Greetings and welcome to GBC Reader number one for the season. The GBC Readers are this site’s compendium of contemporaneously relevant links by others covering the Giants at any given point in the season. The category “GBC Readers” includes them in reverse chrono so you can always search them easily this way.

The first GBC Reader of this season starts with that interesting piece by Mike Petriello a couple of weeks ago about Carlos Rodón’s four-seamer. It was a shame Rodón struggled on the ESPN Sunday night game, because this piece describes why his four-seam fastball is one of baseball’s most dominant pitches,

Staying with pitching, Nick San Miguel over at Around the Foghorn ruminates on whether or not Camilo Doval can fall into the role of closer. Personally, I’m not sure we have “a closer” anymore. I think our new scheme, which is based so heavily on in-game management, results in a platoon of closers. I don’t know if cultivating one guy to endure the pressure or a group of guys is better, but there it is. I’d love it if Camilo Doval could become our Mariano Rivera.

Oh Snap! That’s it – “in-game management” – is the term I have been looking for to describe the new scheme. The Kapler system is often hard to comprehend because it is designed for real-time, in-game management based on contemporaneous circumstances such as opponent and schedule. These are in-game management decisions that predicate having a bunch of lefties on the bench to face a bullpen or having guys who can move around the diamond during the game to take advantage of matchups.

I have been thunking about DeSclafani a lot. I was hard on him before his departure. I was already asking for Cobb to be moved up to third starter before Disco was sent to the IL with ankle inflammation. But I was reading about his move to the 60-day IL in the Injuries and Moves Report by Maria Guardado who reports:

“DeSclafani received an MRI and saw an ankle specialist, Dr. Robert Anderson, on April 25 in Green Bay. As suspected, he has some inflammation in his right ankle but no structural damage. The Giants transferred DeSclafani to the 60-day injured list on May 16, as they wanted to give the 32-year-old veteran a “long, slow ramp,” according to manager Gabe Kapler. DeSclafani, who signed a three-year, $36 million deal over the offseason, won’t be eligible to return until June 21 at the earliest.”

And I began to re-think my feelings about Disco. He’s a project, a piece in the larger scheme. My complaints about what he has failed to do as a starter against the Dodgers or Mets are immaterial if we don’t use him against the Dodgers or Mets. I realized that the three year investment represents a commitment to get Anthony DeSclafani healthy and in a position to be a winner. I wish him all the best during recovery and look forward to one of his solid starts as a Giant, hopefully right before the All-Star break.

Just as I struggle with how the new system seems to have no real rotation, I also struggle with the fact there is no consistent lineup. Added to covid-related and injury adjustments is the intense flexibility and multi-purpose thinking of the Zaidi/Kapler scheme. Lineups change nightly to fit the circumstance.

In the final link of the first GBC Reader of the season, Alex Pavlovic writes about the startling success of the bottom third of the Giants’ lineup in Colorado in the context of the ever-changing schemes.

All right that’s it for the first GBC Reader of the year. Happy off-day.

chill out.

rest up.

then let’s go beat the Pads!