5 SF Giants players that have been extremely unlucky in 2023

Scott Alexander

Overall, the Giants' bullpen has performed pretty much as well as we would expect across the board. However, one outlier is Scott Alexander who has the unfortunate combination of bad luck and the inability to miss bats.

While Alexander has put up a 4.47 ERA in 53 appearances this season, the metrics seem to indicate that he has had some bad fortune. His xERA (3.65), FIP (3.35), and xFIP (3.86) are all much better than his 2023 results and opposing batters still have a high-ish .316 BABIP against him despite the fact that he has been elite at keeping the ball on the ground and getting soft contact. Unfortunately, the lack of strikeouts hurts him here as any bad run of luck on balls in play is going to be made worse by the sheer number of balls put in play against him.

Brandon Crawford

Finally, we come to long time Giant, Brandon Crawford whose struggles this season have been well documented. Issues with injuries to his knee, calf, and forearm have given Crawford fits this season and it certainly feels like the end of his career is coming sooner rather than later. Unfortunately for Crawford, he has also had some pretty brutal luck at the plate as well.

Through 309 plate appearances this season, Crawford is hitting .195 with a .260 wOBA. Both of those numbers are bad and no one should argue otherwise. However, his expected stats are much better than that as his xWOBA is .292 and his xBA is much higher (but still not good) at .221. Father Time does seem to have caught up with Crawford this season, but he has still been better than what his bottom line numbers have shown.

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