With spring training behind us the Giants are headed to the Big Apple for an Opening Day Matchup against..... the Yankees! That's right! The old crosstown/cross-league rivals meet again in the ol' hometown. Before that happens, let's take a look at the keys to a successful Giants season:
1. Pitching, pitching, pitching! The pitching half of the roster made it through spring training healthy and their performance was (mostly) sensational. While they don't have that ace 1-2 punch at the top of the rotation they did last year, they have depth, upon depth and more depth with every pitcher from rotation to Closer potentially being at least an average MLB pitcher or well above. If the pitching is what it appears to be, they Giants will win a lot of games on that strength alone.
2. Michael Conforto OF and Mitch Haniger OF have to stay healthy. While the Giants did not exactly break the bank for these guys, they also shelled out a nice chunk of payroll. They are the core of the Giants offseason upgrade and pretty much everything on the positional side. They both have injury histories and the Giants cannot afford to have either of them miss significant time. It's not encouraging that Haniger is starting the season on the IL with a dreaded oblique injury but based on everything we know, he should only miss the first week or two of the season.
3. Stabilize the catching situation. Look, either Joey Bart needs to figure it out quickly or they need to move on with the lower ceiling but much higher floor of Roberto Perez. If nothing else the pitchers need to know who they are working with and get settled into that.
4. Middle infield depth. Right now, the Giants plan for middle infield depth consists of Thairo Estrada playing 162 games, 100% of Brandon Crawford's off days at SS plus all of the other games at 2B. They may get away with that for the first 2 weeks to a months but not for a full season. So who is going to step when the crunch comes? Brett Wisely? Casey Schmitt? Will Wilson? Marco Luciano? Stay tuned on this one.
5. At least one 30 HR season out of David Villar, J. D. Davis and Lamonte Wade Jr. I don't think they need to get 30 HR out of all of them if Haniger and Conforto stay healthy but they need to get 30 out of at least one and preferable two.
Go Giants!
Let’s hope the fielding improves, 2nd in FIP, 18th in ERA, 28th in UZR, 28th in OAA, by all metrics and by the eye test they were awful
ReplyDeleteI just saw their opening day lineup and am extremely saddened.
ReplyDeleteWade 1B
Conforto Rf
Flores 3B
Pederson DH
Yaz CF
Estrada 2B
Crawford SS
Sabol LF
Perez C
In my opinion, this is not a lineup built to win.
I second the opinion that our opening day lineup is not one built to win. Maybe guys will surprise but it was rough watching the offense today. Did like the pace of play though with the pitch clock.
DeleteJust acquired Matt Beaty, former Dodger utility guy. Disheartening that they view him as an upgrade over someone.
ReplyDeleteMatt Beaty?
ReplyDeleteHe couldn't make the Royals projected to win 64 games and finish last in their division by Baseball Prospectus' PECOTA standings!
Go figure!
TERRIBLE message to young guys in the organization to send Johnson and Hjelle down after teh springs they had, for a journeyman LH bat with lead glove!
ReplyDeleteGiants need to stick with Bart or use Sabol, Perez has been terrible for years.
ReplyDelete1. I am happy with the pitching.
ReplyDelete2. I like Conforto and Haniger. If they can stay healthy, it'll be solid at the corners and Pederson can DH/1B with the occasional day-off appearance in the field. I don't think we have a true CFer in Yaz. Beatty is a 1B/LFer.
3. I never thought Bart was going to replace Posey or come that close. Still, I thought he'd do better than he is, maybe hit .250 with some power.
4. I'm not sold on anybody at SS. And we don't have a quality back-up/replacement for Estrada.
5. While we can hope, I don't see either hitting 30 HRs due to their split problems. Of the two, I'd say Villar has the tougher hill to climb because his splits favor LHP and that's just 30% of MLB inning pitched.
After the underwhelming beat-down in NY, the knives are out for Zaidi – although only one carryover from pre FZ was starting in the (offensive) lineup (the other 9 were acquired), it's his fault he inherited a mess and hasn't been able to fix it.
ReplyDelete