They may not look the part, the San Francisco Giants definitely play the part.
I know it’s corny and cheesy and all the other things you can say, but remember in “Moneyball” when Brad Pitt playing Billy Beane tells his team, “You may not look like winners, but you are!”? That, to me, epitomizes what the San Francisco Giants are. They seem to throw out a bunch of castaways, with a some solid young arms, with a couple young studs in their lineup and at the end of a 162-game season, they seem to find themselves in the playoff hunt, and if they play well enough, they’re in the playoffs, and twice in the last four years, they’ve proven they are incredibly dangerous when they’re in.
The strength of the Giants for years has been their pitching. Tim Lincecum, Matt Cain, and now Madison Bumgarner’s entrance into the league’s elite has made San Fran one of the game’s top pitching staff’s. I realize Lincecum and Cain are coming off less than stellar seasons in 2013, and Lincecum has been on the decline for the past few years, but they are still effective pitchers that get it done.
The back end of this rotation is a somewhat sketchy situation. You’ve got a very old signing in Tim Hudson, who is well past his prime, and while I don’t necessarily like the signing by the Giants, I think he adds a dimension of a winning mentality among these guys. He may not be the Tim Hudson of 2003, but he still has value when he’s on the hill. I also look at a guy like Ryan Vogelsong who struggled mightily in 2013 until his season abruptly came to an end. I like Vogelsong a lot, and think he is a prime candidate to bounce back with a very solid 2014 campaign. But if he can’t, the Giants may have a hard time filling those holes.
Like it or not, the Giants roll out four guys that can win 15 games, and if they can get 10 wins out of Hudson, this great bullpen is not going to have to work very hard this year.
Now I look at the Giants offense and see a unit where the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. When you’ve got the games best offensive catcher, Buster Posey, the rest of a lineup can look rather average.
I like what the Giants did in bringing in Michael Morse. Splitting his season up between Seattle and Baltimore was a disaster for him, but Morse is a solid player who I think fits in very well with what San Francisco is doing.
Even though I’m not a big Hunter Pence fan, he really had a solid season in 2013 and provided San Francisco with a much needed second power bat. With addition of Morse to the lineup, I think Pence continues his success in the Bay area.
Last year it really looked like Brandon Belt had turned the corner. In his second full season, Belt continued to improve. If Belt continues his upward trend, the Giants patience with him is paying off and he fills the need for a much needed left-handed power bat.
I know he’s about as consistent as they come, but Pablo Sandoval has come into Giants camp this season incredibly trim, and I think the Panda could be in for a big time year. One other reason I say that is it is a contract year for the San Francisco third basemen, and contract years have proven time and again to motivate players more than guaranteed money. I like Sandoval in the middle of this order, and a big year from him could lead to a big year for the Giants.
A lot of my placings in my Power Rankings haven’t been popular, and the Giants pick may not be either, but the Giants are always a team that hangs around far enough back to not get a lot of attention, but they are close enough to make a move at the end of the marathon.
The Giants may not look like a winner (to some), but they are one.
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