If you came here looking for a punchy overview of the San Francisco Giants hosting the Athletics during MLB’s “inaugural Rivalry Weekend,” please hold on for a moment because I need to get this out of the way.
During this year’s spring cleaning, I once again managed to hold off on purging all of the gear I’d accumulated last decade during the championship era. It’s getting harder and harder to do that, but there are shirts, sweatshirts, jackets, jerseys, and hats that still mean a lot to me even if I can’t display them all, and I’ve managed to hold on to them because I’ve basically stopped adding to the collection since 2016.
But this weekend’s Puffer Vest giveaway has tested that resolve.
Just look at it. It’s perfect. No, I won’t make it look as good as Willy Adames does, but few could. I don’t even know if it’s Cool, I just know that I want to wear it. I want that warming just 50% of my upper half. I would wear it a lot. Too much, perhaps. It looks amazing. Incredible, even. I’m in love.
Anyway, the Giants host their former crosstown rivals the A’s this weekend at Oracle Park, a location that might serve as the A’s home this October if they make the postseason and the Giants don’t. That’s a wild thought to consider, but it’s one that emerged over the offseason and has stuck in my mind ever since.
Given my view during the offseason that the Giants are an unlikely playoff team, the idea faded a bit after the team’s hot start. But now that they’re regressing to the mean, I’m now open to the possibility that it could get a lot meaner, and the scrappy A’s could be hitting balls into Triples Alley and thrilling a crowd of jilted Oaklanders (up until the team loses in 5 games, as is tradition).
As of this morning, the Giants have far better playoff odds than the A’s (40% to 14%), but come on — from a purely comedic perspective, it would be really funny. Right now, the A’s have one of the worst pitching staffs in baseball (5.18 ERA – 26th) with a lineup that’s middle of the pack in terms of runs scored (196 – 13th) while looking a little bit better in a rate sense (111 wRC+ — 8th). These numbers have… everything?… to do with their home “stadium” situation at Sutter Health Park, where they have a 5.61 team ERA and, remarkably, just 45% of their runs (108 wRC+) — they’ve played 22 home games and 23 road games, so there’s no weird sample size split going on here. On the road, both their lineup and pitching improves (114 wRC+ and 4.57 ERA). They’re basically 90% of the Diamondbacks, and that series didn’t go so well for the Giants.
As usual, I’m can’t name 10 A’s, but I can name 5 or 6: Tyler Sodastream Soderstrom, Shea Langeliers, Luis Severino (but only because I remember this image), Brent Rooker, Jacob Wilson (more on him later), and Lawrence Butler. They still have a knack for finding talented players, but alongside their knack for blowing up their organization every few years, is it possible that this is the year that their ongoing stadium mess and ownership situation finally spills over into Giantsland? The Giants did help move them out of Oakland, so a playoff series hosted there by them would be just desserts.
For now, this weekend series might have a very different tone from the Bay Bridge series a lot of us used to look forward to if not outright celebrate. The Giants won the rivalry by killing the rival, but will they be haunted by its ghost? And might the whole thing be resurrected in the event that Oracle Park becomes the itinerant A’s playoff home?
Series overview
Who: Athletics vs. San Francisco Giants
Where: Oracle Park | San Francisco, California
When: Friday at 7:15pm PT, Saturday at 6:05 pm PT, Sunday at 1:05pm PT
National broadcasts: MLB Network simulcast (Friday)
Projected starters
Friday: J.P. Sears (LHP 4-2, 2.80 ERA) vs. Logan Webb (RHP 4-3, 2.60 ERA )
Saturday: Luis Severino (RHP 1-4, 4.70 ERA) vs. Landen Roupp (RHP 2-3, 4.95 ERA)
Sunday: Jeffrey Springs (LHP 5-3, 4.27 ERA) vs. Justin Verlander (RHP 0-3, 4.31 ERA)
Where they stand
Athletics, 22-22 (4th in AL West), 196 RS / 247 RA | Last 10: 4-6
Giants, 25-19 (3rd in NL West), 209 RS / 172 RA | Last 10: 4-6
Athletics to watch
Jacob Wilson: I still haven’t recovered from learning that he’s the son of Jack Wilson. Carl Crawford was the first All-Star talent I remember being older than and that was weird, but now that we’re seeing the sons of Vladimir Guerrero, Matt Holiday, and now Jack Wilson (but also — Carl Crawford!) around the sport, I must accept — we must all accept — that we’re going to die someday.
