If you’re not a fan of parables, feel free to back out of this article right now.
Okay, here goes: when I was a lad, some cousins of mine moved from Kansas City to beautiful Palos Verdes, on a peninsula south of Los Angeles. Their dad had a sweet job with U.S. Steel, and they scored a house across from Palos Verdes High School, which overlooked the Pacific Ocean.
I have fond memories of visits there — the high school was a great playground with a giant swimming pool, and there was a cliff beyond the high school, which revealed the shimmering ocean and its siren song. Okay, I wasn’t thinking that when I was a kid but it works for an image now.
I only told my mother what happened when I was much older. She would’ve flipped out had she known at that time. She warned us not to go down that steep cliff. We saw evidence of cars that didn’t heed similar warnings — wreckage on the rocks as the ocean water lapped up and slowly rusted them out. I remember a 1956 Buick Special that looked less than special.
Since mom gave out the warning, and all three of my cousins were older boys, the immediate impulse was to do the very thing she told us not to do. I was not the angel on their shoulder, I tagged along.
We didn’t so much scale down the cliff as slide, while gathering dirt under our fingernails to slow the descent. As a 10-year-old I figured, “I’ve got this.” I got THAT, alright.
The last 20 feet was less steep so I decided to try to crouch and walk down. Next thing I knew, I was doing a movie stunt. Rolled head over heels down the rest of the cliff, which my cousins found very entertaining.
I landed on a combination of sand and rocks, and had nasty scrapes on my elbows and knees. One cousin said, “go in the ocean.” Great idea, except for the
salt in the water. It felt like a jellyfish attack. You could hear me screaming from the top of the cliff.
My mother later asked what happened and we told her I slipped playing basketball. She bought it. She must’ve seen me playing in the backyard sat home and surmised that I sucked. Actually I was lucky I wasn’t knocked out, but after I stopped falling, I had a few seconds to take inventory and wonder “what did I just do?’
It might be similar to how Madison Bumgarner felt at the moment of the dirt bike crash, or how the Giants feel about the 2017 season after a horrible April. Me, Madbum, the Giants. We all knew there were elements of danger, figured we could handle it, and figured wrong.
So as the Giants entered May they find themselves at the bottom of the cliff wondering, “what the hell happened?”
Injuries, yes. From Madbum to Will Smith to Buster Posey getting beaned, from Brandon Crawford to Denard Span to just about every left fielder. Sprinkle in an inconsistent bullpen, a power outage, and an offense that overall is a cure for insomnia … you find a team at the bottom of the cliff, on the rocks, and it’s a long way back up.
If this article sounds like a post-mortem (pre-mortem?) it’s only because the 9-17 record in April coupled with the eye test, tells you getting back up the cliff in a division with the Dodgers, the improved Diamondbacks and Rockies, and the pesky Padres, is not likely.
Entering May, the Giants are 39-59 since last year’s All-Star break. There were different circumstances that led to last season’s slide. The problem this year
is they don’t have a buffer of winning baseball. So far, this is exactly who they are, and it’s very troubling. In a golf tournament, they opened with a snowman on the first hole and ended up shooting 80. They’d have to mix in a 62 to breathe life into this, and 62s don’t grow on trees.
We identified three problems at the start of the season: left field, overall outfield depth, and middle relief. I understand trying to find out what you have in your
organization, i.e. Mac Williamson and Jarrett Parker, but failing to address outfield depth –with two 30-something starters and an unproven Gorkys Hernandez — left them vulnerable.
That was an economic decision after the signing of Mark Melancon, for a team that’s as rich as Croesus but with an aversion to luxury taxes. In the end,
the Giants oversold the value of their assets, and overestimated their luck. I wanted the Giants to purse a right-handed power bat in particular, a la J.D. Martinez. Of course Martinez has been hurt, so maybe I shouldn’t buy lottery tickets either.
Melancon’s signing was widely applauded, but after he blew two of seven save opportunities in April, there’s a lot of second-guessing. Failure to close was a major problem in the second half of 2016, but it was also the failure to give the bullpen a margin of error by adding on runs, or failure to come back after the eighth inning, ever. He won’t get enough save opportunities to make an impact unless the Giants’ offense perks up.
Those problems are exacerbated with injuries, but also when the big bats aren’t producing the way they need to. Brandon Belt emerged as the RBI leader in April with 11. Your Bell Cow, Buster Posey, had three runs batted in. The Nationals’ Anthony Rendon also had only three RBI for April, until the last day when he drove in TEN in one game.
The Giants ended April with 87 runs in 26 games, a flaccid 3.3 runs per game. That’s after scoring 28 in their first five. Only the Royals had fewer runs, by a longshot, which is hard to conceive. 63 runs in 23 games. Only the Red Sox had fewer home runs than the Giants’ 16, with 15. Nobody in the Giants’ lineup scares opposing pitchers.
It’s too early for deals, and the Giants generally avoid being sellers. It’s a bad look for a team that presumes to contend and fill the ballpark with “sellout” crowds. Frankly they should be sellers, unless they have a miracle May. Johnny Cueto, heading into a player opt-out, should get a lot of attention. Eduardo Nunez will get very little attention but he doesn’t fit into this team’s long-term plans. Other veterans will be hard to sell, including Matt Cain.
Cain, along with the debut week of Christian Arroyo, has been one of the few bright spots so far. Arroyo merits a long-term look. Ty Blach replacing Bumgarner has been solid as well. All of that isn’t enough.
Last week’s reports of the Giants showing interest in Ryan Braun are irrelevant if the Giants aren’t contenders. No sense giving up prospects and taking on more salary for another 30-something ballplayer unless you’re in the playoff mix. The Giants’ offense was so bad that I’m willing to forget Braun’s jerkiness of several years ago. However if the Brewers want the 21-year-old Arroyo, I’m not interested. Braun is more likely headed to the Dodgers, anyway. The Giants should be looking to the future to see which young players can help them.
Yes, yes, I know. It’s only May 2nd. It’s early, but it can get late, early, if that makes sense.
I anticipate fielding dozens of phone calls over the next few months blaming General Manager Bobby Evans for all of this. That would be wrong. He doesn’t make unilateral decisions on the big moves. However, when you take the title of G.M. you have to take some of the heat as well as some of the credit.
So there were signs of danger, but with strong starting pitching, an improved bullpen, and a healthy lineup, the Giants figured to be pretty good. I figured they’d be pretty good, even with the flaws, hoping they’d address them by the trade deadline. Just like that day coming down the cliff, I figured wrong. So did the Giants. And Mom isn’t buying this one.
