A Giant Surge

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It is an odd-numbered year which means that the San Francisco Giants are not expected to contend. But the Giants didn’t receive that memo. The Giants won the World Series in 2010, 2012, and 2014 while failing to make the playoffs in 2011 and 2013. The Giants began this season with a record of 4-10 and they appeared to be a long shot as far as being able to defend their World Series Title. But since then the Giants are 26-13 and in the process they are now breathing down the necks of the Los Angeles Dodgers in the National League West. And by the looks of things, the Giants are not ready to ease up on the throttle.

The Giants began this Major League Baseball season with a different feel. Longtime third baseman Pablo Sandoval left the Giants as a free agent to sign with the Boston Red Sox which left a void at the hot corner in San Francisco. Outfielder Hunter Pence began the season on the disabled list for the Giants while the pitching staff started the year in shambles. But that is why the MLB season is a marathon and not a sprint.

Bruce Bochy

Under manager Bruce Bochy, the Giants never wavered at the beginning of the season when things looked bleak. The Giants turnaround began when they swept the Dodgers in a three-game series in San Francisco. The Giants would finish April with a record of 9-13 and they got May off of on the right start with a five-game winning streak which included a three-game sweep of the Los Angeles Angels. And after a 4-2 road trip in mid-May, the Giants returned home for another three-game series against the Dodgers. Aside from sweeping the Dodgers once again, the Giants outscored their rivals from Southern California in the series 10-0. And as June has commenced, there is plenty of hope for the Giants.

Pence returned to the Giants lineup on May 16, and just like it was displayed in last season’s title run, Pence has provided leadership San Francisco. In Pence’s first game this season, he went 2-for-3 in the Giants 11-2 victory over the Cincinnati Reds. Since returning, Pence is batting .299 with a .429 on-base percentage and make no mistake about it that he is the emotional leader of the Giants as he teams with catcher Buster Posey in the middle of the lineup.

Brian Sabean

Some people look at the Giants recent success and they’ll skeptically say that they’ve been a team that simply gets hot coming down the stretch of the regular season and into October. But Giants general manager Brian Sabean has created a “system” that has been proven to work as he has a team of interchangeable parts. And when a player is lost to injury, traded, or leaves in free agency like Sandoval, the Giants are able to move on and succeed without slowing down that much. This is evident by the fact that only four players have been a part of each Giants championship teams since 2010. Starting pitcher Matt Cain was on the Giants 2014 roster, but he was injured for the majority of the season and missed the entire postseason run as San Francisco doesn’t cry over spilled milk.

An example of going with the flow and finding new players is Giants shortstop Brandon Crawford. Crawford was drafted by the Giants in the fourth round of the 2008 Major League Baseball Draft and he worked his way up through their system as he made his debut in 2011. Crawford has shown a knack for coming up with the big play whether it has been at the plate or in the field. In last year’s National League Wild Card Game, Crawford hit a grand slam that took the air out of PNC Park and sent the Giants on their way to cruising past the Pittsburgh Pirates. This season Crawford is batting a career-high .299 with a .371 on-base percentage while he is well on his way to having career highs in every major offensive statistical category in 2015. Another player like that for the Giants is their second baseman Joe Panik. Panik is just in second MLB season and he is only 24-years old, but he has already shown that he was unfazed by the bright lights of the World Series and he’s followed it up this season by batting .300 this year.

Madison Bumgarner

Pitching wise the Giants began the season slow as it was the same old adage that they were relying on starting pitcher Madison Bumgarner to carry them. Bumgarner is one of those players that has been a member of each of the Giants championship teams since 2010 and he has done everything in his Major League Baseball career except be named the National League Cy Young Award winner. And with a record of 6-2 to go along with an earned run average of 3.12 so far in 2015, Bumgarner is on his way to getting some love this season for the NL Cy Young Award. Aside from Bumgarner in the Giants starting rotation, Chris Heston and Tim Lincecum each has 5 wins. Lincecum is a two-time NL Cy Young Award winner that is in the final year of his contract which means that he should give the Giants quality innings for the remainder of the season.

The Giants have won their last three World Series Championships with a different relief pitcher closing out games in the ninth innings. And when Giants manager Bruce Bochy went with a closer-by-committee coming down the stretch last season when relief pitcher Sergio Romo was ineffective in the ninth, Santiago Casilla emerged. Casilla did save 25 games for the Giants in 2012 until he fell out of favor with Bochy, but he was never deterred and just waited until his number was called once again by the skipper in San Francisco.

The National League West is shaping up to be a two-team race between the Giants and Dodgers which would be fitting for these two longtime rivals. The Giants recent surge and the fact that there are five postseason spots in the NL will allow Sabean to think as a buyer as opposed to being a seller for a team in San Francisco that wants to shed their image of only winning titles in even numbered years. One of the main things that allows the Giants to contend and win World Series Titles is the fact that they have veterans on their team such as Posey, Bumgarner, and Pence that hate to win more than they enjoy winning. And when you have players like that, it becomes infectious on the rest of the team as players will simply find a way to win. This is exactly why nobody in San Francisco panicked when they Giants began the season with a record of 4-10. And it is also why 29 other Major League Baseball teams want what the Giants have.

 

 

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