RED FLAGS: Giants Drop Series, Problems Are REAL

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Giants drop a big series to the meds at home.

Is it time to panic?

Let's talk about it right here on Lockdown Giants.

You are Lockdown Giants, your daily San Francisco Giants

podcast.

Part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day.

What's up, y'all?

I'm Alan Salas.

Welcome to Lockdown Giants.

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Now thanks to you, the number one sports podcast network.

On the show, we provide daily episodes Monday through Friday talking about the San Francisco Giants in a way that combines passion, analytics with the eye tests, and a little bit of fun.

I'm from the Bay by living Sacramento now, and I host a show on Sectown Sports 1140, as well as MC and Sacramento Rivercast games.

All in all, I'm lucky enough to cover a team.

I've been a fan of all my life.

Today we are discussing the Giants dropping a big series and in a pretty ugly way to the New York meds.

Is it time to panic?

What changes can't be made?

And we give you a Philly's preview as the Giants have the fighting fills tonight.

Today's episode is brought to you by Game Time, download the Game Time app, Create an Account, and use code Lockdown for $20 off your first purchase.

Okay, well, the last time we spoke, what was that?

After the Giants won their first game, I believe, so the Giants, they beat up on the meds, feelings are high.

Everybody is enjoying the vibes, and then right after that, they go on to lose three in a row in very, very ugly fashion.

The offense disappears again.

Now people are calling out Tony Vitello. Tony Vitello gets thrown out of the game.

Matt Chapman, multiple errors, not just physical, but also mental, getting thrown out.

It looks like it's a disaster to be completely honest with you.

The Giants now are three and seven, and as much as I want to say, it's still early, it's still early, because it is, you also can't put yourself in a hole.

Right, and I know it was going to be a long shot for the Giants to win the NL West anyway.

As the old saying goes, you cannot win the NL West, or you cannot win your division in April and May.

But it is possible to lose the division in April and May.

If you put yourself in a huge hole, and now we're already having conversations about that wild card, obviously it was going to be tough for the Giants to beat the Dodgers and get that division.

But you want to at least give yourself a chance, right?

We've talked about it when it comes to the playoffs.

It's almost like musical chairs in the national league.

There's so many teams that are right there.

So you have to put yourself in a good position as soon as you can.

And the Giants, they haven't done that.

They're three and seven. They're in the bottom of the barrel in the NL West, or seven and two.

The Diamondbacks are five and five. The Padres are four and five.

The Rockies are three and six, and the Giants are three and seven.

Like I continue to say, this is not going to get any easier for the Giants.

The Phillies are coming to town and they're trying to smell blood in the water, even though the Giants are at home.

This thing can start to snowball a little bit if you're not careful.

So I don't know what has to happen.

It feels a little bit early for a for a team meeting or anything like that.

But at the same time, you have to find a way to get this stuff done, man.

Losing three straight games at home is a bad look.

And I know the meds are good. Don't get me wrong.

This is a really tough season to start out just from a opponent perspective.

But you got to find a way to win a game.

And the two, after you win on Thursday, yeah, you just got beat up.

Your hitting didn't show up. It is what it is.

But that game yesterday, you had an opportunity to win.

We talk all the time about the Logan Web Games.

Logan Web kept you in a position to win, right, to compete, to find a way to get it done.

And you couldn't do it.

You could not do it.

The numbers for the Giants offense are just atrocious, absolutely atrocious.

The Giants have been outscored by 25 runs over the first 10 games.

That's the worst mark through 10 games for the franchise since they were minus 49 in 1896.

Now I feel like we're talking about the stuff we talked about last season

when they had that terrible losing streak at home, right, talking about stuff that happened in president.

You know, years where I can't even remember who the president was.

So this is ridiculous.

And I don't know a lot of people are going that Tony, if I tell you, well, this is a bad hire.

This is this is that the Giants didn't go out and didn't get a big bat.

They got Louisa rise and he's been fairly decent, right, as far as we've seen.

But they still have a bunch of streaky hitters.

That's what they have.

Matt Chatton is streaky.

William Thomas is streaky.

Raffi Devers.

I mean, and people are people are upset with the Raffi Devers trade now.

You have him for the next whatever five to seven years.

James tips the third looks like a complete dog for the Dodgers now in AAA.

And I get it.

It's triple A.

And I'm not agreeing per se with those people that are upset about the Raffi Devers trade.

