Japan the opening series that was...

     Opening week of Major League Baseball has come and gone. At least in the eyes of west coast baseball fans, specifically for the Mariners’ and A’s fans. You see there weren’t many people able to watch the two game series from Japan, because of TV black out rules. Thus fans listened to the radio, downloaded video streams online, or waited for the MLB Network to broadcast the game at six am, though the game started at three am Wednesday and two am Thursday.

     Apart from when or where you could watch the game, it was great to have baseball games that matter in front of our eyes. It was a split series as the Mariners won game one behind Dustin Ackley two for five night. Which, featured a massive home run off of A’s starter Brandon McCarthy. The A’s then evened the series in game two with a flex of home run power and amazing pitching from Bartolo Colon. The A’s posted three big home runs from Josh Reddick, Jonny Gomes and a two-run bomb from Cuban sensation Yoenis Cespedes. Add that to eight innings of three hit ball from Colon and the A’s are looking very strong heading into the home opener in Oakland on Friday April sixth.

     As a whole, many showed their fandom with out cries of support for the Athletics. Allowing fellow fans to watch them live in the second game. They stay up until the wee hours of the morning and cheered as load as they could .You see being a fan means withstanding the long nights, the losing streaks, and the seasons without championships or playoff berths. It’s about enjoying the moment that you gather with friends and family cheering on the team you love, even if that means waking up at two am to watch a game. Even though it wasn’t televised by our own channel Comcast Sports Net California.

     Even with all the uncertainty of this season of A’s baseball, this series has me very hopeful about the things that the green & gold can do. As I predicted in an earlier in a blog, I see the A’s playing hard and earning a wild card. So I say to my fellow Athletics Fan’s: “Get ready to get loud and rock the house as the boys take on the Mariners at the O.Co!”

Pick em to Win em...

      The land of the rising sun will host the beginning of America’s pastime, as the Oakland A’s will host the Seattle Mariners at the Tokyo Dome. With the season fast approaching it’s time to act like Nostradamus and see if the Big Man can predict how the playoffs will shape up, and which players will take home the end of the year hardware. The shift of power from the National League will affect the shape of two AL divisions in the form of former Cardinal superstar “King” Albert, and Brewers slugger Prince Fielder. So let the show begin as Sports Zone presents… The American League prediction show.

American League West Champions: Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim      It pains me to say this being an Athletics fan, but hands down the favorite to win the AL West and maybe even the American League Championship are the rally monkey lead Angels. When you have the best pitching staff coming into the 2012 season with a 3.57 team earned run average and you add a good, though not great, pitcher in C.J Wilson, it gives you the upper hand on the pitching tip. Combine the league’s best pitching with baseball’s best player in Albert Pujols, and the average hitting team becomes a major threat to dethrone the two time defending AL West Champion Rangers.

      However it’s hard to ignore the fact that the Rangers have a talented team that pack a major punch seeing that they rank in the top five in all key hitting stats, while the Angels were a middle of the road offensive team before the addition of Pujols. The Rangers did lose C.J Wilson to the rival Angels, but they did acquire the highly sought after Yu Darvish. Unfortunately Darvish is off to a mediocre spring training surrendering 7 walks and allowing a run a game and not notching a win. I see the Rangers as a team that can still win, but I think their run of back to back American League Championship will end with a disappointing season and a 3^rd place finish in the division.

      Now I know some might be scratching their heads right now, if the Rangers are in 3^rd who is the runner up to the Angels? It is very simple; the Oakland Athletics under the guidance of Manager Bob Melvin will resurrect their glory and make a mad dash to win the division. Hear me out people, the A’s did trade away two of their best starters in Gonzalez and Cahill but they did add two pitchers to a mix that have a very bright future. Tommy Milone was acquired from the Nationals in exchange for Gonzalez and has proved that it wasn’t as lopsided of a trade as many might believe. Milone is posting a nine to one strikeout to walk ratio in twelve innings this spring. And the most impressive pitcher is Berkeley alum Tyson Ross with an eye popping .90 earned run average. Add this with some additions like Yoenis Cespedes, Manny Ramirez, and journey man Jonny Gomes the A’s should be able to contend in the wild wild west.

