[lex24]

Giants were the slowest team in baseball last year. One of the slowest I’ve ever seen. Dead last in MLB getting runners waived from second on a single.  If you spent much time watching last year, you know how slow they were. They will be slow again this year.  A little less than last, but still slow.

At one point last year Giants defense  led league in outs added by shifts. Krukow often remarked on it.  But do you really need metrics?  Davis/Wade/Flores at 1B. Estrada  2b. Craw SS. Villar/Flores/Davis at third. Besides Craw, that’s a poor infield.  Although I’m hopeful Estrada will improve. 

OF should be better. But it’s still, at best, average. Yaz very good in RF. Not as strong in CF. Slater is perplexing.  Good speed, good arm.  But he gets bad jumps - especially going back, takes bad angles  and throws to the wrong base a lot. Haniger is, I believe an average RF.  At best. Ditto Conforto.  But average in LF will be a massive improvement.

Bart- jury is out. Wynns wasn’t bad. Pitchers seem to like him.

It’s simply not a good group defensively.  Infielders with more ground to cover is not going to help them. Add the fact that the pitching staff is full of guys that throw ground balls and “hit it to Crawford” is never more true.

Last, but not least, I’ll believe the Giants are serious about improving defense when they don’t move people all over the place, put whatever body they have in left field on occasion and do their continual line changes early on in games. It’s always about platooning to gain an offensive edge. Well, they pay a defensive price. They paid lip service about improving the defense last year. And then they stuck Yermin  Mercedes in left field.

One thing that might help is picking up a left-handed hitting infielder that is strong defensively.  Joey Wendle from Miami would fit the bill. They just signed Segura.  So, he may be available.  Not real strong bat. But he’s very good defensively and he can run

Said before - hope you win the bet   Frankly, most likely outcome is the middle.

In 2021, Giants were #8 in fielding, #29 last year.

Agreed re: outfield, it'll be better. I think that with the shift outlawed, that'll be less ground to cover rather than more. Better for SFG infielders.

Let's go position by position:
1) Flores actually improved at 1B from -1 Rtot to +1 Rtot.
2) Interesting you should mention Estrada. In 2021, he was +1 Rtot, but fell to -13 Rtot in 2022. He'd never been worse than -1 at any position.
3) Crawford's your weak link. -10 Rtot in 2019, -3 in 2021, got worse at -14 Rtot in 2022.
4) Longoria was -1 in 2021, and -4 last year. Villar was +4, he did a nice job. Vosler was -5, glad he's gone. JD Davis was -3, not a good fielder.
5) Posey's defense was superb. Bart's is not. Wynns is slightly better.

So I guess I'd say that I'm very happy with Flores. Crawford has actually been not so good since 2019. He was actually terrible. I wouldn't have minded moving him away from SS, because he looked awful. Hopefully it's an aberration. As for Estrada, through the years, he's actually been a pretty good 2nd baseman. This past year, he was terrible at 2B.  He was considerably better at SS, CF, 3B and LF. Maybe if he only plays 2B, he would be much better, I definitely agree with your perspective there. His range is better than average at 2B.  Longoria and Vosler are gone, JD Davis is a bad fielder, Villar is a very good fielder, and Casey Schmitt, if he comes up, is already playing at a gold glove level.

I think with more traditional positions, we will do better in the field.

Crawford won a gold glove in ‘ 21. He was hurt a good portion of last year.  Looked awful?  Seriously? 

Villar hasn’t played enough to make any conclusions on.  

Flores is a utility infielder.

[lex24]

Giants were the slowest team in baseball last year. One of the slowest I’ve ever seen. Dead last in MLB getting runners waived from second on a single.  If you spent much time watching last year, you know how slow they were. They will be slow again this year.  A little less than last, but still slow.

At one point last year Giants defense  led league in outs added by shifts. Krukow often remarked on it.  But do you really need metrics?  Davis/Wade/Flores at 1B. Estrada  2b. Craw SS. Villar/Flores/Davis at third. Besides Craw, that’s a poor infield.  Although I’m hopeful Estrada will improve. 

OF should be better. But it’s still, at best, average. Yaz very good in RF. Not as strong in CF. Slater is perplexing.  Good speed, good arm.  But he gets bad jumps - especially going back, takes bad angles  and throws to the wrong base a lot. Haniger is, I believe an average RF.  At best. Ditto Conforto.  But average in LF will be a massive improvement.

Bart- jury is out. Wynns wasn’t bad. Pitchers seem to like him.

It’s simply not a good group defensively.  Infielders with more ground to cover is not going to help them. Add the fact that the pitching staff is full of guys that throw ground balls and “hit it to Crawford” is never more true.

Last, but not least, I’ll believe the Giants are serious about improving defense when they don’t move people all over the place, put whatever body they have in left field on occasion and do their continual line changes early on in games. It’s always about platooning to gain an offensive edge. Well, they pay a defensive price. They paid lip service about improving the defense last year. And then they stuck Yermin  Mercedes in left field.

One thing that might help is picking up a left-handed hitting infielder that is strong defensively.  Joey Wendle from Miami would fit the bill. They just signed Segura.  So, he may be available.  Not real strong bat. But he’s very good defensively and he can run

Said before - hope you win the bet   Frankly, most likely outcome is the middle.

In 2021, Giants were #8 in fielding, #29 last year.

Agreed re: outfield, it'll be better. I think that with the shift outlawed, that'll be less ground to cover rather than more. Better for SFG infielders.

Let's go position by position:
1) Flores actually improved at 1B from -1 Rtot to +1 Rtot.
2) Interesting you should mention Estrada. In 2021, he was +1 Rtot, but fell to -13 Rtot in 2022. He'd never been worse than -1 at any position.
3) Crawford's your weak link. -10 Rtot in 2019, -3 in 2021, got worse at -14 Rtot in 2022.
4) Longoria was -1 in 2021, and -4 last year. Villar was +4, he did a nice job. Vosler was -5, glad he's gone. JD Davis was -3, not a good fielder.
5) Posey's defense was superb. Bart's is not. Wynns is slightly better.

So I guess I'd say that I'm very happy with Flores. Crawford has actually been not so good since 2019. He was actually terrible. I wouldn't have minded moving him away from SS, because he looked awful. Hopefully it's an aberration. As for Estrada, through the years, he's actually been a pretty good 2nd baseman. This past year, he was terrible at 2B.  He was considerably better at SS, CF, 3B and LF. Maybe if he only plays 2B, he would be much better, I definitely agree with your perspective there. His range is better than average at 2B.  Longoria and Vosler are gone, JD Davis is a bad fielder, Villar is a very good fielder, and Casey Schmitt, if he comes up, is already playing at a gold glove level.

I think with more traditional positions, we will do better in the field.

Crawford won a gold glove in ‘ 21. He was hurt a good portion of last year.  Looked awful?  Seriously? 

Villar hasn’t played enough to make any conclusions on.  

Flores is a utility infielder.