The SF Giants have too much of the same hitter in the lineup

In the offseason, the SF Giants sought to bring more contact variance to the lineup. However, they overlooked mixing in variance in terms of plate discipline, and their league-worst 7.0 percent walk rate is a testament to that.

To their credit, the Giants brought down the strikeout rate. They have a 20.9 percent strikeout rate, which is the sixth-best mark in baseball. Last season, they were in the middle of the pack with a 22.7 percent strikeout rate.

The pursuit of contact has led to more balls in play, but it has produced little value otherwise. The team's .248 batting average is tied for ninth in baseball with the Boston Red Sox and Atlanta Braves.

That is a solid mark, but this comes with a .305 on-base percentage, which is 29th in baseball. They are not hitting for power, nor are they reaching base, but at least they are putting the ball in play.

There is a pendulum when it comes to contact. Teams want to put the ball in play more, but it cannot come at the cost of impacting the ball. For the Giants, they have traded contact for impact. That is not a good tradeoff.

The SF Giants lineup needs to mix in a lot more plate disicpline with its hitters

They need to be more patient, and they need to take more walks. Friday night's game against the Colorado Rockies was another example of a lineup that did too much of the same thing. They are seemingly not looking for a good pitch to hit and are expanding the strike zone. I am sure they have a plan at the plate, but it does not look like it.

Kyle Freeland entered the game with a 6.63 ERA and allowed just one earned run in eight innings against the Giants. Admittedly, the lineup featured a lot of players from Triple-A, but there was still no discernible approach. The Giants only struck out twice and recorded one walk. They barely worked the count against Freeland, who looked like he could have thrown 12 innings.

They have too many hitters doing the same thing. They are looking to put the ball in play, even if it comes by swinging at a bad pitch. Osleivis Basabe and Jonah Cox have tallied 48 and 33 plate appearances, respectively, and neither one has recorded a walk yet. Victor Bericioto has one walk in 71 plate appearances. Nate Furman, who was optioned on Friday, has more walks (2) than those three hitters combined, and he only has eight plate appearances. Casey Schmitt and Jung Hoo Lee have walk rates well below five percent.

Teams cannot build a lineup only with these types of hitters. If a hitter is going to be completely allergic to walks, then they are going to need to offset that with a high batting average or a lot of power. To Lee's credit, he does have a respectable .290 batting average. However, hitting for a high average is extremely difficult in today's game. The pitchers are too good, and the defense knows exactly where the ball is going to be hit.

The cards are stacked against the hitters, which is why they need to have an approach. The goal is not to put the ball in play for the sake of putting the ball in play.

However, this is what the Giants wanted. In spring training, Buster Posey said he wanted hitters to be the aggressors in the batter's box. That desire has come to fruition. The Giants rank near the top in swing rate (48.5 percent), chase rate (34.6 percent), and contact rate (78.7 percent). To put it differently, they are swinging a lot, including at pitches out of the zone, and putting those balls in play. That is exactly what the pitcher wants the hitter to do.

The Giants are far too aggressive, lack a plan, and do not make adjustments. With Kyle Freeland skating through eight innings, it would have been nice to see Giants hitters take a few extra pitches. Instead, he needed just 11 pitches to get through his final inning of work.

The Giants added contact variance to the lineup, and the results can be seen in the improvement in the team's strikeout rate. The scales tipped too much on one quality, and other traits, such as plate discipline, have been squeezed out. Bryce Eldridge and Drew Cavanaugh have been pleasant exceptions to that. They need more hitters to do what those two are doing.

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