<\/p>\n
Less than halfway through the season, the Giants\u2019 Casey Schmitt has already hit a career-high 15 home runs through Wednesday\u2019s games.<\/p>\n
Sara Nevis\/Associated Press<\/p>\n
The San Francisco Giants<\/a> have been a severe disappointment for most of the season, but in a curious development, those days are gone.<\/p>\n So is the pennant race, but stick around.\u00a0<\/p>\n This is a team filled with cool stories, endearing personalities and dynamic skill sets, well worth following into autumn, and it goes well beyond Bryce Eldridge<\/a>. You just have to sort through the rubble of their 28-41 record heading into the weekend to get there.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Here at the 3-Dot, when it comes to the first four batters due up in an inning, we\u2019ll stack Luis Arraez<\/a>, Jung Hoo Lee<\/a>, Casey Schmitt<\/a> and Eldridge against anyone\u2019s lineup for quirky appeal. It\u2019s a bit of a hidden story, nationally, as fans watched the Giants\u2019 high-powered stars fade into strike-three oblivion, but it\u2019s elite-level stuff all the same.\u00a0<\/p>\n Major League Baseball\u2019s best hitters are undeniably the Astros\u2019 Yordan Alvarez, with his 22 homers and .316 average, and Shohei Ohtani, who exists in a private world. But for quality contact at the plate, you can go straight to the Giants after that, it says here, with Lee hitting .338 and Alvarez .327.<\/p>\n Given that the Giants seem bent on trading Arraez at the deadline, in exchange for prospects (horrible idea), we sincerely hope you appreciate this man while you can. In the grand manner of Rod Carew, Tony Gwynn and Pete Rose, Arraez surveys the defensive landscape not merely when he steps to the plate, but before every pitch, to see where the hits are most available.<\/p>\n San Francisco Chronicle Logo<\/p>\n Make us a Preferred Source to get more of our news when you search.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Add Preferred Source<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n He\u2019s got ideas, none of them having a thing to do with \u201claunch angle,\u201d an approach so terribly vulnerable to the high fastball. His swing is level but wildly variant, rarely a whiff and fascinating in its catlike reaction to every delivery. How many Giants innings have you seen in which Arraez, sandwiched inside three routine outs, crushes a single or double?<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Arraez was simply born to hit, and if his style doesn\u2019t sit well with some in the analytics crowd, that\u2019s short-sightedness at its worst. He\u2019s also playing a terrific second base, thanks in part to the stellar coaching of Ron Washington, and he lights up the dugout and clubhouse with his infectious good will. Milwaukee\u2019s Brice Turang is the best second baseman in the league, but here\u2019s a vote for Arraez as his All-Star backup.<\/p>\n Lee\u2019s ascent has come in a rush, but if you check his statics in Korea (acknowledging the vast difference in the overall competitive level), you see the glorious pattern of .324, .355, .336, .333, .360 and .349 in his six full seasons there, always with at least 520 plate appearances. That\u2019s no accident. Along the way to that .360 season, he struck out just 37 times.\u00a0<\/p>\n He\u2019s known back home as a baseball savant, a pillar of class and humility, and for the better part of a month, Lee has been consistently drilling base hits all over the field. He was 27-for-46 at one stage of his 18-game hitting streak, and at no point did it seem unusual. This is the player the Giants wanted three years ago, and he may well be exactly that.<\/p>\n \u201cI think he\u2019s the best hitter in the world right now,\u201d Eldridge responded with a smile when asked about Lee the other day. \u201cSpecial player.\u201d<\/p>\n The Giants have always felt Eldridge is special, and he feels the same. From the earliest moments of his interviews as a minor-league ballplayer, he forecast himself as the Giants\u2019 main man. Fans may recall Will Clark in that manner, a country hardball hitting genius who looked like he could do anything at the plate \u2014 like homer off Nolan Ryan in his first at-bat (to this day, a stunning achievement) \u2014 and talked a good game, as well.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n But Clark was a hoot, with his crooked smile and Louisiana drawl, a cocky party of one. Eldridge is cool, calm and measured, with an inherently perceptive knowledge of the strike zone. He takes batting practice like a scientist, exploring the field\u2019s every dimension. and he\u2019ll willingly take a walk\u00a0\u2014 essentially a foreign concept to these Giants for months\u00a0\u2014 while awaiting that one pitch that makes sense.<\/p>\n It\u2019s always difficult to know whether someone is meant for the moment, or just that particular one. Travis\u00a0Ishikawa sent the Giants into the 2014 World Series with an NLCS homer against the Cardinals, sailing majestically into the right-field arcade, and belted just one more (with the Pirates) in his big-league career.\u00a0<\/p>\n Eldridge found that general area with his walk-off grand slam against the Nationals on Wednesday, and it didn\u2019t feel like some kind of miracle. More like a glimpse of the future.<\/p>\n Rookie\u00a0Bryce\u00a0Eldridge, celebrating after his walk-off grand slam Wednesday to beat the Washington Nationals at Oracle Park, is fulfilling his high hopes to be the face of the Giants.<\/p>\n Carlos Avila Gonzalez\/S.F. Chronicle<\/p>\n As for Schmitt, a longtime 3-Dot favorite, it\u2019s heartwarming to see him grind his way into an everyday job \u2014 and if you could let him know exactly where that is, he\u2019d probably appreciate it. Whatever position he\u2019s assigned, he\u2019s a defensive asset and a high-average power hitter now unquestionably dangerous on the tough inside pitches that a lot of players can\u2019t handle.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n He\u2019s also a goofball at heart, and let\u2019s face it, you can\u2019t have enough of those.<\/p>\n The real Giants fans will speak of many other good-guy types who just need to match their reputations. That seems to be happening lately with Matt Chapman<\/a>, who dazzles with his defense and power displays, and Willy Adames<\/a>, one of the most fun-loving players I\u2019ve seen in my lifetime and thoroughly genuine in his uplifting interactions with teammates.<\/p>\n Daniel Susac? Hard to say, although we\u2019ll always defend the Bailey trade. Rafael Devers<\/a>? Way too many swings and misses on fastballs in the zone. Harrison Bader? Far better than the guy so vulnerable to the low-and-away breaking ball. Drew Gilbert? Good college player, perhaps not a whole lot more.<\/p>\n If you ask about the pitching \u2026 check, please! We\u2019re gone. This dreadful weakness is so clearly the reason the Giants have no chance to crawl back to .500. Just try to hang with manager Tony Vitello<\/a> as he jumps into a poker game every night with this bullpen. Watch how the new crop of minor-league prospects (no fewer than four top shortstops<\/a>) advance through the minor leagues. And have some fun along the way. It\u2019s there if you want it.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Bruce Jenkins writes the 3-Dot Lounge for the San Francisco Chronicle. Email: jenksurf@gmail.com; Twitter: @Bruce_Jenkins1<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Less than halfway through the season, the Giants\u2019 Casey Schmitt has already hit a career-high 15 home runs…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":700593,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[105065,12402,71312,4288,59685,363,2329,99,130744],"class_list":["post-700592","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-bryce-eldridge","tag-buster-posey","tag-casey-schmitt","tag-jung-hoo-lee","tag-luis-arraez","tag-mlb","tag-san-francisco-giants","tag-sports","tag-tony-vitello"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/700592","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=700592"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/700592\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/700593"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=700592"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=700592"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=700592"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/a>
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