Giants Mailbagg part 2: How will they approach the trade deadline? Who is their All-Star?

Yesterday, we dove into how the Giants will address their roster logjam when the injured list starts to empty out, how the team might handle innings limits for Jordan Hicks and Kyle Harrison, and some minor-league prospects to keep an eye on. Now we’ll get to the rest of your questions. Thanks again for all of the thoughtful inquiries!

If the Giants continue to play under .500 for the rest of the season after going into the luxury tax, what happens next and who will have the most influence on the decisions? — Justin D.

There will probably be a reckoning on a widespread level. The Giants’ executive board won’t just influence the broad decisions. The board will make those decisions.

Fast forward to the trade deadline (it’s not THAT far off). Which players will Farhan Zaidi deem essential for his next rebuild? — Thor S.

His next rebuild? How many rebuilds do you think a top baseball executive gets?

Hey Baggs, with Alex Cobb sidelined for awhile longer, do you think the Giants look to trade for another starting pitcher? — Daniel H.

It’s possible, but as we just noted, the Giants are already into the luxury tax. So any midseason acquisition that would involve taking on salary would have to be viewed as extra compelling. There’s a lot of confidence in what the Giants have internally from a pitching inventory perspective. So I’d imagine that they would prefer to stay internal.

Four teams have a lock on the playoffs: Phillies, Braves, Dodgers, and the NL Central winner. That leaves a bunch of teams vying for only two spots. In general, what do you think the Giants’ mindset is? Would they trade promising young player(s) for an established player to make a run for one of the last two wild-card spots? Or do you think it is more likely they would hang on to their young guys regardless of how their playoff chances look? — Rick P.

Tough question to answer right now. Let’s see what the trade market looks like in another six weeks. We’ll know a lot more about how the young guys are performing by then, too. Again, I’m not sure how much additional payroll the Giants would be willing to take on. I can’t imagine that they would stomach crossing that second tax threshold of $257 million. But when you’re pot committed, you’re pot committed. And some of the people making these decisions might be doing so with their jobs on the line, which always adds an interesting wrinkle to the proceedings.

With Mason Black this year and Kyle Harrison last year, why are the Giants’ young pitchers setting their season high for pitches in the bigs? I understand being conservative at the lower levels, but it feels like if a pitcher is an MLB option they should be on an MLB schedule. — Joshua G.

Seems more and more that organizations are going to the “don’t waste all your pellets on the shooting range” philosophy when it comes to developing a pipeline of healthy and effective starting pitchers. Developing hitters is hard because performance is unpredictable. Developing pitchers is hard because health is unpredictable. You’ll have attrition when you go heavy on developing pitching. That’s just part of the deal. Guys will get hurt and fall by the wayside.

I think the conservative usage patterns are part of an effort to reduce that attrition as much as possible. Does it mean that guys aren’t ready to throw 100 pitches right away when they get to the big leagues, and does that make the manager’s job more difficult? Sure. The counterargument is that a pitcher’s best ability is availability. Plus the more pitchers you keep healthy as they move up the chain, the more depth you’ll potentially have not only to supplement the roster but to use in trades. The bummer about it: I don’t think teams are as invested in players’ long-term success as they used to be. They’re incentivized to use a turn and burn strategy because it’s all about maximizing stuff these days.

I’m a firm believer in the maxim that a good bat will keep a player in the “show” even with a subpar glove. Marco Luciano, and to an extent Luis Matos, seems to be testing my faith in that maxim. Without deep diving into stats, can you recall a worse fielder than either of these two who managed a longish career just on the success of their hitting? — Michael B.

Prince Fielder? Which is a little ironic, actually.

Who do you think is the favorite today to represent the Giants in the All Star Game? — David K.

Easy call. LaMonte Wade Jr. is doing his Juan Soto thing again this season. Let’s see if he can keep it up. Jordan Hicks has been great, but there are so many good pitchers. Camilo Doval should be a perennial candidate. And of course, if Matt Chapman has more series like the one he just had in Pittsburgh … well, the NL will find a spot for him. When Matos went off against the Rockies last weekend, I couldn’t remember the last series a Giants player had featured that level of all-around dominance. Three games in Pittsburgh later, I think what Chapman accomplished was even more impressive.

Is Ryan Vogelsong aware that nearly 10 years have passed since he dropped this quote regarding his free agency dalliance with the Astros? -> “…one of these days I’ll tell you guys all about it, when we’re all sitting around having a couple beers 10 years from now when I’m done playing — and you’ll go, ‘There’s no way that happened,’ and I’ll say “Yup,” and you’ll understand what I’m talking about.” — Mr Benson D.

Wow, you’ve been holding onto this one! Yes, he did tell the story to me two years ago. It was off the record, so I can’t divulge the details. Maybe one day. Sorry!

Hi Baggs, heard you on KNBR — you mentioned you will not be traveling with the team on the Pittsburgh/NY road trip. How does this work for you as a beat writer? Is it your choice or The Athletic’s? Do you write different types of articles when you watch games via TV? Do you miss the face-to-face player interaction? Just curious of some of the mechanics and who makes the decision. Thanks. — Brian C.