American League Central Champions: Detroit Tigers      The reigning Division champion Tigers have the AL Cy Young award winner and American League MVP Justin Verlander. Combine that with the addition of a big first basemen in Prince Fielder, and you have to have an easy path to the title in a weak division. Not to mention they do have a very talented Miguel Cabrera and the closer of closers “Papa Grande” Jose Valverder, you have a well rounded team that packs probably the best three, four punch in baseball.

      With the Tigers being the diamond in this ruff central you have the Twins adding former A’s slugger Josh Willingham, the Cleveland Indians have Ubaldo Jimenez who can be a contender for the American League Cy Young award if only he can make the right corrections. The sleeper pick for the Central are the Kansas City Royals who will host the Mid Summer Classic, and have a bevy of young talented players that with the right coaching can make a very strong run and might end the season in second place a few games behind the Tigers.

      The saddest story of the division has to be the epic collapse of the former World Champion Chicago White Sox’s. They have lost their franchise pitcher Mark Buehrle to the Miami Marlins as well as skipper Ozzie Guillen, it seems that they are in limbo as to where the future of this franchise is going thus it’s going to be a hard season for White Sox’s fans.

American League East Champions: New York Yankees     When you think of division races that entertain and excite, you have the East Division that will never let you down. It has produced the wild card winner in eight out of the last ten season, and was the focus of last year’s season as it came down to the last few days with the Rays finishing a fantastic run past the Red Sox’s who had the biggest collapse in MLB history. But this season I see only one playoff berth coming from the mighty division and it will come in the form of defending champions the New York Yankees.

      The Yankees have the most players returning that were part of the championship run, and will continue to chase World Title number twenty-eight. Jeter and Mariano return to lead the Bronx Bombers to another AL East title, but they might have to deal with the Rays as they stayed ahead of the Red Sox’s. Even though Bobby Valentine is an amazing manager, the Sox’s have an aging team that has too much ground to make up for the disaster of blowing a nine game lead. What I wish would happen with the AL East is for the Orioles and the Blue Jays to return to their past glory where they won multiple world titles and had the likes of Eddie Murry, Cal Ripken Jr., Joe Carter and Paul Moliter roaming the field.

American League Wild Card: Oakland Athletics & Tampa Bay Rays          The Oakland A’s will surprise most every sports media outlet and will win, as the team has proven with their ability to string together some wins in the Cactus League. A pitching staff that took a hit with the trades of Gio Gonzalez and Trevor Cahill can rise back to the top of the American League under the guidance of World Champion pitcher Curt Young. As I mentioned earlier Ross and Milone seem to be ready to step into the middle of the rotation and give maybe ten wins a piece, and then you have Jemile Weeks who should have gotten more consideration in the voting for Rookie of the Year seeing that he did hit in the .300 during his 82 game season. As well you have the power of Brandon Allen waiting to be unleashed and with three of them coming so far in spring training he can provide some much needed pop the likes of which Josh Willingham gave us in 2011. After his fifty game suspension is up you can count on Manny to provide a little excitement and knowledge, so he can teach Yoenis Cespedes how to be an elite player at the major league level.

      The Tampa Bay Rays, will be knocking at the door of the AL East title. In the end they will lock down the other wild card, they have some pop in the form of Evan Longoria and Carlos Pena, however the pitching staff can be a down fall for them. James Shields is a above average pitcher, that can be in the Cy Young mix but can Price be his wing man so that this pitching staff can aid in the efforts to claim the wild card. I have a feeling that it should be no problem as they push fifteen wins a piece.

American League MVP: Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim First Basemen Albert Pujols
      Pujols coming to the American league will be the best move of his career, seeing that the American league has less super stars that can out shine the best player in baseball. I see this being Albert’s best year with a career high in Home Runs and Runs batted in, maybe he can finally achieve his triple crown that has hidden from him.

American League Cy Young: Seattle Mariners Pitcher Felix Hernandez
     The Mariners may be the worst offensive team in the American league, but it will have the best pitcher in the form of “King” Felix. Hernandez can be the beacon of hope for the Mariners faithful, and it can land him back in his 2010 form when he won the Cy Young award by leading the AL in earned run average. The next best pitcher will be Justin Verlander who will be trying to repeat, but I’m concerned that he might have used a lot of his energy last season and will fail to rack up twenty wins again.

