Fixing The Franchise: The San Francisco Giants – July 2019

The San Francisco Giants have had a rough season so far. If you want to catch up on the season so far, click the links below:

Spring Training 2019
Opening Day 2019
April 2019
May 2019
First Year Player Draft 2019
June 2019

We enter the month of July and with the trade deadline approaching I have decided that it is time to call it a season and let the kids play. I want to get a jump on the deadline and unload some of my players – so I am going to begin trading early in the month.

As it stands, the following teams are within reach of winning their division:

Red Sox, Yankees, Indians, Royals, Astros, Braves, Pirates, Cubs, Cardinals, Reds, Dodgers, and Rockies.

The following teams have a shot at a wild card spot:

Angels, Mariners, Blue Jays, Rangers, Rays, White Sox, Athletics, Twins, Mets, and Nationals.

The Tigers, Orioles, Padres, Marlins, Diamondbacks and Brewers all are below .500 and do not have a realistic shot at making the playoffs. They are all beyond 5 games out of a playoff spot and would not reach the playoffs without an unprecedented run.

By trading players in early July I give my organization more possible trading partners and feel like this a good opportunity for me. I believe that the following players could possibly help a contender down the stretch and I have decided to make them available: Bartolo Colon, Santiago Casilla, Joaquin Benoit, Ty Blach, Steven Okert, Stephen Vogt, Francisco Pena, Carlos Asuaje, Jose Reyes, Chase Headley, and Pablo Sandoval.

My current budget is as follows:

Keeping the contenders in mind, I am only going to follow through with trades that make sense for the teams listed above.

Asuaje

The first player I am looking to move is Carlos Asuaje – he hasn’t shown that he fits the long term vision of my franchise, yet his is talented enough where he can help out a contender. I will only be looking to move Asuaje to a team that needs help at 2B or as a UTIL player.

Asuaje would be an improvement at 2B for the Indians and Cubs. Those are the teams that would likely pursue him. The Indians came to the table with the better offer:

Traded	Age	Ovr.	Pos.	To	Rec.	Age	Pos.	Ovr.	Pot.
Carlos Asuaje	27	76	2B	Indians	Jefry Rodriguez	25	SP	73	B
					James Karinchak	23	RP	60	C

I am able to grab a starting pitcher that they Indians are not using, yet he is good enough to make my big league club today.

Headley, Casilla and Benoit

Chase Headley is aging and a change of scenery could revitalize his career. He has a reasonable salary that any contender could pick up without any issues. The Royals have Hunter Dozier at 3rd, but he is injured. I also have aging relief pitchers in Santiago Casilla and Joaquin Benoit that would improve the bullpen in Kansas City.

Traded	Age	Ovr.	Pos.	To	Rec.	Age	Pos.	Ovr.	Pot.
Chase Headley	34	74	3B	Royals	Richard Lovelady	23	RP	64	B
Santiago Casilla	38	73	RP		Jake Newberry	24	RP	61	B
Joaquin Benoit	41	72	RP

I grab two relief pitchers that can help with my pitching depth. As I have mentioned before, my organization needs help at the RP position.

Colon

Traded	Age	Ovr.	Pos.	To	Rec.	Age	Pos.	Ovr.	Pot.
Bartolo Colon	45	64	SP	Blue Jays	Zach Jackson	23	RP	62	C

For some reason the Blue Jays wanted Colon. I grab an OK pitching prospect, mostly for depth.

Sandoval, Pena and Blach

Traded	Age	Ovr.	Pos.	To	Rec.	Age	Pos.	Ovr.	Pot.
Pablo Sandoval	32	69	3B	Cubs	Brendon Little	22	SP	65	B
Francisco Pena	29	70	C
Ty Blach	28	68	RP

Sandoval becomes another player the Cubs can plug in anywhere. Pena becomes their new back-up catcher and Blach works into their bullpen.

Little

I am able to pick up 2017 first round pick Brendon Little – this helps make up for the lack of SP I was able to grab in the 2019 First Year Player Draft.

Vogt, Reyes and Okert

Traded	Age	Ovr.	Pos.	To	Rec.	Age	Pos.	Ovr.	Pot.
Stephen Vogt	34	68	C	Pirates	Gage Hinsz	22	SP	62	C
Jose Reyes	35	65	2B
Steven Okert	27	65	CP

I grab another pitching prospect in exchange for two players in their mid-30’s and a career minor league closer. Not bad.

Roster moves

• I accidentally placed Richard Lovelady on Waivers when trying to move him to AA. Luckily nobody claimed him.
• Ke’Bryan Hayes was promoted to the MLB squad. He will wear #31.
• Joey Bart was promoted to the MLB squad. He will wear #9.
• Shea Langerliers promoted to AAA.
• Abiatal Avelino was promoted to the MLB squad. He will wear #46
• Jefry Rodriguez was promoted to the MLB squad. He will wear #68.
• Ryder Jones was promoted to the MLB squad. He will wear #14.
• Will Maddox, Kody Hoese, Jonah Arenado, Ray Black, and Kieran Lovegrove to AAA.
• Miguel Diaz was promoted to the MLB squad. He will wear #47.
• Joey Gerber was promoted to the MLB squad. He will wear #35.
• Austin Slater was sent to AA to make room for Mike Yastrzemski.
• On July 20th, Alexander Palma (AAA) dislocated his shoulder – sidelining him for two months.
• On July 27th, Dereck Rodriguez broke his forearm and will be out for two months.
• Alek Manoah was promoted to the MLB squad. He will wear #47. Miguel Diaz now has to wear #48. (Manoah only threw 3.2 IP in his debut but struck out 8 and only gave up 4 hits).

