Last year the Giants brought baseball excitement back to San Francisco with a stunning and exhilarating World Series championship. In a season filled with ups and downs the Giants won the Fall Classic with timely hitting and a pitching staff that was superb all season long.
This year, Giants fans entered the season with a feeling of optimism and raised expectations. The Giants hung tough in the first half of the season clinging to first place while attacked by a slew of injuries. During the second half of the season the Giants stumbled their way into second place, and many fans were left wondering, where it all went wrong?
Many could point to the teams overall health issues which had 25 DL stints and notable season ending injuries to star catcher Buster Posey and reliable all-star second baseman Freddy Sanchez. With so many injuries, manager Bruce Bochy was forced to mix and match his lineup on a daily basis.
Others have turned their blame to the management of Bochy and his reluctance to bench struggling veterans in favor of younger players. In particular, the way Bochy coddled first baseman Aubrey Huff. By advanced statistics, Huff is the worst at his position in the National League; however he still leads the Giants in at bats and games played. His eventual replacement Brandon Belt has been confined to the bench or AAA for large portions of the season.
Last year was a career breakthrough for center fielder Andres Torres; he was an offensive spark plug who came through in the clutch countless times during the season. This year he is just one of the many offensively challenged Giants to struggle at the plate. Sophomore John Palladino said, “Last year, he was such a threat at the top of the order. This year, he has just been a strikeout machine.”
No Giants fan can deny that the team would not have reached greatness last year without the savvy additions by General Manager Brian Sabean. He caught lightning in a bottle with outfielders Cody Ross and Pat Burrell and smartly upgraded the bullpen at the trade deadline.
However, in Sabean’s tenure at San Francisco, his obsession with signing veterans has started to take its toll on some fans. His deadline deal for veteran shortstop Orlando Cabrera has proven to be a head-scratcher for many. Sabean did pull the trigger on the Carlos Beltran saga and successfully acquired him from the Mets.
Beltran was struck with a hand injury and the Giants went 5-8 without him, falling to second place.If Beltran stayed healthy, the Giants could be in a better position right now.
Although this season has been painful, the future is not that bleak. Math teacher Andy Ramroth believes the team can be in the playoff race again next season. “With the pitching we have and an offense that can’t possibly be worse than it was this year, I think we will will retain the N.L West next year.”
Pitching will be crucial again with the staff returning all of its key pitchers. The lineup also has the potential to score more runs with the expected promotion of promising young players in the minor leagues and the return of the injured Posey and Sanchez. With this quest for a repeat officially down the drain, fans can turn their attention to next year and hope for another run at the World Series.
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