[Mick]

1759681543[/url]']

1759628804[/url]']

1759592091[/url]']
Six takeaways from the 2025 SF Giants season, summary if you don't want to read the attached article link:

1. Devers and Adames will be just fine at Oracle. Adames hit 30 HRs, first Giant since Bonds to do so. Devers hit 20 after joining the Giants.
2. Landon Roupp is a legit big league starter. 3.80 ERA in 106 innings. Actually should be better next year, he gave up 10 earned runs in 5 1/3rd innings in his last two starts, resulting from lingering injuries. Take away those two starts, you have a 3.11 ERA.
3. Outfield defense needs to improve. Ramos had 9 errors leading all NL left fielders and -4 Rtot. Jung Hoo Lee had just three errors (4th among NL CFs), 7 assists (third best among NL CFs) and two double plays (3rd among NL CFs), but just average range and a -20 Rtot. Matos had two errors in 30 games in RF and two MORE errors in 22 games in LF, -6 Rtot overall. Drew Gilbert was -3 Rtot. Grant McCray had two errors in just six games in RF.
4. Buster did a good job in making decisions.
5. Bryce Eldridge is better at the plate than I expected in terms of plate discipline (7 walks in 37 ABs), about what I expected for strikeouts (13), not as good as expected for BA (.107), OBP (.297), SLG (.179).
6. We need pitching. A LOT of pitching. Walker regressed, Rodriguez is out for the year. I'd prefer better than Kai-Wei Teng and Carson Seymour. Maybe it's Whisenhunt. I think Miller will step up. Hopefully Tyler Rogers comes back. At one point, we had the third best bullpen in the majors, then regressed. Verlander came on in the second half, but he'll be 43 next year.

Six Takeaways From the San Francisco Giants’ 2025 Season

You do like your short sample sizes.  Eldridge hit eight or nine balls 100 miles an hour or harder. I don’t know if he’ll be on the roster to begin the season next year. But he’ll be there relatively soon. And he’s gonna strike out a ton  I doubt he’s gonna hit for much of an average his first year. But the power will play.  What he did this September generally means nothing. As long as he didn’t look overmatched. And he didn’t.

He is having a bone spur removed. Which also may have been bugging him a little bit. I truly hope that’s not a real problem. If it is – then everything changes.

Just for kicks, here are some numbers from a player’s first partial season.  He was called up in August 2016.  :

84 AB’s.  42 K’s.  .179.  4 HR’s.

Didn’t look like much. He’s been pretty good ever since.  I’ll let you guess the player.

Yeah, I know. It's easy to play that game with very young September callups:

17 ABs, 2 hits, 4 strikeouts, no walks, .118/.118/.118/.235 (Posey)
10 ABs, 2 hits, 4 strikeouts, .200/.200/.300/.500 (Babe Ruth)
34 ABs, 7 hits, 5 walks, 15 strikeouts, .206/.325/.294/.619 (Mike Schmidt)
151 ABs, 36 hits, 23 strikeouts, .238/.286/.298/.584 (Ty Cobb)

On the other hand, Willie Mays, Lou Gehrig, Ted Williams, Rickey Henderson, Will Clark, Jack Clark, Bobby Bonds, Barry Bonds, Stan Musial, Harmon Killebrew, Jeff Kent, Jimmie Foxx, Al Simmons started strong and stayed strong.

As for Eldridge, I'd be very surprised if he doesn't make the major league roster next year and plays 1B / DH with Devers. I imagine that Dominic Smith and Wilmer Flores will be looking for work with other teams next year. Smith is 30, hit .284 and plays a good first base...he'll be employable. Flores, not so sure. He had 71 RBIs, tying a career high, but had the fourth slowest bat speed in MLB. He will turn 35 next season, they don't generally improve.

Verlander, on the strength of his second half (when, for the first time in his career, threw more breaking balls than fastballs) with the 2.60 ERA and given the Giants' paucity of pitching -- I suspect he'll return.

Actually, Mays started out terribly — 1-26 (the one hit being an HR off Warren Spahn).  As the story goes, he cried about his play to Leo Durocher.  In turn, Durocher told him to stick with it, that he was not going to be removed from the lineup.  And, the rest is history.

Right, but we were talking about September call-ups...Mays was given the job in May, 1951...still, he made good contact that month. In 27 plate appearances, he only struck out three times and drew six walks. And he hit .348 in June with a 1.041 OPS. Nine doubles, two triples, six home runs and 26 RBIs.