But you need him to produce at a high level.

That's what you're paying him to do.

So all these guys are making all this money and they're just not producing.

And Matt Chapman.

I mean, buddy, catch the bleep and ball.

Throw the bleep and ball.

Don't get thrown the bleep out.

How about that?

How about that?

Chappy because I was in the camp of liking what he said to Casey Schmidt.

And I still do.

But what did I say when we had that conversation?

When you say something to someone, you better make sure that your bleep is in order.

And right now, Matt Chapman's bleep is not in order.

We don't know on that steel down three.

We don't know if it was a called steel stupid.

Okay, stupid by the management, stupid by coaching staff, stupid, stupid, stupid.

If it was on Matt Chapman by himself, stupid.

You are too old.

You are too much of a vet to make a mistake like that to get hose that second when your run means nothing.

That is the most high school, the little league world series around the corner, little league, pony league,

anything you want to call it, travel ball.

You don't do that.

And if you are going to run there, you bet your bottom dollar.

You better be safe.

So your house is not in order.

You're still, you know, now they went with N. Carnassio, because Casey Schmidt was injured.

He's not doing too much.

I got to look at Luis Mato's hose and dudes out from right field on the brewers.

And I know he didn't hit really well in that game.

So I'm just, I'm just making everybody even more annoyed.

But this is not a good look.

It's still early, but it's not a good look.

And the reason I feel like it's not a good look is because you don't have any relief.

The Phillies are coming and they just play the Rockies, right?

You don't get to play the Rockies.

You don't get to play some team that's just going to make you feel better about yourself in theory, right?

Because I don't even know who that would be for the Giants right now.

I'm just guessing the Rockies.

But the Phillies are not going to let up.

They're going to see an opportunity.

Hey, this team is spiraling a little bit.

Let's see if we can add on to that.

And I'm so sick of the Oracle Park hitting thing because everybody else seems to hit just find an Oracle Park.

I don't know if it's a psychological thing or what.

But everybody else, it's just find an Oracle Park besides the Giants.

So I get it.

There are some balls that could be home runs at other places.

I understand that.

But the stuff that the Giants are doing or the stuff that they're not able to do right now with the bat.

I don't know if I can blame Oracle Park for that.

You know, you're just, you're just not playing well.

Young who Lee, another guy, everybody saying, what's going on, man?

You're getting paid however many million a year.

One of the higher paid players on the team.

I was of the mindset that him being in right field would be better for his.

I guess psychological situation and hitting.

He can just focus on that.

Well, he ain't focusing on much.

Again, I still don't know what and everybody got on me on this show.

Because you say that I'm a hater on Matt Chapman and young who Lee.

I just want these dudes to produce.

And young who Lee.

Again, you look at other lineups and you understand what everybody is there to do.

What is young who Lee there to do?

He does not strike out a lot.

I'll give him that.

He's a contact guy.

But besides that, we don't know.

We don't know.

And I never knew everybody said, oh, Alan, he's going to come be lead off.

And you know, be this scrappy basilar.

Did you look at what he did in the KBO?

That's not really what he does.

He doesn't even hit the ball the other way.

Right.

He's like a slightly undersized lefty that doesn't slap the ball and doesn't steal bases and doesn't hit for power.

I have no clue what to do with him.

It's like a different version, honestly, of Drew Gilbert.

That's what it is.

I know he strikes out way less than Drew Gilbert, but that's kind of what it is.

So his situation, everybody, they all nobody can hit right now.

Okay.

This is from Dieter Kurtenbach.

The giants have eight barrels.

I'm assuming this is real kind of in the weed stuff that I don't normally get down with, but I thought it was fascinating.

Do I know all of what it means?

Maybe not specifically, but I know what I see and it doesn't look good.

They're last in barrels, eight barrels, right?

They are last in in barrel percentage, 3.7.

They're expecting slugging percentage.

3.5.

They are last in XWOBA or XWOBA.

They are last in XWOBA con.

WOBA, Cudoba, it doesn't matter to me.

Okay.

All I know is that this team cannot hit right now.

It's a disaster.

And that's not on Tony Vitillo.

If anything, it's on Buster Posey because he didn't feel like they needed to get a big bat.

And as far as the roster construction, they don't have any bats to come off the bench.

So I know we're going to have a Bryce Eldridge conversation at some point this week.

I don't know when, but at some point this week, but this is a mess.

