The Giants have activated third baseman Evan Longoria from the 10-day injured list, tweets Kerry Crowley of the Bay Area News Group. In a corresponding move, Zach Green has been optioned to Triple-A Sacramento.
Longoria had been on the injured list since July 15 after dealing with plantar fasciitis in his left foot. The injury came at an inopportune time for the 33-year-old, who had been enjoying perhaps his best month as a Giant before he was forced out of action. Prior to his deactivation, Longoria had muscled six home runs in just 34 plate appearances for the month of July. He managed an otherworldly 1.537 OPS in that span, but it bears mentioning that those results are the exception—not the rule—to Longoria’s history in San Francisco.
It’s notable that the team Longoria will join on Sunday is markedly different than the way he left it. While the Giants had found themselves in the midst of a hot streak when Longoria last suited up on July 15, the club was still below .500 and seemed poised to sell off Major-League pieces at the trade deadline. However, the Giants have since catapulted themselves into the hunt for playoff positioning, and a Wild Card berth, while perhaps not likely, does not seem out of the question. Longoria, a former Ray, is of course no stranger to September Wild Card races, so one hopes that the IL stint won’t halt his stretch of success that began in July.
Interestingly, Pablo Sandoval managed to force his way back into the hearts of the San Francisco faithful while Longoria was on the shelf, so the team will have to find at-bats for both players down the stretch. Bruce Bochy managed to handle the pair’s workload nicely when both were available earlier in the season, so there shouldn’t be any problems here.
Zach Green got his first taste of the Major-League game and will now have a chance to iron out some issues with more regular at-bats in Triple-A. He only made 16 plate appearances in a brief 8-game big-league stint, but a strong Triple-A track record suggests this isn’t the last we’ve seen of the 25-year-old Green. In his first crack at the game’s highest level, he batted .143/.250/.214
Green didn’t get a fair shot. Hope he gets called back up soon again.
Serious potential in him. Could definitely see him platoon with Belt at 1st base if he learns the position.
He was given just as much as Yastrzemski and Dickerson, only they hit the ground with their wheels spinning. He might be a “AAAA” player and has reached his highest level of incompetence. Can’t hit major league pitching but excels at AAA.. There needs to be a higher level of minor leagues to accommodate those types. I see the Giants number 1 pick is hitting just .204 at Short season Salem-Kaiser with just one home run and lot of K’s. He might take a while to adjust to pro ball, but does have a lot of potential. They haven’t benched him, but put him in leadoff to get more at bats. He is a good base stealer. Pretty quick for his size, well he was going on a scholarship to the University of Washington football program as a wide receiver before signing to go to Arizona State to play baseball. It’s fun playing arm chair GM.
Bro he had 14 at bats and 1 start. You don’t call a player 4a based on that.
I said “might”. Reading comprehension is necessary in these forums
It is the nature of general managers to see if they catch lighting in a bottle like Dickerson and “Yaz’ and they contributed right away.
Through his first 16 ABs , Yaz hit .189 with no runs driven in.
Barry Bonds was a wide receiver at Serra High in San Mateo, CA, then went to Arizona State to play baseball and we saw how that turned out. I miss all those chickens being hung on the right field wall every time he was intentionally walked. I remember him being waked intentionally with the bases loaded so he wouldn’t hit a grand slam in the bottom of the night. When he got his pitch he knocked it out of site and never missed when he got one, hence walking in a run to save 4.
Sorry for the typing errors…poor editing. I think you will get it though and can’t edit it now anyway.
Alright. This is good for the offense I think. If Longo can contribute to a degree what he was doing before going down. He was on fire. Makes the lineup alittle more legit. From a paper standpoint. . .
Green still needs some time.
Yea Pablo is definitely better in a utility role. If nothing else longo is at least providing plus defense.
Agreed re Pablo. Great PH. Solano is better imho, good to see him starting at SS today to rest Crawford
Longoria, Dickerson, Cueto. With each of those three making returns within the next 3-4 weeks, Giants should be slightly improving with each return. Two big series coming up, 3 games vs Washington and 4 games vs Philadelphia. We will see if they are truly contenders after those two series. If they win both, and get Cueto/Dickerson a couple weeks after, they would be in a good position.
They cannot continue to play Posey, Crawford, Belt, & Longoria in the same lineup. Longoria had a 10 day stretch where he did well, the other year and a half hasn’t been especially good. I believe Crawford and Belt are in the .230’s. Posey is around .260 but isn’t the same guy. He did have a huge 2 run double last night but those clutch hits have been few and far between. Play 2, rest 2, give other guys some more at bats. This group of 4 has been dragging them down all year. All 4 have been in decline at the plate the past few years. If they’re serious about winning, other guys need to take some at bats from these 4. They finally pulled the plug on Panik, it’s time to rest these 4 more. I’m not banging on these guys, they’ve had good careers but the consistent production isn’t happening. Green didn’t look ready, I think that’s why his AB’s were limited. I’m all in with what Zaidi is doing and they better than I thought but these 4 should all be playing less
Longoria broke his hand last year, so not really fair to look at final numbers. He had finally righted the ship before getting injured. Posey song a lot better recently. Btw, they ARE playing in a platoon! Vogt, Solano, Slater have all been contributing. Zach Green will get a chance, but it will be strategic.
