San Francisco Giants Mid-July Stock Report: Who’s trending up/down
By Justin Fried
The San Francisco Giants have gone on quite the hot stretch and now sit at a much-improved 41-48 at the All-Star break. Here is a stock report for the team detailing who’s trending up and who’s trending down.
The San Francisco Giants 2019 season looked to be all but lost for the first three months of the season, but a hot start to July has breathed new life into the organization.
At the time of writing, the Giants have won six of their last seven games and now sit just 5.5 games out the second wild-card spot in a crowded National League.
They’ll likely still be sellers — that’s a conversation for another day — but the recent sense of optimism has been a welcome change of pace for a franchise void of positivity as of late.
However, there have still been players who have put a damper on the team’s season as well, both recently and throughout the year. As such, let’s take a look at which players are trending up and which are trending down in our mid-July stock report.
Trending Up — Will Smith
Will Smith has been arguably one of the most dominant closers in the MLB this season. The newly-turned 30-year-old has posted a 1.98 ERA through 37 games this year and is a perfect 23-for-23 in save opportunities.
It’s likely that Smith doesn’t remain on the team past this month but the Giants are sure to ride this wave until it gets moved to a new beach. If anything, Smith is only increasing his already high trade value for a potential trade partner ahead of July 31st.
Trending Down — Joe Panik
After a fast start to his career, Joe Panik has settled into his role as a contact-hitting second baseman who has a good eye at the plate, but struggles to hit for any power. But at this stage, his lack of offensive firepower has reached a new low.
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Panik is slashing just .228/.305/.314 on the season for an ugly .619 OPS. Over his past 37 at-bats, Panik has just five hits ‘good’ for a .135 batting average. Due for arbitration this offseason, Panik’s days with the Giants could be numbered if he cannot turn it around in the second half.
Trending Up — Evan Longoria
Evan Longoria still has a lot to accomplish before he could begin to live up to his massive $100 million contract, but this July has been one of his best stretches of baseball in quite some time. Longoria entered the break hitting successfully in his last six contests — save for a pinch-hit appearance on July 6th.
On top of that, the former Tampa Bay Rays third baseman has hit five home runs in his last six games. There’s a good chance that Longoria ends up as the team’s leading hitter at the end of the season if he could keep this up.
Trending Down — Drew Pomeranz
Much like the aforementioned Panik, Drew Pomeranz‘s days with the San Francisco Giants seem to be running short. Another low-cost signing that made sense at the time, Pomeranz has been just as bad as he was last season with the Boston Red Sox — if not worse.
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Pomeranz has posted an ugly 6.42 ERA and an atrocious 1.767 WHIP in 16 starts this season with the Giants. As the end of the season nears, it’s more and more likely that the Giants will opt to give some of their younger pitchers opportunities and Pomeranz could simply be cut loose as a result.
Trending Up — Alex Dickerson
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Out of the many — and we mean many — low-cost, bargain acquisitions the Giants have made throughout this season, Alex Dickerson is looking like the best of the bunch. The 29-year-old is hitting .362 over his first 16 games with the team with four home runs and a whopping 15 RBI.
Dickerson has injected life and energy into a previously struggling and stagnant lineup and it’s not a stretch that to say he’s been the heart and soul of this recent hot stretch. He’ll be given every opportunity to prove that he should be a part of the future plans in the outfield in the second half of the season.
Trending Down — Brandon Crawford
Much like his middle-infield partner, Brandon Crawford is another Giants batter in-line for the worst season of his career at the plate. Crawford is currently hitting just .223 on the season and his OPS+ of 70 indicates that he’s a whole 30 points below league average at the dish.
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A lingering hamstring injury allowed former MLB castoff Donovan Solano to get an opportunity to contribute and the 31-year-old has performed much better than expected. If Crawford continues to struggle, don’t be surprised to see him lose some playing time to Solano or others in the second half.