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They Are Who We Thought They Were (in 2021)

Hard to do, I know, but let's pretend 2021 never happened. Or, maybe an easier exercise, let's go back to the beginning of the 2021 season. Remember those times? The Giants were predicted to be several games under .500 in the prognostications. They were targeted for a 3rd or 4th place finish behind the NL West dominating Dodgers and the upstart, flashy Padres. They had just had an offseason where they signed guys like Alex Wood, Anthony DeSclafani, and Dom Leone. Logan Webb was an unknown. He was either going to be a rotation stalwart for years to come if he could harness his stuff or he could become an effective reliever. Kevin Gausman was the hands down ace but no one was sure if 2020 was a fluke or not. The bats? Pshhh. They picked up some scrub named LaMonte Wade Jr., otherwise the big offensive move was Buster Posey coming back after a year off. Oh, and Curt Casali would back him up after Joey Bart whiffed on his 2020 audition. That was it. Those were the big moves. The Gi
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What to Make of These 2022 Giants at the All Star Break

Joc Pederson. All Star. Carlos Rodon. All Star.  That's it? At the beginning of the 2022 season, would Giants fans be surprised only two guys off the roster would make the All Star team? I've tried to ask myself that question and I can't come up with an answer. I think if I answered honestly, I would have hoped that some pitchers would have made it. Rodon, for certain. And definitely Logan Webb after his tear through the NL in 2021 and the assumption he'd be the ace of the staff in 2022 and for years after. But who else would I have expected to be an All Star? Maybe Brandon Belt, coming off a year where he hit 29 homers and looked to have taken it up a notch? Maybe he would finally be on his way to that 30 homer season and earn an All Star berth. Maybe even Camilo Doval would make it as the heir apparent to the closer's role for a contending team. But aside from guys from the pitching staff, did any Giants fan think any position player would be an All Star? With the
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MLB Predictions 2022

Despite the fear we baseball fans were going to be subjected to a completely unnecessary 2nd shortened season in 3 years, MLB and the Player's Union decided to play nice long enough to ensure we get a full 162 game schedule for the second season in a row. Sure, Opening Day should have been on 3/31 but I guess we'll settle for an Opening Day in early April and a full slate of games.  My predictions were not so great last season, you can view them here , but I also didn't have really huge misses. My biggest miss, ironically, was calling the Giants a borderline wildcard team and picking them 3rd in the division while having the Padres (!!) not only winners of the NL West, but also the NL pennant and World Series championship! Oopsie. Lesson learned. Never believe in the Padres until they actually win something. Overall, I got three division winners correct (White Sox, Brewers, Braves) and 6 out of 10 playoff teams (White Sox, Brewers, Braves, Yankees, Dodgers, Astros). I whiff
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The Giants Didn't Make the World Series, but Neither Did the Dodgers

I've been waiting to post this entry to see how the NLCS finished. It was either going to be a very depressing "the Dodgers knocked the Giants out of the NLDS and now they're going to the World Series and are probably going to win it" post or a less depressing "the Giants didn't beat the Dodgers but at least the Dodgers didn't win the pennant" which, I admit, I didn't ever think I'd actually write. I fully expected to write an entry where I was going to be begging the AL pennant winner to please just stop a Dodgers legitimate World Series victory for the first time since 1988. After the Dodgers broke our collective hearts, a Dodgers/Astros World Series rematch felt inevitable. In fact, no matter who won the AL pennant, the Red Sox or Astros, it just felt destined the Dodgers would make it there and have their revenge on one of those two teams that won a championship against them and give LA their first non-asterisked World Series in 33 years
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We Have A Giants and Dodgers NLDS

 It was fated. We all knew this was going to come to pass. The Giants won a franchise record 107 games. The Dodgers tied a franchise record with 106. The Giants won the NL West on the final day of the season by one game. The Dodgers were sent to the wildcard in a Squid Game elimination round against the Cardinals. They survived, so now we have the first ever San Francisco Giants and Los Angeles Dodgers National League Division Series and true playoff. That is absurd, given the history of these franchises. How many times have the Yankees and Red Sox matched up in the AL playoffs? A pretty decent amount. Yet these two franchises have not met in a "true" postseason ever. They played 3 game series to determine the winner of the pennant in 1951 and 1962 but history views those as extended regular season tiebreaker games. This time, we get a 5-game series and the winner advances to the National League Championship Series.  Even though it's just the first round, the stakes could
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There Can Be Only One!

What a weekend, huh? The Giants just wrapped up their final series of the regular season with the Dodgers and left it winners of 2 out of 3 and winners of the season series 10-9. Oh yeah, and also as sole owners of first place in the NL West by one game. Could anyone have scripted a Dodgers/Giants rivalry season any better? The Dodgers, with their super team that got even more super at the deadline with the additions of Max Scherzer and Trea Turner, versus the Giants, who's old dudes are having a renaissance and helping carry a surprisingly deep team that has few holes? If you watch Ted Lasso, the Dodgers are the sexy team with swagger, a team of Jaime Tartt's, to the Giants' team full of Sam Obisanya's, the humble unassuming steady dudes that get the job done. Sure, the Giants added Kris Bryant at the deadline, acting like the Dodgers in getting a big name, but overall the Giants are made up of old grizzled vets everyone had written off and no name up and comers who ar
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The SF Giants and the MLB Trade Deadline

Do you know who leads the Giants in at-bats this season? Brandon Crawford . That's not wholly unexpected. Crawford has always been a grinder who plays pretty much every day. Do you know who holds the second most AB's? Mike Yastrzemski . Again, that's not surprising. Mikey Yaz is an every day player and he should be up there in AB's. It's a little surprising given the number of injuries Yaz has had, but overall, not surprising. However, after that, things get weird. Just starting the "2nd half", the next two Giants with the most AB's, third and fourth respectively, are Wilmer Flores and Donovan Solano . That is where you see how the Giants season went sideways in terms of line-up construction. I think if you asked Gabe Kapler, Farhan Zaidi, and Scott Harris if they would have penciled in Flores and Solano to have the 3rd and 4th most AB's halfway through the season, they would have scoffed. Surely those AB's would have been taken by Evan Longor
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