The Giants' quick trip to the mid-west didn't quite end the way they would have liked on Sunday in Milwaukee, but there are a few things they can feel good about as they head back home.
Aside Alex Cobb's rough two innings to begin Sunday's finale vs. the Brewers and the defensive meltdown they had in Minnesota, pretty much every aspect of this road trip went well for the Giants.
San Francisco rode some impressive pitching and some timely clutch hitting to a solid 5-2 trip. They went up against the first place team in each the NL and AL Central, and they looked much better than both of them.
The two things that really stood out to me and I'm sure all Giants fans, and two things that we have really seen prosper in the month of May have been the performance of this pitching staff and the emergence of some young guys who are impacting the way the team is playing.
Ever since the arrival of Casey Schmitt on May 9th, this team has looked completely different. Then add on the arrival of Patrick Bailey 10 days later and it's added even more fuel to this ball club. It hasn't been the same arrival we saw with Joey Bart, Heliot Ramos and other young guys the Giants have given shots to in recent seasons. These guys look like they can play in this league right now and I have a feeling that they're here to stay.
I'm not sure who I'm more impressed with right now. We all are aware of Schmitty's defensive reputation, he's looked good wherever the Giants have stuck him in the infield. But the fact that he's hitting over .300 with an OPS over .800 now 70 at-bats into his big league career has shown me that he's not just all glove. He's got power, can drive the ball to the opposite field and even has plus speed. If and when he hones in on the strike zone and stops chasing so many pitches off the plate, he'll get even more pitches to hit and we should see those power numbers go up further.
Bailey came up without quite the attention that Schmitt garnered, but he has been just as impressive, maybe more so in a couple of facets. His hit tool doesn't project out as well as Schmitt's but he knows how to take a big league at-bat. He had a rough night on Saturday vs. Corbin Burnes, but he still boasts a nice .308 average, .833 OPS with a home run and 7 RBI in his 26 at-bats.
His real value though has come behind the plate. He looks like a 10-year vet back there, framing pitches and receiving. Pitchers are already locked in with him and have given him extremely high praise. In fact Logan Webb said after his start on Saturday that he entrusted Bailey to call pitches at points during the outing.
It's small sample sizes for both, for sure, but the fact that they've shown promise is more than we've seen from any Giants' minor league call-ups in quite some time and that's causing a lot of excitement. Not just in the fan base but it's rubbing off in the clubhouse as well.
The other area I did want to discuss today was the pitching staff. I can't go up and down and talk about every singe one of these guys, but two who really stood out this road trip were another pair of rookies.
Tristan Beck and Ryan Walker played big in the Giants bullpen game win vs the Twins early in the week. Then they combined to go 4 perfect innings in relief of Alex Cobb on Sunday, which kept the Giants breathing in a game that looked ugly early on.
Both of these guy's stuff looks good. I like Wilson's cross-body delivery and when he's throwing 97 MPH from that angle and controlling it, that's a tough at-bat. Wilson has struck out 5 while allowing only 3 base runners in his 4 innings since his call-up. Again, I know it's a small sample but just like with Bailey and Schmitt, he's just looked comfortable up here and looks like he belongs.
Beck, who's had a couple of rough outings this year which have inflated his ERA a bit, was absolute nails on this trip. The 26 year-old pitched 9 innings over the week, during which he's allowed only 2 hits, no walks and struck out 10 batters. He's made a case to be in consideration to earn a start the next time the Giants need it. They've been running with an opener for the last couple weeks in their fifth spot and they've had success doing it. If Beck keeps throwing like he has, however, he may just force himself into that rotation spot.
Pretty much every Giant aged 26 or younger has been contributing big during this recent hot streak. We've talked about of few of the rookies, but the big guns, Logan Webb and Camilo Doval have been as good as you can ask for throughout May.
Rule 5 draft pick Blake Sabol has hit himself into a regular role. He had a couple rough games during this road trip but had a huge 3-run home run in Sunday's game which put the Giants back in the game late.
Even Brent Wisely's at bats seem to have gotten a lot better over the last 10 days or so.
The recent success mixed with the way these young guys are performing have Giants fans excited again. They're not going to continue over the course of the year winning 12 of every 15 games like they've just done, but this team has shown that they have enough talent to genuinely compete this season.
Things can still get better too, at least offensively. If Mitch Haniger picks it up like Michael Conforto has and Joc Pederson comes back and plays the way he's capable of, this lineup becomes one of the deepest in the league.
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