San Francisco Giants: Handing out team awards for May

As part of a regular monthly feature, Steve Klein will highlight some standout performers for the San Francisco Giants and explain why they are deserving of praise.

There seems little point in dressing it up. May has been a disappointing month for the San Francisco Giants.

Whilst there can’t have been many fans who had anything more than a vague hope of mounting a realistic challenge for the NL West, I don’t expect many would have contemplated being this far off the pace by the end of May.

Rooted to the foot of the division, the Giants’ Pythagorean win-loss record of 18-36 suggests it they might even be fortunate to trail the division-leading Los Angeles Dodgers by only 16 games.

That said, even with a record of 10-15 on the month, there have been some bright spots, some rays of sunshine through the grey gloom.

As part of an ongoing monthly feature, we are celebrating the positives by highlighting the best hitter, best pitcher and best defender of the month, along with the best prospect performer and a champagne moment.

Who was the best hitter in another month of underwhelming hitting performances? Who was the top pitcher on the staff? Which prospect is providing the most reason for optimism?

All of these questions and more will be answered in the following May awards article.

Let’s get started with our MVP for the month.

San Francisco Giants—May MVP

As a team, the Giants hitting improved in May compared to the month before. The WRC+ on the month was 83 compared to 66 in April. Granted, that’s still 17 percent below league average, but it still represents a big improvement on the previous month.

Whilst the team struck out slightly more, with their strikeout rate climbing from 23.7 to 24.9 percent, they also drew more walks. After walking at a 6.9 percent clip in April, they upped that to 8.4 percent in May.

The team batting average also climbed 14 points, the on-base percentage rose 20 points, and the slugging percentage increased by 38 points.

The most consistent hitter in May has been second baseman Joe Panik, who managed to slash .299/.386/.338 in 101 plate appearances in a welcome return to form.

In an impressive show of power, Tyler Austin hit five home runs in just 37 plate appearances this month for a whopping .765 slugging percentage.

However, nobody has made more of an impact than the irrepressible Pablo Sandoval, who hit .309/.367/.636 with five home runs in 60 plate appearances in May. For that, he is my MVP of the month.

He has been especially superb when called on to pinch-hit, going 4-for-10 with two home runs when entering the game as a pinch-hitter this month.

Albeit with his best baseball almost certainly in the past, Sandoval has shown it is too early to write him off completely. There has been a redemptive sweetness to his play this year, highlighted by some excellent performances in the month of May.

With declining attendance at Oracle Park, and amid increasing fan unrest at the poor overall performance of the team on the field, Sandoval is proving both an integral clubhouse leader and pure box office gold, as characterized by the ‘Let Pablo Pitch’ campaign.

His performance has more than merited his inclusion in the lineup, and increasingly it appears he will be key to any success the Giants have with the bats this season.

San Francisco Giants—Best defender of May

The most remarkable piece of individual fielding brilliance this month came from Brandon Crawford against the Arizona Diamondbacks on May 19.

With the game-winning run standing on third base and two outs in the ninth, Crawford rolled back the years and stretched every sinew to reach an Adam Jones grounder, before making an inch-perfect throw to Brandon Belt at first.

Both Joe Panik (2.5) and Evan Longoria (2.0) have put up impressive DEF numbers on the month. DEF is a statistic from FanGraphs that aggregates different measures of defensive performance to provide a number that represents defensive value relative to league average.

That said, the team’s most valuable defensive asset continues to be Buster Posey, who had another impressive month behind the plate.

He threw out 3-of-4 base-stealers in May and committed just one error in 18 games behind the plate. He’s also once again been one of the best pitch-framers in baseball, according to Baseball Prospectus.

All told, Posey has now generated 9.5 DEF in 2019, which is third-best among all catchers, trailing only Philadelphia Phillies backstop J.T. Realmuto (12.6) and Austin Hedges of the San Diego Padres (12.1).

With his outstanding defensive output, Posey can provide considerable value to the team, as long as he can be league-average with the bat.

San Francisco Giants—Top Prospect Performer of May

Whilst the big league club has struggled, there have been some noteworthy performances in May by players on the Giants minor league affiliates.

The pick of the pitching prospects was 22-year-old Sean Hjelle, who continued his excellent form into May after a strong April showing.

Hjelle, the Giants’ second-round pick in the 2018 draft, spent the first part of the month with the Single-A Augusta Green Jackets before being promoted to the High-A San Jose Giants.

In five May starts for the two clubs combined, he gave up just four earned runs in 24 innings for an ERA of 1.50. He recorded 27 strikeouts while allowing just eight walks.

His best start came in his first appearance at the High-A level on May 25, when he struck out five and allowed just one run in a six-inning quality start.

My choice for the prospect of the month for May was Chris Shaw.

The slugging outfielder had an excellent month,  capped by promotion back to the Triple-A Sacramento River Cats on Thursday.

The team’s No. 11 prospect, according to MLB.com, hit .298/.373/.510 with five home runs among 12 extra-base hits on the month with the Double-A Richmond Flying Squirrels.

Shaw, who underwhelmed in his 2018 cup of coffee by slashing .185/.274/.278 in 54 at-bats, could be in line for a recall to the big league club sooner rather than later if he keeps things rolling over the next month or so in Triple-A.

San Francisco Giants: Best Moment of May

While it was another difficult month in terms of results, there has been no shortage of incredible moments.

There was the walk-off victory that clinched a series win against the Dodgers on May 1. That game looked destined for extra innings before Buster Posey’s line drive single off Julio Urias with two outs brought Steven Duggar home.

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Then there was the remarkable walk-off win against the Atlanta Braves at home on May 21, which came when the Giants plated three two-out runs in the bottom of the ninth, capped off by Joe Panik’s RBI single. To put into context just how unlikely that win was, when Kevin Pillar came up to bat with two outs in the ninth and Brandon Crawford on first, the Giants had a win expectancy of four percent.

There was also the game at Coors Field on May 7 that saw the Giants score a season-high 14 runs, including home runs from Evan Longoria, Kevin Pillar and Mac Williamson, who ended the game with four RBI in his return from the minors.

However, the best moment of May belongs to the amazing comeback in Cincinnati on May 3.

Down 8-0 after three innings, and 10-3 after five, the Giants somehow produced an unlikely comeback to take the game 12-11 in extra innings.

After Tyler Beede was annihilated by the Reds batters, giving up seven earned runs in 2.1 innings, the bullpen kept things close while the offense gradually narrowed the deficit.

Stephen Vogt tied the game with a two-out, first-pitch home run in the ninth, and a lead-off home run from Evan Longoria in the top of the 11th stood up when Will Smith closed things out for the save.

A successful month? No.

A memorable month? Absolutely.

We’ll be back at the end of June with more positive takeaways and memorable moments.