Giants Thoughts
The Giants have to be considered favorites for the division in 2009, particularly if they keep Sanchez and he develops as I envision him doing, sub-4 ERA in 2009, putting together everything he has learned the past few seasons. With a rotation of Lincecum, Cain, Johnson, Zito, and Sanchez, it won't matter which team we face, we will have a chance to win each game if our starters are on, and I think they will be on more often than not.
People worry about the offense but just because it is not a better offense in the league does not mean they cannot win. With our starting pitching and now our bullpen, our offense should be more than enough to win this division, even if LA resigns Manny and Lowe, particularly if LA don't sign one or the other or both. They are the last team who has not suffered significant losses to their starting lineup/rotation this off-season.
If sign Johnson for next move is "trade Jonathan Sanchez", and that's a terrble signed.
ReplyDeleteIf not, I glad to see Big Unit to be a Giants.
I really don't think the Johnson signing has as much significance on the field as I hope it will have in the clubhouse. I'm hoping the qualities that have made him a Hall of Fame pitcher and tenacious competitor over the years will rub of on not only the other pitchers on the SF staff, but also the everyday players that hopefully learn what it takes to be an all-star performer at the MLB level.
ReplyDeleteBest case scenario is 30 starts, 15-18 quality efforts, ending with 10-12 wins. He'll miss some starts and spend minimal ( hopefully ) time on the DL.
He definitely strengthens the staff and allows some flexibilty with the younger kids early in the season.
Right now, I'd rate the Giants and D'Backs as pretty even in the 2009 NL West race with Colorado in third, well ahead of LA and SD.
There isn't much, if any, hope that Lowe will return to LA and that pitching staff as it stands right now strikes fear into no one.
Yes, he will have a clubhouse presence but his performance in the rotation will be huge because otherwise we would be facing what we had in 2008, a 5th starter who had a disaster start more often than they did a dominant start. That's 30+ starts/games or roughly 20% of the games.
ReplyDeleteMost teams have to deal with the #4 and #5 starters being pretty bad and only have 3 starters who are at least good, if not great. We currently have pitchers in our rotation all capable of a sub 4.00 ERA (or low 4.00 at worse). That is a lot of games where we will have a good pitcher up against the other teams' "fill-a-spot" starter.
Well, if Lowe don't return to LA, they still have Billingsley and Kershaw in it, and with Manny, that might be enough offense to win even if the rest of the rotation isn't that great.
This year will really tells us how good a manager Torre is. There are going to be some real sore heads in the Dodgrer club house:
ReplyDeleteManny: getting less than what he thinks he deserves and dissed by the Dodgers
A Jones: pouts if he's not starting
Pierre: See Jones
However, if, and it's a big 'if,' Furcal is healthy, he adds a lot to a team and may even be able to overcome the pissing and moaning from the other veterans. If Furcal goes down, that team will badly underperform. And losing Saito will probably cost them 5 games.
Losing Saito won't be that big of a blow....certainly not 5 games worth. He missed a large portion of last season and they really didn't miss him that much.
ReplyDeleteSomeone needs to let LA know that pitching and defense win games in MLB.
ReplyDeleteLatest word is that they are going after Dunn and Abreau. Lot of work needs to be done by both SoCal squads.
Padres don't have the resources and LA is without a plan.
With the Denver Post reporting that the Giants are pursuing Manny, do you have any thoughts? You've made strong arguments about the improved pitching staff, both the bullpen and the rotation (Big Unit's addition). With the addition of Manny, the lineup is anchored allowing the Giants to move Rowand and free up balance sheet. An outfield rotation of Manny, Lewis, Winn and Scheirholtz could be quite productive. Sandoval, Molina, and Freddie Lewis all benefit from Manny's presence int he lineup. Seems to me, the models would suggest 90+ victories in '09.
ReplyDeleteAlthough manny would be a huge addition to our lineup, we have to wonder what manny we will be getting. Will we be getting "show me the money" rameirez who tries hard and hits in the high threes, or "I've already been shown the money" manny who demands trades yearly and rolls around on balls in left field
ReplyDeleteI think we'll probably resign Rich Aurilia and that's it. Oh well. At least we can take comfort in the fact that our pitching SHOULD be much better, we SHOULD get better production from Rowand, we SHOULD get better production from the SS spot, we SHOULD benefit from a full year of Sandoval, we SHOULD get something out of Lowry, the youngsters SHOULD naturally improve, etc.
ReplyDeleteNegatively though we SHOULD lose some production from Molina and Winn, Johnson SHOULD regress(He's 40-freakin'-5!) and Howry might not regain his '07 form. Plus we were pretty lucky avoiding injuries to our key players.
I think we'll improve by 5 wins at the most. The lack of offense will doom us again.
You never know. Our surplus of arms could lead to a mid-season trade or something.