It's a mess.

It's early.

It is early.

It is early.

But I'm just looking at this Philly's team thinking, if the Giants go out there and lose another series, that's what I'm looking at.

Right?

Not necessarily the three and seven.

It's the fact that the Philly's are no slouch.

You got to face Aaron Nola.

You got to face some dudes.

And all of a sudden now, if you lose that series, you're looking at what three and 10 or three and 11 or four and 10.

That's bad.

That's bad.

I'm not even looking at the wild card standings yet because it is too early.

But you have to get a hold of this thing or you're going to blank and you're going to dig yourself too deep of a hole.

And then they're going to do the thing that annoys off fans where they go off at the end of the season.

Right?

And they're quote unquote building momentum for next season.

But that's only because the playoffs are done.

And they can't make the playoffs and they're out of the wild card race.

And then they start playing and it's fun and they're throwing gatorade on people because these games don't matter.

Because I don't want to hear that.

I hate that.

That's the worst.

Okay.

So this is a mess.

A mess that can be cleaned up.

But you got to start doing it soon.

You got to start doing it soon.

And as much as I love Tony Vitello and his sound bites are crazy.

He's a content machine.

Everybody wants to cover the giants now.

You got to win baseball games.

And that's not fully on Tony Vitello because he didn't construct this roster.

But it's going to fall on you.

So they got to figure this thing out.

And they got to figure it out quickly.

They're not.

There's no way.

No way know how we're not even what an eighth into the season.

Whatever it is.

But you have to start turning this thing around where you're going to dig yourself too deep of a hole.

That's the issue.

On the other side.

Is it time to panic?

What changes can be made?

Let's keep the conversation going.

More locked on giants coming up.

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Second segment with you and look as I have kind of discussed.

The show is a little bit different when the when the game start rolling in, right?

A lot of you and I read all the comments are not all of them, but I try to read a lot of them and respond to what I feel like makes the most sense.

But yeah, in the off season when we're dealing with rumors and obviously transactions things like that.

There are a lot of articles and we're breaking that stuff down, giving you guys a look.

Because I know not everybody pays for everything.

So I try to give you an opportunity to find and hear some articles that you might not come across.

But when the game start is a little bit different.

I get a little bit more radio Allen.

Okay, so I know it might be a little bit different to the off season.

And I can be a little bit more radio Allen.

But that's what happens when the Giants mess around.

And you know, the things that the Giants could change.

I think that's the toughest part about this.

I don't know, right?

We can have an in-depth conversation on Bryce Eldridge.

I just looked up his numbers.

He's hitting 280 something like that.

Doesn't have a home run yet for the river cats, for the river kiddies.

You could pull him up.

Sure, I'm not necessarily against that.

But besides that, there's not a lot of optionality that the Giants have.

And this is what we felt like the situation was going to be when we saw their decision

to go with this roster and the roster construction and the decisions that they made.

And not going after some of the bigger names from the position players standpoint.

And not going after the bigger names from the pitching standpoint.

This is what you sign up for.

And the thing about the Giants is that everybody has to be their average, right?

And they'll have a shot.

That's not the case right now.

Matt Chappen is not playing to his average.

Young Lee, we actually don't really know what his average is.

We don't, because we don't have a huge sample size.

But he ain't there.

Willie Adamus ain't there.

Raffi Devers ain't there.

So nobody is playing as well as they can, which is why they're losing games.

It's pretty simple.

So I don't know how much you can move stuff around to kind of light a fire or get something started some way somehow.

They've moved around the lineup a bit.

The Willie Adamus thing.

It worked until it didn't as far as him leading off.

I don't think they've done the young who Lee leading off thing.

I don't know that they want to do that.

You could go with Elliott Ramos.

And the reality is, you know, somebody was discussing the Giants and their three, four, five, right?

And how they obviously have just, you know, and a roster, I guess, that when you see who they're hitting where.

Yesterday, you look at the lineup and it is Adamus one arrives to Chapman three.

Like the reality is, that's just not going to get it done.

And you have Devers four, Elliott Ramos five.

And look, I'm not necessarily trying to get caught up in the nook and crannies of the lineup.

But the reality is, it's just not good enough.

It's not.

It's not.

And you look at what the the meds had out there.

Lendor leading off Boba Shit who's still not playing well.

Boba Shit and then Polanco as the DH Robert in center hitting four.

I mean, you look at that pound for pound.

