2016 Regular Season Thread

[Quake Griffin]

The baseball gods have to give us a month where our BABIP is unusually high.

It's unfair man.
Completely unfair.

[Ranma]

[tweet]https://twitter.com/mike_petriello/status/742180710199496705[/tweet][tweet]https://twitter.com/mike_petriello/status/742180904236376064[/tweet][tweet]https://twitter.com/FlyByKnite/status/742181261263785984[/tweet]

[Ranma]

[tweet]https://twitter.com/DodgerInsider/status/742184126506110977[/tweet][tweet]https://twitter.com/ChadMoriyama/status/742186161427218432[/tweet]

[Ranma]

The baseball gods have to give us a month where our BABIP is unusually high.

It's unfair man.
Completely unfair.

Are we supposed to sacrifice virgins or what?

Trayce flashing a gun from RF. Didn't know he had that in him. He still took a bad route on Crawford's leadoff triple, though.

[tweet]https://twitter.com/mike_petriello/status/742186801910124544[/tweet]

[Quake Griffin]

This weekend is on Kenley Jansen.


thnx for everything bro.

[Quake Griffin]

http://www.fangraphs.com/leaders.aspx?pos=all&stats=bat&lg=all&qual=0&type=8&season=2016&month=0&season1=2016&ind=0&team=0,ts&rost=&age=&filter=&players=0

If you believe in fWAR, we are 19th in fWAR offensively.
I believe in fWAR.

I dunno about you guys but this isn't just a small sample size anymore. At this point, you literally have to just be crossing your fingers and hoping certain guys will turn it around. But there's no way their performance at the dish is not troubling.

[Quake Griffin]

Henry Schulman? Verified account ?
?@hankschulman
Bochy said Peavy had stiff neck. Didn't take a bullpen. #sfgiants were ready to start Suarez


This is who shut us out for 6 innings.
One of the worst starting pitchers in the league.

[Neddy]

http://www.fangraphs.com/leaders.aspx?pos=all&stats=bat&lg=all&qual=0&type=8&season=2016&month=0&season1=2016&ind=0&team=0,ts&rost=&age=&filter=&players=0

If you believe in fWAR, we are 19th in fWAR offensively.
I believe in fWAR.

I dunno about you guys but this isn't just a small sample size anymore. At this point, you literally have to just be crossing your fingers and hoping certain guys will turn it around. But there's no way their performance at the dish is not troubling.

I haven't checked, but even with all of our struggles and string of bad luck ( since our hard-contact rate doe not reflect our BABIP) I believe this team's offense is still better than the 88 WS champion squad. I believe our moderate success of this season ( or down right failure if you prefer) is due to our injuries to the rotation. if everyone was healthy, how would we rate the starting rotation's order according to their abilities alone? ( not what we now know but at the start of the season with what we had known then)

Kershaw-Kazmir-Ryu-McCarthy-Anderson-Maeda-Wood-Bolsinger

that would be my guess, as Maeda was coming in with a lot of question marks and stlll a rookie in this league, which would indicate, if everyone was healthy to start the season, we have lost 60% of that man power. yes Maeda has probably surpassed some of the established names, and Wood and Bolsinger have played rather well even tho both either has been or currently on DL. if everyone is healthy by the end of this seaon, we would sport

Kershaw-Kazmir-Maeda-Ryu-McCarthy as our top 5 with Anderson/Bolsinger/Wood to back them up. that is probably the best rotation in all of baseball.

[Ranma]

I posted the Gurriel news in the Draft/International Signing thread along with Ohtani throwing straight up heat in a recent game in Japan, so maybe Yulieski can help address our issues below even though we've actually been hitting the ball hard.

[tweet]https://twitter.com/FlyByKnite/status/742426688483512320[/tweet]

[Ranma]

[tweet]https://twitter.com/alannarizzo/status/742510338944339969[/tweet][tweet]https://twitter.com/McCulloughTimes/status/742561967982837761[/tweet][tweet]https://twitter.com/alannarizzo/status/742565186624577537[/tweet]

Edit: Added McCullough and Rizzo's tweet clarifying that Ethier will not undergo CT scan this week, after all.

[Quake Griffin]

Giants in on Ryan Braun.

They don't have half the farm we have. I bet they get Milwaukee to pay half.

Years 32-37 of Braun at $10 mill in the least important position defensively on the field with all that pop in his bat.....I've seen worse things in my life.