American League Manager of the Year: Oakland Athletics Bob Melvin     Bob Melvin has resurrected the Diamondbacks and aims to do the same with the A’s, matched with a well rounded coaching staff Melvin provide the green & gold with a no nonsense attitude. Melvin wants to win now and no matter what Oakland’s managing partner says, he plans on pushing this team to its limits. In doing so, he will lead the A’s to the Wild Card and the team’s first playoff appearance since 2006.

American League Rookie of the Year: Oakland Athletics Outfielder Yoenis Cespedes     Cespedes will take his talents to a new level and have a fantastic season. He will give Pujols and Jose Bautista a run for the American league home run crown. He can give you thirty-eight Home Runs and push one hundred runs batted in. His strike outs can be his down fall but many pitchers don’t know how to handle him so he’ll be able to rack up big numbers. Cespedes only threat for the award is Rangers pitcher Yu Darvish. To me, he has control issues that will lead to more runners on base and that can burn his earned run average. Darvish’s spring hasn’t been as expected but a person can adjust, and with many of the pro players yet to face Yu he stand a chance to win 15 games and it might edge out Cespedes for the Title of Rookie of the Year.

Warriors trade to trade

     The moment of impact was hard felt by the Warriors’ faithful when they found out that Monta Ellis, Ekpe Udoh, and Kwame Brown were traded. Everyone knew that Monta was likely on his way out, but to where was the question. That question was answered on Tuesday night before the Warriors 115-89 win over the Kings. Mr. Ellis and his texting ways were heading to the land of beer and cheese: Milwaukee Wisconsin where he will represent the Bucks along with Udoh and Kwame. In return the Dubs will receive big man Andrew Bogut and former member of the We Believe team Stephen Jackson.

      If you look at the trade on paper you might say this is a horrible trade. Giving up your team’s top scorer Ekpe Udoh, an above average big man that can grow into a respectable talent in, and a proven accent player in Mr. Brown for two injured players at first seems like a bad bargain. Andrew Bogut is considered to be a top 5 center in the League but is often injured so his talent may not be an accurate assessment. Then you throw in Jackson who is nursing a sore right hamstring and has a reputation of a player who quits. That seems like a lopsided steal of a trade for the Bucks. Die hard Warrior’s fans are probably not surprised. They tend to do this often. Trading away the greatest scorer ever in Wilt Chamberlin, makes this trade seem like the Warriors hit the jackpot.

      I like to break down stats and it would seem that, IF the warriors are healthy, they might have a well rounded team now that Monta is gone. Sure you miss out on his 22.2 points per game (which is 9^th in the league), but it averages out when you get 11.3 ppg from Bogut and 10.5ppg from Captain Jack. It also gives you strength where you lacked it. The Warriors have not had a real big man for over two decades and with his health at 100% Andrew Bogut will fill that void. Jackson may have had issues with the former ownership group; however the guy can ball when he wants to. Mix him with Steph and D Lee you’re looking down the barrel of some 20 point scorers. Multiply that by all five of your players you’re averaging 100 points per night.

      All these points are examples of what can be, because you have players who are on the mend and a group of players that may not want them. It always seems to be a major point in any trade, “What will the chemistry be?”. I personally would have went a different route with the Monta trade, it would allow you to have a dynamic scorer and a big man that seems to be on the verge of breaking into the top five of center in the league. Detroit would have been my selected destination for Mr. Ellis and Brandon Rush, in return the Pistons would have sent us Rodney Stuckey and Greg Monroe. It would have brought a very effective big man this season in Monroe who averages 16.8ppg and 10.1 rebounds per game, something that the Warriors could have used to begin the season. To complement the addition of Monroe you would add Rodney Stuckey and his 17.9ppg, 3.4rpg and a whopping 5 and a half assists per game. With this addition to what Mr. Double-Double David Lee can do scoring almost 20ppg and racking 10rpg it would be a big 3 to mimic what Boston is doing.

