On the morning of Wednesday, May 20, San Francisco Giants first baseman Bryce Eldridge had a slash line of .143/.226/.250, with only one extra-base hit in nine games. He wasn’t playing every day, looked to be pressing at the plate, and was blocked by stronger hitters Rafael Devers and Casey Schmitt.
That’s when Mike Krukow went on KNBR and declared that Eldridge should go down to Triple-A.
Krukow sounded like a hater, stopping just shy of telling Eldridge to “grab some Rivercats pine, meat.” He wasn’t being malicious, and it’s not like the Giants don’t have a recent history of promoting prospects with limited minor-league experience. Dearly departed catcher Patrick Bailey got only 60 plate appearances each at Double-A Richmond and Triple-A Sacramento. Schmitt played 29 games at Double-A and 36 at Triple-A before the Giants brought him to the big leagues.
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Was there an element of “Respect your elders, young fella” and “Get off my lawn infield grass!” to Krukow’s comment? Of course! Krukow is 74 years old. He likely remembers how annoying Will Clark was to hang out with 40 years ago.
Perhaps fired up by the criticism, Eldridge hit a double that afternoon. Two games later, he went 2-for-3 with a walk. In a three-game series at Coors Field, Eldridge was 6-for-11 with two walks, a homer, and four doubles. He went 2-for-5 Friday, continuing his eight-game hit streak and scoring two runs, and his slash line now stands at 293/.372/.467. Since Krukow’s comments, Eldridge is hitting .383 and slugging .596, with six walks and 10 Ks.
He’s also wearing out pitchers. Since May 23, Eldridge is seeing 4.57 pitches per plate appearance, fourth-most in the league. He’s also regularly lining balls off of opposing pitchers, leading to infield hits and bruises, with Eldridge’s liner off Grant Anderson’s forearm knocking him out of Thursday’s game.
Thankfully, Eldridge has not struck back at another pitcher named Mike Krukow, though we are fairly sure that the 21-year-old slugger looks plenty ready to him now. The Giants offense is red-hot, scoring 30 runs in their last two games.
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But if they start to cool off, manager Tony Vitello can fire up his team by playing the KNBR card. We suggest going on the station and find out what Larry Krueger thinks about ethnic differences as it pertains to plate discipline.
