JULY 5: Casali told reporters (including Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle) he’s been diagnosed with a Grade 2 oblique strain. As Slusser notes, that’s an injury that often sidelines players for upwards of a month. Bart has reported to the major league team, as expected, but has not yet been officially recalled onto the active roster.
JULY 4: Giants catcher Curt Casali suffered an oblique strain during an at-bat in tonight’s game. During the sixth inning, Casali was in discomfort after taking a swing, and had to leave the game before finishing his plate appearance.
Casali will undergo an MRI to determine the extent of the damage, though a trip to the injured list is a certainty. NBC Sports Bay Area’s Alex Pavlovic noted that Joey Bart was scratched from a Triple-A lineup tonight after word of Casali’s injury spread, and thus Bart is likely on his way back to the majors once Casali is placed on the IL.
Now in his second season with the Giants, Casali has been the constant behind the plate, first in a timeshare with Bart behind the plate, and then splitting time with Austin Wynns after Bart was optioned back to Triple-A. While any Giants catcher had a tough act to follow in Buster Posey, Casali has provided roughly league-average (104 wRC+, 99 OPS+) offense with his .236/.331/.377 slash line. Almost all of the damage has come against southpaws — Casali has a mammoth 1.232 OPS over 33 PA against left-handed pitching, and only a .526 OPS in 91 PA against righties.
Between his solid offense and defense, Casali has helped stabilize the catching position in the wake of struggles from Bart and Wynns. San Francisco was hoping that former top-prospect Bart was ready for regular work in the big leagues, yet Bart has hit only .156/.296/.300 in 108 PA this season. With only seven games under his belt at Triple-A, the Giants surely would’ve preferred to see Bart get more reset time and start to dominate (he has a .748 OPS in 31 Triple-A plate appearances) in the minors before bringing him back to the Show.
If and when Bart is recalled, the Giants will retain what is technically a three-catcher depth chart on the active roster, as Yermin Mercedes is also active. However, it seems like the Giants are more apt to give Bart another look than to rely on Wynns and Mercedes as their full-time catching tandem while Casali recovers from what might be a lengthy absence. Should Casali have the type of oblique strain that lingers for weeks or even months, the Giants could even opt to add another catcher prior to the August 2 trade deadline.
Joey Bart going to get called up. SF fans get those sweater ready. Going to be a nice breeze rolling thru when he is at the plate.
Bart. LOL another in a long line of Frisco draft busts
Your father regrets busting one into your mother
*rim shot*
LOL
Posey belt Crawford bumgarner Cain lincecum ‘10 ‘12 ‘14 ayy lmao ur a bad troll and very predictable
Calling Bart up now will destroy his confidence and his career. G’s better go out and find someone—anyone—to play alongside Wynns.
Giants fans realizing just how much Posey was taken for granted.
Who took BP for granted?
Lets start with all of the fans who seemed to think Bart was the second coming during the offseason.
Nobody thought that this isn’t Reddit
I am sure if you looked hard you could find someone that thought that but it was overwhelmingly not the sentiment going into this season
It pains me to say this as a Giants fan, but they should probably be thinking about selling at the deadline. They are running out a bunch of scrubs every game and they are pretty difficult to watch right now. Unfortunately Rodon is the only piece who has any value, and he is probably just going to be viewed as a rental with his opt out.
I think there are going to have to be some discussions for sure – with the rotation, you have cobb, wood, rodon that are all movable if they don’t wand to be extended – flores and pederson as well and probably a fair amount of relief depth. The hard part is that what has hurt the giants this year at this point is poor defense and though they can be explosive an inconsistent offense and I don’t know what the cure for that is except honestly that they need to hire on the coaching level. Losing ecker and wotus seem to be really big blows to the team as wotus has managed the defense and ecker was huge on the fine tuning of bat to bat swings.
Cobb and Wood are both clearly in decline; they have negative value as trades right now. I don’t think anyone’s going to break down the door for Flores or even Pederson right now, either.
Rodon is the only real chip without dipping into the farm system, which, to be honest, is starting to look like it was pretty overrated. Bart and Ramos did not impress in the early offerings, and some of the other ballyhooed prospects like Luis Matos (#3) and Patrick Bailey (#7) aren’t even breaking the Mendoza Line in the minors…
Austin Slater might bring back an unheralded prospect or two. SF could also sell high on Yaz or Doval, but that would open up some holes that might not easily be filled from within.
