It’s year…I don’t know, 16 or so of guest prognosticators talking about teams the Washington Nationals are playing. My friend David (not pictured), who grew up just across the Vienna town line from me joins again from the Bay Area to talk about his adopted Giants.
WFY: On Thursday morning, I looked at the standings and saw San Francisco at 6 – 12. Last year I saw this passage from either Posnanski or Calcaterra and seeing as these guys are still on the roster it might still be apt:
The Giants strike me as this year’s grilled cheese sandwich team. When you order a grilled cheese sandwich, you are limiting the possibilities. You’ll almost never get a capital-letter BAD grilled cheese sandwich. You’ll also almost never get a capital-letter GREAT grilled cheese sandwich. It will usually be just fine, and you’ll leave the table full, and you’ll go about your day. The Giants have enough good players — Logan Webb, Matt Chapman, Willy Adames, Patrick Bailey, Mike Yastrzemski — that they’ll probably win about as many as they lose. And they have enough holes that they probably lose about as many as they win.
Then they went out and got Rafael Devers from Boston. Bad start or bad team?
DFS: For years the Giants were openly playing for second place at best. They made no real attempt to compete with the Dodgers. They were doing just enough to be in contention for a wild card place. They would allow themselves to be the stalking horse for free agents Aaron Judge or Shohei Ohtani by offering the same deal as a great team that offered better opportunities. Of course, if you are a worse team, you must offer better terms not the same terms. It felt like an openly transparent effort seeking plausible deniability around trying to truly compete. It has been pretty sad as a fan.
Then the last two season it felt like they made more legitimate attempts. They took a big risk on Jung Hoo Lee and did the Devers deal. Unfortunately, those two deals haven’t worked out. I like both those players and they have potential, but both are meaningfully underperforming their contracts.
To answer your question directly, the Giants aren’t a good team, but I don’t think they are as bad as this start suggests.
WFY: Tony Vitello is an unorthodox hire by baseball operations president and legendary Giant, Buster Posey. How is that going so far, aside from losing two thirds of their games? Is Posey’s decision making concerning?
DFS: Manager criticism is a hard thing. With players we have our own eye tests that we’ve developed as fans over decades and bookshelves of stats. With managers, evaluations are much more speculative and are driven not by data but by the whims of a not-to-be-trusted sports media. The overall media tone on Vitiello is that his inexperience is hurting the team and this will be a short-lived experiment. But I don’t know what that is actually based upon.
I recall when Mattingly was managing the Dodgers I thought he was an objectively bad manager who hurt his team more than he helped. At the same time, Bruce Bochy seemed to deliver wins each season that were tied to the right call. I’ve concluded the average manager doesn’t have any meaningful impact on his club. I came to my conclusion about Mattingly and Bochy after watching lots of games. I have nothing to go on with Vitiello after a couple weeks. Also, with the rule changes and the end of the DH in the National League, managers are even more diminished in their influence over the game. They make one to three significant decisions each game after they submit the lineup card. Their biggest impact is on team culture and morale and that is very hard to get a read on as a fan.
As I noted above, Posey is trying. So long as the team is trying new things to win, then I’m happy as a fan. I suspect if Posey were boxed into a space where he was forced to concede and not pursue things that he thought would work, then the would resign. He’s a winner.
WFY: Is there much hype top Giants prospect, Vienna, Va.’s own, Bryce Eldridge? I saw he had a cup of coffee in the bigs last year and didn’t do much.
DFS: Eldridge has been exciting in the minors. Unfortunately for him he didn’t do anything when he got called up. He didn’t feel like he looked overmatched, but he struck out a lot and was non-productive. Given that the center field position is batting below .200 and Casey Schmitt is a replacement level player, I don’t see any problem bringing Eldridge up and letting him hit .200 until he gets enough at bats, unless it would mess with his confidence. An area of frustration for me is a tendency to give the at bats to known replacement level players who are not going to get better over unknown prospects that need the repetitions. To borrow from Parcells, the Giants have too many “progress stoppers”.
WFY: The Caltrain advertisement for Giants games went viral last year and not just in baseball circles. Have you used gone to games that way? How much improved is Caltrain since going electric? The Caltrain advertisement for Giants games went viral last year and not just in baseball circles. Have you used gone to games that way? How much improved is Caltrain since going electric?
DFS: I’ve ridden Caltrain a few times since it went electric. I haven’t noticed any difference. I think the point of it all was reduced pollution and overall cost–not really things that change the experience. They have more digital screens with station information, which is good.
My approach usually is to take Caltrain when I go to a game with one of my boys. If we go as a family of 4, then we will probably drive instead. It is super convenient getting there on Caltrain–a bit less so when coming home. The Giants aren’t drawing like they were years ago, so it isn’t as crowded on the trains as in prior years. Work night games with commuter rail riders made for steamy, nuts-to-butts rides.
WFY: How do you follow the Giants primarily – TV or radio?
DFS: Both. At home we’ll watch on TV. In the car, it is good old KNBR and Jon Miller. What a delight it has been to have Jon Miller on my radio or TV screen all these years. The Giants have had a great team of broadcasters for the last 20 years. They all really are a joy to listen to. But now Mike Krukow can’t travel by plane and Jon Miller is on TV only or “on assignment” for road games. The color guy for road game is now FP Santangelo1 who called Nationals games–as you well know. FP is alright, but he pales in comparison to the chemistry and skill that’s been on display by his forebears. Not his fault, but I’ve been slow to warm up to him.
This year has been weird so far in terms of broadcasting. A name on Netflix, games on MLB.tv, a game on Fox and maybe even one on AppleTV. I prefer when 162 are on the local NBC cable affiliate and you get the same broadcast crew each night.
WFY: Can you name anybody on the current Nationals roster?
DFS: CJ Abrams is the only player I can think of with certainty who is still on the team.
WFY: The City Connect uniforms – yay or nay? Are these current ones better or worse than the originals?
DFS: Nay. Take them to Goodwill and help those in need. They have all been bad, but I’d prefer the orange and white unis with the Golden Gate Bridge logo-izing. This pink and purple graffiti-style font is not for me. Save that for the Padres or the Marlins.
Also, the Giants standard unis are up there with the most elegant in all of sports. Nobody needs to tamper with them or replace them.
WFY: Change of subject, but related – what’s your take on the new Washington Commanders uniforms? I’m a fan of the primaries, but find the the black alternates cliched and the spear more than a wink, but less than a dog whistle, to the fans who won’t let go of the slur (I have a half-drafted post about it).2
DFS: I am with you on the black monochromatics. It is tired and looks like what every other team wants to do. We can blame the Jake Plummer-era Broncos for this–albeit that was dark blue. I have very few NFL uni demands. But a few essentials for me are: Seattle needs to wear a silver helmet. Period. The Falcons need to go back to the red helmet. It is 1000x better and works well with the black jersey. The Niners and Washington should not wear black. I actually think the Niners black uniforms are worse than Washington.
Also, the putrid name Commanders with a spear doesn’t make any sense. What they hell is going on? Their mascot is a pig named Major Tuddy. Is that not the stupidest NFL mascot? I probably have already offered this on your website before, but to me the solution is clear: they should rename the team as the Washington Bullets.
WFY: How do you think this series goes and where do you see the Giants finishing in the standings?
DFS: I figure the Giants will trend along has they have been doing of late. Lose the series two games to one. They finish 4th in the NL West a few games below .500. Let’s hope I’m wrong.