Agreed. He had also been dealing with plantar fascia for much longer until he couldn’t take it anymore so hopefully his body is completely 100% healthy and he can be a real contributor. And if people are just looking at posey’s bat and not his value behind the plate then they must not pay attention to the game as a whole.
If I am a general manager responsible for fielding a competitive team, injury prone players will be playing some where else once the dust settles. In the old days, players would play with a bone exposed, but todays players concerned about the millions they are making lay out for an owy. “Mom, I skinned my knee”…”ok son, stay home from school today”
Crawford rarely sits. Solano needs more AB’s. Belt does sit occasionally but he’s also been in LF at times. He needs to sit more. I agree, Posey has gotten a lot of rest and look at Vogts numbers vs Posey in fewer at bats. Longoria has had injuries, that’s fair but he’s still lagging for the most part when he’s been healthy. I’m saying all 4 can’t be in the lineup together, look at the past 2 years production when those 4 all play. They’d be 15 under again this year if not for Dickerson, Yaz, Pablo, Vogt, Solano and Slater did real well the first few games when he was recalled. Also, pillar has gotten some huge hits and played a good CF. If those 4 weren’t all making so much, they’d be benched more, then there are the facts. Getting paid lots of money for past production
100% agree
Baseball is a game of attrition. Not always going to hit well, field well, etc. We can’t afford for them to not do well. Playing them only gives them opportunities to turn things around. We succeed or fail with their results. Other pieces make us competitive, but we can’t succeed without the core. As you can see by my name, not a huge fan of Belt, but he needs to do well for us to have a chance.
Instead of paying before you eat, you pay after. See if you know where I’m going with that. Re, paying for past performance. hence that grand slam Posey got off Matt Latos, the Giant killer and hater in Cincinnati in 2012. playoffs.
I get what you’re saying. They have been playing them, too much IMO. What these guys did in the past is irrelevant. Their current numbers over the past couple of years, injuries or not, clearly show that they should play less. Posey is the exception as he gets enough rest. These 4 cannot carry the offense. They are stuck with them until 2021-2022 I think. Can’t trade them, can’t release them because of the amount of $$$ tied up. Also, can’t keep running them out there, together so often. Tough spot to be in. Maybe they can offload 1 of these 4 in an off-season trade but they’d also have to offer up something tantalizing to go with the dead weight. These 4 will only get worse over the coming years. Not sure what the best way to proceed but I stand by the assessment that they need to play less
Buster isn’t the same but he is still better than the average catcher so not much to worry about right now at that spot because you can’t really do anything to improve it (or the other spots you mentioned) with the deadline having passed.
Defensively better than an average catcher, yes. Offensively, hes become the definition of average (95 OPS+).
Hence Joey Bart…Posey’s replacement. Posey will make an excellent manager some day following in his Catcher manager Bochy’s footsteps, Like Bill Terry did in the 30’s, not as a catcher but a player that wound up managing his own team and he didn’t do too shabby either.
I rather see Pablo at first than Belt. Belt strikes out too much
Belt strikes out 20.8% of the time. Sandoval strikes out 23.4% of the time.
Home run hitters do that. Look at Chris Shaw. He either hits a tape measure HR or strikes out. Remember Dave Kingman?…same there, Belts defense keeps him in the lineup.
Belt is slugging .401 with 12 home runs. With the rest of the league actually hitting the cover off the ball, maybe “Belt” and “home run hitter” are a bit of an overstatement.
Jaylin Davis lighting it up 5 for 7 in two games at Sac.
Very very soon
If y’all Giant fans are not happy with Posey you can send him home to Atlanta to be the general of our young pitching staff.
I am sure he doesn’t want to suffer thru the rebuild and would love to team with MadBum back home in the dirty south.
We got the money & the prospects to make it happen. Stand outside Oracle with your signs in hand.
FREE BUSTER !!!!!
Wilson, Wright & Dean for Buster
And you take all the money? Where do we sign ?
Exactly. Take on all that money and he can head on over. A homecoming might do him well and he would be a good presence for that staff. Don’t need much by way of prospects, just take the contract over. Never going to happen but hey, if they could dump any of Longoria, Crawford, Belt or Posey before next year, that’d be a good start. Got to get younger in SF
If management had traded those two two years ago like they should’ve the Giants would be in the playoffs this year instead of on the fringe.
