GM Analysis - June 1, 1948
The Giants are running away with this thing! They were 23-7 in May, but they were 0-5 against the Cardinals. Of course, that means they were 23-2 against the rest of the league. We have to hope their luck turns and other teams can knock them off, because we are not going to catch them if they play .750 ball all season.
We are 4th in the N.L. in offense, scoring 4.5 runs per game. That's pretty good, but it is down from the previous two seasons. It feels like a slump. We are in the middle of the pack with regard to batting average and power stats, so we are doing it with timely hitting. We lost Ron Northey for a week, but otherwise we have been injury-free (knock on wood).
Most of our regulars are playing well. Seminick and Marion have started slowly, but we believe they will come around. Ashburn is hitting .308 since the trade and is doing all of the other valuable things that we expected. Our best player so far is probably Musial, who is hitting .303 with 6 HR and 20 RBI. Goodman has been very valuable coming off the bench. He has appeared in 35 of 42 games, and is hitting .306 in mostly pinch-hit duty.
The long-term concern among the regulars is Whitey Kurowski. He has fallen off in terms of power (slugging .428) and on-base percentage (.320). Those numbers are not good enough for a corner infielder. Al Rosen is hitting .280 at AAA, and our scouts say he is ready. Dyer is reluctant to make the move, so we are staying with Whitey for a little longer.
I will take the decision out of his hands at some point. Kurowski has two years left on his contract after this one, and I don't want to get stuck with it. We will trade Kurowski now while he still has some value if Rosen is going to take over anyway. There will be a team out there that needs a third baseman and doesn't have the options that we do.
The pitching has been much better so far this year. We rank second in our league (behind New York) with a 3.59 ERA. Brecheen, Dobson, and Pollet have all been steady and rank among the top 35 pitchers with below 4.00 ERA's. Zoldak and Bickford have been a little less dependable, and we have recently moved Parnell and Hearn into the rotation to replace them. It's nice to have young and talented options. Hearn is picking up where he left off last year, and Parnell has been very good in two starts. Zoldak and Bickford are still getting their turns because we have had several double-headers with no days off. Staley, McLish, and Fannin are all pitching well at AAA, and can be called up if we need them.
The bullpen has been very good also. Paige and Konstanty have exceptional ERA's (under 2.00). Roe has been slow to adapt to the bullpen role, but he has a WHIP of 1.41 with a 4.22 ERA so we are confident that he will be ok. Wilks has a 3.38 ERA, but he has converted 9 of 11 saves with a 1.31 WHIP. Lots of teams would be happy if their closer were that dependable, and we are a little spoiled. We have not suffered any significant injuries in the pitching staff so far, and we hope it stays that way.
The trade for Ashburn unloaded Reiser's big contract and gave us a lot of room to maneuver. We now have room in the budget to extend Wilks' contract, and we intend to get that done soon. We might also be able to give Dobson the big raise he is seeking, but I am not sure it is a good idea. I want to give McLish a shot at some point, and I don't like being locked into three big money pitchers. We might take this one into the off-season and risk losing him to get a better deal. Unloading Kurowski's contract would give us even more flexibility.
At some point, you have to let the younger players into the lineup/rotation or you will have wasted your investment in them. The trick is knowing when to do this, and trusting that you have evaluated them correctly. If the Giants stay this hot, we may be looking at kids like McLish, Kluszewski, and Rosen very soon because the race will be over.