They got semi in hitting like seven or eight.

So you look at it, pound for pound.

And you think that should be enough.

But none of these guys are doing what they need to do.

So as far as time to panic, I don't know that it's time to panic.

But if they don't win this series or if they don't figure some things out against the Phillies,

there's just going to be a hole, right?

There's just going to be a hole that they have to climb out of.

So it's not a matter of panicking or not panicking.

You were just putting yourself under more pressure throughout the duration of the season.

That's just the reality of it.

It's not a matter of, well, well, it's it's still early.

Yeah, it is.

But you have to make up your situation, right?

If you're losing a bunch of games, now you have to win at the same clip to get back to five hundred

or two to get back on the right track.

It's that simple.

So you can't keep digging yourself an early hole.

The things that they can change, you can pull up some guys.

I think Grant McCray has looked pretty good.

You can you can bring up whoever you need to.

The reality is, though, we can work around the fringes in the outfield.

Okay, Bader, Junghulie, the reality is you're only going to get so much from those guys.

You know, Junghulie, I don't know that he's ever going to live up to his contract.

That's just a reality.

I don't know.

But maybe he does.

Bader, I mean, you get what you pay for, right?

It's not a crazy deal for Harrison Bader.

And everybody said, look, offensively, he was really good last season.

We don't know if that's who he's going to be though.

It's the infield, the infield where you're paying that guy 30 million and that guy 35 million

and that guy 25 million.

It's the infield.

So what are we talking about?

If the infield doesn't hit and you are committed to however hundred million dollars to them year after year,

the rest of the conversation is moved.

So actually, that's not on me.

I'm not going to sit there or excuse me.

That's not on Junghulie.

I'm not going to sit there a bag on Junghulie and bag on Harrison Bader and bag on Elliott Ramos, right?

Junghulie is making more money than those guys don't get me wrong.

But this is about Raffi Devers where you at.

This is about William Thomas where you at.

This is about Matt Chapman.

You want to call people out?

Where are you at?

This is what it's going to be about the whole season.

Those three guys and the money that they're making, that's what it comes down to.

And a lot of fans have come out and said, why did they commit that money to those players?

Right?

The Brewers.

God love them.

They said, Willie, have fun, buddy.

William Thomas will be okay.

You know what they did last season?

They won 90 plus games.

I'm not saying that William Thomas is bad player.

I'm saying that the Brewers said, we'll be all right.

We will be okay.

And they were.

Matt Chapman, you want to give him that extension?

Bob Melvin was still there.

Now he's not.

Now he's still there.

You know, even going into his later years, what is he going to be?

Raffi Devers, you gave up some prospects.

Kyle Harrison is, you know, starting for the Brewers.

I don't think he had a great day yesterday.

But starting for the Brewers.

James tips a third is either going to play for the Dodgers or get flipped for a crazy price tag.

And that's just what it is.

So those three guys, that's what this conversation is about.

It's pretty simple.

One more segment with you.

Phillies preview.

Can the Giants turn it around more locked on Giants coming up?

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Last segment with you.

And before we get into the Phillies preview, I did want to say a quick note on the Tony Vitello ejection.

So Jarrar and Karnas Yone, he kind of hit a dribbler and he was running inside the baseline.

And he was ruled out because he never got inside of the baseline.

That is kind of how you're taught because you want to essentially be in the way of a throw.

I don't think it always gets called, but it got called yesterday and that led at Tony Vitello to get his make history again with the first ejection by a manager that came straight from college.

It did not have any pro experience.

And when he was asked about it, he essentially said he's got a history with that rule.

I don't know that he really went into detail past that, you know, I didn't really have a problem with the ejection.

But this is what it is.

That's what Tony Vitello is going to do.

We've been looking to see that fire.

He was trying to fire up the troops.

It didn't work.

Okay.

And there's one thing to fire up their troops.

It's another thing to get them to actually hit and to pitch.

And I'm not going to, you know, bag on the bullpen because we knew this bullpen was going to be an issue.

So trying to, you know, pin this on the bullpen when you're putting up one run.

It is what it is.

One, two runs.

That's just not going to work.

Right.

The idea of the pitching and the defense.

This is what Buster Posey was telling us.

That's why we're all kind of scratching our head thinking, where?

Where is the pitching and the defense?

You go out and get bait or don't get me wrong.

Then you put Luis arrives a second and nobody else wanted to put him at second.

