The 2023 Running Baseball Thread

Actually the catcher did his job the best.

 

Reason #86 I’m no longer a Farhan Zaidi fan, Giants sign Haniger (690 OPS) to big contract, LA gets Hayward for min, and OPS of .836

 

The whole Pollock deal was the last straw for me.

 

You cannot possibly judge the two teams based off the Dodgers lucking into a Jason Heyward renaissance. Do you know how completely fucking useless he was as a hitter for six seasons in Chicago?

 

I am aware of that. But that's exactly what Zaidi was looking for, a renaissance from oft-injured Haniger (and Conforto too).

 

OK, but betting on injury bounce-backs from a couple players is one thing. Jason Heyward figuring out how to hit again after a half-decade is something else entirely. I don’t remember reading anything about them fixing his swing.

And if they did, and you’re going to give them credit for it, don’t they get a massive deduction for missing so badly on a Cody Bellinger resurgence?

 

Birdland offers thanks for the philanthropy of the Seattle Mariners.

 

That's Farhan in a nutshell though. Pick up someone from the bargain basement or on the IL who looks great on the spreadsheet and hope he bounces back.

Outside of the Kris Bryant trade, has he made a major deal at the deadline? He was played for a fool by Judge and made a fool of himself by jumping the gun on Correa. This year, he had a team screaming for another bat, or a fresh arm or two. What did it get? Pollock, just another Stepford player.

And all the money that was going to be available after the "bad" contracts were off the books? Did it all go to Herschel Walker?

 

The thing I haven't figured out is why the Giants continue to play the zombie skeleton ghost of Brandon Crawford almost every night. He's hitting a buck-98 with a -1.1 WAR and 63 OPS+, plus he has all the defensive skills required of a 36-year-old shortstop. Yes, he had a dead cat bounce in 2021 but just because you're paying him doesn't require making your team worse by playing him. I know they've tried about a dozen guys there with little success but I cringe every time I see his name in the lineup.

 

Because there is no one better. DeJung? He was good for a game, then sucked. Schmidt? Hitting .207 and that is after a hot streak. And then who plays 3rd?

This team is a mess outside of a couple of guys.

Farhan has really screwed this team. He didn’t want to give up prospects like Joey Bart at the deadline to look to the future. News flash, Bart is not the future and they might as well get something while other teams still think he’s got potential. Everyone else from the farm just isn’t panning out save Harrison but we need to see what happens when the league adjusts.

Farhan had one good season under his belt and that was because Buster took the Covid year off. Crawford got rested thanks to a short season. And they had pitching. Then Buster retires. Belt and Crawford revert to the mean. They don’t hang on to the arms that helped them win and, boom, they’re a .500 team that missed the playoffs. Since Farhan has gotten here, they’ve been above .500 once. They are trending to be at or below it again and miss the playoffs again. He needs to go.

 

Is this the Angels 2023 season a single tweet?

 

Giants have one legit bat, Flores. Everyone else is a spare part. Yes 3 rings in 5 seasons was unbelievable. But I’ve gone to a handful of games and every time I look at a AAAA lineup and wonder why did I go? Who was going to be a threat?