Ah...56 years in the making. Since it took so long, it might as well have been improbable. They are literally the most unlikely champs since the (sorry, but it's true) 1988 Dodgers.
Please try, if you can, and think of any World Series winning team that promoted a rookie with less than two years of professional experience in early June to be their club's starting catcher?
Give it up. Never happened before. The closest to it? Matt Nokes, with the 1987 Tigers.
Another improbability: the number of castoffs counted on to be regulars at the end (Burrell, Huff, Uribe, Renteria)
Defense? What infield defense?
And to think that this club just barely edged the PADRES, who had major ownage (13-5) thanks to their bullpen, superior defense and (frankly) quite a bit of luck.
It just goes to show how far you can go when your pitching staff, top-to-bottom, is better than everyone else's. It is no exaggeration to point to the Giants' September run and say, that might be the best month of pitching by a staff since, like, ever. They had a stretch of 23 games where they allowed more than three runs twice. The staff ERA in the final month was 1.74. Man, I don't care who you put in the lineup, a 1.74 staff ERA will paper over a lot of sins. I think Brian Wilson put it best after getting that last save, pointing to the four homegrown aces. They all really came through at the end after a brutal August.
HAVING SAID THAT......
They will tank, totally, in 2011. They are a house of cards, built on a foundation of sand.
Who will play short? (Please don't say the big-chested Juan Uribe)
Who will play third? (Please don't say the portly Sandoval, whose benching coincided with the team's improved play in September)
Who will play second? (Please don't say the brittle Freddy Sanchez)
What kind of budget will there be to retool the team with free agents? (Hint: the money you save from Renteria retire will be offset by the contracts it would take to keep Huff and Burrell. How do you want to spend your money?)
Finally, even if you can keep the pieces of the puzzle together, what are the odds that the veterans will have comparable seasons? Do the math. Brian Sabean made some good moves, but he was also extraordinarily fortunate. The club had no major injuries to test its pitching depth, and Burrell and Huff played way better than the scouts thought they would.
Smart money says Sabean will entertain offers for Sanchez with the idea of getting a good young infielder to play short, but in the end sentiment will prevail and they will try to patch it via free agency. With Zito's contract still on the books, they won't have that much to spend.
Anyway, so it probably won't last. Nothing ever does. But there can be no doubt: the Giants are the world champs, and deservedly so. No team played better baseball in the last two months than the orange-and-black, and I can not begrudge any of them their moment in the sun.
2 comments:
i don't think it will be complete doom and gloom, unless the pitching staff suffers catastrophic injuries or the line-up gets completely ravaged. i would definitely not argue with the fact that several of there players over performed and they exceed expectations. They probably won't play as well as they did the year before, but i figure they will be a serious factor in the division race if there pitching holds up. Affeldt will be completely healthy next year. Romo and Wilson are excellent pieces. Lopez is lethal against lefties. that's a pretty decent core four of relievers. Lincecum was Mr. Inconsistency this year; i expect him to perform much better. Bumgarner should improve upon last year. Cain has been consistent. Sanchez is hit or miss, and Zito sucks but hey he has had his moments and i guess you could do worse at the fifth spot. With the line-up, i doubt Burrell comes back but if he does, he should be a situational player. The key is going to be how torres performs and if the giants can get sandoval straighten out. I doubt he is as bad as he played, and i don't think he is as good as he was in 09, so there's a happy medium there. They need to resign ross, especially if torres proves to be a fluke he would be a better choice to play CF than rowand. i figure next year, you going to see Posey, Huff, Sanchez, Uribe, Sandoval, Ross, Torres, and probably rowand. i wouldn't resign burrell because of this: brandon belt. if Belt can perform well in triple AAA, id call him up whenever he is deemed ready, move huff to right, and bench rowand. belt has shown patience, excellent gap power, and solid D. although he only had one year of success, it sounds like he can be a solid contributor, and the scouts seem to be very fond of him, because he has had a ton of success after the giants revamped his swing (lets see how they adjust and vice versa). It's pretty tough to bank on a young kid to be productive, but, i stated earlier, i think the keys to the season are going to be sandoval's progression, torres's ability to show he is legit, and how well belt can accumulate himself to the bigs if he gets called up. It doesn't sound like there are a lot of attractive SS options, so i think the giants have no choice but to keep uribe. there going to be contenders. if they could win a world series with this offense, who knows right?
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