Free For All Friday #6

Hello and welcome to Free For All Friday.

If you are not a paid subscriber, you missed my look at how the Miami Marlins are winning a lot of games despite a sizable negative run differential and my reflection on the intense hoopla over the Cincinnati Reds’ call up of top prospect Elly De La Cruz (more on De La Cruz below).

In honor of the Giants’ sweep of the Rockies this week at Coors Field, I’m offering a 15% discount on monthly and yearly paid subscriptions to this newsletter. If you’re a free subscriber already, click here for the discount. If you’re not subscribed at all yet, sign up below.

Mea Culpa

Three weeks into the season, I declared the Giants a bad team and really, really boring. At the time, the Giants were 5-11, had a bullpen that created instead of put out fires, and only occasionally hit home runs. I didn’t see much hope on the horizon.

I was wrong.

There was hope on the horizon.

Rookies Casey Schmitt and Patrick Bailey brought hope. Schmitt made his debut on May 9 and couldn’t make an out at the plate while playing spectacular defense around the infield. The league has adjusted to Schmitt, who’s now in a bit of a funk offensively, but in 104 plate appearances, he’s hitting .287/.298/.416 with 2 home runs and 18 RBI. Schmitt needs to be more patient and draw more walks. Once he does that, the hits will return.

Bailey has been a revelation. He debuted on May 19, got his first MLB hit on May 20 and his first MLB home run on May 21. In 58 plate appearances, Bailey is slashing .309/.321/.545 with 2 home runs and 14 RBI. His most recent RBI came in Wednesday night’s game against the Rockies when Bailey laid down the most beautiful safety squeeze to score Mitch Haniger from third. That proved to be the winning run.

Did I mention Bailey is a catcher? And that he’s played nearly flawless defense behind the plate? Will we ever see Joey Bart behind the dish in a Giants uniform again? Do we care if we don’t?

Michael Conforto, Mike Yastrzemski, Joc Pederson, and Austin Slater got healthy and brought hope. Especially Conforto. Over the last 30 days, only four players have had a higher wRC+ than Conforto: Aaron Judge, Josh Naylor, and Freddie Freeman. Nice list to be on.

Let’s not forget LaMonte Wade Jr., who has been the most consistently effective player on the team all season. As of Friday morning, Wade had the 3rd highest on-base percentage in the league, after Luis Arráez—who is hitting .403—and Juan Soto—one of the most feared hitters in the game. Wade’s patience at the plate has been superb. Only Soto draws more walks among NL players. But Wade also gets well-placed hits at just the right time. The perfect leadoff hitter. And about his defense?

And yet, the Giants remain annoyingly inconsistent. Logan Webb and Alex Cobb pitched lights out in May and made it to various “starters to watch” and “early Cy Young prediction” lists. It seems Cobb is either unhittable or incredibly hittable, particularly in the first inning. Webb looks so close to his 2021 magical form, but not quite there. Anthony DeSclafani and Alex Wood both look lost again. The “bullpen game” has turned out to be the most consistent “start” of the rotation.

The rookies have brought energy along with hope, which makes the team less boring. When a guy has a big hit, he blows a kiss to the dugout, which is nice, if not a little tame. We are still a very long way from anything as fun as a Barry Bonds bat flip-twirl combination. Amp it up, Giants, and I’ll be firmly back in your camp.

Thank you for reading hanging sliders. This post is public so feel free to share it with everybody in your life that likes baseball even a little.

Elly exceeds expectations

Three games into his career and we’re already grasping for superlatives for Elly De La Cruz. You can hardly imagine a better three-game debut.

He’s been beautiful and electrifying and confident and brash and powerful and really, really fast. He’s also breathed life into the Reds’ fanbase, along with his rookie teammates Matt McLain and Spencer Steer. The youth movement is alive and well in the Queen City where fans are dreaming of a postseason berth for the first time since 2020.

Wither the Mets?

The New York Mets—the team with the $324 payroll this season—have lost six games in a row, including three absolutely heartbreaking losses to the Braves this week. The Mets led the Braves into the 8th inning in two games and into the 6th inning in the third game. In their series against the Blue Jays last weekend, the bullpen blew two of the three games with late inning meltdowns. Over the last 30 days, the Mets’ bullpen has been second worst in the majors measured by fWAR. (You’ll never guess which bullpen has been worse than the Mets. Click here to find out).

The team from Queens now finds itself in 4th place in the NL East, 8.5 games behind the Braves. They are still in the wild card race because the National League is a mediocre mess after the Braves, Dodgers and Diamondbacks. The Mets needs bullpen help now. If I were Billy Eppler, I’d make a trade for bullpen arms soon. Very soon.

For shame Blue Jays

Last week I pleaded with MLB to do more for the LGBTQ+ community than host Pride Nights. In that newsletter, I mentioned that Blue Jays reliever Anthony Bass had posted, and then deleted, an anti-LGBTQ+ screed on social media, after which the team trotted Bass out to “apologize” by reading a written statement and taking no questions from the assembled press.

Now the Blue Jays have asked Bass to catch the ceremonial first pitch on Pride Night at the Rogers Centre. Baseball writer and all around good guy Bill Baer perfectly captured my feelings about how disastrously the Blue Jays handled this:

Leaving Las Vegas?

I had the pleasure of seeing and hearing Sheryl Crow perform a kick-ass set at the Bottlerock Festival over Memorial Day weekend. So of course I’ve spent the last two weeks in Sheryl Crow-land on Spotify. Crow’s Leaving Las Vegas has been a constant (and pleasant) ear worm.

Which brings us to the Oakland A’s.

After telling Oakland to go shove it back in April, A’s owner John Fisher and his lackey Dave Kaval picked a site in Las Vegas to build a new ballpark, abandoned that site, picked another site, and slapped together an embarrassingly thin proposal for $350 million in public funds to help defray the costs of construction. Nevada’s Legislature ended its 120-day session without voting on the bill that would give Fisher his public slush fund. So the Governor called a special session of the Legislature to consider it.

That special session began Wednesday afternoon. It did not go well for the A’s. At all. The indefatigable Casey Pratt—who has covered the ins and outs of the A’s new ballpark quest like few others—made this video with highlights from Wednesday’s hearing. You can also read Ann Killion’s take here.

But we also know that very rich people almost always get their way in this country—and especially in Vegas—so don’t count Fisher and Kaval out just yet. I’m rooting for their luck to run out.

Enjoy the weekend. Go watch some baseball.