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Around the Horn with Paul Ghiglieri: 21st Edition

Paul Ghiglieri (@FantasyGhigs) talks Mike Yastrzemski's rare feat, Bill Walton calling a baseball game, a solution to bad umpiring, and the next great batting stance.

Paul Ghiglieri
Across The Seams 8/19/2019

Welcome to the 21st edition of Around the Horn, a recurring op-ed with a satirical slant that riffs on whatever’s recently noteworthy in baseball. Think of it as a stripped-down Last Week Tonight or The Daily Show in a column format with recurring segments about the good, bad, and ugly in the world of America’s pastime. Additionally, as often as possible, we’ll end with an interview as well.

There’s a lot to discuss, so let’s get right to our first segment:

 

The Rundown

Our Main Story

 

The San Francisco Giants entered the season largely with the intent to rebuild. They kept some familiar faces, including those with tethered contracts such as Johnny Cueto, Evan Longoria, and Jeff Samardzija, or homegrown heroes who played pivotal roles during their dynasty such as Buster Posey, Madison Bumgarner, Brandon Crawford, Brandon Belt, Pablo Sandoval, and until recently, Joe Panik. However, it was largely assumed that Bumgarner would get traded at the deadline, as would closer Will Smith. After all, on June 21, the Giants were 31-42, seemingly destined to finish in last place in the NL West, if not the National League, before selling off any and all usable assets for prospects.

That’s when something changed. The team brought in gritty outfielder Kevin Pillar and acquired another outfielder whom we will get to in a moment.

Keep in mind Pillar was not a conventional acquisition for President of Baseball Operations Farhan Zaidi. Guys with a sub-.300 OBP don’t typically catch the eye of someone like Zaidi, who comes from the Dodgers and would figure to espouse the Dodgers’ organizational philosophy when it comes to player development. Nonetheless, Zaidi added Pillar for his speed and powerโ€”essentially, he wanted to add athleticism to an aging core of Giants who lacked any speed or power whatsoever. Pillar has delivered with 17 home runs and 63 RBI (both career highs) to go along with 10 stolen bases and highlight-reel play in center field.

 

 

Zaidi didn’t stop there in his quest to remake one of baseball’s worst outfields. And believe me when I say it was one of the worst.

 

 

Zaidi went digging around the dumpster that is the Baltimore Orioles and waded through a few signed Chris Davis jerseys, some half-eaten chicken wings, a few beer-covered schedule magnets, and a tear-stained “There’s No Crying in Baseball” T-shirt to find Mike Yazstremski curled up in the fetal position, shivering and grunting while gnashing his teeth like a feral animal the way most guys who spend the better part of six years in the Orioles’ minor league system without a call-up are wont to do.

Since then, the Giants have gone 32-19 and find themselves just 3.5 games back in the Wild Card standings as the month of August winds down.

There is a strong case to be made that the Giants lack the talent to hang with the Mets, Phillies, Brewers, and Cubsโ€”all the teams ahead of them for the second Wild Card spot. Then again, take a look at how the Giants have stacked up against each of those teams thus far:

 

vs NYM vs PHI vs MIL vs CHC
SFG 4-3 4-3 4-2 2-1

 

The Giants play the Cubs three more times (this week, in fact), but they will not see Milwaukee, Philadelphia, or New York again this season unless they meet in the playoffs. The biggest difference between San Francisco and those other teams, and arguably the biggest reason most don’t think they have a legitimate shot to stick around? Run differential.

 

Team CHC MIL PHI NYM SF
Run Differential +64 -21 -17 +10 -47

 

Not that run differential tells the whole story, especially when you consider that Arizona (+61) and Cincinnati (+23) are 1.5 and 4.5 games back of the Giants, respectively. Yet, a deeper dive into positional WAR further reveals how the Giants are an outlier when it comes to contenders this season, which makes sense given they were not built, nor ever expected, to contend this year.

Nonetheless, there they are 3.5 games back, believing they are contenders. Adding a gamer such as Pillar to the clubhouse can have that effect. He’s known for his passion and competitive fire. And he’d make for a fine story himself if not for Yazstremski.