Now he hasn't played poorly.

I think his range is limited.

Right.

Now he can feel the ground ball.

Don't get me wrong.

It's more about the hits that maybe wouldn't be hits if somebody else were out there.

So, you know, Tony Vitello.

He goes out, gets, gets rung.

Everybody is, all right.

Let's get fired up.

They're pat him on the butt.

I think the team is riding for Tony Vitello, but you got to win games.

The same way they tried to ride for Bob Melvin for Bo Mel.

You got to hit.

You got to pitch.

You got to catch the ball.

You got to not get thrown out when you're down two, three runs.

And your run means nothing.

That's just, that's just what it is.

All right.

The Phillies preview as the Giants look to get back on track here.

And, you know, it's not going to be easy.

Okay.

That's for sure.

But the Phillies preview tonight, the projected starters, Adrian Hauser, and Andrew Painter.

The Phillies are five and four.

They are two and one on the road.

They just won a series against the Colorado Rockies.

So, of course, they are feeling good about that.

If you want to feel old, by the way, Justin Crawford has been ball and doing his thing,

made his debut for the Phillies.

If you're thinking, Alan, that name sounds familiar.

Yeah, that's Crawford's son.

So, he is, you know, kind of making his way in the major leagues.

And Crawford was one of my favorite players growing up.

I wanted to be just like, I mean, the dude just absolutely flies.

So, the Phillies, they're working with that.

And they have them just trying to find their last box score.

So, yeah, they're going trade-turner leading off.

Kyle Schwarber hitting two.

Bryce Harper comes back to the West Coast, hitting three.

Boom at four.

Start at five.

Garcia at six.

Marsh at seven.

Martian at eight.

And then Justin Crawford at nine.

So, that is a tough lineup.

It is.

You know, it's kind of top-heavy, but you cannot sleep on that lineup at all.

Or it will be a long day for you.

So, the Giants are going to have to find a way to, you know, get back on track here.

And win a game.

You're going to face Painter, Sanchez and Nola.

Not, not easy.

Not an easy thing to do.

On the other side, the Giants now are headed towards the,

it's kind of weird right now with the scheduling of the rotation,

but looks like Howzer, Ray and Malley.

That's rough.

No disrespect to Howzer and Malley.

And even, you know, Robby Ray can get hit a little bit.

That's not going to be easy.

You know, those hitters on the Phillies, they're going to be ready to rock and roll.

And if you're Tony Vitelo or even Buster Posey,

do you start looking down in Sacramento wondering, hey, is there anything we can do?

Can Daniel Susat get back out there?

Last time we saw him, he looked pretty darn good.

Seems like you could use some hitting.

So, you do have some things that you could change around.

There's not a ton, but you do have some things that you could change around

if you are the Giants and you need to start thinking about it.

Just to switch up the mojo a little bit.

Nobody is overreacting.

Nobody is saying that the season is over,

but you still can't continue to do the same thing.

And this whole idea of what we're just going to throw the same guys out there

and kind of switch up the lineup.

Okay, but, you know, if you are trying to bake a cake,

but you have the wrong ingredients and you put them in in different order,

it doesn't matter if you have the wrong ingredients.

If you have salt instead of sugar, it ain't going to taste good.

So, I think the Giants do have to think about things.

We know that they are very, very open to trades

and they're very, very open to moving some of the big guys.

Gavin Keeling, some good news.

That dude is off to a crazy start in the minors.

Some of these guys that we've talked about,

another middle infielder.

I really hope that they don't end up moving

whoever your favorite prospect is

because the Giants are probably going to have to move one of these guys in a trade.

Or, they're in a position where they start to sell again.

Right now, I'm getting way, way ahead of myself,

but these are the types of things that if you drop this series,

and then I think they finally get a break after this,

and I say that not trying to be disrespectful to, you know,

any of the teams out there, it's just based on who we see.

Well, and I don't even know if I'd call that a break

because the Orioles are supposed to be good.

Didn't you get the Reds? They were a playoff team.

After that, then middle of April,

you get the Nationals, three games set against the Nationals.

Then after that, you get the Dodgers.

So April could get a little bit dicey for the Giants if they're not careful.

And it all starts tonight as they take on the Phillies.

And the good thing about baseball,

you can get right back on the horse the next day.

So they got to flush it and figure out a way to get back on the right side of things.

Thank you for watching Lockdown Giants.

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