[Mick]

7-14 start in 2023. Same start in 1951. Miracle at Coogan's Bluff. Shot Heard Round the World. Bobby Thomson. Rookie Willie Mays. Stanky, Dark, Hank Thompson and Lockman. Monte Irvin. A super sub named Bobby Thompson. Sal "The Barber" Maglie and Larry Jansen. Every starting field player except Thompson hit double digit home runs, no one hit more than 24. Staff ERA of 3.48. 98 wins and an NL pennant. They came from 13 games behind on August 11 to tie the Dodgers and win.

BTW, Joey Bart threw out two guys yesterday (one trying to steal, one trying to advance), and his pitch framing stats are very good. He's hitting 300, and he's reduced his strikeouts. Yeah, I know, almost all singles, .716 OPS.  .382 OBP, which leads the starters. And his OPS+ has increased every year, now at 97...and that's hitting against Mets, Dodger, Yankee pitching. And he's taking a beating, too.  He's been hit by a pitch three games in a row. He's thrown out 2 of 10 base stealers, and league average is 22%. That 2% negative delta is better than the 3% from last year and 6% from his rookie year. And he's first in the NL in range factor among NL catchers this year, third in assists by catchers in the NL.

Sabol's WAR is -0.2, Winns is 0.0, Perez is -0.1. Bart's WAR is 0.2. Defensive WAR is 0.2, offensive WAR is 0.1 He's doing pretty well. if it was just Bart's WAR, the Giants' catchers would be 9th in MLB instead of 23rd.

As for the rest of the Giants by positional WAR, we have :

SP: T7th
DH: T8th
2B: T10th
1B: T11th
LF: T11th
CF: T13th
PH: T13th
3B: T16th
C: T19th
RP: 26th
SS: T27th
CF: 28th

And there you have it. None of the positions are really at the top of their game. While starting pitching is comparatively strong, relief pitching is very weak. And where a team has to be strong -- and when the WS-winning Giants were strong -- up the middle, the Giants are weak at catcher, shortstop and center field. The Giants had Posey, young Crawford and Pagan/Blanco. Now they have poor catchers (ironically, aside from Bart), old Crawford and guys who can't play CF or hit well. And we don't have Wilson/Casilla/Romo/Affeldt/Lopez. Instead we have...?

Maybe Crawford gets better, maybe Bart builds on yesterday's game and owns the catching position, Slater coming back should get CF at least back to average. Maybe the relievers get better.

Lots of maybes out there.

[Mick]

7-14 start in 2023. Same start in 1951. Miracle at Coogan's Bluff. Shot Heard Round the World. Bobby Thomson. Rookie Willie Mays. Stanky, Dark, Hank Thompson and Lockman. Monte Irvin. A super sub named Bobby Thompson. Sal "The Barber" Maglie and Larry Jansen. Every starting field player except Thompson hit double digit home runs, no one hit more than 24. Staff ERA of 3.48. 98 wins and an NL pennant. They came from 13 games behind on August 11 to tie the Dodgers and win.

BTW, Joey Bart threw out two guys yesterday (one trying to steal, one trying to advance), and his pitch framing stats are very good. He's hitting 300, and he's reduced his strikeouts. Yeah, I know, almost all singles, .716 OPS.  .382 OBP, which leads the starters. And his OPS+ has increased every year, now at 97...and that's hitting against Mets, Dodger, Yankee pitching. And he's taking a beating, too.  He's been hit by a pitch three games in a row. He's thrown out 2 of 10 base stealers, and league average is 22%. That 2% negative delta is better than the 3% from last year and 6% from his rookie year. And he's first in the NL in range factor among NL catchers this year, third in assists by catchers in the NL.

Sabol's WAR is -0.2, Winns is 0.0, Perez is -0.1. Bart's WAR is 0.2. Defensive WAR is 0.2, offensive WAR is 0.1 He's doing pretty well. if it was just Bart's WAR, the Giants' catchers would be 9th in MLB instead of 23rd.

As for the rest of the Giants by positional WAR, we have :

SP: T7th
DH: T8th
2B: T10th
1B: T11th
LF: T11th
CF: T13th
PH: T13th
3B: T16th
C: T19th
RP: 26th
SS: T27th
CF: 28th

And there you have it. None of the positions are really at the top of their game. While starting pitching is comparatively strong, relief pitching is very weak. And where a team has to be strong -- and when the WS-winning Giants were strong -- up the middle, the Giants are weak at catcher, shortstop and center field. The Giants had Posey, young Crawford and Pagan/Blanco. Now they have poor catchers (ironically, aside from Bart), old Crawford and guys who can't play CF or hit well. And we don't have Wilson/Casilla/Romo/Affeldt/Lopez. Instead we have...?

Maybe Crawford gets better, maybe Bart builds on yesterday's game and owns the catching position, Slater coming back should get CF at least back to average. Maybe the relievers get better.

Lots of maybes out there.