Every fan dreams of running their favorite team. To be the owner, the GM or the manager. And plenty of Giants fans have opinions on what should be done with the Orange and Black. Fan is a derivative of the word “fanatic.” They often live in “fan”tasy land. Fan discussions about the Giants are tough ones currently. Sometimes the reality can be a little tougher to take.
“We were one solid reliever away from beating the Cubs in Game 4 last year and setting up Cueto in Game 5 after he had shackled Chicago earlier in the series. It would have been another deep playoff run. We are still a contender.”
The Giants are 64-98 in their last 162 games, one of the worst teams in baseball. This is not a small sample size.
“This has been an odd year with weird injuries, unfortunate personal situations, developing a new bullpen and finding odd ways to lose. A lot of guys will bounce back.”
The Giants have the second worst record in baseball, trailing only the Phillies.
“Hey, we have three World Series titles in a five year span. That is historic stuff!”
The Giants never qualified for the playoffs in the year after any of those championships. They will finish this season with four playoff appearances in the past 14 years. And they were not close to having one of the top regular season records in any of the title years. They were one of the best tournament teams in baseball history.
“Don’t worry, the NL West provides us with one of the three easiest schedules in baseball. Bouncing back will be no problem.”
That was the case for the previous decade. Now the Dodgers, Rockies and Diamondbacks are all playoff teams at the midpoint of the season. And each team is fully loaded with young talent going forward.
“But the National League isn’t very good, we can execute a quick turnaround.”
This is actually true. The National League qualifies 5 playoff teams and only has 5 teams with a winning record out of the 15 in the league. The bar could not be lower.
“We are built on starting pitching. That is going to be the basis for the team contending again.”
True again, but the Giants are second in baseball in quality starts and still have the second fewest wins. Even with the Bumgarner injury they have largely been getting decent starting pitching and still not winning games.
“We don’t need power and our ballpark isn’t built for it.”
MLB is on a record pace for home runs in a season. A huge percentage of at bats end in strikeouts and walks, all time highs in baseball history. Defensive positioning and fireballing relievers have made it more difficult to hit for average. You have to be able to change the scoreboard in a single blow. The Giants are at the bottom of all the power categories. This is not sustainable for a playoff team in today’s baseball. It’s like not having 3-point shooting in today’s NBA. You must have power and a lot of it. And I’ve already discussed the need for the minor ballpark correction.
“Man, Brandon Belt sure comes up on the talk shows as a trade target. We should look to move him.”
You might want to look at Belt’s OPS every year since 2014. It’s right up there with Buster Posey as the most productive Giant offensively. He is a Gold Glove-caliber first baseman and he has a team friendly contract. He will not bring nearly the return needed to justify trading him.
“Gotta keep Johnny Cueto, he is a big time starter and we will need him for the playoffs.”
Cueto will be 32 next season. If he opts in to his contract you could owe him up to $106 million over the next five years. If he opts out and wants more money you are very unlikely to re-sign him. Ty Blach has had a better year than Cueto this season. And Cueto could probably bring a decent return for a playoff team like the Yankees or Houston that need a proven playoff performer. Also, the Giants aren’t going to the playoffs this year. You might also want to revisit the contracts of Zito, Lincecum and Cain as far as spending huge unproductive dollars on starters that did not age well.
The Giants have great ownership, a great front office and a great manager. They will figure all this out and make the best decisions going forward. They also have the ability to have a top five payroll, the most important tool needed in baseball.
True, ownership is excellent. Sabean and Evans are proven. Bochy is a Hall of Famer. And they have the cash. The second half of this season will bear watching to see just how these very accomplished gentlemen elect to make changes or go with the status quo going forward with the Giants roster.