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.

SF Giants Sign Curt Casali - Target Tomoyuku Sugano!

The San Francisco Giants have signed backup catcher Curt Casali who played for the Cincinnati Reds from 2018-2020 and has 37 career home runs in 831 at bats. He also accumulated 95 career walks and is an ideal backup catcher - he gets on base, provides some pop and is solid behind the plate. Casali will be the leading candidate to backup Buster Posey during the 2021 Season.

The Giants do have an array of excellent catchers including recent draft picks Joey Bart and Patrick Bailey. Bailey still has a lot of development to go through while Bart is likely to start the season in Triple A after an underwhelming rookie campaign in 2020. This leaves Posey, Casali and Chadwick Tromp, who was recently re-signed. Tromp, like Bart, has minor league options available and, therefore, is likely to begin the year in the minors as well.

This is an excellent signing by the Giants and Casali looks like a prime candidate to continue the Giants string of great backup catchers to Posey such as Nick Hundley and Stephen Vogt. Of course, Posey opted out of the 2020 season.

Meanwhile, the Giants are one of three teams that have shown interest in Japanese ace Tomoyuki Sugano, who had an outstanding 2020 going 14-2 with a 1.97 ERA and 131 strikeouts in just over 134 innings. He’s still only 31 years and and would be a huge asset to a team like the Giants who lack consistently effective starters in their rotation. The other two teams are the Blue Jays and Mets, although recent reports indicate that the Mets may be stepping out of the race.

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.

San Francsico Giants Trade Speedy Billy Hamilton to the Mets for Young Pitcher...

In a somewhat surprising move, the San Francisco Giants just improved their farm talent on the pitching side by trading their speedy outfielder Billy Hamilton to the New York Mets for young prospect Jordan Humphreys. Humphreys has not pitched a full professional season since 2017 when he dominated Single A ball, going 10-1 in 11 starts with a 1.42 ERA and 80 Strikeouts in just over 60 innings.

With that type of performance, the Mets surely took notice. However, after he had to undergo Tommy John Surgery, Humphreys missed all over 2018 and most of 2019, only pitching sparingly in the Gulf Coast League and Arizona Fall League. Nevertheless, he continued to pitch well and show great promise.

With this move, the Giants have added a much needed arm to their system while giving up a player who hit .211 last season with the Royals. While Billy Hamilton has several tools including ridiculous speed and great defense, the Giants have a comparable player in Steven Duggar, who was recently promoted and can handle the bat as well if not better. He brings some pop and can fill in when needed, including as a pinch runner. The Giants have also witnessed great performances from outfielders such as Mike Yastrzemski, Alex Dickerson and Austin Slater.

The bottom line is, Hamilton won’t be missed (he never even appeared in a regular season game with the Giants) and Jordan Humphreys is a huge boost to the Giants system. I love this move and am surprised that the Mets gave up such a great looking young arm for a 30 year old veteran who doesn’t bring much other than speed and a great glove. Congratulations to Farhan Zaidi on another outstanding move, further bolstering the Giants farm system and preparing for an Orange & Black resurgence.

MLB Lifts Transaction Freeze & San Francisco Giants Cut Three Players

Major League Baseball lifted its freeze on transactions yesterday and the San Francisco Giants took that opportunity to release three players who had been in big league camp - pitchers Tyson Ross & Nick Vincent along with outfielder Jamie Westbrook.

Pitcher Tyson Ross in 2020 Spring Training with the San Francisco Giants

With the deadline looming to submit 60-man rosters, the Giants made the tough decision to release these players, who were only there for depth in the first place. They would have more than likely begun the season in Triple A with the Sacramento River Cats. Of course, this season, there are no Sacramento River Cats or any other Minor League Team for that matter to send them.

Nick Vincent was a quality reliever for the San Diego Padres before being signed last year by the Giants. He made the team out of Spring Training but was released halfway through the year then signed again this year. Vincent had a somewhat historical moment for the Giants last season when he became their first
"opener,” starting a game although the team planned to remove him after an inning or two.

Nick Vincent with the Giants in 2019

Ross was likely to be a long reliever and spot starter if needed while Westbrook would have provided additional outfield depth. However, the Giants already have an array of outfield options. The problem is, none of those options (other than Mike Yastrzemski) are particularly reliable. This is why the Yasiel Puig rumors are swirling once again…

How The Giants Allowed Bumgarner To Leave To a Division Rival

When we think of Madison Bumgarner’s best moments with the San Francisco Giants, the 2014 World Series will always be one of the first memories that comes to mind. However, his World Series dominance started in 2010, when he absolutely baffled Rangers hitters, helping the Giants win their first World Series in San Francisco. Not longer after that, the Giants Front Office knew they had to figure out a way to lock this guy up… and they did it.

After the 2012 World Series, which the Giants also won, Bumgarner signed a long term extension that would last through at least 2017, with options for 2018 and 2019. It was during this time that folks started making some noise about the fact that Bumgarner was being underpaid. The Giants heard the noise and knew they needed to negotiate another extension — and they were set to do so after the 2017 season, when Matt Cain’s contract would come off the books.

It was in April of 2017, however, when the Giants plans with Bumgarner were forever altered — he seriously injured his shoulder in a dirtbike accident. Although he eventually returned to action, there was no way the Giants would approve of a long term extension without at least making sure was fully healthy again in 2018. Fast forward to 2018 Spring Training, and a line drive off the hand throws another wrench into the extension plans. Bumgarner was sidelined again, and this time, the final decision would have to be made in 2019, which corresponded with the arrival of new President of Baseball Operations, Farhan Zaidi.

Zaidi showed up with a new philosophy in mind — an analytical philosophy that included making sure to not allow emotions to get in the way of practical decision-making. Bumgarner, at 30, signing a multi-year deal for upwards of 100 million dollars, would likely not be the wisest baseball decision in his mind. Therefore, he was allowed to become a Free Agent and take his talents elsewhere. It was not simply a cold, calculated, analytical Front Office that sent MadBum out of town, but it was a sequence of unfortunate events that included a dirtbike, a broken hand, and a Farhan Zaidi.