SF Giants Gameday: Why the bullpen is a multi-year project
Release Date: 08/17/2020
SF Giants Gameday podcast: How will the Giants rebound from their worst loss of the season?
SF Giants Gameday
The 2020 San Francisco Giants have had games where their pitchers let them down, their defense made mind-blowing errors and their offense never came to life. The Giants didn't have a horrible performance on Thursday at Oracle Park, but it's possible no loss will hurt the club as much as their 11-inning, 5-4 defeat to the Colorado Rockies will. With a chance to gain a firm grip on the top wild card spot in the National League ahead of a pivotal four-game series against the San Diego Padres, the Giants blew an early 3-0 lead and missed golden opportunities to put the game away in the bottom of...
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SF Giants Gameday podcast: Who's the Giants' MVP this season?
SF Giants Gameday
With four days remaining in the 2020 regular season, the National League Most Valuable Player race remains unsettled. Braves first baseman Freddie Freeman has had a torrid September, Padres third baseman Manny Machado is the face of one of the top offenses in baseball and Dodgers outfielder Mookie Betts is the best player on the best team in the majors. When the MVP votes are counted, all three players should appear on every voter's ballot, but it's possible a few San Francisco Giants players will also be on the minds of voters this year. For voters determining whether or not to list a member...
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SF Giants Gameday podcast: What does scoreboard watching in 2020 look like?
SF Giants Gameday
Before Giants left-hander Drew Smyly took the mound at Oracle Park on Tuesday night, the starter watched his old teammates in Philadelphia play a doubleheader against the Washington Nationals. Smyly enjoyed his time with the Phillies, but not enough to root for them on Tuesday. A pair of Philadelphia victories would have hurt the Giants' playoff chances. Fortunately for Smyly and Co., the Phillies lost both games against a Nationals team that won't make the postseason and fell to 27-29. After watching one wild card hopeful suffer a few tough losses, Smyly helped the Giants out in a big way as...
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SF Giants Gameday podcast: Time is running out for the Giants to take control of NL wild card race
SF Giants Gameday
After rebounding from back-to-back shutout losses with one of their best performances of the season on Sunday in Oakland, the Giants believed a 14-2 win over the first-place A's was the start of a push to take control of the National League wild card race. The Giants had won 13 of their last 16 at Oracle Park and returned home Monday with a huge sense of optimism as they opened a four-game set against the Colorado Rockies. That sense, and nearly every good feeling about the Giants' playoff chances, disappeared early as starting pitcher Johnny Cueto turned in one of his worst outings as a...
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SF Giants Gameday podcast: Who thought the Giants would still be talking playoffs?
SF Giants Gameday
With a week left in the regular season, the San Francisco Giants are still thinking about the playoffs. For a team that entered the year expecting to prioritize opportunities for younger and inexperienced players, the fact the Giants still have a realistic shot of playing into October is a step in the right direction. Under the leadership of Farhan Zaidi and Gabe Kapler, the Giants have squeezed more production than anyone thought imaginable out of an offense that's been elite at its home ballpark this season. And with the Giants playing their final eight games inside Oracle Park, there's...
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SF Giants Gameday podcast: Are unlikely contributions a sign Giants can sustain success?
SF Giants Gameday
When right fielder Mike Yastrzemski left Thursday's game against the Seattle Mariners with a right calf injury, the San Francisco Giants turned to the least experienced player on their roster. Rookie Luis Alexander Basabe only had one major league plate appearance prior to subbing in for Yastrzemski, but Basabe contributed his first career hit, his first two walks and his first stolen base in a come-from-behind 6-4 win over the Seattle Mariners. Basabe's performance couldn't have come at a better time for the Giants, who needed nearly the entire 28-man roster to secure a critical win over the...
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SF Giants Gameday: A player-by-player evaluation after a crucial win
SF Giants Gameday
For the last two decades, many Giants fans have complained that opponents have consistently done a better job of making Oracle Park look "small." On Wednesday, a road team hit three home runs, but that road team happened to be wearing the Giants' home uniforms. A chaotic, quirky and always-surprising 2020 season led the Giants to host a two-game series against the Mariners on Wednesday at Oracle Park that was previously scheduled to take place at T-Mobile Park in Seattle. Due to unhealthy air conditions spurred by wildfires along the west coast, the teams and Major League Baseball came to a...
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SF Giants Gameday podcast: What 'best news' for Kevin Gausman means for Giants' stretch run
SF Giants Gameday
The San Francisco Giants are gearing up to ride Drew Smyly's left arm on their postseason push. After a two-game series set to begin Tuesday in Seattle was abruptly moved to San Francisco due to poor air conditions, Giants manager Gabe Kapler announced that Drew Smyly would start the first game of the postponed series on Wednesday evening at Oracle Park. Kapler also indicated Smyly will make two more starts for the Giants down the stretch, as he'll likely face the Colorado Rockies on Monday before pitching against the San Diego Padres on Saturday, September 26. A left index finger sprain has...
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SF Giants Gameday: Why the Giants are counting on the lineup to will the team into the postseason
SF Giants Gameday
The words "pitcher" and "elbow" are never ones a major league manager wants to utter in the same sentence, because doing so almost always implies trouble. Before Sunday's doubleheader against the San Diego Padres, Giants manager Gabe Kapler had no choice. When discussing his pitching plans for two games against the red-hot Padres, Kapler revealed that one of his top starters, Kevin Gausman, wouldn't be available to face San Diego due to elbow tightness. The Giants planned for Gausman to get a MRI and haven't provided more details on the extent of his injury, but the fact Gausman had to be...
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SF Giants Gameday podcast: Giants return to field, encounter new problems in San Diego
SF Giants Gameday
Simply returning to the field on Sunday at Petco Park was a victory for the San Francisco Giants. It was a big "win," to resume their season against the Padres, but it was perhaps the only bright spot from a harrowing weekend for the organization on and off the diamond. After a COVID-19 scare led to the postponement of games on Friday and Saturday, members of the Giants traveling party were understandably relieved when MLB cleared the club to play its Sunday. Left fielder Alex Dickerson learned of his positive test for the novel coronavirus moments before first pitch on Friday and detailed his...
info_outlineSAN FRANCISCO -- When the San Francisco Giants dealt away Mark Melancon, Sam Dyson, Drew Pomeranz and Ray Black at last summer's trade deadline, it was an acknowledgement that an overmatched 2019 roster didn't have much use for a good bullpen.
The Giants hung onto left-handed relievers Will Smith and Tony Watson so they could retain a glimmer of hope and remain somewhat competitive in Bruce Bochy's final season, but all of the deadline moves signaled the organization's desire to completely overhaul the team's bullpen.
Giants president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi and first-year manager Gabe Kapler are in the beginning stages of a multi-year project to build a competent relief corps, so growing pains are expected.
The pains, of course, felt particularly sharp throughout a miserable three-game sweep against the Oakland A's this weekend.
Giants relievers gave up seven home runs, coughed up a pair of ninth inning leads and watched the A's add to their slugging percentage throughout a nine-run fifth inning in a 15-3 blowout on Sunday.
Giants relievers Dereck Rodríguez and Wandy Peralta were the pitchers the A's feasted against in the series finale, but nearly every pitcher coming out of the bullpen this season has been forced to live through a nightmare at least once.
The Giants as a team seem to live through them daily.
In this episode of the SF Giants Gameday podcast, host Kerry Crowley looks back at an awful weekend for the club at Oracle Park and explains why the organization is only taking the first steps of building its future bullpen during the 2020 season.