ESPN’s Tim Kurkjian joined Gary & Larry on Wednesday morning and offered up a few opinions on the Giants’ up and down 2018 season.
When asked if he thinks the Orange and Black are playoff contenders, Kurkjian said maybe, and conceded that the team is better than he thought they would be during spring training.
“I must say, I’m a little bit confused by the NL West this year, when you look at what’s happened,” Kurkjian began. “The Diamondbacks were a great offensive team in April and then a terrible offensive team in May and now they are really good again. The Dodgers were 16-26 and they’ve gone 26-10 since. I mean that just doesn’t follow, so I’m having a little trouble figuring out who’s good and who isn’t good.
“But to answer your question, I think the Giants at least have an outside chance (to make the playoffs). I didn’t pick them to make the playoffs at the beginning, I’m not picking them now, but they are certainly better than I thought they were. They’ve overcome a lot so far, and you know they’ve won six out of seven, they are 15-9 in June. Some good things have happened there so I don’t think you can count them out.”
Kurkjian also echoed Duane Kuiper’s sentiments that Buster Posey is playing injured, despite the fact that the catcher is unwilling to disclose it, citing his dwindling power numbers as evidence.
“I don’t think he’s healthy and he’ll never talk about that, but I don’t think everything’s firing right,” Kurkjian said. “He just got some soreness and some issues, maybe from the catching, who knows. This is not good when your best player has five home runs and the Dodgers will start a lineup with eight guys with 10 home runs and you’re in the same division as them.
“I think this is a really important time to keep looking at Buster Posey and asking what is happening here and eventually, maybe before eventually, you’re going to have to say is catching taking too much out of him, and is it time to move him a la Joe Mauer a few years ago, and some other catchers in baseball history.”
Listen to the full interview below. To hear Kurkjian on the Giants start from 2:20.