San Francisco Giants are WORLD CHAMPIONS! (Pirates, schedule, playoffs, win)

[AADAD]

Last year we were in Maui when the Giants got hot. Amazing. When we pulled the Phillies I told my kid "we're gonna get killed"....and she said, "Daddy you gotta root for your team".

I have been having a side dish of crow since then most meals.

Baseball is about heart. It was good to be reminded of that.


Go Barry

[Upton]

Originally Posted by Texas User

Giants have pulled within 3.5 games of Braves and have one more extra game then Braves.

If Giants go into AZ 3 back then Giants control their own destiny to win the NL West!


ARE YOU KIDDING ME?

WE JUST CAMEBACK FROM NOWHERE!

Snakes won..on a broken bat HR no less. Things are just going right for Arizona..

The Giants are 5.5 back in th NL West , and while they're 3.5 down in the WC, they have two teams in front of them. Plus they have to face Kershaw tonight.....4-0, ERA 1.04 versus the Giants this year.

POFF is still only 5.2%..

It's been a nice run to end the season, but I wouldn't be getting my hopes up too much..

[Finger Laker]

yep - elimination #s are still pretty low - 4 for the Division and 6 for the WC

very good run - but still have to leap over St. L even for the WC position

they are doing there part with a very strong run - but as hashed out a little bit back in the thread it will take a lot more than a good run to get it done

[Grandstander]

The Ginats eight game win streak has come against LA, San Diego and Colorado. The two foundations of Giants victories this year have been winning one run games, (33-21) and pounding the peanuts out of their division rivals. (40-23)

The good news is that all their remaining games are against NL West teams.

The other good news is that they have reduced their magic number from 18 with 12 games remaining, to 12 games with nine remaining. This moves them from having 33% of their fate being out of their control, to 25% of their fate being out of their control.

The bad news is that six of the remaining nine games are on the road.

[Texas User]

Originally Posted by AADAD

Last year we were in Maui when the Giants got hot. Amazing. When we pulled the Phillies I told my kid "we're gonna get killed"....and she said, "Daddy you gotta root for your team".

I have been having a side dish of crow since then most meals.

Baseball is about heart. It was good to be reminded of that.


Go Barry

Barry was part of the celebration in the parade in SF.

[Texas User]

Originally Posted by Upton

Snakes won..on a broken bat HR no less. Things are just going right for Arizona..

The Giants are 5.5 back in th NL West , and while they're 3.5 down in the WC, they have two teams in front of them. Plus they have to face Kershaw tonight.....4-0, ERA 1.04 versus the Giants this year.

POFF is still only 5.2%..

It's been a nice run to end the season, but I wouldn't be getting my hopes up too much..

Even though it was a long shot for the Giants and still it. Things are getting interesting though.

Giants 5.5 Back but we have 1 more game then AZ. If Giants go into AZ 3 back, then Giants control their own destiny.
3.5 back of Braves but 1 more game then Braves left.

I think Giants have a better shot at AZ then ATL.

[Grandstander]

It is inning six in LA with the Dodgers leading 2-0. I had been writing about how aggressive Kershaw was against the running game and tonight he has already picked off two Giants from first.

Inexplicably, with runners on first and second and two out in the bottom of the fifth, Matt Kemp took off on an attempted steal of third. He was caught...the third out at third...a bush league mistake.

At the start of the season, the Giants lineup was set to be...Posey, Huff, Sanchez, Tejada, Sandoval, Burrell, Torres and Ross. Of that group, only Torres is playing tonight. Of the eight position players out there now, only two were even with the club when the year began.

[Texas User]

Originally Posted by Grandstander

It is inning six in LA with the Dodgers leading 2-0. I had been writing about how aggressive Kershaw was against the running game and tonight he has already picked off two Giants from first.

Inexplicably, with runners on first and second and two out in the bottom of the fifth, Matt Kemp took off on an attempted steal of third. He was caught...the third out at third...a bush league mistake.

At the start of the season, the Giants lineup was set to be...Posey, Huff, Sanchez, Tejada, Sandoval, Burrell, Torres and Ross. Of that group, only Torres is playing tonight. Of the eight position players out there now, only two were even with the club when the year began.

Lot of injuries. Next year, this club can be even better then last year.
What do you think?

[Texas User]

Arizona lost so Giants still have a shot.

The goal is to win the next two vs Dodgers and lost that AZ loses one more.

Go into AZ and sweep AZ.

[filihok]

Originally Posted by Texas User

Lot of injuries. Next year, this club can be even better then last year.
What do you think?

Unlikely. Let's quickly break it down by position
Catcher
2010: Molina (.6 WAR) Posey (3.8)
2012: Posey (4.5-5.0)
I'm not exactly sure what the prognosis for Posey's recovery is. I'd say 4.5-5.0 WAR from the position is a fair estimate for Posey coming back but maybe needing some time to get back into the swing of things.

First base
2010: Huff (3.6), Ishikawa (0)
2012: Belt?, Pill?, Huff? (2.0 total)
Who's going to play first? Huff is under contract, but Belt might be the better player. But Belt might not be the better player, he hasn't been impressive so far. However, Huff is a poor defensive OFer and much more useful at first.

Second base
2010: Sanchez (2.4)
2012: Sanchez (2.5)
Sanchez is also injured, and I haven't followed his injury that closely. 2-3 WAR is about what he's capable of producing.

Third base
2010: Sandoval (1.7)
2012: Sandoval (5.5)
Sandoval had an off 2010. He's a very good player.

Shortstop
2010: Uribe (2.5), Renteria (1.2)
2012: Crawford, Fontenot (1.0)
I don't think Crawford can hit enough to be a everyday major leaguer. Giants will probably look outside the organization.

Leftfield
2010: Huff (1.1), Burrell (2.8), Ross (.2), Torres (1.0)
2012: Ross, Belt, Huff (2.0 total)
Same problems as at first. Belt needs to be in the lineup, but where does he play? I have no faith that Huff can bounce back-especially not to his 2010 level

Centerfield
2010: Torres (3.9)
2012: Torres (3.0)
Not a big believer in Torres to put up another year like 2010.

Right field
2010: Schierholtz (.8), Guillen (.2), Huff (1.1)
2012: Huff, Belt, Schierholtz (2 WAR total)?
Who's going to play there? A mish-mash of players. None of them THAT good.

Starting Pitching
2010: Lincecum (5.1), Cain (4.0), Sanchez (2.7), Zito (2.2), Bumgarner (2.2) Wellemeyer (-.7)
2012: Lincecum (5.0), Cain (4.5), Bumgarner (5.0), Sanchez (2.0), Zito/Vogelsong (2.0)
The pitching staff will continue to be very strong. Maybe even better than 2010. The team needs to re-sign Tincecum (he's in his last year of arbitration). Sanchez is a free agent after 2011. Don't know if he'll be back, and don't know how he'll perform after his injury. SF might go with a younger and cheaper option here. Zito and Vogelsong are unknowns. Vogelsong will be eligible for arbitration and will get a huge raise. Maybe Vogelsong and Zito round both round out the rotation with Sanchez moving on?

Relief pitching:
2010: Wilson (2.7), Romo (1.2), Casilla (.9)
2012: Hard to project relievers as bullpens are so fluid. All the important guys from this year come back. How will Wilson respond to his injury?

Adding everything up
2010: Total WAR 47.2
2012: Total WAR 45.5
Call it a toss up.

This year they're on track for about 40 WAR. Give them about 5 more wins next year puts them on track for 90 wins.