  Alas the trade that went down must be played out and then we can truly debate and discuss what effect it has on the long and short term. For the Warriors to be successful they needed a big man. Check to that, but the “what if” will wait on the effectiveness of the deal. They also must find out if the Franchise player will be Stephan Curry and his weak ankle, his grit and determination dealing with this issue will shape the rest of his career. I still have hope for the team from the Golden State, little moves that can help shape and influence the way the franchise performs over the next decade are always a welcome thing. Maybe we can land a bonafide star and make a run for the Larry O’Brien Trophy. Hey, anything can happen it’s sports baby!

Warriors trade Jackson to Spurs for Jefferson…

      The Warriors trade Stephen Jackson to the San Antonio Spurs in exchange for T.J Ford, a first round pick and the gem in the deal Richard Jefferson. It seems like the Warriors took the route of the Bucks on this lopsided trade, and only offered Jackson to the spurs. As the Warriors you get a draft pick that can become a strong building block towards the future or a draft pick that can lure a team to deal an established star to Oracle Arena, you also get a consistent player in Jefferson who gives you 16ppg, 2.6apg and 5rpg. On top of those steady numbers he gives your young team a veteran brain to pick with playoff experience. Add this to the Bogut trade, and I say the Warriors made out with a respectable trade.

Lace them up...

    
Spring is in the air. The smell of fresh cut grass fills the sun drenched sky. The Nation’s pastime is taking center stage. It’s time to play ball!

An exciting new franchise is emerging from Northern California, San Rafael to be exact. The Pacifics are bringing west coast baseball to the North American League. They are looking for some of the finest athletes that California has to offer. Don’t miss out on this once in a lifetime chance to be a part of the inaugural season of Pacifics baseball.

They have major shoes to fill keeping up with the storied history of Northern California baseball dating back to the days of the Redwood Pioneers and the Sonoma County Crushers. The Pacifics promise to excite and entertain.

Now is your time to be a part of the action. Open tryout are scheduled for Saturday March 17^th, 2012 from 9am-5pm at Albert Park in San Rafael, California. Registration is open and it costs $100 before Wednesday March 15^th and $150 the day of the tryouts. Information can be found here. http://www.pacificsbaseball.com/pressbox/index.html?article_id=40

Come out and reach for the brass ring, and maybe don the Pacifics colors when the dust settles. Be ready to leave it all on the diamond and be apart of the action as the Pacifics take the baseball world by storm. Best of luck to all that tryout. We will see you on Opening Day out at Albert Park.

DO TO WEATHER THE OPEN TRYOUT ON MARCH 17TH,2012 HAS BEEN POSTPONED. FOR MORE INFORMATION PLEASE SEE THE PACIFICS WEBSITE http://www.pacificsbaseball.com/pressbox/index.html?article_id=48

There IS an "A" in mirAcle...

  
     Let me tell you a story of a true underdog team overcoming tremendous odds that pulled off one of the biggest upsets in sports history. The location was Lake Placid, New York and the time was 1980. The Winter Olympics was the back drop for a massive nation verses nation battle among the favored Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and a surprise pack of rascals, the United States of America, in the medal round of hockey play.



     The game seemed out of reach for the Americans, who were lead by head coach Herb Brooks. That was until late in the third period when the United States tied the game 3-3 with a Mark Johnson goal. With the end fast approaching they pressed and showed their grit and determination by scoring the game winning goal off the stick of Mark Pavelich, completing America’s “Miracle on Ice”.

      I bring this up because the 2012 season for the Oakland Athletics’ seems to be all but a loss. So many fans are feeling down in the dumps, especially after the trades of three All-Star Pitchers: Gonzalez, Cahill and Bailey. With a five year absence from the playoffs, and the lack of a winning season since the 2006’s division championship team, it’s been hard for fans old and new.

     But, fear not fellow brothers and sisters. This coming season should excite you. We are celebrating two teams that provide us with many warm memories: the 1972 World Champion, the Swingin A’s; and the 2002 twenty game winning Streak team. Mix that history with the talent of the coming season: Jemile Weeks, Yoenis Cespedes, and the new addition of Manny Ramirez; and we could be looking at the “Miracle A’s” of 2012.This year’s team will help the Franchise rise like a phoenix to reclaim our great legacy.