But before we do, we get to watch the A’s first round draft pick of the 2023 draft blossom into an All-Star major league shortstop. He’s hitting .347/.377/.491 with 5 home runs, 26 RBI, and 8 walks to just 9 strikeouts to start the season (176 PA). The 23-year old had his first career 2-home run game in Dodger Stadium the other night in the A’s 11-1 win and in May he’s 21-for-53 with 6 walks against just 3 strikeouts.
His dad wasn’t a slugger, but he could hit a little (in his All-Star season of ::gulp:: 2004: .308/.335/.459 — .265/.306/.366 for his career), but he was mainly known for his defense. Is Jacob as good as his pops? The stats say… too soon to tell. He has +0 Outs Above Average and +1.3 Defensive Runs Above Average so, at worst, he’s an average shortstop. Mainly, though, he can hit.
J.P. Sears (and Jeffrey Springs): Sears has made just 2 starts against the Giants, both last season and both dominant. but they’ve both been dominant. Only July 30th he pitched 7 shutout innings in Oracle Park and struck out 9 in the A’s 5-2 win. Then on August 18th, he struck out 9 and allowed just 1 run in 7.2 IP in the Giants’ eventual 4-2 win. I expect him to be dominant against the Giants because he was last season, but there’s the added element of the Giants’ struggles against left-handed pitching this season that really adds to his chances of a dominant performance, same with lefty Jeffrey Springs.
The Giants’ team wRC+ of 88 against lefties is 16th in MLB. They haven’t faced a lot of lefty starters in May, but they’ve been pretty well subdued when they have: Kyle Freeland in Colorado, Matthew Boyd in Chicago and I’d even say Eduardo Rodriguez the other day have been it and the Giants haven’t really exploded against any — yet.
Shea Langeliers: He’s not a terrible defensive catcher, he’s just not Patrick Bailey. On the other hand, if he woke up tomorrow morning with Patrick Bailey’s hitting line, he might quit baseball. His .248/.315/.444 hitting line is just 7th-best among catchers in MLB (min. 100 PA), but it’s also 12% better than the league average. Compare that to Bailey’s 34 wRC+ and, well, there is no comparison. To put in perspective just how bad Patrick Bailey’s bat is, his defense is good enough to make him “replacement level” (0.4 fWAR). Langeliers’ average defense (+0.6 Defensive Runs Above Average) paired with above average hitting makes him more valuable (+1.1 fWAR). He hasn’t done much against the Giants in 8 games (.161 BA).
Giants to watch
Heliot Ramos: While the lineup begins its projected decline, Ramos appears to be heating up to confuse the projection systems. After a sluggish start to the season (.248/.313/.405 through April), he’s heated up in May and matched that All-Star talent of a year ago, with 17 hits in the month (.405 BA) which include 4 doubles and 3 homers (.714 SLG). He also has 4 walks against just 7 strikeouts in his 50 PA (.460 OBP). He might very well be The Offense right now, and with two left-handers set to start in this series, how he performs against Sears & Springs could wind up being a very big deal.
Christian Koss: This won’t catch on, but, since he has the same last name as a brand of headphones I most closely associate with a mostly dead retail chain, an appropriate nickname for the 27-year old would be Radio Shack. It’s incredibly cool that his first career home run was a grand slam, which immediately recalls to mind Brandon Crawford in Giants history, but in MLB history, Jackson Holliday did the same thing last year. Am I saying that Koss is going to be as good as Brandon Crawford or Jackson Holliday? Absolutely!
Anyway, over his last 7 games he’s 7-for-21 with a homer and 7 RBI. He has 2 walks against 6 strikeouts. He’s doing a decent impression of Tyler Fitzgerald, and sort of the pesky “wait, who is that guy?” nature of his career matches up nicely against the usually anonymous A’s.
Tyler Rogers: He’s been scored upon just once (2 ER) in his last 13 appearances, striking out 12 in 12.1 IP. In 11 career appearances against the A’s (11.1 IP), he’s allowed just 1 run (back in 2023), struck out 15, and walked 0.
Prediction time
Poll
Athletics vs. Giants – how will it go?
50%
Giants win series, 2-1
(9 votes)
16%
Giants lose series, 2-1
(3 votes)
5%
Hey Bryan, the Athletics won’t be making the playoffs this year so your stupid dumb concern trolling is moot. Idiot.
(1 vote)
18 votes total