I think they’re not going to have much to sell at the deadline. They’ll likely stand pat, and then I think it will finally be time to you-know-what or get off the pot when it comes to spending on FA talent.
They need to try and add some expensive contracts from perennial bad teams. Buy a couple of lotto tickets that way while also getting a vet or two who will perform albeit at a high money figure.
cobb’s xera is 2.51 vs era of 4.59 – he has obviously been hurt by poor defense..He is also cheap and controllable Any competing team would be lucky to have him. Wood isn’t doing as well this year but again – an xera of 3.92 vs his actual era of 5.03
that gives both of those guys positive value
Scott:
The Giants should not trade Slater, but if they did, he’d certainly bring back much more than an unheralded prospect. He has a 120 OPS+, a 126 wRC+, and is under team control for 2 more years beyond this one.
And in case you haven’t noticed, there are multiple teams looking for someone for CF. He plays solid defense there. Plus, he can steal a base. Slater has roughly the same trade value as Doval, another guy they don’t want to trade,
The Giants don’t rebuild. If they continue to flounder, they’ll retool; and try to win next year. Slater is a guy you might trade if they were to rebuild, but should keep for a retool..
@Tad: I don’t think it’s likely they’ll trade Slater, either, but think about this: He’s a platoon guy and has always been a part-timer with a somewhat dodgy record of staying healthy. I’m just not sure what that’s worth to another team. Not that much more than Duggar was worth, which was essentially zero. And if they did trade him and then retool to win, they might look to sign a more premium everyday center fielder in the offseason.
Scott:
I’m pretty sure you’re off in your assessments. Duggar has a median trade value of 3.1, while Slater has an MTV of 18.7, significantly greater. That’s similar, but even better than Doval’s 16.3.
Slater, has been a part-timer, but I disagree that he’s had trouble staying healthy. And, if staying healthy is the yardstick, I offer the entire Giants roster as being guilty of that. Slater has decent numbers against RHPs, has defensive, and baserunning value elevating him above a mere platoon player.
Slater and Wade, who has an MTV of 8.4 (half that of Slater), together is almost enough to get Montas from the A’s. So, it still stands that the return on a Slater trade should be better than an unheralded prospect or 2.
Plus, there are a ton of teams that have a premium everyday CF on their wish lists. That includes teams in contention like the NYYs, Phillies, and Padres. Premium CFs are in extremely short supply right now. It would be foolish to trade away Slater, a solid above league average hitter, and good defender, in hope of landing what a bunch of other teams are searching for.
The best thing for the Giants is to lose so much in July that the final wild card is well out of reach. Sell and hope that they hit on one of these lottery tickets.
I never seen anything like the 2021 Giants… basically the whole team had a career season, including Kapler
the players are playing generally as well but horrible defensively. there have literally been about 8 losses in the last month that can be attributed to poor defense and defensive errors. they have been averaging something like 2 errors a game and in one instance committed 4 errors in an inning with 2 uncredited – it has been a clown show.
Offense isnt anywhere close to where it was last year. But you’re right, the defense is atrocious.
Both guys above are right. I’m not sure what’s up with all the defensive miscues. The lack of Posey coupled with playing Estrada at 2B might account for some of that.
As for the lack of offense, I wonder if that has to do with the baseballs losing some juice this year.
Contreras.
It’s not in the nature of the Giants front office or Gabe Kapler to purposely tank a season. The Giants will fight and claw to get back into the playoffs, including making some surprise additions at the deadline. I don’t know why the Giants are so hesitant to hand out big (long term) contracts anymore but they had a chance this past offseason to improve their club quite a bit but they chose to basically sit out the top tier of free agency and lucked into the Rodon contract. If he can remain healthy, they’ll lose Rodon to his opt out at the end of this season and they’ll be back in the same position they were this past offseason. It’s time for them to make a decision if their core is good enough to build around or do they need to go the semi-rebuild route and add some young players to their team. As currently constituted, this team is not a contender a year after a 108 win season. It’s disappointing to see.
You hit the nail on the head. The question is though … who even makes up the Giants “core” and have we actually seen enough consistency from those players to base a lineup around them ? Belt, Crawford and Longoria are all too long in the tooth, regularly injured, or streaky to continue thinking that they’re a part of this core.
That leaves Yaz? Wade, Jr.? Gonzalez? It seems like the Giants “core” is probably still in AAA.
