Locked On Giants – Daily Podcast On The San Francisco Giants

On today's Locked On Giants podcast, host Ben Kaspick talks about three things we learned this weekend with the San Francisco Giants. We learned that they're off to their best start since 2016, at 6-3. The Giants swept the Rockies over the weekend, with Johnny Cueto and Anthony DeSclafani pitching gems, and Brandon Crawford fueling an emerging offense. We learned that the starting pitching has been among the very best in baseball through nine games, and they've given the Giants a chance to win each and every game thus far. Finally, the third thing we learned this weekend is that the offense is ready to break out. There are encouraging signs all over the place, none more so than Statcast suggesting that their wOBA should be .348, when their actual wOBA is just .340. A breakout is likely coming on offense.

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Today on the Locked On Giants podcast, host Ben Kaspick answers questions from listeners about the state of the San Francisco Giants as the 2021 season gets underway. Among the questions asked and answered are: If the offense keeps struggling, when do you think is a good time to start worrying about it? Should we be concerned about some of the struggling hitters (Brandon Belt, Mike Yastrzemski, etc.)? Small sample size but they’ve struck out a lot and haven’t hit it hard. Are we going to start to see an outfield shuffle if things don’t start going as planned? Yastrzemski, Alex Dickerson, and Mauricio Dubón’s bats haven’t woken up). Do you think part of the problem with Dickerson’s poor numbers has to do with his sporadic playing time so far?

How long can the Giants survive with three current righties (Matt Wisler, Tyler Rogers, and Reyes Moronta) they have in the bullpen? It's a bit too early to tell I guess, but I wonder what the timeline is to get Moronta back into higher leveraged opportunities. Right-handed pitchers out the 'pen have come out the gates struggling. How long of a leash will Farhan Zaidi/Gabe Kapler have with them before Camilo Doval and others get a shot? How concerning is it that Moronta doesn't have a strikeout to start the season? He's inducing a lot of weak contact at the moment, but I'm not sure how sustainable that is when hitters start to figure out he doesn't have the same fastball he used to have.

How aggressive do you think the Giants will be about extending players during the season, given how many roster spots will be open at the end of the season? And who is most likely to get an extension? I’d like to see the Giants extend Kevin Gausman during the season considering they have a lot of money coming off the payroll. Do you think they can, and how much do you think it would be?

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Today on the Locked On Giants podcast, host Ben Kaspick breaks down the San Francisco Giants' series-winning victory against the San Diego Padres. Kevin Gausman was on the mound for the Giants, and once against he pitched like an ace. Darin Ruf homered against Blake Snell—his second decicisive home run in the series—as the Giants continued their theme of hitting home runs but not scoring a lot of runs. Tyler Rogers gave up a game-tying solo home run in the eighth inning against Giants killer Wil Myers, but a couple of sacrifice hits pushed across a run in the 10th inning for the Giants, and Wandy Peralta was able to shut the door in the bottom half.

Also on today's podcast, Ben discusses Tuesday night's loss. There weren't a lot of positives for the offense and the bullpen, but Aaron Sanchez made his first start since undergoing shoulder surgery in 2019, and he gave the Giants five innings of one-run baseball. To say it was an encouraging outing for Sanchez personally and for the Giants as a team would be an understatement.

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On today's Locked On Giants podcast, host Ben Kaspick discusses the San Francisco Giants' nail-biting 3-2 victory over the San Diego Padres on Monday night. Anthony DeSclafani made his Giants debut, and held the potent Padres to one run in five innings. The bullpen held strong, with Matt Wisler, Reyes Moronta, Tyler Rogers, and Jake McGee combining to pitch four innings with just one run allowed. Things got dicey in the ninth, but McGee got Tommy Pham to fly out with the tying and winning runs on base.

Mike Yastrzemski was a late scratch from the lineup due to lingering effects from a hit-by-pitch on the hand in the team's final spring game, but he hit a pinch-hit home run to dead center field that gave the Giants a late lead. Their other runs also came on solo homers by Darin Ruf and Evan Longoria. The Giants are tied with the Astros for the major league lead in home runs with nine, but the Astros have played one more game. So far, the Giants' offense has been powerful and the starting staff has held its own. There was a rocky bullpen game mixed in, but overall the Giants have played pretty well on the young season.

Fernando Tatis Jr. went down in a heap after striking out, and had to be removed from the game. The Padres later announced that Tatis had a left shoulder subluxation. We at Locked On Giants are wishing Tatis the best, and a full and speedy recover. The game is much better when he's on the field.

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On today's Locked On Giants podcast, host Ben Kaspick talks about three things we learned this weekend with the San Francisco Giants. First and foremost, we learned that the Giants missed a big opportunity. They held a five-run lead in the eighth inning on Opening Day, and the bullpen collapsed. Johnny Cueto and Logan Webb pitched okay over the next two games, and the Giants were able to win Cueto's start, but the Giants came away with a series loss when they undoubtedly felt like they should've won two out of three.