I think Bochy is retiring due to a new GM who keeps bringing in unproven players for him to start like in the movie “Money Ball.,” But, it worked well in LA.. Look at them now running away with the pennant. I hate to say this being a Giants fan since 1958, but the Dodgers are the class of the division and have a conveyor belt with MLB ready prospects in their farm system ready to come up. The Giants are back to 1983 all over again…pushovers, but that will get them high draft picks and the cycle starts again
The goal is to make it so that it isn’t a cycle. Over paying for guys past their prime and taking on bad contracts to extend a competitive window are the old way and gone forever. Unfortunately so are guys playing their entire career with the same team. Whoever Zaidi brings up you can bet they won’t be finishing their career in SF.
And it’s highly unlikely that he resigns Bum unless he takes a ridiculously low offer to stay. Just not the way it’s done anymore.
I’m not unhappy with Posey. it’s tough watching former stars in their decline. He is signed with the Giants for a few more years, so you will have to talk to Zaidi about trades. Posey has a full no trade clause. We might not be a contender anymore with these aging stars, but it’s going to hurt when we play spoilers with nothing to lose knocking out teams like the Braves from winning a championship. The Braves aren’t that much hated, due to TNN broadcasting their games here calling them America’s team and some west coast people bought into it. The Cardinals are another story, now that is one team i hate almost as much as the Dodgers who top my most hated list and they still aren’t going to take home a WS trophy, because they choke when the chips are down.
Better yet, how about Pache, Waters and Wright if you want Posey and 2 million in cash coming our way., plus your first round pick for the next two years since your farm system is loaded already.
Stop your nonsense
I’m not unhappy with Posey either. Same with Longoria, Crawford and Belt. It’s just that it’s time to start moving on from them and they need to start the process ASAP. There are no trade clauses to deal with and the Giants would likely be on the hook for a large portion of the salaries. I’d like to see Zaidi move 1 or more this winter, if possible. These moves are tough but they cannot keep all 4 through the end of their contracts. Got to get creative and start moving on
Belt can be moved by eating 80% of his salary. Crawford is simply replacement level and holds no real value except as depth or DFA bounce back candidate. Posey holds more value as a mentor than a player and probably plays out his contract. Longo is a sunk cost. He’ll play til Zaidi finds someone better, then he’s done.
Crawford has always been clutch so it hurts to see him at around .230. His gold glove needs a little shining too when he makes a costly error on a normal routine play.
Bum, Smith, Belt, Crawford, Posey, even Panik used to have surplus value. Huge mistake holding onto these guys. They were the foundation of the rebuild, not of an aging contending core. Huge opportunity missed.
Nobody wants the scrub Belt
He plays a power position with no power
He’s not any good. But you pay 80% of his salary someone will take a chance. There’s always bargain buyers looking to catch a rebound.
I think Zaidi made a mistake and let The fan base make his decision for him on Bumgarner and Smith. Could’ve offloaded Posey too. All to make an ill-advised run at an unlikely playoff spot.
Fangraphs has the Giants at 3.1% to make the playoffs. Hell, even the Reds are being given a better chance.
Bum is not Bum anymore. He got rocked by the Rockies last night and his average velocity on his four seamer is around 90 mph, which use to get anybody a mlb contract, but not anymore. I think in his prime he averaged in the mid 90’s. Also he could be telegraphing his pitches the way he holds the ball behind him before slinging to the plate. I would think an eagle eyed coach could see how he is gripping it relaying that to the batter somehow. Stealing signs and finding ways to tell what’s coming are part of the game. The 1951 Giants made up 13.5 games behind from August 1st to catch and beat the Dodgers with Bobby Thompson’s “Shot heard round the world.” It was theorized that they had perfected stealing signs to know what was coming and after doing so turned things around when they were having a season like the 2019 Giants were having before they got back to .500.. I think a good fit for Bum is the Braves his childhood favorite team. Zaiti could give him a qualifying offer that will get them a draft pick if he doesn’t sign. By all means try to resign Will Smith. The Giants didn’t give up anything for him. At the time it seemed like they did, but those players didn’t succeed with the Brewers whereas Smith has excelled.. Oh, and till you play like you should. Crawford, get a haircut pretty boy or the Giants will trade you to the Yankees who will make him cut it and shave his beard. Winning a World Series lets you try to be a little unique in your appearance, but if you are hitting .230, you don’t even belong in the Major leagues, so quit trying to draw attention to yourself. And, why are so many pitchers sporting long hair?. Randy Johnson and the Freak Timmy could get away with it being Cy Young winners, but come on and earn the right to be unique. It is a team sport and there is no “I” in team.
Longo sucks
Need to get Vogt more at bats. Play him behind the dish and move Posey to first or play him at first. Belt has fallen off the cliff,,,,
Average Giants Fan is a moron. It’s so hard finding Giants Fans who are not stuck in the 50’s or 60’s and don’t play the “My Favorite Player” card. Trying to have a conversation with Giants Fan without shouting is like shaving in the dark.