Troubling News: Brian Bannister Left the Giants

As reported by various media (MLB.com for example), Brian Bannister left the Giants Director of Pitching position for the White Sox's Pitching Advisor position.  

Your 2023 Giants: Harrison returns

Harrison is back, and hopefully found the tweaks necessary to reduce the homers. I wrote most of this as a comment on The Athletic before his start today, didn't change a thing based on his performance.

Harrison is here, best time of year!

Kyle Harrison is here, ready for his major league debut.

I wanted to write more but life has been busy, so I’m going to share a few thoughts, then add an addendum to give more details.

I think Harrison is a future ace. His strikeout rate is elite in the majors, and that is a rate that translates well into the majors, from my experience watching prospects matriculate to the majors. 

I’m not that worried about the walks. One, that was early season, explained by him adjusting to the ABS system. Two, no walks last two starts. Three, his K/W ratio is very high and his k%-w% is very high as well, which is a sign that as high as his walks are, he is so elite at strikeouts that the walks won’t matter. 

I did some reasoning why that worked when Dirty was a prospect but don’t remember now, I will need to dig up and share in the addendum. But the basic idea is that at above 9 k/9, you are talking one strikeout per inning, leaving, say, a walk every 3 innings, and so it is harder for the other team to manufacture a run off that walk, with all the strikeouts.

I’m excited but know that not all prospects produce at once. But with his dominance, deceptive pitching motion, and stuff, I’m hoping his short 10 start MLB season (10 turns of rotation left), will be as successful as Cain’s 7 start start to his career, but midfielder of Cain’s struggles the following season.

Cain is a good comparison, in terms of build and stuff, he has Bumgarner’s deception, and Lincecum’a strikeout abilities. He can be a monster for us.