I see more Matt Holliday out of a potential deal there than I do Carl Crawford.

[Ranma]

[tweet]https://twitter.com/ChadMoriyama/status/742552133879267328[/tweet][tweet]https://twitter.com/mike_petriello/status/742551563357540352[/tweet][tweet]https://twitter.com/DodgerInsider/status/742533155328917504[/tweet][tweet]https://twitter.com/DodgerInsider/status/742551258829983744[/tweet][tweet]https://twitter.com/truebluela/status/742551221819478016[/tweet][tweet]https://twitter.com/DodgerInsider/status/742551753376178181[/tweet][tweet]https://twitter.com/DodgerInsider/status/742551258829983744[/tweet][tweet]https://twitter.com/alannarizzo/status/742551407488729088[/tweet][tweet]https://twitter.com/mike_petriello/status/742552819463557125[/tweet]

[Ranma]

[tweet]https://twitter.com/DodgerInsider/status/742557683958439937[/tweet][tweet]https://twitter.com/DodgerInsider/status/742569818075762688[/tweet][tweet]https://twitter.com/alannarizzo/status/742569866004025344[/tweet][tweet]https://twitter.com/ChadMoriyama/status/742569888468733952[/tweet]

[Ranma]

[tweet]https://twitter.com/DodgerInsider/status/742534539268870144[/tweet]

[Quake Griffin]

Another night trying to make 2 runs stand up.

The bullpen has been NAILS for the last month.
This team can't hit the freakin baseball.

[Ranma]

Our offense has definitely been lacking but the Diamondbacks made a couple of clutch defensive plays that kept a few runs from being scored on them. Joc Pederson saved a run himself on behalf of the Dodgers.

[Neddy]

maybe it's time to shake things up and realign the lineup card, especially when Puig comes back.

1. L. Utley 2B - 350 OBP with 108 OPS+
2. R. Thompson LF - currently in his small sample, statistically the best hitter we have, and he is a rightie.
3. L. Seager SS - the actual best player we have, but if we must go back to back L-L, I want him to have protection
4. L. Gonzo 1B - he is showing his age lately, but can't put him at 3rd or 5th due to lack of better options.
5. R. Puig RF - gotta give our most talented player a chance. he is showing a mental growth and applying himself lately.
6. L. Joc CF - despite his pedestrian BA, his 109 OPS+ says he is an above average hitter
7. R. Turner 3B - time to let him drop down a bit until he gets hot. I need to see more to say he is out of slump.
8. S. Grandal C

we should have better speed through out, especially the top 3 leading off. Gonzo has been suspect but hopefully Puig can catch a fire to flip the order, and Turner to get back to his average and flip the order with Joc. but as of right now, we need better OBP out of the top 4 guys in the lineup to create more chances when they see more at bats every game. Utley-Thompson-Seager-Gonzo are the top 4 best OBP guys we have. their power and BA also makes sense to run it this way.


to elaborate on the earlier point, if Puig and Turner catches on fire, then we can flip both with their immediate predecessor and go L-R-L-R-L-R-L-S make make it a nightmare for the opposing managers to handle his bullpen against us late in games.

[Quake Griffin]

Our offense has definitely been lacking but the Diamondbacks made a couple of clutch defensive plays that kept a few runs from being scored on them. Joc Pederson saved a run himself on behalf of the Dodgers.

Nah, that **** at bat was awful and unprofessional. I hate magical fairy dust terms, but that seemed to be a buzzkill foro ur momentum. Knowing your personality a bit from here, I know that had to piss you off.


I don't mind waiting Turner or Howie out.
But I think it's time to move on from the Jocs and Puigs of the world. Just my 2 cents.
Cards, Cubs, Giants trot out 7 tough ABs for you in their lineup and we can feel it every time we watch our team compete against them. We trot out like 3....and we never know which 3 it's going to be from day to day.

I want changes man.

[Ranma]

Nah, that **** at bat was awful and unprofessional. I hate magical fairy dust terms, but that seemed to be a buzzkill foro ur momentum. Knowing your personality a bit from here, I know that had to piss you off.


I don't mind waiting Turner or Howie out.
But I think it's time to move on from the Jocs and Puigs of the world. Just my 2 cents.
Cards, Cubs, Giants trot out 7 tough ABs for you in their lineup and we can feel it every time we watch our team compete against them. We trot out like 3....and we never know which 3 it's going to be from day to day.

