It’s an odd numbered year, so that’s apparently good news for any team not named the San Francisco Giants. The Giants rode the left arm of Madison Bumgarner to their third World Series title in only five years in 2014. That’s an amazing feat with parity being what it is these days. Regardless of what takes place this season, I think it’s fair to say the Giants are simply the best franchise in the game right now.
But as has been the case following the prior two championships, this has the look of a down season for San Francisco. I’m not going to go all doom and gloom as this is still a solid cast with a great manager and front office. so writing them off completely is foolish. Nevertheless, the reality is that this edition is not as strong on paper and the Giants will also now wear that king of the mountain target on their backs.
The offense is very likely going to be down. There’s a serious power outage here with a couple of significant bats having left town and Hunter Pence injured to start the season. The starting rotation could be very shaky as age and diminished results are a potentially major factor with much of the staff.
MadBum on top as the ace should be fine, in spite of the immense workload from last season. But beyond Bumgarner it’s a series of question marks. Tim Hudson, Matt Cain, Jake Peavy, Tim Lincecum, Ryan Vogelsong. Wow, that’s a load of age and a load of innings among that quintet. I think there’s enough savvy in that group to get by, but I can’t say I’m really confident that’s a group I can put great faith in at this juncture. The bullpen looks okay as usual, so few worries there.
Buster Posey is as good as it gets behind the plate. Brandon Belt might never blossom to superstar status as some predicted, but he’s good enough at 1B. Joe Panik is on his way to being better than I thought he’d be at 2B. Brandon Crawford is not much with the stick, but there aren’t many shortstops that are his equal with the leather. If Angel Pagan can stay on the field in center, he’s a definite asset.
The rest of the lineup looks dicey. Casey McGehee at 3B, Nori Aoki and Gregor Blanco in place of Pence are better suited to bench roles in my view. I’m apprehensive about Aoki’s defense at this site as he takes some really crazy routes at times and with that Bay Area wind now a daily factor, that could be a real adventure.
Bruce Bochy is a great manager, so I can’t just blue pencil the Giants and say they have no shot at getting back to the playoffs. But a repeat of last year’s win total is a reach and I actually think there’s a chance this team could dip to barely .500. I’ll lean Under on the Giants win total. But 2016 is an even numbered year, so if it’s a wait till next year scenario for this team, it might just be worth that wait yet again.