The baseball season is long. It’s not always going to be kumbaya, even in the best clubhouses.
Recently, a few Giants starters have expressed frustration about being pulled too early by manager Gabe Kapler.
Logan Webb was the latest example after being pulled with two outs in the fifth inning on Saturday after throwing 87 pitches.
“You guys know me a little bit — I like to compete, I wanted to compete, and I wasn’t pitching well, so I get it,” Webb admitted. “But the competitor in me wasn’t too fond of that. Yeah, I just wanted to keep competing.”
Before that it was Alex Wood questioning Kapler after the loss in game one of the Marlins series. Wood was pulled in the sixth for Camilo Doval with the Giants down 1-0. Doval promptly gave up two more runs before getting out of the inning.
“It’s tough,” Wood said. “You get Doval, who’s been the eighth and ninth guy all year. And to get yanked for him, theoretically, you feel good about, but it’s tough for a young kid like Camilo to basically not be in his normal role to come in the ballgame, and I’ve had a lot of success against Aguilar.
“So I would’ve liked to stay in, but those aren’t my decisions. That’s what they get paid the big bucks for. I’m sure me and Kap will chat about it like we always do. We both try to see each other’s perspectives on any and all decisions.”
This all begs the question, is there a problem in the Giants clubhouse, or is the natural pushback that you get from competitive people? Giants broadcaster Mike Krukow believes it’s the latter.
“I know the starting staff is talking about it,” Krukow told Murph and Mac on Monday. “I don’t think there’s anything close to a revolt in the Giants clubhouse because of it.
“I think that Webb struggled. I don’t think he had the same type of command and electricity that he had in Philadelphia. And that happens. You extend, you go deep into a ballgame, you don’t come back as well in your next start and it shows.”
Krukow said that it’s tough to criticize Kapler’s decisions because there is so much information we don’t know.
“You have to be really careful ’cause we’re not in the dugout,” Krukow continued on KNBR. “We don’t know what type of side he had between his last start and the start you’re watching. It may be that his arm was tired. Those are things that Gabe knows and he’ll never, ever talk about because those are things that gets picked up by an opposing team.
“I don’t read a whole lot into it. It’s not like he lost control of the clubhouse, or is losing control of the clubhouse. That clubhouse is healthy. And we see it. We see it in the way that they respond to one another and the way that they play. So I don’t think it’s a big issue.”
Listen to the full interview below. You can listen to every KNBR interview on our podcast page at knbr.com/podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts.
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