2 disastrous decisions may have sealed Patrick Bailey's fate with SF Giants

The SF Giants trading away Patrick Bailey did not come as a complete shock given his prolonged struggles at the plate. Even though he has a stellar defensive reputation, Bailey certainly made some questionable decisions behind the plate recently which probably accelerated his departure from San Francisco.

There have been a lot of lows so far this season for the Giants, but arguably the lowest of them all came in Philadelphia when the Giants lost both games of a doubleheader against the Phillies and got walked off in both contests.

Bailey's poor pitch selection decisions may have helped end his time in San Francisco

Two things that really stood out in those games were pitch selection when it came to relievers Ryan Walker and Keaton Winn. In Game 1 of the doubleheader, Walker threw nine consecutive sinkers against Bryson Stott and eventually Stott hit a triple to tie that game. Then, in Game 2 of the doubleheader Keaton Winn threw seven straight splitters in a row to Kyle Schwarber who laced a double to tie the game.

There was some confusion in the aftermath of those collapses on who was to blame. Was it the coaching staff calling pitches from the dugout? Was it the pitcher stubbornly refusing to throw a different pitch? No, it was Bailey who called all those consecutive pitches.

That's pretty damning and fairly surprising for a veteran catcher like Bailey who has two Gold Gloves. It shows that while Bailey is the best framer in the game and is one of the best at throwing runners out on the bases, he was not a master in every respect behind the dish.

While he was a darling when it came to advanced stats and metrics, anyone who watched Bailey knows that he could be lackadaisical at times when it came to blocking balls in the dirt and there were a number of times when he could not secure a ball at home plate because he rushed too quickly to put down a tag.

He's still obviously a very good defensive catcher, but he was far from infallible with the Giants. President of baseball operations Buster Posey knows the catcher position as well as anyone and he knows that it's more than just how well you frame or how many guys you gun down on the bases. That's why Posey said that he wanted Bailey to focus on leading the pitching staff last year and even nitpicked some of the pitches Bailey would drop in some of his sloppier moments behind the plate.

If Bailey was hitting just somewhat respectably the Giants would have been willing to tolerate the drops and the inexplicable decisions in Philadelphia, but calling all those sinkers and splitters may have been the straw that broke the camel's back for Posey and led to the end of Bailey's time with the Giants.

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