The confetti has fallen on the city by the bay, and San Francisco’s first baseball championship has arrived. The lovable “miSFits” worked hard and battled to obtain baseball’s grandest prize. As the championship hangover went into full swing the Giants were ready to defend their title as baseball’s team to beat. In doing so they chose to film a show for Showtime called “The Franchise” chronicling the road to repeating.
The Giants came out of the gates swinging and ended the month of April with a .500 record going 13-13. At this point Giants fans would not know the suffering and true “Torture” that was in store for the defending champions, because on May 25th in the top of the 12th inning in a tied game against the Marlins; Emilio Bonifacio hit a fly out to Nate Schierholtz. At 3rd base Scott Cousins tagged up and proceeded to try to score the winning run for the Marlins, in doing so Cousins plowed through Buster Posey and proceeded to break Posey’s fibula and tare ligaments in his ankle. This could easily be the dagger that ended the Giants hope of being back to back champions, but you also have to bring into account the injury to Freddy Sanchez along with some horrible hitting that ultimately added to the reason for the Giants’ downfall in 2011. As a mid season addition the Giants brought in CF Carlos Beltran for top pitching prospect Zack Wheeler. Beltran gave the Giants some much needed pop since the loss of Posey. Beltran ended the season with 17 runs, 54 hits, 7 home runs, and 18 rbi’s, and a .323 average. Though he heated up down the final weeks of the season it proved to be a little too late for the Giants and they failed to reach the playoffs finishing 8 games behind the National League West Division Champions Arizona Diamond Backs.
In my eyes the biggest asset to the Giants is their pitching, finishing in the top two in all major pitching categories as a team. A team ERA of 3.20 which was better than Arizona’s 3.80 ERA, 1,316 strikeouts which was the second best in the National League while the Dbacks posted only 1,058 k’s which was third worst in the National League. The Giants only allowed 1,260 hits which was the least in the National League, and a whip of 1.24 was the icing on the cake for this great pitching staff. Though Tim Lincecum, Matt Cain, and Madison Bumgarner were all around .500 pitchers, together with Ryan Vogelsong who was by far the best Giant pitcher of 2011, the Giants were the second best pitching staff behind the Philadelphia Phillies. Ryan Vogelsong went 13-7 with a 2.71 ERA, 139 strikeouts and a 1.25 whip. Tim Lincecum is the Ace of the staff and had a off season posting a 13-14 record seeing him lose a career high 14 games and posting his worst win-loss percentage in his career with a .481%. A ray of hope waits in the minor league in the form of Eric Surkamp who posted a 10-4 record with a 2.02 ERA, 165 strikeouts and a 1.08 whip. The addition of Surkamp to this already top notch staff can have the Giants on the verge of returning to the playoffs.
The biggest thing that ruined the Giants’ playoff hopes was the horrible offence that was one of the worst in the National League, I mean even the Pirates, who haven’t posted a winning record since 1992, had some stats better than the Giants. The Team batted .242 which was in the bottom three of the league joining the Nationals and Padres. The Giants scored 570 runs which was the worst in the National Leagues, while the Diamond Backs scored 731. The team only racked up 1,327 hits which was 2 hits less than the Pirates. With these hit 121 of them were Home Runs and only counted for 534 Runs Batted In. In the wake of the poor hitting that was the 2011 Giants, Pablo Sandoval was the only offensive ray of light posting a .315 average, racking up 134 hits, 23 home runs, 70 rbi’s and 55 runs. A drastic change is needed if the Giants want to give the top notch pitching staff a chance to become world champions again. As the off season hot stove came to a boil the Giants stated they weren’t going to jump in the Prince Fielder and Albert Pujols bidding wars. Instead they traded former No-Hitter throwing pitcher Jonathan Sanchez to the Royals for Outfielder Melkey Cabrera and traded speedster Andres Torres to the Mets for Angel Pagan. Out of the two moves the Cabrera trade has the greater up side considering Melkey posted numbers that would make him the team leader in runs scored with 102 and rbi’s with 87, not to mention he posted a .305 average and 18 home runs. With this being a contract year I see him putting up at least 20 or more HR’s, 90 plus RBI’s, around 90 or more runs scored and a .300 average. Giving the Giants a boost in offence but not what a Pujols or Fielder could do. If you want a upside, maybe Gary Brown could be the second coming of Buster Posey and jump from single A to the Majors where he might flash his .336 average, show off some power and maybe hit 15 or more HR’s and rack up 75 or more RBI’s.
The Giants might be a flash in the pan world champion team if they do not address their lack of offensive pop and provide what might be the best National League pitching staff in 2012 a little more run support. It’s a season of “What if’s” that will ultimately shape the 2012 season for the Giants. Will The Buster Posey, coming back from knee surgery, be the same Buster who won the Rookie of the Year? Will Freddy Sanchez be a force at 2nd base and provide a little excitement for the fans at a packed AT&T Park? With spring training around the corner only time will tell
No comments:
Post a Comment