.  He’s got a low-90’s sinker that produces groundballs and a solid change to go with his fastball that showed more velocity in 2020 than any previous years.  This is a solid signing to fortify the Giants bullpen, which already has a few nice names like Tyler Rogers, Jake McGee, Jarlin Garcia and Sam Selman.

As far as Spring Training goes, the Giants just completed an 8-inning 9-4 win over the Reds featuring an opposite field big fly from Steven Duggar and not one but two bombs from young prospect Heliot Ramos, who could make his debut in 2021.  He was already 3 for 7 before this game and has just been barreling up everything.  If Ramos starts doing big things in Triple-A, who knows how early we could see him.  Giants have plenty of outfielders but with injuries and possible underperformance, Ramos could force his way into this lineup.  It’s only a few Spring Training games, but he has really impressed.

Jose Alvarez

Our other top prospect, Joey Bart, has also torn it up so far in Spring Training, which he does pretty much every year.  Bart has torn it up on every level, except the big leagues last year.  He’ll get another shot at some point in 2021, but it’s nice to see him swinging the bat well.  The powerful Darin Ruf has gone deep already and been getting consistent hits.  In 2020, Ruf hit .276 with 5 bombs in 87 at bats for San Francisco.  Another guy who ha caught my eye has been Jason Vosler, who signed a Major League deal.  He is just squaring up everything and should make his big league debut this year, maybe even on Opening Day the way he’s swinging the bat, although the Giants have a lot of infielders so he might just be a 40-man roster guy in Triple-A.  Donovan Solano is hitting .333 as per his usual with a home run already.

Heliot Ramos - San Francisco Giants (1)* pic.twitter.com/JLuA3XHZf3

— MLB HR Videos (@MLBHRVideos) March 7, 2021

As for the pitchers, Johnny Cueto looked awesome in his start, striking out 4 in 2 scoreless innings while Anthony DeSclafani looked sharp today against the Reds.  The rest of the rotation hasn’t really thrown many innings but no red flags so far.  Also shoutout to Luis Basabe for nice defensive plays and overall, I’m happy with what we’ve seen so far.  As more relivers rack up more innings, we’ll have a better idea of who is looking good and who’s looking bad there as well.  For now, the main guys I’m excited about are Vosler and of course, Heliot Ramos and Joey Bart, as expected.  Shoutout to Joe McCarthy as well for hitting the first Giants home run of the Spring Training 2021.  I know I gave him a hard time last year, but hey, he’s still here and went deep so you gotta give credit where credit is due.

The 5 Changes the SF Giants Must Make to Make a Playoff Push in 2020

You play the cards you’re dealt. If this was a typical 162-game season with a normal playoff bracket, I wouldn’t even dream of this San Francisco Giants team making the playoffs. It just wasn’t going to be a likely scenario. However, in a 60-game season with expanded playoffs, all of the sudden, every team can dream of October baseball. That includes the Orange & Black. However, after losing 5 of 6 games, the Giants need to make some definite changes if they are to make any kind of a push towards playoff baseball in 2020. Here are the five key changes that need to be made for the Giants to get into a playoff series in 2020.

#1 Joey Bart

Joey Bart needs to be promoted soon. Although Chadwick Tromp is 7 for 22 with 2 home runs which is actually close to what we'd expect from Bart, he's not playing every day and does not have the power or defensive abilities of Bart. In addition to Tromp, the Giants rotate in Tyler Heineman, who started out the season fairly hot but now is hitting .222 with no homers.

For sustained excellence, power, better defense and just to get our future starting catcher some big league reps while there's no minor league games, the Giants need Joey Bart in the lineup. Tromp has been great and maybe a perfect backup for Bart.

San Francisco Giants top prospect Joey Bart

#2 Clean Up The Defense

I'm not going to ever recommend benching a guy like Soloano, who's hitting damn near .500 and leads the league in batting average and sits near the top in RBI, but his defense has been questionable at best. The Giants may want to consider DHing him more often.

Other than that, the Giants simply need to keep their heads in the game and make the routine plays. The errors have been costly and allowing free runs is not a formula to get into playoff baseball, especially for a team that’s already not expected to make much noise this season.

#3 The Rotation

The Rotation has been, as expected, very unstable. Jeff Samardzija has practically been throwing batting practice and in 3 starts he has a 9.88 ERA. He was just placed on the injured list, however, and will likely not be seen again this year. Shaun Anderson is some one with experience starting and, although I like him in the bullpen, I would like to see the Giants try Anderson again in the rotation. With 9 K's in 6 innings this year, he has looked decent. Anderson is just one option. At the end of the day, the Giants brass need to figure something out in order to bring more stability to this rotation.

#4 Tough Decisions Must Be Made

Hunter Pence is 1 for 29 with zero extra base hits and zero RBI. If he's not going to produce at all, I don't see how he can stay on this team. The Giants demoted Jaylin Davis and Steven Duggar, two young players who both have more to offer and could use the developement. Joey Rickard, who hit .280 for the Giants last season in 50 at bats, is in camp. Even highly touted prospect Heliot Ramos is eager to get his big league career going. Pence obviously has a longer leash than your average player would but 1 for 29 is not gonna cut it, and that goes for any other veterans who are not contributing. Tough decisions will have to be made.

#5 Gabe Kapler & The Bullpen

The bullpen has been somewhat of a bright spot this year. I'm impressed with the performances of Connor Menez, Caleb Bareger and Wandy Peralta. Trevor Got has stepped up as the closer. Tyler Rogers, besides one terrible inning where he was probably kept in too long, has been fantastic.

However, inconsistency has started to creep in and the bullpen hasn't been as sharp. Some of this can be contributed to the manager. Throwing in a guy like Andrew Triggs in a high leverage situation to make his 2020 debut did not go well. It feels like whenever the bullpen implodes, a questionable decision was made. It happened with Dany Jimenez, who has since been DFA’d, on Opening Day when he was asked to make his big league debut on Opening Day in a close game ad Dodger Stadium against the strongest lineup in baseball.

However, all in all, the bullpen has been good enough - and hopefully there's some arms still in Sacramento that can step up when The Giants need them. Dereck Rodriguez, Jarlin Garcia, and Melvin Adon are names that come to mind. I like this bullpen and if used efficiently and properly, I think it could be a huge strength for the San Francisco Giants. But this can only be possible if management uses the bullpen correctly.