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Let the Kids Play
The Giants are 42-60, which is the kind of record that stops a season from being a season and starts it being a case study. They’re 22.5 games out, they’ve been outscored 481-417, and the standings have already said what everybody in the park knows: this thing is over.
So let the kids play, especially Elridge and Ramos.
Not because youth is a cure-all. It isn’t. But because the veteran version of this club has had its turn, and the results keep coming back with the same flat expression. At some point, you stop asking whether the season can be salvaged and start asking what the organization can still learn from it.
The larger problem
The trouble is that one or two good stories do not cancel out a bad team.
A record like 42-60 does not come from one flaw. It comes from a stack of them. The offense goes quiet too often. The pitching gives back too much. The defense is not a disaster every night, but it has not been sharp enough to bail anybody out either. That’s how a season turns into a long, slow accounting exercise.
Deadline chatter
If the Giants move anyone before the deadline, the logic is simple: deal the pieces that still have market value but are not central to the next good Giants team. That’s not a philosophical statement. That’s baseball housekeeping.
A club that sits where the Giants sit need not protect sentiment. It needs to protect the future. Those are different things, and only one of them matters now.
The bright spots, such as they are
Jung Hoo Lee has been one of the few players who can still make an inning look intentional. He has been one of the steadier offensive forces on the roster, and on a team that has spent too much of the summer looking like it’s improvising, that counts.
Casey Schmitt belongs in the conversation too. This is exactly the kind of season in which a young player should be getting a real look, not a courtesy appearance. The Giants need to know whether he is part of the next club or just part of the roster.
Luis Arraez has done what Luis Arraez does: put the ball in play, reach base, and make the at-bat feel less like a guessing game. Matt Chapman and Willy Adames are still the adults in the room, and Rafael Devers remains the kind of name a team hopes will carry more weight than the standings suggest. Finally, Bryce Elridge looks like the future he should be.
Deadline math
If the Giants make moves before the deadline, they should be obvious ones. Trade the veterans who still have value. Keep the pieces that matter to the next good club, not the next awkward press conference.
That’s not ruthless. That’s sane.
A team this far back does not need to protect sentiment. It needs to protect the future. Those are not the same thing, and the Giants have spent too much time acting as if they are.
Defense: not the catastrophe, not the answer
The Giants’ defense is probably better described as insufficient than awful. Matt Chapman still gives the infield a spine, and Jung Hoo Lee helps in the outfield, but the club has not turned enough of the routine into reliability. On a team this far out of contention, that matters more than flash.
Bad teams love to point to the one thing they do well. Better teams point to the thing they do not do well enough. The Giants are still playing the first game.
Pitching prospects
The Giants ought to spend the rest of the year learning what they have on the mound. Tristan Beck and Caleb Kilian are the kinds of names that should get a real look now, not later. If one of them can become useful in a meaningful way, good. If not, better to know it before the winter starts.
Trevor McDonald’s right elbow strain is another reminder that pitching depth is never really depth until it survives contact with reality. We know what Webb and Ray can do. The question is whether they (especially Ray) will be around to do it.
Hitting prospects
The same rule applies on the position-player side.
Schmitt should keep playing. Daniel Susac should keep being monitored. And any young hitter who might matter in 2027 or 2028 ought to be getting innings now, not applause in a year nobody plans to remember fondly (which is why the brain trust is starting Eldrige and Ramos). The point of a lost season is not to lose it gracefully. It’s to make it useful.
Angels ahead: Trout, Neto, and the test of restraint
The Angels are not a team you want to treat casually, even now. Mike Trout is still Mike Trout, and the current Angels lineup page lists him in the lineup picture. Zach Neto is there too, which matters because the Angels have enough top-end talent to punish a team that wanders through innings instead of finishing them. After all, who can forget 2002? (I can’t; it still stings)
The main pitching name to know for the Angels is José Soriano. He has an 8-6 record, a 3.43 ERA, and 122 strikeouts, which is the sort of line that can make a lineup work a little too hard for its own good.