According to Baseball Almanac, there have only been 21 instances of a grandfather and grandson both playing in the big leagues. Here’s what makes Yastrzemski unique:

 

 

Yes, it took Mike 72 games to do what it took his grandfather 15 years to accomplish. However, before we get carried away here …

 

https://twitter.com/BB_Ben29/status/1162838242959548416

 

Let’s also not forget that one is in the Hall of Fame while the other is a 28-year-old career minor leaguer. Still, you can’t take anything away from what the younger Yaz has accomplished this season, at least. He’s slashing .278/.328/.547 in 71 games. If nothing else, he’s done his part to make the Giants a respectable squad in a season where many expected them to be anything but. Plus, if you have kids, there’s the added bonus that comes with asking them to say his name out loud.

 

https://twitter.com/AdamBangtson/status/1162968921789599750

 

Yeah, exactly. That is why we watch, people. It’s the little things, really. It’s always in the little things.

Anyway, back to that three-homer game though.

 

 

If you’re still denying that the ball is different, I don’t know what else it’s going to take. Yastrzemski is not the only rookie to hit three home runs in a single game this year, let alone this week!

 

 

We’re seeing an unprecedented display of power in the game today, and it’s notable how this will affect scouting moving forward. Grip-it-and-rip-it with a healthy dose of plate discipline seems to be all the rage these days, and it’s changing the way MLB teams draft players out of high school and college as well as how they view talent on the international market.

The Giants acquired Yastrzemski for Triple-A pitcher Tyler Herb, a deal that at the time seemed more than fair given it took Yastrzemski more than 700 MiLB plate appearances and until he was approaching 30 to hit his first big league home run. Looking back now, it would appear the Giants unearthed a gem, but I can’t help but wonder who Yastrzemski was all these years and why Baltimore never saw the player San Francisco currently does. His BABIP (.311) is hardly an outlier. He hits the ball hard (42.1% hard-hit rate) despite the underwhelming exit velocity (38th percentile). Yastrzemski also plays solid defense and can fill in at all three outfield spots. He can even run a little. Sounds like a well-rounded ballplayer to me.

More than anything, players such as Yastrzemski are proving that there truly is no move too small in baseball anymore. Not when the ball is jumping off the bat like this, arms are pumping high 90s on the regular, and a few hitting drills with Tony freakin’ Kemp to keep the bat in the zone a bit longer and working to drive the ball are all it takes to change a career.

 

Out of the Park

A Look Beyond the Boxscores for the Best in Baseball This Week

 

So, this happened this week:

 

 

Honestly, I don’t know if that’s pure joy or lunacy, but I couldn’t look away. There’s definitely some latent instability there, but there’s also an element of wonder. Enough so that you’re probably wondering what more of that looked like. So here you go …

 

https://twitter.com/NBCSWhiteSox/status/1162538244539633665

 

OK, it’s pure lunacy. But I don’t care. This is what the era of the rabbit ball needs.

For a minute, I couldn’t figure out where I had seen that before. And then, suddenly, it came back to me:

 

 

F’n A, Cotton. F’n AAAAAA. You know, before Mike Yastrzemski was in San Francisco, the Giants got a taste of that action as well.

 

 

 

Backdoor Sliders

Where Baseball Got Caught Looking

 

Hate to break it to you, but this just won’t stop:

 

 

Two things come to mind here: First, that call was utterly ridiculous. Second, what’s going through the ump’s mind when he realizes the catcher throws the ball back to the pitcher because that pitch was so clearly a ball and the call was egregious? I’m running out of things to say about how terrible the umpiring has become on a regular basis. There’s really only one solution to this problem.

 

 

Just replace “square” with “strike” and you see what I mean.

Lastly, for those wondering, here’s the opposite of Bill Walton:

 

 

Guess what Keith did after that display of brilliance …

 

 

 

Extra Bags

 

I’d love to see Batting Stance Guy do this kid:

 

 

Nevermind, Yasiel Puig’s got it covered:

 

https://twitter.com/Indians/status/1163149944288661504

 

Thatโ€™s the ballgame for this week!

(Photo by Larry Placido/Icon Sportswire)

Paul Ghiglieri

Paul Ghiglieri has written fantasy analysis and hardball columns for PitcherList and FantasyPros. A lifelong Giants fan living in LA, he spends his free time writing screenplays with metaphors for life only half as good as baseball.

One response to “Around the Horn with Paul Ghiglieri: 21st Edition”

  1. Dave says:
    August 19, 2019 at 10:30 PM

    Great stuff Paul – made my day!

    Reply

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