Free Agents

Player	Pos.	Age	Ovr.	Pot.	Yrs.	Contract
Cliff Pennington	SS	34	64	C	2	$1.2M
Jim Johnson	CP	35	66	C	1	$600K
Trevor Brown	C	27	64	D	2	$1.4M

New Budget

Out budget is incredibly low at this point. According to Sportrac, the Red Sox have 10x the payroll that we have. Our payroll is also $40M less than the next lowest team, the Tampa Bay Rays.

MLB Debuts for Hayes, Bart, Avelino and Gerber

On July 1st in San Diego the Giants decided to let some of the kids play and make their debut.

Ke’Bryan Hayes led off for the Giants, and on just the second pitch he drove the ball to the right-center gap for a double and his first major league hit.

With two outs in the inning, Joey Bart lined the first pitch he saw up the middle. This gave him two firsts, not just his first major league hit but also his first major league RBI – as Hayes scored from second.

Offense was limited and we had a straight up pitchers duel until the 7th, when Austin Hedgers homered to tie the game. With two outs in the inning – Joey Gerber made his Major League debut and got the only batter he faced out.

With one out in the 8th, Hayes doubled again – this time to left-center field. Dominic Smith hit a deep fly ball to center, which moved Hayes to third. Josh Bell was intentionally walked to bring up Joey Bart with two outs. Bart flew out to center field to end the threat.

A double switch was used in the bottom of the 8th, and the pitcher was put in Bart’s spot since he was the last out. I brought in Aramis Garcia to catch and hit in the 9 spot.

With one out in the 9th, Abitial Avelino was hit by a pitch to reach base for the first time in his career. The Giants could not put a threat together and the score remained tied heading into the bottom of the 9th.

In the bottom of the 10th the Padres were able to capitalize on an error and take home the victory.

Futures Game

Our organization sent three players to the Futures Game: Seth Elledge, Alexander Palma and Matt Beaty.

• Palma had an RBI single in the 3rd inning and another hit in the 5th inning, he also stole a base.
• Matt Beaty had a single in the 7th inning.
• Elledge pitched the 8th inning – striking out one and allowing zero runs on zero hits.

The AL Futures won 3-2. Nick Madrigal (now on the Yankees) was the MVP.

All Star Game

I have no idea how this happened. Ke’Bryan Hayes, who just made his debut days earlier – was now on the N.L. All-Star team.

Hayes hit into a double play his first at bat and singled his second time up, also scoring a run.

The N.L won 19-10.

AAA All-Star Game

Matt Beaty started at 1B and hit 5th, while Heliot Ramos was on the bench. Beaty was 0/2 and Ramos singled in his lone AB.

The I.L beat the PCL 5-1.

AA All-Star Game

I had three AA All-Starts: Sam Wolff, Jin-De Jhang, and Brice Turang – all of which started on the bench.

• Wolff threw a perfect 7th inning.
• Jhang singled in the 7th.
• Turang did not play – which is pretty disrespectful.

Block Buster Trades

• This is an interesting move for both squads. The Rockies pick up an elite starting pitcher in James Paxton in exchange for their closer – Wade Davis. I think the Rockies won this trade.

• Jose Berrios for Matt Olson – the Twins are 9.5 games back and the A’s are 15.5 games back. No idea who this helps.

• Another trade that caught my attention but did not produce a graphic was Josh Hader to the Mariners for Jarred Kelenic and Jordan Cowan. The Brewers are out of the playoff race, and pick up an elite OF prospect in Kelenic for a solid lefty-reliever in Hader.

July Results

MLB

We had a couple exciting debuts to start the month. Cole Tucker returned from injury on the 4th of July. Mike Yastrzemski returned on July 6th.

Hot and Cold

MLB

Hot

Name	Pos.	Stats
Ke’Bryan Hayes	3B	.284 AVG, 5 HR, 15 RBI

We have had a pretty solid start from the young buck at 3rd base. Hayes is hitting for average and power in his first month in the bigs.

AAA

D

Hot

Name	Pos.	Stats
Ray Black	RP	0.68 ERA, 17 K, 13.1 IP
Kody Hoese	3B	.313 AVG, 64 AB, 6 RBI

Ray Black has adjusted to AAA incredibly well, hopefully he is finally living up to his potential. Kody Hoese is filling in for Hayes at AAA quite nicely.

AA

Hot

Name	Pos.	Stats
Jackson Rutledge	SP	0.00 ERA, 13K, 14.1 IP

Jackson Rutledge has bounced between A and AA all year, but he had a solid month at AA and is hoping to stay.

A

Prospects

With all of the players I moved around – the prospect list did not update or reflect that quite yet. I will show an updated prospect ranking after August.

Waiver Wire

Some teams put some incredible talent on the Waiver Wire as we entered August. I know that I am out of contention for the year, but this could be a way that I grab some talent for the 2020 season. I could even do what Oklahoma City did with Paul George or what the Toronto Raptors attempted with Kawhi Leonard. Get talent into the organization – hopefully they like it and sign long term.

I placed claims on the following players:

Player	Pos.	Ovr.	Age	Pot.
Blake Treinen	CP	94	30	A
Anthony Rendon	3B	90	28	A
David Peralta	LF	90	31	B
Jonathan Villar	2B	89	27	C
Marcus Semien	SS	83	28	B

I am curious to see which players are allowed to walk and come to San Francisco, and which players are pulled off of waivers once teams see that I have made a claim.

Coming Up

July was a busy month. As we head into the last few months of the season we will see how our young rookies are doing. We will also keep an eye on that waiver wire and see if there are any more moves we can make prior to the offseason.

– Buzz