Actually I think the real core for the Giants is in AA
Their best prospects are still 2 years away maybe 3
That’s when the window really opens – the next couple of years could be frustrating – will be a mix of older vets and rule 5 pick ups to patch together something that can “potentially” grab a wild card spot
2025 season is the one to watch
Yes, I can assure Giant haters that FZ will improve the club both long term and short term at the Deadline
Who are they going to hand out a big contract to? Who was the last hitter they attracted to the park in free agency? Freaking Barry bonds? Marlon Byrd? Ellis burks? Shinjo? Rowand? Nobody wants to come to the park because it tanks your numbers and California taxes and if you’re going to be in California why step over homeless on your way to the game in SF when you can do it in one of three socal teams so you can golf every off day and take an hour plane flight to your house in AZ. NOBODY WANTS TO COME HERE AND NOBODY BLAMES THEM
NorCal has a bunch of great golf and it isn’t 100 degrees. That being said, I’m about ready to leave this terrible state myself for the other reasons you mentioned.
RoastGobot:
That might have been true a few years ago, but not now. Since they made changes to the park prior to 2020, Oracle has played much more fairly. Statcast’s park factors ranks Oracle 16th best to hit in over the past 3 years..
That’s better than Wrigley, Yankee Stadium, Citi Field, and Minute Maid. This season it’s ranked as the 10th best for hitters. That narrative that Oracle is an extreme pitcher’s park is out of date.
They already have been rebuilding; the wining is just masking it
They don’t have a core right now, well they do but there mostly in the minors or not seasoned enough
Big credit to Z for not fast tracking this too much. The wins kept the pitchforks at bay for a while but it looks like they are starting to already come out….Crazy to me, this clubs super healthy right now with the arrow pointing up….
This team was in absolute dissaray 2017 and 18 on the field and on the ledger…since then they made the playoffs twice, was in the hunt the other year and had a year where they won more ballgames than any Dodger team EVER HAS ! …*While having a buncha bad money fall off
As long as Zaidi is in charge don’t look for any big contracts or surprise additions. Look for more dumpster diving.
Well said, 100% agree.
I don’t know honestly what ‘big moves’ would have helped the giants. If they resigned gausman maybe but you are probably looking at the ugly butt end of that one a la zito. Nearly every other big contract on the books hasn’t looked too good – all f the big signees are either hurt or under performing. big contracts will happen but just doing them to do them doesn’t make a lot of sense unless it follows the timeline which *should* be somewhere in the graduating classes of ’23-’24 where you are going to see what you get out of the crop of homegrown guys like harrison, matos, luciano, etc and then where you can supplement and sign some big guys – otherwise you are just being the rockies who sign a big guy and are like – look we signed these contracts but it isn’t working somehow.
Should have resigned Gausman that’s one. And I don’t get how people think all these other contracts are busts 3 months in when they are given to players with years of solid success. I wanted the Giants to sign Gausman and semien and try to snag some better proven bullpen arms. I thought adding Taylor Rodgers to pitch with his brother would have been nice. You get those 3 guys plus Rodon and joc and this team looks a bit different
Couldn’t the Giants come up with a scrub starter and a journey man reliever to get Taylor Rogers from the Twinkies? Were the Giants unwilling to accept $6.6 MM along with Rogers?
Coulda Woulda Shoulda Giants BLEW it !!
I think you’re right about fo making “surprise additions ” at the deadline .Myself I would be pruning and planting. The Gs have a vacuum at the AAA level and I would be pruning (selling ) dead wood -older players and potential free agents and planting- stocking the upper minors w/ as many top prospects as they can grab throu gh trades , minor league free agent signings , rule 5 etc. – to combine with Harrison , Luciano etc when they arrive.
The Giants are fine.
What happened last year was an extreme anomaly and credit Z for not taking the bait like the New York Knicks did last year. This is the rare retool/timeline shift that popped over expectation yet the front office didn’t overreact like most would do
I thought it was Bochy years ago (One of the best managers of the last 30 years) but then Kap and 21 came along…. just a great organization from front to back
They got loads of money to spend coming up, they’ll land a ++ Star but don’t expect Z to go spending like a drunk sailor based on any W-L record year prior or fanbase heat. He’s going to hunt value and won’t be afraid to pull the string when the time is right
This team is going to be way way better mid 2020’s than they were in the early 2020’s even w that 107 win season already tallied
This season is proving that 2021 team was lightning in a bottle. Some teams can manage a few injuries but not when you’re running on pure Farhan Magic. Lucky for SF, Farhan Magic also works on assets. He’ll get a solid ROI for Rodon, Wilmer, and McGee
If in Farhan’s mind, the team is still a few years away from really contending, do they consider trading Logan Webb? Webb would bring back a haul of prospects. Or is Webb untouchable? What other assets do they really have?