This series should belong to the Giants’ more disciplined bats. Jung Hoo Lee is the obvious one to watch because he can keep an inning alive without needing a hero swing. Casey Schmitt is the other name, because a young hitter like that needs real reps against real arms, not just filler at-bats while everyone waits for the calendar to run out. Finally, can Elridge be the Angels killer? Time will tell.
Final word
The Giants are 42-60. That is the headline, the subhead, and the closing argument.
So trade the movable veterans. Keep the pieces that matter to the next good team. Give Jung Hoo Lee and Bryce Eldridge room to keep hitting, give Casey Schmitt room to keep proving something, and let the young arms find out whether they can survive major-league pressure without the benefit of a safety net.
The Angels will test their discipline. The Brewers will test their toughness. And the Giants, finally, should be testing their future.
Because at this point, the worst thing the Giants could do is keep acting like the season still needs saving. It doesn’t. It needs honesty. It needs direction. And it needs a front office that understands the difference. (Buster, are you listening?)
At some point, the losing stops being mysterious and starts being defining. This team has reached that point. The standings have spoken. The rotation has wobbled, the lineup has too often gone mute, and the organization is now in that familiar late-summer pose: looking thoughtful while doing too little.
So let the kids play.
Not because youth is some grand solution, but because the adults have had their chance and the results have been plain enough. If this season is going anywhere now, it ought to be toward learning something useful.
The Angels are not a team to admire. They are a team to respect just enough to avoid embarrassment.
The Brewers are a different problem altogether.
Milwaukee rarely beats you by shouting. It beats you by being cleaner than you, sharper than you, and less interested in your excuses. Christian Yelich is still the star name that matters most, and the rest of the club tends to reflect the same practical, unsentimental approach.
That is not a glamorous profile. It is, however, a dangerous one for a Giants club that has already shown a habit of handing over innings it cannot afford to lose.
Against Milwaukee, the Giants’ hitters must stay patient and keep the ball in play. Against Milwaukee, the pitchers must keep traffic off the bases. Against Milwaukee, one sloppy inning has a way of becoming two. That is the whole sermon.
Final word
The Giants are 42-60. That number has already done the talking.
Now comes the part where the organization decides whether it wants to keep pretending or start preparing. Move the veterans who should move. Keep the players who belong to the next good team. Give Jung Hoo Lee and Bryce Eldrige room to keep hitting. Give Casey Schmitt room to prove something. Give the young arms a reason to matter.
The Angels will test discipline. The Brewers will test toughness. And the Giants, if they’re smart, will use the rest of this season to test honesty.
Because there’s no honor in acting as if a bad season is still a rescue mission.
Sometimes the sharpest move is simply admitting the game is over and starting the next one.
Here are the games available:
SAT: 7/25: Angels 1:05 [4] – Vintage shirt
MON: 7/27: 6:45 Brewers [4]
WED: 7/29: 12:45 Brewers [4]
Let the torture commence.
Ciao, and GO GIANTS!
We use Mailchimp, so give permission for the blog to arrive in your mailbox if you want to receive the blog and participate in the fun. Past blogs can be found at www.beveragelaw.com at the Czar’s blog archive.
THE PROTOCOL: The firm has four seats in Section 118 (Premium Lower Boxes), Rows 25 and 26. These are awesome seats directly below the press box and 25 rows behind the home plate on the left side behind the screen. It is foul ball territory for left-handed batters, so bring your glove – I have collected 22 foul balls myself over 23 years and am looking for more. If we don’t use all the tickets ourselves (or clients and friends of the firm don't claim them by calling me and reserving a game), then my next step is to give the tickets TO THE FIRST PERSON WHO GETS BACK TO ME PROVIDED THAT THEY ARE SERIOUS. If you ask for the tickets and don't use them, you will be taken off the list unless there is a seriously good reason. There will be a waitlist.
When there are four seats available (we split up a lot of games) we will allocate the tickets two and two if the first people back just want two tickets. You can also go for four and might get them. I'm the Czar, my call.
Oh, and BTW, The Czar found the original Hinman & Carmichael brick from 2000 (after looking for it every year since 2000) and found H&C’s Gotham Club Founders Bat! If you are on the patio or in the Club, look for the symbols of baseball!
