The Giants are 2-18 when Derek Holland makes an appearance

A week ago, our fearless leader Bryan Murphy wrote an article dissecting exactly why San Francisco Giants pitcher Derek Holland had been among the very worst in baseball.

Near the beginning of the article, Bryan dropped a line that was really easy to read over and not think twice about. Here’s the line in question:

When Derek Holland comes into the game, you know the Giants have lost it.

I didn’t really think anything of this line when I initially read the line. I thought it was just a good crack at Holland - a haha, you’re so bad! bit of teasing.

And then, yesterday I was perusing Holland’s game logs on Baseball Reference, because for some reason that’s how I choose to spend my time. And I realized that Bryan’s line wasn’t a joke at the expense of Holland - it was a nearly accurate statement.

Derek Holland has appeared in 20 games this year.

The Giants have won two of those games. They have lost 18 of them.

In games Holland plays in, the Giants are 2-18. In games he merely watches, like the rest of us baseball plebeians, the Giants are 30-28.

In 20 Holland games, the Giants run differential is -75. In 58 non-Holland games, that run differential is -17.

So clearly I have the solution to fixing the Giants: Cut Derek Holland. Or at least never play him again. It’s a direct path to .500!

That is, of course, silly. The Giants don’t lose because Holland is pitching. Holland is pitching because the Giants are going to lose.

Still, it’s funny/sad/remarkable.

And if you want to really add to that funny/sad/remarkable, the Giants are 1-12 in Holland’s appearances since he made his regrettable comments about Farhan Zaidi. Cursed!

While Holland isn’t directly responsible for the .100 winning percentage in games he plays in, it’s still an indictment of him. The Giants went 1-6 when he was a starter, which, while being an imperfect measure of a pitcher’s performance, is pretty accurate in this case.

And since moving to the bullpen, he’s been deployed almost exclusively in blowout losses, in part because you can’t blow a scheduled loss, and it part because the Giants don’t really have any blowout wins.

His game logs this year have featured such hits as the final three innings in a 16-run loss, the seventh inning of a seven-run loss, and the middle innings of a nine-run loss.

The one Giants win that reliever Holland has been featured in was a bottom of the tenth inning appearance in a game the Giants were somehow leading by six.

Whatever the antithesis of a victory cigar is, that’s Holland. A defeat cigar? Doesn’t have the same ring to it.