Carstie Clausen Tue, Dec 10, 8:42 PM (8 hours ago) to me, carstie Flav: Good move. Wins against Replacement in Willy’s case (nice to have a Willy on board once again) needs to be measured in at least three separate metrics. Okay, the offense: Longball in the middle of he lineup plus stolen bases has to be good […]
| Carstie Clausen | Tue, Dec 10, 8:42 PM (8 hours ago) |  | |
| to me, carstie | |||
Flav: Good move. Wins against Replacement in Willy’s case (nice to have a Willy on board once again) needs to be measured in at least three separate metrics. Okay, the offense: Longball in the middle of he lineup plus stolen bases has to be good enough for no fewer than three WARs on that basis alone. What we are beginning to comprehend, though is that the presence of a Willy once again is the harbinger of multidimensional impact. When you assemble a lineup with no major holes in it, funny things happen to opposing hurlers…they can no longer cruise through a hole or two. Adames adds to the previously forlorn aspect of team speed…and that comes from a guy who as a slugger may induce a lot of walks. If an up and coming hitter like Fitzy is batting in the Two-Hole…following Lee…some pitchers can start out a bit edgy. A team run by analytics almost exclusively imposed a R-L patten to almost the entire lineup. Hitters who can pound that pill are usually constipated right up the middle of the lineup and if two in a row happen to hit from the same side of the plate, but are scattered as Power threats throughout almost the entire array…the lighter hitters will see more pitches on which they can slap in doubles and dink in bloopy singles. Thus the entire completcion of the offense takes on a whole nother tone.
Overall hitting score: 3 WAR.
Let’s look at his work at shortstop…perhaps no Willie Magee at the position, but more than merely decent. He’s good. Lateral range quite acceptable. Moves very good. Quickness and accuracy of throws, quite decent. General coverage of position…professional. WAR, no drop-off from Crawdaddy and maybe a shade of improvement. Buster and Melvin look at his combo with Chapman as maybe even the best in baseball. Affect on mostly groundball oriented pitchers and that left side combo is scintillating. It’s just possible that the Webb Maestro will enjoy his best season ever, at least on Willie Mays Field,where R.H hitters best but better somehow get leverage on those sinkers…otherwise their efforts may switchover to going oppo…a particularly difficult feat for sluggers. Punch n’ Judy hitters may see more fastballs of one type or another. In general, Giants pitchers will become much more relaxed when hurling against RH batters. As for the lefties at the plate, that death-valley in deep right-center will still loom.
My overall assessment of Adames’ contribution to the infield defense combined with more relaxed pitchers is a very solid 4 WARs.
Multidimensional, I say. Rumor as it that he’s a pretty decent as a clubhouse influence. He carries a vibe of success. On the field, the other players will become more confident in winning baseball. The last three years the analytics vibe led to chaos and something other than a winning spirit. Effect on Bailey, with Ol Bob nodding in the dugout ,will solidify his overall performance. Again, more confidence. Hellcat Ramos did knock 30 dingers this last season, 22 in MLB and 8 for Sactown. Knowing he does not hafta be the Big Man at the stick and now somewhat of a veteran, Ramos just might become the monster that many of us have projected. There may be even a fun play of competition amongst him, Chapman , Fitzgerald and Adames. When players have fun, the psychological realm amps up.
So lets grant a One WAR to the presence of Adames and his overall effect on the Giants as a team. So three+4+1=8. Eight wins above replacement would jack the SF record to 86 W’s vs 76 L’s….not quite a Post Season guarantee…but likely Buster has a couple more moves up his sleeve: Free Agents? There’s that big First Baseman who haunted SF for years. He’s late 30’s now and not the threat he was even three years ago. He won’t be spectacularly expensive as yet another power threat batting, say 8th. In today’s game, the #8 batter is usually a zone of relaxation for most pitchers. Say there’s a couple ducks on the pond and the old boy channels his inner slugger…and Bingo. He could end up drawing lots of walks in that situation, but then again bases loaded makes a lot of relievers just a tad nervous.
Trade winds: Oh maybe a couple guys as current bait. Buster’s upping the ante on Doval…Claims he wants to hang on to him. Say some team is fairly rich in starters and does quite well in pitcher development but is lingering in the depths of the also-runs in ’25…or likely to be so. A couple in Florida come to mind. In case you have yet to notice it,SF has a raft of young starters in the trickbag…name names if you like…but a couple of them and Robbie Ray as a fill-in to replace the semi-Ace, maybe an A-Minus type and a deal might get done.With that many eggs in the starter basket, both Birdsong and Harrison may have high upsides…perhaps in the coming season. So now it’s down to a #5 starter and plenty of backups, a couple of them sweating it out in reliever roles.
So let’s project the team as a whole gets 10 more wins than in the now dearly departed season. A 90 win record is not a shoo-in for the P.S. However the possibility will be there. Team spirit counts for a lot. Some of the many one-run losses could be inverted and losing to so-so and totally blah outfits like the ChiSox might jump outta the picture.
Baseball is a funny game…quite as unpredictable and unexpected as those three World Championships during the 2010s…and the guy who was the field-manager for those incredible victories is now in the dugout running the Show.
