The All-Star break is over, the second half of the season is here, and the San Francisco Giants must start on a strong note. If they can play over .500 baseball, they are about to plunge into the final stages of the National League playoff race. This is the part of the season when things get intense. We’ll know in weeks which teams will be buyers or sellers at the trade deadline. Right now, as things stand, San Francisco occupies third place in the NL West.
Thoughts About the Giants Second Half
The Giants Situation After Their Four-Day Rest
Hopefully, the All-Star Break has given the Giants hitters a chance to recuperate and return to their former intensity level. Surviving without Thairo Estrada will be a task. But it shouldn’t be impossible, given the Giants well-rounded hitting ability. And J.D. Davis, Patrick Bailey, and Joc Pederson are still producing highly productive overall numbers.
On Sunday, the Giants were fortunate enough to win with only one run since Logan Webb was lights-out. Surprisingly, Webb won’t be starting the Giants second half on Friday. Ross Stripling will take the mound for at least a couple of innings. Stripling’s 6.37 ERA is disastrous, nothing near Webb’s dominance. With a four-day gap between Friday and Sunday, Webb would have been starting on regular rest. The Giants may want to give him an extra day of rest before his next start. But frankly, they’d be hard-pressed to prove this is a better option than giving Webb every start he can get.
Zooming in On the Pitching Concern
It isn’t fair to call pitching a concern when the Giants sent two pitchers to the All-Star game. And it could be argued that Webb should have joined Alex Cobb and Camilo Doval in the midsummer classic. There’s also a case for Tyler Rogers, given that his ERA is lower than Doval’s. Doval has a much higher strikeout rate but a walk rate nearly twice as high as Rogers’. These last two statistics reflect that the two pitchers have different styles.
Doval is a power pitcher, and Rogers is a control pitcher. Strengths and weaknesses thus exist for both. The failure to select Rogers for the All-Star game probably reflects baseball’s longstanding mistreatment of non-closer relief pitchers.
We see that the Giants do possess some good pitching. But Stripling, Sean Manaea, Alex Wood, and Anthony DeSclafani have all disappointed. Jakob Junis has also underperformed, although he did have a massive save against the Los Angeles Dodgers. A reinforcing move by the Giants would be a good thing. The Dodgers are already looking at Lucas Giolito. The Giants had better give them some competition on him.
The rotation is of more significant concern than the bullpen at present. The Giants are better equipped to leverage their quality back-end bullpen talent to produce positive results than to keep throwing everybody in on days when they don’t have a trustworthy traditional starter.
That said, they should still keep their eyes open for bullpen reinforcements for the second half. The pitching, in general, is talent-equipped up to a point, but a gap must be filled one way or another for the second half of the season.
When to Call Up Kyle Harrison
Farhan Zaidi said Giants still expect Kyle Harrison to pitch in big leagues at some point this season. They’re still assessing his hamstring injury, but he’ll be down at least a few weeks.
— Alex Pavlovic (@PavlovicNBCS) July 8, 2023
Kyle Harrison is sure to be called up at some point in the second half of 2023. He has put up a 4.79 ERA in the minors this year, but some of this unimpressive showing may have just been a part of the developmental process. It’s not uncommon for high-ceiling players to initially struggle with productivity at the lower levels.
The Giants must time Harrison’s callup just right. He missed the Futures Game with an injury, but it doesn’t appear serious. If he’s called up too soon, the expected issues are apparent. But, in a year where the Giants are contending and not just developing players for the future, they must take advantage of an opportunity to get quality innings out of a prospect with ace-like projections.
Most likely, Harrison will make his MLB debut before September. He has a chance of positively impacting the Giants playoff odds. It remains to be seen whether he will be the next Madison Bumgarner. Maybe we’ll find out in October.
Concluding Thoughts
The Giants stand at a pivotal moment. Their performance as they begin the second half will tell us a lot. This division race is up for grabs, and the Giants must prepare accordingly. But even if they can’t win the West, remember that they won a championship through the Wild Card nine years ago.
Photo Credit: © Robert Edwards-USA TODAY Sports
Players mentioned:
Thairo Estrada, J.D. Davis, Patrick Bailey, Joc Pederson, Logan Webb, Ross Stripling, Alex Cobb, Camilo Doval, Tyler Rogers, Sean Manaea, Alex Wood, Anthony DeSclafani, Jakob Junis, Lucas Giolito, Kyle Harrison, Madison Bumgarner