[Mick]

1759681543[/url]']

1759628804[/url]']

1759592091[/url]']
Six takeaways from the 2025 SF Giants season, summary if you don't want to read the attached article link:

1. Devers and Adames will be just fine at Oracle. Adames hit 30 HRs, first Giant since Bonds to do so. Devers hit 20 after joining the Giants.
2. Landon Roupp is a legit big league starter. 3.80 ERA in 106 innings. Actually should be better next year, he gave up 10 earned runs in 5 1/3rd innings in his last two starts, resulting from lingering injuries. Take away those two starts, you have a 3.11 ERA.
3. Outfield defense needs to improve. Ramos had 9 errors leading all NL left fielders and -4 Rtot. Jung Hoo Lee had just three errors (4th among NL CFs), 7 assists (third best among NL CFs) and two double plays (3rd among NL CFs), but just average range and a -20 Rtot. Matos had two errors in 30 games in RF and two MORE errors in 22 games in LF, -6 Rtot overall. Drew Gilbert was -3 Rtot. Grant McCray had two errors in just six games in RF.
4. Buster did a good job in making decisions.
5. Bryce Eldridge is better at the plate than I expected in terms of plate discipline (7 walks in 37 ABs), about what I expected for strikeouts (13), not as good as expected for BA (.107), OBP (.297), SLG (.179).
6. We need pitching. A LOT of pitching. Walker regressed, Rodriguez is out for the year. I'd prefer better than Kai-Wei Teng and Carson Seymour. Maybe it's Whisenhunt. I think Miller will step up. Hopefully Tyler Rogers comes back. At one point, we had the third best bullpen in the majors, then regressed. Verlander came on in the second half, but he'll be 43 next year.

Six Takeaways From the San Francisco Giants’ 2025 Season

You do like your short sample sizes.  Eldridge hit eight or nine balls 100 miles an hour or harder. I don’t know if he’ll be on the roster to begin the season next year. But he’ll be there relatively soon. And he’s gonna strike out a ton  I doubt he’s gonna hit for much of an average his first year. But the power will play.  What he did this September generally means nothing. As long as he didn’t look overmatched. And he didn’t.

He is having a bone spur removed. Which also may have been bugging him a little bit. I truly hope that’s not a real problem. If it is – then everything changes.

Just for kicks, here are some numbers from a player’s first partial season.  He was called up in August 2016.  :

84 AB’s.  42 K’s.  .179.  4 HR’s.

Didn’t look like much. He’s been pretty good ever since.  I’ll let you guess the player.

Yeah, I know. It's easy to play that game with very young September callups:

17 ABs, 2 hits, 4 strikeouts, no walks, .118/.118/.118/.235 (Posey)
10 ABs, 2 hits, 4 strikeouts, .200/.200/.300/.500 (Babe Ruth)
34 ABs, 7 hits, 5 walks, 15 strikeouts, .206/.325/.294/.619 (Mike Schmidt)
151 ABs, 36 hits, 23 strikeouts, .238/.286/.298/.584 (Ty Cobb)

On the other hand, Willie Mays, Lou Gehrig, Ted Williams, Rickey Henderson, Will Clark, Jack Clark, Bobby Bonds, Barry Bonds, Stan Musial, Harmon Killebrew, Jeff Kent, Jimmie Foxx, Al Simmons started strong and stayed strong.

As for Eldridge, I'd be very surprised if he doesn't make the major league roster next year and plays 1B / DH with Devers. I imagine that Dominic Smith and Wilmer Flores will be looking for work with other teams next year. Smith is 30, hit .284 and plays a good first base...he'll be employable. Flores, not so sure. He had 71 RBIs, tying a career high, but had the fourth slowest bat speed in MLB. He will turn 35 next season, they don't generally improve.

Verlander, on the strength of his second half (when, for the first time in his career, threw more breaking balls than fastballs) with the 2.60 ERA and given the Giants' paucity of pitching -- I suspect he'll return.

Actually, Mays started out terribly — 1-26 (the one hit being an HR off Warren Spahn).  As the story goes, he cried about his play to Leo Durocher.  In turn, Durocher told him to stick with it, that he was not going to be removed from the lineup.  And, the rest is history.

Right, but we were talking about September call-ups...Mays was given the job in May, 1951...still, he made good contact that month. In 27 plate appearances, he only struck out three times and drew six walks. And he hit .348 in June with a 1.041 OPS. Nine doubles, two triples, six home runs and 26 RBIs.