Is everything on the table at this point? Makes you wonder what the thinking is. I hope Joey Bart turns things around, also, what happened to Heliot Ramos?
Ramos hasn’t really impressed in the minors recently. Matos is the next Major League outfielder, and with Gonzalez, Yaz and LaMonte, the Gi’s are in a good place there. But the infield is in need of new blood. Vosler, Estrada, Villar may be the future, but Craw, Longo and Belt (please trade him at the deadline) are dead wood. Giants can live with Craw’s glove alone (for another year) if the rest of the infield comes to life.
PS— I hate that Casali went down and now we need to bring Joey back up. He’s not ready and he’s likely to be hurt by throwing him into ML pitching so soon.
I don’t think Webb is untouchable, but he’s definitely young enough to still be at peak when the next wave of talent comes up.
The only way I see him traded is if analytics is telling Zaidi about trouble brewing for Webb. And that’s not anything I’ve heard.
Start Yermin!
Rodon is absolutely correct. The Giants definitely have problems. And it doesn’t appear that Zaidi and Kapler are doing anything to fix the problems.
If things don’t change Rodon will not return to the Giants next year.
“Carlos Rodon says Giants not playing with enough energy: ‘Something needs to change’”
Why did posey retire anyway was still a great player
Honestly, Posey’s 2021 was as anomalous as that of the other vets who are now looking worn out. He opted out in 2020, and in ’18 and ’19, hit for very little power. Always good with the glove, though, his defensive value would have been worth something this year had he chosen to stick around; I don’t know that it would have pulled this team out of its funk, though.
Posey’s 2021 wasn’t anomalous at all. 2018-19 were. The numbers back that up. He averaged a 135 OPS+ up to 2018, and had a 127 OPS+ in 2017.. He didn’t suddenly lose it in the 2017-18 offseason.
In 2018 he was injured, tried to play through it, and had late season surgery on his hip. It was an injury/surgery that takes a long time to come back from. He didn’t have a chance to rehab sufficiently in 2019. His decision to opt out in 2020 gave him the time to recover, and rehab.. 2021 was just him progressing back to the mean
No one cares
About you? You are correct.
Although financial numbers weren’t revealed, he officially retired within days of BodyArmor being sold to CocaCola. He was one of the early investors, putting in more money than Kobe Bryant, whose estate netted $400M from the sale. It is quite safe to assume that Posey made $500M+ on the sale. Collecting another $20M to wear the tools of ignorance one more year? Nah. Go out on a high note. Posey could be a billionaire now.
Crazy thing I think about here is…
What if there was the Big sell off at the 2019 trade deadline!
Well remember the Giants were awful for years until about May 2019…they got hot…went from sure sure sellers to small buyers at the deadline …….2nd half didn’t work, missed playoffs fanbase still had fun till mid Sept
2020 – Covid Yuck tied Brewers for last playoff spot…who cares, nobody had fun
2021- 107 wins
Do the 2021 Giants exist if they don’t get hot in May 2019?
People seem to be saying this is a bad team and should be blown up. I completely disagree. Everyone seems to ignore the fact that this team has been rocked by injuries. Look at yesterday’s lineup and tell me that’s the team FZ wanted on the field.
They just got Wade back, were without Yaz for awhile, and now don’t have Gonzalez. Did FZ really envision having Donovan Walton playing SS? Estrada’s 95 OPS+ looks unspectacular, but it’s close to league average, and is way better than Walton’s 32. Losing DeSclafani wouldn’t have been bad if they had Junis. but he’s injured as well.
The Giants are in 3rd, 2 games out of the WC, but still 2 games over .500. Last season, the WS winning Braves were in 3rd, 7.5 games out of the WC, and 2 games under .500. This isn’t a bad team, it’s team damaged by injury that’s playing badly.
The bullpen is a hot mess they can’t catch the ball and thier defense sucks. Rotation had been keeping the team together but with Janis out now it’s struggling. Crawford and belt have been awful. Pederson is the only consistent offensive threat. I was projecting 87-91 wins but that looks really tough with the current roster construction.
Another series loss. 10.5 games back of Dodgers. 40-39 and could leave Arizona at 40-40. San Diego up next.
Giants need a “Hunter Pence” to light a fire.
The Seattle Mariners would like to thank Farhan for Casali