This past Wednesday the Giants lost 5-2 to the White Sox. Logan Webb pitched eight innings only giving up two runs. The Giant’s bullpen would then come into the game and blow it away, but the biggest problem was that the Giants couldn’t score more than two runs against a team giving up on average five runs per game. The Giants have only scored more than five runs four times this month. The team ranks 21st in August in runs scored per game at four. The Giants struggles come down to a few things, but they’re the biggest reasons this team can’t find their offensive rhythm and consistently win games.
Can the Giants Overcome Their Offensive Struggles?
Inability to hit with runners in scoring position
The Giants have struggled to score runners in advantageous positions throughout this season. Their batting average with runners in scoring position is .233, which puts them 24th in MLB. Giant’s hitters can’t seem to get hits when the team is in prime position to score runs. Even when the situation is at its easiest with no outs and runners in scoring position the Giants still have an OPS of .670 which would still have them placed with the worst hitting teams in baseball.
A big problem as to why their statistics are so bad in these situations is because they hit into a lot of double plays. The Giants are 12th in MLB in ground balls into double plays with runners in scoring position. The team isn’t hitting the ball in play to safe areas of the field to give their base runners a chance.
A lot of the teams’ best hitters aren’t producing with runners in scoring position. When looking at the statistics Patrick Bailey, Mike Yastrzemski, and Tyler Fitzgerald all have a batting average of .202 or worse with runners in scoring position. Bailey and Fitzgerald have surprisingly disappointed with runners on the bases. You’d expect these guys to be your money-makers when it matters most, but they just haven’t done it. These problems become even worse when you fall into a slump and can’t produce outside of these situations.
Sleeping Giants
Some of the most important Giant players have been slumping very hard in the second half of the season. Bailey had a .784 OPS in the first half of the season and now it’s at .292. A complete falloff for Bailey and many other important Giants have also followed suit in their drop-off in hitting. LaMonte Wade Jr. had an OPS of .857 in the first half and in the second half, it’s at .595. Heliot Ramos was one of the best hitters in all of baseball in the first half and now he’s only slugging at a .435 percentage. The best players on this team have taken a huge downturn in their production which has hurt this Giants offense. The Giants have been forced to rely on inexperienced players to produce consistent high-level offense for this team and it hasn’t been sustainable. The slumps are especially harmful when you don’t have an everyday designated hitter you can rely on to produce consistent powerful hitting.
Lack of a true designated hitter
The Giants do not have a dedicated designated hitter and in modern-day baseball that’s a problem. They tried to solve this problem in the offseason with the addition of Jorge Soler, but his lack of production led to him getting shipped off to Atlanta at the deadline. Now the Giants don’t have an everyday designated hitter to provide guaranteed power. The Giants have split this role between players like Michael Conforto, Jerar Encarnacion, Mark Canha, and very briefly Marco Luciano. None of these guys have made a significant impact in this hitting role. You expect power from this role, but none of these guys have a slugging % over .440. Neither Conforto or Canha even have over 14 home runs at this point of the season and the amount of games those two have played. The young players being given this role don’t seem ready yet, so manager Bob Melvin has a tough problem on his hands with this role.
When looking at OPS the Giants designated hitter role ranks 18th in MLB. In home runs the Giants rank 26th and that’s including Soler’s 12 home runs, without those numbers the Giants have only hit two home runs from the designated hitter spot since the deadline. Even in runs batted in the Giants’ designated hitter role ranks 27th in the MLB at 52. It’s clear the Giants have had a problem with this role in their lineup. There’s no legitimate production coming from a role that is made to provide offensive power to the lineup. It’s a problem that the Giants will have to solve in the offseason once again.
The Giants’ playoff chances are slipping as Fangraphs gives them a 5.9% of making the playoffs. If they want to do the impossible and make the playoffs the lineups need to be manipulated to put best hitters with runners on in positions to score runs.
