Tony Vitello's silent clubhouse message to SF Giants has fallen on deaf ears

It was right there for every player on the SF Giants to see it in the clubhouse on Monday. They could not escape the team’s abysmal walk rate and inability to reach base at a high clip as San Francisco's dismal OBP was displayed on a screen. Entering this week’s series against the San Diego Padres the Giants had a .287 OBP as a team which was the worst mark in MLB.

Three games later after dropping two out of three, that mark has gotten even worse as it’s now at .282. The next closest team is the New York Mets at .293. Clearly, manager Tony Vitello’s message fell on deaf ears.

SF Giants cannot get on base despite silent message from Vitello

Whether this was Vitello’s idea alone or the coaching staff and front office had some input, it clearly did not make an appreciable difference. The Giants drew three walks in their win on Monday but then followed that up by drawing no walks on Tuesday in a 10-5 loss and no walks on Wednesday in a 5-1 loss. They've now drawn 72 walks as a team this season. The next closest team is the Arizona Diamondbacks with 95. The team's walk rate is so bad that it just might be historically bad at this pace.

The Giants are desperate for answers at this point. It wasn’t a bad idea to try to send a message to the team with the screen in the clubhouse. Surely there have been plenty of discussions in the clubhouse and behind closed doors but those obviously haven’t had much of an impact either.

There was some hope that calling up Bryce Eldridge could help the team draw more walks since he got on base a lot via the walk in Triple-A. Yet he drew just one walk in the series and despite him feeling sexy at the plate, opposing pitchers are going to be treating him like he's ugly until he proves he can hit big-league pitching.

But obviously the onus isn’t on him alone. Rafael Devers should be drawing more walks but pitchers aren’t afraid of him either. Really no one in the lineup is scary right now outside of Casey Schmitt and he is an aggressive swinger so he is not a guy who is going to draw a lot of free passes.

Maybe this is just a product of the way this roster is constructed. President of baseball operations Buster Posey wanted to see more contact and fewer strikeouts and he’s gotten that, but putting the ball in play isn’t worth much if the Giants are making easy outs.

Perhaps no matter the message Vitello wants to deliver, either verbal or nonverbal, this is just the way the team is.

If that’s the case, it’s going to be a very long season. This roster has a lot of flaws and they are getting exposed each and every day. Vitello has no other choice than to keep trying to get more out of this team but his hands may be tied by the sheer lack of talent on the roster. 

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