     The Swingin A’s was the start of the proud Oakland Dynasty. They won three World Titles in a row from 1972 to 1974. The Moustache Gang racked up 93 wins behind stellar pitching by Blue Moon Odom, Vida Blue, Ken Holtzman and Catfish Hunter. While the power and speed were provided by “Captain” Sal Bando, Bert “Campy” Campaneris, Joe Rudi, Reggie Jackson and World Series MVP Gene Tenace. Anchoring the team was Hall of Fame closer Rollie Fingers. Rollie will be honored this year with a bobble head on April twenty-first at the O.Co with his fellow teammates.

     Following this team the Athletics hit a major dry spell and were absence from many peoples minds until 1988- 1990 when the Athletics went to three World Series and won one against the Giants in 1989. Another dry spell awaited the Athletics from 1993-1999. In that time they did not make the playoffs at all.

     Enter The “Money ball” Era: the Athletics won four Division Titles and a wild card from 2000-2006. The biggest team that came to national relevance was the 2002 club that won twenty straight games. This set an American League record. That year the Streak team won 103 games and produced the American League Cy Young, Barry Zito, as well as the American League MVP, Miguel Tejada.

     The twenty consecutive wins started on August 13th and ran until September 4^th. There Scott Hatteberg hit a game winning home run in the bottom of the ninth inning off of Jason Grimsley. My fondest memory of the Streak team was the mini streak of the late Cory Lidle. He did not allow a single run for 32.2 innings and posted five wins himself. Lidle was a great player that the game lost too soon. Even with out him, it will be an amazing weekend in August when Justice, Dye, Tejada, and Scott Hatteberg reconvene at the O.Co, with events such as the Scott Hatteberg Bobble head game.

     Since this last great run in 2002, the Athletics have fallen on some harsh times. With public battles of moving to Fremont or San Jose, the dismantling of talented players, and the fears of truly losing our OAKLAND Athletics we may fall in the land of contraction. Even though the thought of the Green and Gold no longer existing stays in the back of our minds, we must focus on the bright future that lays ahead of us.

     Think about what could be a magical season in Oakland, my friends. Though our pitching is the biggest question mark of the season, we do have a perfect game winner in Dallas Braden. He is coming back and battling to prove his place as a top pitcher in the American League. Also we have emerging talented hitters in the form of Jemile Weeks and Yoenis Cespedes.

     Weeks was a major spark last season and in my eyes should have been the Rookie of the Year for the American League. He posted a .303 average with 123 hits, 22 stolen bases, and 36 RBI’s in 97 games. Cespedes has been titled a five tool player and posted a staggering .333 average, a record 33 home runs in the Cuban League and 99 RBI’s. Could this be the second coming of a bash brother in Oakland?

     To round out the thought of a miracle season the Athletics brought in Slugger Manny Ramirez. Manny will be serving a 50 game suspension for using PED’s. However, this could be like the addition of Frank Thomas back in 2006. Wrap this around the brilliant managing of Bob Melvin and the Athletics’ could write the “Miracle on the Diamond” story. A story of overcoming the super powers: the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, and the two time defending American League Champions the Texas Rangers.

     So my fellow A’s fans, to you I say enjoy the ride as we try to resurrect our dynasty. To the players that are battling it out during spring training like: Daric Barton, Brandon Allen, Chris Cater and Michael Taylor; remember this is your time to shine. Reach for it and run with it.

     I’ll leave you guys with a quote from Herb Brooks. He said this to the 1980 Miracle on Ice hockey team during the second intermission. “ You were born to be a player. You were meant to be here. This IS your moment.” Go get them Athletics this is your moment!

Sharks need to call Goalie 911....

     The speakers of the HP Pavilion are rumbling to the sound of the Jaws theme from the famed movie, the sellout crowd is doing the iconic “Chomp”. The “Shark Tank” is buzzing as it should be because this exciting team has been giving fans, young and old, many things to cheer about in its twenty year history. Fourteen playoff appearances, six as the Pacific Division Champions and four of those come in back-to-back-to-back-to-back fashion from 2007-2011. Possibly the best season in San Jose Sharks history was when they won the Presidents’ Trophy in the 2008-2009 season for being the overall best team in the National Hockey League. They lead the league with 53 wins and had 117 points under the control of Head Coach Todd McLellan. With all the success the Sharks have had in the past twenty years the team is still searching for it first Stanley Cup Finals appearance. The Sharks have reached the Western Conference Finals three times in Franchise history, but unfortunately Team Teal has a disappointing 3-12 record. These poor numbers come on the heels of back-to-back appearances in the last two seasons in the Conference Finals losing both times to the Vancouver Canucks and being swept by the Chicago Blackhawks who would go on to win the Stanley Cup in the 09’-10’ season.

