Vitello’s reponse when asked about why he didn’t pinch hit for Lee against a lefty in the Yankees series was “he’s our guy.” Baffling stuff

Is this just a first week of baseball thing or are they signaling they actually want to run all their starters out there 155+ games? Why not give Lee and/or Arraez a day off and start Encarnacion and Koss?

This is why it's not good to clog the 40-man with mediocre out of options relievers (see also JT Brubaker)

Heliot Ramos's bat speed is down 3 mph from last year so far... is he not healthy?

Wouldn't they be denying their players the opportunity to learn how to get a tough out?

Similar situation came up earlier with Arraez facing Brent Headrick. Arraez has a career 90 wRC+ vs LHP. It's like the Giants are trying to lose this game by playing against the matchups

They could have put themselves in a marginally better position to succeed by moving Ramos up in the lineup and Arraez down in the lineup (or starting Schmitt at 2B and Encarnacion at 1B). I will stake my claim that this team will regress positively against LHP, largely just from variance.

Batting Arraez leadoff against a lefty is inexuscable.

You cited Matt Chapman yesterday for having poor performance against LHP in 2025, but in his career he is slightly better against LHP. I don't think we should attribute his performance in 2025 to anything other than statistical noise.

On the other hand, Willy Adames has 1200 career PAs against LHP and we can say with some confidence that he has reverse splits. There's correlation between players with super closed stances and reverse splits.

Single season splits like this often are often misleading. In his career, Casey Schmitt has hit better against LHP than RHP. Still only 28P PAs vs. LHP but it should at least tell us there he doesn't inherently have reverse splits.

Extremely charitable.

I'd like to see Killian over one of Butto/Bivens/Brubaker. Besides Winn, Seymour feels like the best candidate of the depth starters to convert. I think he could be really great out of the bullpen.

Who are the 8 guys you’d put in the bullpen opening day?

I think they need the SP depth at this point more than a bench bat.

Is the leaderboard assigning credit to which defender made the challenge? I see it showing the Giants as 4-3 cumulatively on defense, but then Giants catchers are 4-3 and pitchers are 4-3 too. I saw Jose Butto make a failed challenge on 2/21. Was Daniel Susac credited with a failed challenge there?

What was up with the slider last year? Looks good on paper, but he barely used it and it got hit really hard.

Yeah it’s way too early to call. But I imagine Breslow & co. are looking at Devers’s declining z-con and feeling pretty good about their decision to trade him. Different calculus for the Giants of course.

They also traded the 68th overall pick, so that’s probably the same value as a 40 or 40+ FV prospect?

Birdsong or Roupp

Maybe the bullpen could become a good unit if Seymour, Whisenhunt, Teng, et al. get converted quickly?

Depth is good. Good teams have players like Schmitt (and better players than Schmitt) on their bench.

I’m not seeing it with Schmitt. I like him as a bench bat but not as a regular. Edwards at least can get on base, run, and play 2B well enough. They’d make a good platoon at the very least

I wonder what it would take to acquire Xavier Edwards

Great content. Thank you for making this!

Thanks for sharing your thoughts Eno!

What do you think explains the difference in Eldridge's EVs from those comps?

It's such a dismissal free agent class outside of Skubal. Who is the top position player? Jazz or Bichette?

Yeah, the QO system weirdly punishes mid-tier free agents like Zac Gallen or Gleyber Torres.

I believe he missed the first month of the 25 season and then three weeks in June/July because of his wrist, and then finally had offseason surgery on it.