Zach Britton, Josh Young, Nathaniel Lowe discussed on Effectively Wild: A FanGraphs Baseball Podcast

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I didn't watch a lot of giant games. Has shown some one year he's pretty great in the next year. He's not. He's due to be great this year, so maybe that's just the Giants wearing off on him. There are some guys that I think could grab a spot in camp identity Duffy is in camp. His name I haven't heard in a while. But yeah, if it were me, I would love to see them go out and bring back more or Zach britton is still a free agent, maybe bring him in. I think they could really use one more guy that is reliable and kind of just can tie it all together. So we talked about the starting pitching is the strong suit. The weakness would be the lineup and it was the weakness and they didn't do a whole lot to address that. I believe they didn't bring in anyone on a major league contract and he hit her right. So they're kind of banking on the same guys getting better, a full season of Josh young, et cetera. So maybe we can talk about the high point first because the issue was, well, there were multiple issues, maybe. But they had a low on base percentage. They had the 6th lowest on base percentage of any team last year. But they did have a breakout in the real bright spot was Nathaniel Lowe, who was on a rate basis at least the second best hitter in baseball behind Darren judge in the second half of last season. Now that was with a 400 plus babbitt, but what was the cause cited for how he suddenly got so great and I guess that would have some bearing on whether you can expect it to continue. Yeah, it was so it took me I've been doing this now 7 years to learn this hidden baseball secret and I am about to make it public for everyone on this podcast, which is to get hits. You have to swing the bat. And that is something that he just didn't really do a whole lot of. He had a lot of call third strikes. I really saw that being funnier than it was than it was. And then I said it and that was not my that was not my best work. You had a lot of call third strikes the year before. And they encouraged him last year to actually get that off of his shoulder swing. You have a good eye. You're not going to just chase a bunch. So get out there and do it, man. And we saw the results. So if it was just a mindset thing, like you said, it's about it was really high in the second half. Is he going to hit 300 again? I don't know. Maybe there's something to be said for this being the second year of a new mindset, maybe he gets more comfortable with it and he's even better. Or maybe he just reverts back to has a stretch where he's uncomfortable and reverts back to being very passive again. I think all on the table. But yeah, just cause to believe that it could be sustainable. Just because it really was more of an approach and mindset thing like swinging a good pitch is don't just take them to take them. So I think there's, I would say cautious cautiously optimistic on my part. The guy who you probably don't need to tell to swing and who I just Levi, I can't figure out if I believe it. So I want to know if you believe it. Okay. And that's a dos Garcia who, you know, like you see strikes out like 28% of the time or didn't 2022, but he still managed to one 12 WRC plus, he hit 27 home runs, put up like four wins by our version of war and it was a good base runner and you look at a guy who you might invite to be a little more discerning and think is this going to stick and I don't know. So you tell me, what are your what are your expectations for adela's Garcia this year? Oh man. Rude question. I've already out of myself as a 70 year old. So you guys want to hear a word that you're going to hate that I think that I'm just I'm just cringing at myself for because I'm about to say this word. Do you either of you believe in clutch? I'm persuadable. Because this may have just been pure luck. I am fully aware this might have been pure luck. There were so many times last year, and this is weird for a team that lost a lot of one run games. Where he would come up late in the ball game, it's a clutch moment and I just feel like I'm swearing in front of my parents every time I say the word clutch on a fan cross podcast. And he would come through, whether it be a home run or a big RBI single or even some of his walks came in very high pressure situations where the team could really use a lot. And I think that probably if again, not having the numbers in front of me, I would imagine that contributed to some of his high war for a guy with such high strikeout numbers. One thing that he did better last year than the year before is he sort of maintains his conditioning, which is the year before he was just such a all out player every day, every play he was just like smashing into walls and going a hundred miles an hour last year he was a little bit better at like rein it in. You don't have to crash into a wall and a 7 run ball game like you made the team, you're good. And was able to sort of sustain his performance a little deeper into the year. Absolutely the chase is a problem. It's always been a problem. But I think there's a place in a lineup for a guy like that. And I don't know if it's your number four hitter, but for the guy that can play solid defense, had like canon arm, good speed, goodness runner, and has a tendency to come up big and close in late moments. Like I think you just sort of pay for that with the currency of strikeouts and go, that's just, you can't take away his aggression, otherwise you're going to sort of start to lose some of these other things that he does well. You can't build a whole team out of a Dolly Garcia. But can you have one Adele's Garcia on your team? I think you can. And if you're not relying on him to be dug eye, then yeah, I think he could be a valuable part of a lineup. Well, first of all, I think it's fine to utter the C word on a fan graphs podcast. It's okay. In fact, there's a stat called clutch on the fangraphs website and at the least Garcia was in the top 20 in that last year. So it's backed up by the stats. Good. I'm glad I don't look like an idiot. Yeah, I don't think that was why his war was so high, but it adds some extra value. The only question is is that a repeatable feat, right? Because his clutch was negative in 2021, so I don't know whether that's something he can continue to do, but. Beyond that, I wanted to ask about the two big additions last year, semi and in secret. Now started the year just hitting horrendously and then right at the ship and finished very strong. Seeker had a pretty good year. I guess it was a down year for him, but he has been often cited as the number one candidate to be helped by the new positioning rules, right?

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