SAN FRANCISCO -- Tyler Beede's final act as a Giant in 2019 was a disappointing one. The rookie right-hander walked off the field with a trainer on Sept. 26 after his oblique flared up, ending his season.
The record books say Beede's rookie season was a struggle. He finished with a 5.08 ERA and 1.48 WHIP in 24 appearances, 22 of which were starts. But if you dig into the game logs, you see why the Giants are so excited by what they saw from Beede in 2019, and why they stuck with him throughout the second half and plan to have him in their rotation next season.
Beede had a few rough ones that wrecked his ERA, but he also had eight starts in which he allowed one run or none. There were some serious gems mixed in, including eight shutout innings against Jacob deGrom and the Mets where Beede became just the fourth Giant in the last 30 years to throw eight innings in fewer than 90 pitches. About three weeks before that start, Beede allowed one run over seven innings in San Diego just three days after his stepfather passed away.
Those starts both came in July, but it was the one in late September that had the promise to be the best start of Beede's career. He struck out seven Rockies in 3 1/3 no-hit innings before getting hurt.
So, overall, was it a good season or bad one for Beede? He answered that question on this week's Giants Insider Podcast.
"You can look at it so many different ways," Beede said. "Numbers are numbers, but overall, the big picture, it's for me a super-successful year. Just being able to not only have 31 starts, but the majority of them up here in the big leagues -- a lot of successful starts, a lot of good learning experiences, and a lot of things to improve on. But the progress I made this year compared to last year, it's pretty incredible.
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"I'm proud of the progress that I made and knowing the progress that I made this year, it only motivates me to continue to improve and build on this year and be ready to go next year."
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A year ago, Beede was coming off a season where he disappointed when given a big league chance and was moved to the bullpen in Triple-A. But in that final start this September, he found a huge building block for the future. The Giants slightly altered Beede's approach down the stretch, and he said that against the Rockies he focused on pitching up and down in the zone with his fastball and playing his big curveball off of that. When those two are working, he can mix in a good changeup and slider that he brought back out of the bag during the summer.
If Beede can put it all together, he has the stuff to be a frontline starter. That's why the Giants stuck with him through the down times, and he discussed that -- along with more from his rookie season and his offseason plans -- on the podcast. You can stream it here or download it on iTunes here.