The next thing we learned was a bunch of stats. Evan Longoria and Buster Posey impressed with power, Cueto amassed 17 swings and misses for the first time since 2017, and Webb had a good expected ERA despite surface numbers that appeared similar to his first couple of seasons. Thanks to strong performances from Kevin Gausman, Jake McGee, Posey, Longoria, and others, the Giants played well in all aspects of the game over the weekend—just not at the same time.

The third thing we learned is that it's extremely early and there are lots of fluky stats right now. It takes about 45 games before we can really judge a team, so three games is simply way too few to draw sweeping conclusions. The bullpen's walk rate is unsustainably high. The Giants' offense and fWAR has been above average. Mike Yastrzemski, Austin Slater, and others are struggling with numbers that are unsustainably bad. It's a long season, and this was just one of dozens of series' the Giants will play this year. Now, onto San Diego to face one of the best teams in baseball...

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On today's Locked On Giants podcast, host Ben Kaspick reacts to the San Francisco Giants' crushing Opening Night loss to the Seattle Mariners. Kevin Gausman pitched like an ace and gave the team a great chance to win, but the bullpen couldn't hold a five-run eighth-inning lead. Evan Longoria, Buster Posey, and Austin Slater hit home runs for the Giants, as the offense exploded for seven runs. But relievers Matt Wisler, Jarlín García, and José Álvarez just could not find the strike zone as the Mariners came storming back in the late innings, helped in large part by numerous free passes.

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Host Ben Kaspick gets you set for Opening Day on today's Locked On Giants podcast. The San Francisco Giants enter the 2021 season with a sense of cautious optimism, following a 2020 season in which they exceeded expectations by scoring the eight-most runs in baseball and falling just one win short of a playoff berth. Ben breaks down the recently announced 26-man roster and makes predictions about what's in store for the Giants in 2021.

He follows that up by discussing the opening series in Seattle against the Mariners. The M's will feature three left-handed starters in this series, meaning the Giants will have guys like Austin Slater, Donovan Solano, Wilmer Flores, and Darin Ruf in their starting lineups, and others like Tommy La Stella, Alex Dickerson, and perhaps Brandon Belt may not be in there to start the game. Kevin Gausman will take the mound for the Giants tonight following a very strong 2020, and he's looking to lead this staff and perhaps pitch his way to a big new contract.

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On today's Locked On Giants podcast, host Ben Kaspick is joined by special guest Jeff Snider from the Locked On Dodgers podcast. They discuss the rivalry, and the very different overall states of the San Francisco Giants and Los Angeles Dodgers. Their first topic of conversation is about the fact that the Giants have played the Dodgers tougher than anyone over their stretch of dominance in the NL West beginning in 2013. The Dodgers have been about a .500 team against the Giants over that span, while the they're more than 200 games over .500 against everybody else.

Ben and Jeff also discuss the Dodgers winning the World Series in a very strange year, and how Padres fans think they're huge rivals with the Dodgers when they're not. Each discusses the impending free agencies of three major players: Buster Posey, Brandon Belt, and Brandon Crawford for the Giants, and Clayton Kershaw, Corey Seager, and Kenley Jansen for the Dodgers.

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On today's Locked On Giants podcast, host Ben Kaspick discusses the latest with the San Francisco Giants, as Spring Training has finally concluded for the club. In an extremely scary moment yesterday, Mike Yastrzemski was hit by a pitch on the left hand and went down in a heap. It was likely to be Yastrzemski's last at-bat of the spring. He came out of the game and went in for x-rays, but thankfully they came back negative and he is day-to-day. The injury scare immediately reminded fans of Madison Bumgarner breaking a bone in his hand in his final spring training start in 2018.

Ben also talks about the Giants' ATC projections. ATC has been found to be one of the most accurate baseball projections in recent seasons, and they're more optimistic on the Giants than most. Ben also reveals his latest hot take on this Hot Take Tuesday. Today's hot take is particularly spicy, as it involves Gabe Kapler and a certain set of odds on BetOnline.ag.

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On today's Locked On Giants podcast, host Ben Kaspick talks about the latest with the San Francisco Giants, as Opening Day approaches. The Giants optioned LaMonte Wade Jr. on Sunday, which appeared to set their 13-man position player group. Notably, it would appear that Evan Longoria and Brandon Belt should be good to go for the opener. Their status was in doubt after dealing with injuries and illnesses for much of spring.

Logan Webb earned the third spot in the Giants' rotation with his stellar spring. Webb struck out 17 and walked one through his first 11 innings in camp, with one final tuneup scheduled for today against the Oakland A's. Webb will pitch ahead of Anthony DeSclafani, which Ben thinks could be to get the best possible matchups against the Padres, whom the Giants play in their second series of the year.

Heliot Ramos won the Barney Nugent Award, which is voted on by players, coaches, and staff as the Giants' best first-year player in major league spring training. Ramos was impressive all the way through camp, hitting for power and showcasing him impressive mix of tools. Ramos figures to start the season in Double-A, but could make his way to the majors this year.

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