     It seems like the Sharks always have a stellar offence which scores goals and win games, however it can also be said that some areas of play can be weak at times. You have a who’s who of talented player donning the Teal and Grey or the newly added “Black Out” jerseys in Jeff Friesen, Sandis Ozolinsh, Mike Rathje and Ricci. All-Stars like Owen Nolan, Vinnie Damphousse, Teemu Selanne, Patrick Marleau, Jonathan Cheechoo all the way up to Joe Thornton, Dan Boyle and Joe Pavelski. These men have shed an astonishing amount of blood and sweat to be put down in record books, for most games played, goals, assists and points. Most of these records belong to “Mr. Hat Trick” Patrick Marleau who holds the Franchise record for most points with 768, goals with 357 and assists with 411. When it comes to single season records you have big Joe Thornton leading the way with 114 points and 92 assists in the 06’-07’ season where he won the Hart Memorial Trophy. So it seems that with all this star power it seems rather confusing how the Sharks haven’t won multiple Stanley Cups let alone never reach one???

     From my standpoint and analysis I personally believe that the short comings of Team Teal can be pointed at our goaltending core. Sure during the regular season the goalies tend to get the job done and lead us to the playoffs as Division Champions or even the number 2 seed in the Western Conference. But when the lights are bright and you’re fighting towards the games grandest stage and the goalies wind up folding under the pressure of the big game can we say it was really worth it? Dating back to the formation of the San Jose Sharks in the 1991 season our goaltending presence was better than most. Arturs Irbe set the bar for the goalie measuring stick, and in postseason play Arturs folded in his two appearances for them giving up 82 goals in twenty games. The sub standard play in the post season continued when Evgeni Nabokov took hold of the reigns, granted Nabby holds the Franchise record for most games played with 77, wins with 46 and 9 shutouts. When the lights went bright on the playoffs Nabokov turned in horrible performances year after year and ended with a 40-39 record in the post season with the sharks, he allowed a total of 184 goals. When this happens not even an offensive rich team can overcome that in a win or go home scenario. Exit Nabokov and enter Stanley Cup Champion Antti Niemi who left the Blackhawks after sweeping the Sharks out of the Western Conference Finals in the 2009-2010 season. High hopes surrounded the addition of Niemi and he didn’t let the Sharks faithful down leading us to another Division Title and our latest playoff appearance. Though Niemi lead us to the Conference Finals in his first season in Teal, he allowed more than 4 goals in five of his eighteen playoff games. Niemi allowed 58 goals and allowed nearly 2 and half goals per game and posted a miserable .896 save percentage, this lead to a devastating loss to the Canucks.

     For the Sharks to overcome the lackluster play in the playoffs two simple things need to happen; first the Sharks need to sign a proven goalie that has had multiple seasons chasing Lord Stanley’s Cup, and even winning it. A couple of names that come to mind; Nikolai Khabibulin and Marty Turco, have either man play from time to time and help mold Niemi into a stonewall player that can finally deliver Lord Stanley’s Cup here to the Bay Area. The second thing the Sharks need is a smash mouth defenseman like that of Chris Pronger. I’m not saying that I like the man, but his play is proven and its style will give the Sharks a much needed boost to their power play kill. A power play kill that ranks in the bottom three of the National Hockey League with a 76.5 % kill, heck even the damn restart Jets have a better penalty kill then we do.

     Minor adjustments and some added player personnel can be the thing to help the Sharks over the hump so they can bring the FIRST hockey world title to the Bay Area. Coach McLellan has the determination; let’s just hope this is the year that the Sharks live up to the hype as the team that’s supposed to win the Cup.

A Giant disappointment…

     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 25^th in the top of the 12^th inning in a tied game against the Marlins; Emilio Bonifacio hit a fly out to Nate Schierholtz. At 3^rd 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 2^nd 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