SFGiantsGuy

Opening Day is nearly a week away so it's time for my prognostications for the 2023 season. My predictions were so bad last year I am not even going to recap them, which I usually do, but if you're curious you can view them here . My only redemption is I got the AL West standings completely right. Oof.  One of these years I am going to have the perfect predictions. Or not. But maybe this year can be the year. So without further ado, here are my 2023 MLB predictions... As always, division winners bolded  and wildcards italicized .  AL East: Blue Jays ,    Yankees, Rays, Orioles, Red Sox AL Central: White Sox , Twins , Guardians, Royals, Tigers AL West: Astros , Mariners , Angels, Rangers, A's NL East: Phillies , Braves , Mets , Marlins, Nationals  NL Central: Cardinals , Brewers, Cubs, Reds, Pirates  NL West: Padres , Giants , Dodgers, Dbacks, Rockies Best Records: Blue Jays, Phillies  2nd Best Records: Astros, Padres  AL Wildcard: Yankees over Mariners, White Sox over Twin

Pitchers and catchers report in just over two weeks to Arizona and Florida to announce the beginning of Spring Training and the start of the 2023 MLB season. While Opening Day is still two months away exactly and transactions can still be made, it appears the Giants are done adding substantial names to their roster. Farhan Zaidi will continue to tinker as he likes to do, signing dudes to minor league free agent contracts with invites to compete for a roster spot, but when you look at the roster, there isn't much room for a surprise to break through. The roster is more or less set. So how did their offseason go? Whewww boy.  My last post was lamenting the fact that the Giants struggled to sign free agents as a whole, but they especially had trouble with star level players. In a free agent market with three legit star hitters (Aaron Judge, Carlos Correa, Trea Turner), several really really good players (Xander Bogaerts, Dansby Swanson, Brandon Nimmo, Willson Contreras, Jose Abreu), a

When was the last time the San Francisco Giants signed a notable free agent? Go ahead, I'll wait.  (Jeopardy theme song plays) Ok, pencils down. If you waged thousands of dollars on Barry Bonds, congratulations!! You just gave me all your money! You were half right. It was  a Barry. Barry Zito. Remember him? He helped the Giants win a World Series title in 2012. Yes, he was also left off the 2010 playoff roster altogether and had a collective 63-80 record in the orange and black and a barely mediocre 4.62 ERA (4.61 FIP) and 1.44 WHIP.  All that for 126 Meellion Dollars. Of course, flags fly forever, and, while not quite as passionate and full of vitriol as the Belt Wars, Giants fans will argue whether that 7yr/126M investment was all redeemed by one magical October run by Zeets or that it was still unforgivable. All that is neither here nor there, it's to prove a point. There's one reason Barry Zito wound up donning a Giants uniform at all and it's not exactly because t

The 2022 San Francisco Giants were the epitome of mediocre. They finished exactly at .500 for the first time in franchise history at 81-81. They went 44-37 at Oracle Park and 37-44 on the road. They were 7-7 in extra innings and 10-10 in interleague play. There's something poetic there, kind of sort of right? They never looked like a particularly good team except in the two months they played consistently well, in April and September. From May - August they were a chore to watch. They played a lot of bad defense. The bullpen couldn't hold leads or keep close games close. The offense hit way less home runs and couldn't really plate runners by stringing rallies together. The rotation turned out to be pretty okay, but it was top heavy. Logan Webb, Carlos Rodon, and Alex Cobb formed a strong trio atop the rotation, especially once Cobb settled in and stayed healthy. The backend of the rotation was a mess however. Alex Wood wasn't very good this year and then he got injured.

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

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

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