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MLB Predictions 2024

It's Opening Day week officially, with every team slated to kick off games this coming Thursday. Technically, the season has already begun with the Seoul Series in Korea where the Dodgers and Padres split a short 2-game set, but hardly any Americans got to watch it. After a slow burn of an offseason that lasted way too long, most teams have their roster set. Even so, there still are players on the market that shouldn't be: Jordan Montgomery, Tommy Pham, Mike Clevinger, Brandon Belt, and maybe not so shockingly #ForeverGiants Evan Longoria, Johnny Cueto, and Mark Melancon. Given that, barring any surprise trades or the last remaining free agents signing this week, we know what each team's roster likely will be. I had some success in my predictions last season, getting both Rookie of the Year winners correct (Gunnar Henderson and Corbin Carroll), the AL MVP (Shohei), and 5 out of 12 playoff teams (not so great). You can see my 2023 picks  here . With some major moves made by
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What is the plan for the San Francisco Giants?

Ohtani is gone. Yamamoto is gone. Worse, they're both Dodgers for the next decade. If you missed my tongue in cheek Christmas poem about it, you can take a minute to read it here . The thing that sucks most about the two best free agents joining the Dodgers is that they chose the easy path, both joining a juggernaut that didn't necessarily need them. Instead of making baseball interesting, had even one just signed with LA and the other signing with someone else, it would have built up some fun storylines. Yamamoto and Juan Soto on the Yankees? Ohtani on the Dodgers? Potentially great theater in a World Series, much like watching Ohtani the pitcher face Trout in the WBC this past year. Or Ohtani the Dodgers hitter facing Yamamoto the Giants pitcher in one of baseball's best rivalries? It could have been a great addition to the rivalry for the foreseeable future. Instead? Yamamoto and Ohtani will team up to make baseball's best team for the past decade even better. Bah hu

'Twas The Nightmare Before Christmas: A Giants Tale of the 2023 Winter

'Twas the night before Christmas, when all through Oracle Park Not a superstar was stirring, not even a spark! The banners were hanging, by the arcade with care In hopes that St. Ohtani, would soon be theirs  The fans were nestled all snug in their beds While visions of power hitting ace pitchers danced in their heads  And Farhan in his chef's hat, and you in your SF cap Had just settled down for a long winter's nap When out on Twitter, there arose such a clatter Baseball fans sprang to see what was the matter Away to the internet, we flew like a flash Tore open MLB Trade Rumors and the ESPN app The moon on the breast of the soft computer glow Gave the lustre of heartache, to the news below When what to my wondering eyes should appear But the Dodgers new superteam, instilling such fear  With a little old manager, so lively and quick I knew in the moment, it wasn't St. Nick.  More rapid than eagles his coursers they came And he whistled and shouted, and called them by na

San Francisco Giants Offseason Preview

The Texas Rangers are first time World Series Champions and the 84 win Arizona Dbacks were the NL Pennant winners. Just as everyone predicted before the season, right? Well, now that Bruce Bochy's 4th World Series champagne celebration has likely dried off, it's time to turn to the baseball offseason. As a San Francisco Giants fan, this may sound repetitive, but it's seemingly a big offseason for our boys in black and orange. More specifically, it's a big offseason for the Giants front office and ownership group to win back apathetic fans who have grown tired of the current formula of fungible players being replaced by other fungible players and a product that is, in a word, boring. Not to mention two subpar seasons following the high of a 107 win division winning season. The Giants have made the playoffs once in the last seven seasons. Fans are bored, they are angry, or worse, they are apathetic. The Giants used to sell out Pacific Bell/SBC/AT&T/Oracle Park on the

The SF Giants 2023 Post Mortem

For the '23 post mortem of the San Francisco Giants season, I nearly copy and pasted the 2022 version . The Giants in 2022 were perfectly mediocre, finishing 81-81. In 2023, they were slightly below mediocre, finishing at 79-83. This isn't great news if you're a Giants fan. The Giants got even worse a year after they dropped from 107 victories to 81. Another drop in the wins column resulted in skipper Gabe Kapler getting scapegoated and fired. Going into the 2023 season, the talent on the roster didn't inspire a whole lot of confidence. As mentioned in my recap of the offseason , Zaidi's free agent bets had to pay off: The Giants did sign some free agents this offseason and... well... jury is out if this team is actually better in any real way. They could easily eclipse 81 wins and show improvements over the 20223 version. They also could rack up some injuries with some very injury prone players they signed and finish under .500, which might mean the end of Farhan Z

The MLB Deadline 2023: What will the Giants do?

The MLB Trade Deadline is a week away. The Giants started off the 2nd half hot, going 5-0 sweeping the Pittsburgh Pirates and then taking the first two games against a sneaky good Reds team in Cincinnati. Since then? A complete dumpster fire. The Giants have lost 6 in a row, finishing a 11-game road trip against mostly sub .500 teams at 5-6. Although the road trip was long and somewhat grueling, the opponents represented a soft spot in the schedule for SF, a chance to make up ground on the Los Angeles Dodgers who had a brutal portion of their schedule on the road against contenders like the Baltimore Orioles and Texas Rangers. The Dodgers went 6-3 to instead put distance between themselves and the Giants and Dbacks. The Giants are broken. They have been one of the most injured teams in baseball which has led to extensive playing time for rookies who are showing they're not quite ready for a pennant race. After a scorching 18-8 June, the Giants are currently 8-11 in July. They are s

Evaluating the Giants at the All Star Break

 The Giants suck! Farhan sucks! Kapler is a goober! This team has no plan! Cut Brandon Crawford and bring up Casey Schmitt! Where is Kyle Harrison!?  Those were the cries in April and the beginning of May. Coming off a very poor-for-the-optics offseason where they endured the great Aaron Judge Whiff and the Carlos Correa Catastrophe, Giants fans were up in arms. There's always the good shepherd fans out there, the ones that choose to see the light through the dark, but even for some of them it was hard. On May 1st, the Giants were 11-17, buried in 4th place, closer to last place than 3rd, and were already a full 5 games back of the first place Dodgers. Their line-up was wildly inconsistent and their offseason sextet of Mitch Haniger, Michael Conforto, Ross Stripling, Sean Manaea, Taylor Rogers, and Luke Jackson were massively underperforming or were hurt or were both underperforming AND hurt. By May 15th, things looked outright bleak and some fans were prepping for a massive sellof