SFGiantsGuy

OK, so my last blog post was in April and I was ruminating as to whether or not the 2018 team was going to be able to rebound from a rash of injuries, inconsistent play, and really poor offensive fundamentals. The answer to those questions was a resounding "no" and the team went on to have an equally disappointing season as they did in 2017. The results cost a lot of people in the organization their jobs, none more prevalent than now-former GM Bobby Evans. It also pushed Brian Sabean into one of those "advisory" roles where the organization pretends not to fire you but really just strips you of most of your power while keeping you around. Larry Baer set out to find a "next-gen" front office head honcho and surprised most Giants fans by stealing away Dodgers GM Farhan Zaidi. This Giants blogger applauds the move big time. While Farhan Zaidi has never been THE guy for any organization, the organizations that have employed him have seen great success in t

So the 2018 season didn't start well for San Francisco. The Giants lost Madison Bumgarner on the last day of Spring Training after they had already lost Samardzija to a strained manboob a week earlier. Then there was more vagueness about Mark Melancon and it turns out his arm will likely need a Winter Soldier type remake (probably). Then Cueto went down after his 2nd start of the year because he slipped getting off his horse. Or something. Eesh. The good news is Will Smith hasn't had any setbacks. The bad news is that it still meant Josh Osich was our 2nd best lefty option  in the pen and it's already cost the Giants some runs in the middle and late innings. Regardless, missing your top 3 starting pitchers, your closer, and your set-up man the first month of the season is not a good way to come out of the gates. As for the squad that actually lined up for Opening Day? Well, they're 6-9 after 15 games which is exactly where they were last year after 15 games. That left

In this winter of our free agent's discontent, we've finally seen the last significant free agent sign with a team just over a week to go before Opening Day. Congrats Alex Cobb on holding out for the contract you deserved. Now that the majority of rosters are set, it's time for my annual dart throw as to how the 2018 season is going to unfold. My  2017 predictions  turned out to be all over the place. I got 4 division winners right (Astros, Indians, Red Sox, and Cubs) and got 6 out of 10 playoff teams (Nationals, Dodgers). My World Series prediction was mostly awful since I had the Indians beating the Giants and the Indians choked in the first round while the Giants were the worst team in baseball (technically they tied the Tigers but c'mon). I got all of the major player awards wrong. But just like the return of spring allows teams to dream of glory, I too can hope this will be the year all my predictions come true. Here they are... (Division winners bolded , wildcar

The Giants never were going to rebuild this offseason. They had too many guys getting paid too much money to initiate a successful sell off. They weren't going to take the publicity hit of trading Madison Bumgarner coming off a 98-loss season. So they did what they always do... they traded and signed some veteran players that should make the team better in the short term. The interesting part about this is that they actually got some name players. This in and of itself isn't that surprising. The Giants are somewhat of a marketing team first and a sports franchise second. The Giants have always had bankable stars: Willie Mays, Willie McCovey, Orlando Cepeda, Juan Marichal, Will Clark, Barry Bonds, Tim Lincecum, Buster Posey, Madison Bumgarner... Now they've added Evan Longoria and Andrew McCutchen to that list. There's a catch though. McCutchen may only be here for one season (or half a season if the Giants don't get better fast). And Longoria, the face of the Ra