Hi Brian, thanks for your question. I used to cover all 81 road games when I worked for the Mercury News and other newspapers. The Athletic doesn’t cover the team in the same comprehensive, day-in and day-out sort of way. We don’t have a story about every game. That’s been true from the day I started with TA in 2017. For that reason, I tend to think of our coverage as being complementary to the outlets (SF Chronicle, the Merc, MLB.com) that continue to do an excellent job writing the granular, daily notebooks and game stories.

Are there trips we’ve skipped that I wish we could have made? Of course. But missing some road trips also frees me up to work on other features (such as the Rintaro Sasaki piece). I do watch the games when I’m not on a trip (often on delay and with gratitude for the 15-second skip button, thanks, YouTube TV), but I’ve never written off TV other than during the pandemic and have absolutely no desire to do that in the future. I’m going to cover a little more than 50 out of 81 road games this season. So I am grateful that the Giants have so many passionate readers to justify that investment. Yes, I miss the interaction when I’m not on the road. Access is way more valuable for road games and players definitely notice who travels and who doesn’t. I’m not comfortable being away from the team for more than a week during the season, but the company is investing sufficiently in my travel budget to ensure that I’m able to keep generating beat expertise and write authoritatively about the team I cover.

Dear Andrew, having just endured a grueling long-distance flight, I’ve started wondering what it is like for the ballplayers to make those cross-country flights. Do the Giants have roomier seats than the average coach passenger on a commercial flight? And what steps does the team take to mitigate the debilitating effects of cross-country travel on the players? — Jon S.

They throw a lot of resources into this. One year, they traveled after all getaway Sunday home days to begin East Coast trips even when they had a travel day the Monday. The extra hotel costs were considerable. It made no difference. When the Giants left for Pittsburgh, they did so on Monday. They fly on a private charter with a lot more amenities than a free soda and bag of pretzels. They go through security on the tarmac as they step off the bus. It’s greased in a lot of ways compared to flying commercial, but you’re right, it’s still taxing. It also hasn’t helped that they’ve endured a couple of multiple-hour ground delays leaving a few cities this year.

Baggs, what exactly is Buster Posey’s role now with the club and do you envision a scenario where he is more involved in day-to-day operations? — Tom P.

He serves on the executive board and advises chairman Greg Johnson. I do believe that Posey has the potential to wield significant influence but he’s also smart enough to know what he doesn’t know. For now, I think he is content to be family-first while educating himself about all aspects of the organization. But no, I do not foresee him becoming involved in day-to-day operations on any kind of detailed basis. When you are on the ownership level, you get consulted on the bigger player acquisition decisions but you aren’t involved in the day to day. (Or at least, you shouldn’t be.)

Going to take the family to Chicago and St. Louis to watch the Giants play. Where should we eat in St. Louis? — Paul D.

Maybe bring extra food from Chicago and make sure your hotel has a microwave? Just kidding. Mostly. Go to The Hill for some classic Italian. Gian-Tony’s has been around forever and is a classic.

I took the family to watch a Cal baseball game at Stu Gordon Stadium last week and had a blast, most fun I’ve had at a sporting event in years. Really cool to see college players performing so well and some of them looking like they might be serviceable major leaguers in the future. Are there any Cal (or Stanford, or Saint Mary’s) players who stand out to you, and do you think the Giants might draft any of them in July? — Jay C.

It would be hilarious if the Giants drafted another catcher. If they do, then they have two good local alternatives. Caleb Lomavita is likely to be Cal’s highest drafted player. And Stanford’s Malcolm Moore should be available when it’s the Giants’ turn to pick. The Stanford catcher is seen as a back-end first-round talent. I’ve only seen him take batting practice, but he is a definite standout. As for who to watch next season on the collegiate side … you might want to trek out to Palo Alto to watch this guy.

GO DEEPER

Ranking the 2024 MLB Draft top-100 prospects: Condon on top, 3 Wake Forest players in Top 15

Where would the Giants have to finish in 2025 to draft Rintaro Sasaki? — Carson T.

Speaking of! You’re right, Sasaki will be a freshman at Stanford next year, so he wouldn’t be draft-eligible until his sophomore year in 2026. And he’s got a lot of work to do before he’d develop into a first-round pick, let alone a top-10 selection. If your question is whether the Giants should start plotting to tank in 2025 to get on the Sasaki train, I think that might be a smidge premature.

In-park experience: Brewers have the sausage race. Nats have the Presidents race. Heck, the A’s have the dot race. Have the Giants thought of doing something fun like that? Boat race by the bay, etc. Long ago they used to do a cable car video race through the city that was always fun. Why’d they stop that? — Christian H.

I’m more into the live action races myself. The crowd surfing race they had with the broadcaster head signs was awesome last year. I’m not sure why they haven’t brought that back. (Psst, Giants, bring that back!)

Hey Baggs, it looks like the Giants changed their base hit ‘celebration’ from a motion that resembles pulling a hood or mask over the head and zippering the mouth to a simple salute. Couple of questions: Why the change? Why the salute? Was the first celebration an homage to Pat Burrell’s appearance as The Machine? — Michael H.

I have no idea what you’re talking about. Who is The Machine?

(Top photo of manager Bob Melvin and team president Farhan Zaidi: Eric Risberg / Associated Press)