Last week, Giants starting pitchers gave up three earned runs in 33 innings. They had a strikeout-to-walk ratio of 33/3. They didn’t score more than five runs in any of the games, but because of the pitching, they still went 4-2.
Goodness, it’s good to take a time machine back to 2012. There’s something about all that scrappin’ and clawin’ that really warms the cockles. It’s a style of baseball that drove me nuts, but I also miss it tremendously. It’s too early to proclaim the return of the maddening 2012-era, pitching-first, dinger-free Giants. Especially because they hit 10 homers in the nine-game homestand, but it sure feels familiar.
Welcome to the week in Giants baseball. It’s a lot more fun to write these when the Giants don’t lose a game 17-1.
I have a horn in my hand. It’s a shiny, brass horn. Oh, would you like me to toot it? Well, I’m not sure about this, but OK. Let me toot my own horn.
I’ve been fascinated with Winn for a while. He was the last entry on my prospects-to-watch piece before the 2023 season, My article on second-half predictions last year included plenty of puffery about him. He throws in the mid-90s, generally where he wants, and he pairs that with a wicked splitter, generally where he wants. His slider is improving enough to have promise as a bat-missing, two-strike pitch. And in his two starts last week, he threw 12 innings, allowed seven hits, two walks and two earned runs, and he struck out 11.
Nobody has thrown more splitters so far this year than Keaton Winn, who will throw them in any count. He could throw his slider coming back from TJ, so he just threw splitter after splitter and hit tremendous feel for the pitch. pic.twitter.com/JRg564cnIx
— Eno Sarris (@enosarris) April 28, 2024
If you’re semi-curious about Winn, or if you don’t want to get hurt again and can’t trust a young pitcher right now, ask yourself a simple question: What about this doesn’t seem like it will work? He throws 95 with movement. He throws a gnarly splitter, and he can put it in the strike zone when he wants, or he can use it to make hitters chase. He has command. When he allows a baserunner, he goes about the task of getting the next hitter to hit a ground ball, and it works out.
What are we still waiting for? Durability, for sure. He had a late start to the season because of elbow tenderness, and that’s always a concern with splitter-heavy youngsters.
Other than that, it’s going to get harder and harder with every successful start to pretend like Winn hasn’t arrived as a Dude or a Guy or a That Dude. His stuff clearly gets major-league hitters out. His command is ahead of where it is for most pitchers his age. Is there something that’s still making you skeptical?
There shouldn’t be. In an alternate universe, there’s a pitcher named Chaplin Loss, and he’s getting absolutely torched. In this universe, Keaton Winn seems like a pitcher who can thrive in the majors without any adjustments or improvements whatsoever.
Trivia time!
Who were the last three Giants inducted into the Hall of Fame as a player?
Answers below. (You won’t have the correct answers.)
Here’s a play that didn’t end up on MLB.com’s Film Room.
It wasn’t impressive enough to show up on a short list of highlights from that specific baseball game. And it might be one of the best plays you’ll see in the outfield this year. Or any year. Plenty of outfielders let that get to the wall. And almost none of them plant their back foot and fire a strike to second after calmly backhanding the ball. It could (should?) have been a runner on second with nobody out, with the Giants trailing, 1-0.
Yastrzemski is heating up at the plate (.409/.435/.682 in his last 23 PA, eight games), which is a great sign. But don’t forget that he does stuff like chase balls into the corner and make a perfect throw in the ninth inning of a scoreless game. That counts too. Sometimes as much as the strikeout with two outs and runners in scoring position in the sixth inning.
Check out that extra split-second he gives himself to gather momentum to get an extra full second on the throw. Textbook.
If you want words about the player who actually won the game, I’ve got them, and I’m not saying that Yastrzemski is the savior of the 2024 Giants. I’m just saying that the “DFA YAZ” people are ding-dongs. He’s probably still helpful in a variety of ways.
In the seventh inning of a scoreless game on Friday night, Bryan Reynolds came up with the bases loaded against Ryan Walker. I had to double check to make sure it wasn’t Ryan Wyalker, but it looks like we’re in the clear. Reynolds did this:
Take a second to appreciate the call from Duane Kuiper, who correctly identified that it was a dead ball and that the inning was over. The Pirates play-by-play announcer wasn’t sure, and I’m not picking on him, because I wasn’t either. It’s the difference between knowing ball as a 12-year veteran (and 38 years as a broadcaster), and doing whatever it is that I do.
Some screenshots to celebrate this moment:
A strike. A possible strike? Depends on the angle. But from the view of the offset center-field cam, it’s looking pretty good. Might want to take a hack at it.
Ah. Well. Nevertheless. It would appear as if this ball is “sliding” toward my back foot.
Look where the automated velocity tracker is. It’s on Ryan Walker’s right shoulder, and it’s also on Bryan Reynolds’ left foot. That’s not where it should be. The baseball is out of the frame.
Batters swinging at pitches that hit them might be the funniest bit in baseball, and it brings up a crucial question: How many pitches do you think you’d get hit with if you took an at-bat against a wild Ryan Walker?
My guess: Several. Including one that puts you in the hospital, or at least in urgent care. In this case, though, it got the Giants out of a huge pickle, and it might be the difference between them staying home or facing the Pirates in the first round of the postseason.
Could happen.
Trivia answer
• Randy Johnson (2015)
• Goose Gossage (2008)
• Gary Carter (2003)
The last HOF inductee who would actually identify as a Giant was Orlando Cepeda in 1999.
If I were you, I’d simply ask the Giants to have more Hall of Famers.
Here’s a dog watching baseball
This dog is, as Mike Krukow described, a “burblover.” I know, because that’s Brie. She’s the roommate of the best man in my wedding. Brie has chased my two idiot dogs all around my backyard, and she deserves special recognition here.
The first time Krukow talked about me was in 2005, when I caught a foul ball. But I’ve never been a burblover. Everyone look at Brie. She rules. And there’s no better place to end the week in review.
(Photo of Yastrzemski: Darren Yamashita / USA Today)