I want changes man.

Yeah, I certainly didn't like ****'s at-bat tonight at all. In fact, I thought Russo's description below was quite apt.

[tweet]https://twitter.com/FlyByKnite/status/742576239051841541[/tweet]

While I like **** on a personal level, he has been a drag offensively this year and his defense in the outfield has been less than reliable. I'd like to wait longer on both Joc and Puig given their efforts to right themselves at the plate and their defense in CF and RF, respectively, which I feel is irreplaceable relative to other players on the roster. Despite his low batting average, Joc seems to be showing some signs of life in his bat albeit at a slow pace, so I agree with Neddy's take on the matter.

I actually agree entirely with Neddy's post above. I'm fine with waiting on Kendrick and Turner working themselves back into shape, but at this point, I want them lower in the lineup until they do. Puig's progress has been frustrating but I'm still holding out hope that, at some point, everything clicks where the newly learned fundamentals will be ingrained in him so that he can do more reacting at the batting plate in taking advantage of his physical tools rather than overthink things like he has been.

Yeah, A-Gon's age is showing and he'll likely fade in the 2nd half like he usually does in recent seasons, but he's still our best option until Bellinger is ready. Grandal seems like a lost cause to me. I'd love to upgrade from him by trading for Lucroy, but for now, I'd personally rather give Barnes the opportunity; he may lack the power and option to switch-hit, but at least he has upside.

While there are elements of bad luck and a need to adjust to the new defenses, I think there are some things that can be done to help us improve incrementally in snowballing our progress towards improvement. If you notice, our bullpen has been better of late since we stopped going to Chris Hatcher by default in high leverage situations. Likewise, I think Neddy's prescribed approach to the lineup card is a step towards addressing our offensive struggles.

As was mentioned before, this doesn't seem to be an isolated incident as Stanton and Harper are currently in slumps themselves, but rather than focus on individual players exclusively, it seems to be an issue with the group, which is why I think Neddy's proposal to tweak or otherwise shake up the lineup could be refreshing with regard to our stagnant offense. Both Seager and Thompson have been our best bats of late while Utley and Gonzalez are viewed as our next reliable bats, so it makes sense to have them atop the batting order.

I'm still partial to not making panic moves over making calculated ones, but I'm running out of patience in just sitting around and waiting for our players to snap out of their funk. I still have some faith that Dave Roberts and Turner Ward are addressing this properly, but bringing in some new blood might revitalize us and/or light a fire under some butts who may be too comfortable with their spot on the team. For now, I'm only interested in the following moves:

• Give Austin Barnes more of an opportunity to earn the starting catcher role.
• Pursue Jonathan Lucroy in a trade without giving up prime quality prospects (quantity is fine).
• Sign Yulieski Gurriel.

I don't think we can do worse with Barnes than what we're already getting out of both Grandal and Ellis, but Lucroy would be an obvious and immediate upgrade if we can obtain him without giving up top quality prospects. Yulieski Gurriel would need time in the minors but he could be an option at 3B, 2B, or 1B in a couple of months if we get him to sign on the dotted line this month.

At this point, we have to fix what is wrong with our team as a whole before we can look outside the organization for moves to compete in the postseason, but if we fix what ails us, we wouldn't need big moves, anyway. Otherwise, paying the price in trade(s) is just throwing assets away in a desperate attempt to compete when we're lacking at the core. The bottom line is more players have to step up, regardless. We supposedly already have the talent on the roster.

[Quake Griffin]

Guy HabermanVerified account
‏@GuyHaberman
According to a source, the Dodgers have now also reached out to the Brewers about Ryan Braun. #SFGiants #Dodgers

He did start to be injured and miss games the minute I began advocating for his services.
I still like the right handed pop in the lineup if we get the math right. Cody (mentioning this because Cody could see time at OF if his bat is ready and Old Gon is still here) and Alex will spend 2017 down under.

In fact, they could really have me if they wanted to cover all of it.


I hate the chess match here as well and I don't want to get played. Last year, part of the motivation in acquiring Chase was that the Giants were in on him.
We also wrestled with the Giants in 2012 when the Phillies OFs became available. Dumb ned took Victorino. Giants took Pence and havent looked back.

Don't want the Giants to feel like they can leak that kind of information and have us jump up and do protective moves to make sure they don't get players any time they feel like it.


Cliffs:
We better really want Braun if we go after him.