“Nothing Like It?” More like, “Nobody likes it!”
This was supposed to be a post looking back at the first half highlights for the San Francisco Giants here in 2025. Before the start of the calamitous series in Chicago, the team had completed 50% of their schedule after that 12-5 loss to the Marlins that clinched a sweep for Miami and compelled Brady to write a mighty fine recap about the short-sightedness of revenge. I thought, “Well, the Marlins always have the Giants number. Can’t get much worse.”
Hah.
Hah hah.
Hah hah haha.
HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.
The Giants weren’t swept by the White Sox, but that’s because they’re only one of the worst teams in the history of professional sports. Instead, they simply lost a series, coming up short in every measurable and meaningful way. It’s hard to think of this team as anything other than stinky right now. Is this stretch of offensive fecklessness and shaky pitching a sign of things to come or simply a June Swoon? For what it’s worth, they’re 13-13 in June heading into today’s series against Arizona.
That’s hardly a swoon. Unfortunately, it’s of a kind with May, when they went 13-14. To put it another way: since their 19-10 start, they’re 26-29. Is that a team that stinks? It sure feels like it. Hard to believe they’re 45-39. No, they’re not a playoff team at the moment — but that’s okay. They’re basically ahead of schedule in terms of being in a competitive window. I still think 2030 is the target date, but Buster Posey has made us think that the future is now by constructing or encouraging a roster largely of his predecessor’s creation into achieving the team’s fourth-best mark at the halfway point in the last 10 seasons.
2025: 44-37
2024: 39-42
2023: 45-36
2022: 41-40
2021: 51-30
2020: 14-16
2019: 35-46
2018: 42-39
2017: 30-51
2016: 51-30
Through the first 81 games, their 344 runs scored weren’t the fewest, they were 16th in the sport. Their +1.1 defensive runs above average was 7th in MLB. Their -1.9 Baserunning Runs Below Average was 21st rather than last (which is what it feels like). Their 3.45 team ERA was 5th and their bullpen ERA of 2.86 1st in MLB. The more accurate FIP and xFIP wasn’t nearly as good, but they still landed in the top 10 in those categories, same with their raw runs allowed total (310) and run differential (+34).
They traded for Rafael Devers. Wilmer Flores carried the offense in April with his heroic RBIs. Heliot Ramos has hit like an All-Star for the second straight year. Jung Hoo Lee looked great there fore a moment. Casey Schmitt is… not bad! But yeah… Willy Adames is a flop. Mike Yastrzemski is slugging under .400 on the season and .354 since his walk off Splash Hit back in early April. Tyler Fitzgerald turned into a pumpkin. Matt Chapman got hurt (sorry about that — totally my fault). Trading away Kyle Harrison and Jordan Hicks netted the Giants a potential lineup anchor but it also nuked their pitching depth, which might become an issue sooner rather than later.
I believe the good has been canceled out by the bad. The season to this point has felt like a raccoon washing cotton candy. At least we’ve been able to touch cotton candy though, right? There’s a lot to like, but it hasn’t diminished the volume of disappointment we’ve grown accustomed to with this franchise since 2022. So, rather than fret about the significance of this rough/terrible stretch and what it means for the next three months, I’ll do what I do in the face of a lot of uncomfortable situations or things out of my control: make some jokes.
For reasons we must assume are related to cost control, the Giants are trotting out their Nothing Like It slogan for the third consecutive season. We’ve seen this type of Giants squad before, though, so it hardly seems to fit and we’ve long since milked it dry for comedic purposes. Is there a new slogan the team could switch to right now that fits the current situation best? Let’s start with these options:
Not great, not terrible
This one’s for my fellow Chernoyblheads out there.
I think this one fits real well! The Giants aren’t terrible, but they sure ain’t great. Does their performance have anything to do with a human tragedy on the scale of a nuclear meltdown? No! In the mini series, this phrase gets repeated as a sort of bureaucratic mantra of denial so the context doesn’t even fit here. I can point to many positive outcomes the Giants have this season. I can point to many negative ones, too.
Stickin’ with it!
Think of it as the cousin of You Gotta Like These Kids. It has a whiff of effort and a dash of enthusiasm and a tacit acknowledgement that “yeah, things could be better, but look on the bright side? They don’t give up!” One thing I can say with absolute certainty is that every Giant on the field is trying his hardest. It’s just that most of them simply don’t measure up against the competition. Now, they’re not a lineup of Aaron Rowands (Willy Adames excepted) nor are they a rotation of Ryan Jensens (Justin Verlander excepted), but it has been especially tough for them the past two months than it has for a lot of their supposed competition.
Let’s transition into some more hostile ones directed at the casual fan or the lapsed fan.
Hang with ‘em!
This is the dark side of Stickin’ with It! That one is more kid fan-friendly while this one is aimed at those who pay tickets only to boo at the home team and only focus on the negatives. As though Baseball isn’t a sport built largely upon failure. Come on!
Crucially, this is an evolution of C’mon, Giants! Hang in There! That was a team trying to generate excitement during a rebuild. This is a team trying to keep fans interested in the possible fiction that this team has exited a rebuild and is a team in contention. And it has the double meaning of using a typical baseball phrase for tough times while also serving as an invitation to fans: hang with your favorite team.
So this one is defensive, sure, but also funny in a pathetic sort of way. It acknowledges the team’s shortcomings. It invites snickering, but you put this on a button This has been an odd season to write about because the vibe shift has been so real that I never really question the intentions or the effort. At the end of the day, the roster simply doesn’t measure up.
In Buster We Trust
The implicit message here is Get Over Yourself. You Are Not Smarter Than Buster Posey. This team has been built in His image, and if you don’t like it, then you don’t like Buster Posey. Sure, Willy Adames and Justin Verlander were DOA but none of us know how to fix this team any better than the last two chief baseball executives. Be like John Shea: if the vibes conform to tradition, then all decisions are good decisions. As he wrote for the The San Francisco Standard on Friday:
Posey gets an A. Even an A-plus. Who would have thought he’d be in the running for Executive of the Year, especially with the offseason moves not yet panning out, at least statistically? Adames hit .215 with a team-high 90 strikeouts, and Verlander was winless through 12 starts.
It was more than that. It was the change in culture and direction and smart internal decision-making with the hiring of Zack Minasian and Randy Winn. The mutual trust between the boss and team was evident with Posey’s desire for roster and lineup continuity, and fans largely loved the fact that there were no openers or widespread platooning.
Call in to KNBR and bemoan the lack of runs or Melvin’s bullpen management or simply call upon the team FIRE MELVIN noise at the risk of looking silly. Why would the team fire Bob Melvin or any of the coaching staff for that matter at this point in the season?
The team is preparing for the draft and the trade deadline right now. Who would become the interim manager or one of the interim coaches? The Giants tend to do their coaching staff business after the season anyway. Buster Posey’s isn’t on the hot seat. This is his first year on the job. It’s one thing to sign mega deals and trade for a star player, it’s quite another to rock the clubhouse with a managerial change or coaching staff purge. Do you really want to be a Giants fan who proudly declares they dislike Buster Posey or simply disagree with him? This is his free play year! He’s invincible until the last day of the season (should the Giants miss the playoffs again).
That’s what I’ve got. What do you suggest?