Giants-Rockies series preview: It’s time for the Giants to make their move

I needed the All-Star break badly, too. About as badly as the bullpen. Now I’m back and the team is back and even though I’m just a blogger who has been on a steady decline for several years after their peak, the Giants are exactly where they wanted to be from the star of this calendar year: competing in the second half with a significant number of reinforcements coming back from injuries to help them.

The first half where they were neither good nor bad? That’s over. It’s time for the San Francisco Giants to break away from that mediocrity, and there’s no better opponent to start that job with than the Colorado Rockies.

The Rockies are such a strange team. So poorly managed that they would be better off being run by a dozen FanGraphs writers, and that is not a condemnation of the FanGraphs writers. Their lineup often strikes for a team that hits too many ground balls. They have a solid groundball team, but they need more strikeouts to counteract the punishment of non-groundballs at Coors Field. It’s no surprise that they’ve allowed the most runs in the sport (573), but it’s unforgivable that they’re only 20th in runs scored (403). They’re actually 13th in runs scored. at home (213). The Giants have scored more runs at home (221).

Even if you hadn’t hired the folks at FanGraphs, if you had met the A’s at Coors Field and called them the Rockies, the Rockies would suddenly be a respectable franchise. There’s a lot of decay and disappointment in this franchise, and that’s why this series is so important for the Giants.

Sure, sure, there are plenty of mathematicians out there who keep going on about how results (wins and losses) are irrelevant and it’s only the process that counts, but now we’re at the part of the season where the only sensible thing to do is tell these nerds to stop posting. There are 65 games left and the Giants are one team in a field of 9 battling for 3 spots. Those other teams: Atlanta, St. Louis, New York, Arizona, San Diego, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati and Chicago. This group represents three tiers of the five-tier National League.

LEVEL 1: GREAT TEAMS – Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Milwaukee
LEVEL 2: GOOD TEAMS – Atlanta, St. Louis, New York
LEVEL 3: AVERAGE TEAMS – Arizona, San Diego, Pittsburgh
LEVEL 4: BELOW-AVERAGE TEAMS — Cincinnati, San FranciscoChicago
LEVEL 5: BAD TEAMS – Washington, Colorado, Miami

The Giants are trying to jump from Tier 4 to Tier 3 so they have a chance to land in Tier 2 at the end of the season. The Giants have 12 games left in July, and 6 of them are against a team that has only 34 wins and whose future is aimless. If they were to lose or tie those 6 games, it would be easy to feel like they were moving toward Tier 5.

The intellectual exercise of “fighting and rebuilding at the same time” is over. It is time for the utilization algorithms and actual talent to produce a large amount of positive results.

Series details

WHO: San Francisco Giants vs. Colorado Rockies
Where: Coors Field, Denver, Colorado
When: Friday (5:40 p.m. PT), Saturday (5:10 p.m. PT), Sunday (12:10 p.m. PT)

National broadcasts: None.

Expected starters
Friday: Kyle Harrison vs. TBD
Saturday: TBD vs. TBD
Sunday: TBD vs. TBD

Where they stand

Rockies, 34-63 (5th in NLW, -16.0 WC), 403 RS / 572 RA | Last 10 games: 4-6
Giants, 47-50 (4th in NLW, -3.0 WC), 427 RS / 454 RA | Last 10 games: 5-5

Rockies to watch

We must?

Elias Diaz: Last year’s All-Star representative for the Rockies had a really good season. According to FanGraphs and Baseball Reference, he was below league average at the end of the year, but only Baseball Reference says he’s league average so far this season with a .286/.330/.403 (100 OPS+). FanGraphs has him at 90 wRC+. But FanGraphs also says he’s worth almost a full win above replacement due to his near-average hitting and above-average defense. He’s also the most likely trade piece the team will part with, so all eyes are on him.

Cal Quantrill: Remember the game where he limited the Giants to 1 run in 6 IP in the Rockies’ 9-1 win on May 9? I don’t, but that’s exactly the kind of situation the Giants need to avoid to prove they’re going to be competitive in the second half. Of course, baseball is very tough and it’s easier said than done. But that game was basically before the “Heliot Ramos is the team’s savior” era. The day before, he had been called up, played, batted 1-for-4 with an RBI and the Giants had won 8-6. Bob Melvin then benched him the next game and they lost 9-1, which at least led to this moment:

Melvin did not make that mistake again and the Giants have a 30-28 record since then with Ramos in the starting lineup.

Nick Mears: The 27-year-old Sacramento City College legend has a 5.95 ERA (very bad) but a 2.81 FIP (very good) and he does that with a 96+ mph fastball and a 2,500 rpm slider. He would be a great addition to any team’s bullpen if the Rockies had the common sense to trade a guy with an 11.1 K/9, but for this series, I’d like to see the Giants play to those particular strengths when they get the opportunity late in the game. No offense, Nick.

Giants to watch

Kyle Harrison: In the same series that Heliot Ramos returned to the Giants and Cal Quantrill shut them out, Harrison pitched 7 hitless innings at Coors Field. It wasn’t his best major league start, but it was pretty close. He’s still recovering from injury or just overuse, and pitching at a mile high isn’t exactly going to alleviate the fatigue factor, but at the same time, we want to see if he can do it again.

Heliot Ramos: Dingers? Dingers, please?

Wilmer Flores: If you get the chance to go 3-for-3 with a pair of doubles and a home run against Austin Gomber, you better take it, Wilmer.

Anyway, let’s cheer up! The Giants are backThe playoffs are vicinity. LET’S GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

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