My Giants Business Plan: Core Rotation

I haven't written for my business plan in a while, but now have realized that something I've written about before could be incorporated into it.  In a previous chapter in my Giants business plan, I discussed how a successful (i.e. successful baseball playoff team) team needs at least two aces if not more.

Since then, I have discussed (and analyzed a number of times) that during the golden years for the Giants rotation, from 2009 to 2013, they had at least 3 starters who were great dominant starters, 1 starter who filled what I called the Zito role and 1 starting rotation spot that ended up rotating among some good and not so good starters.  Even with that 5th starter, which basically every team has at least one of, the Giants had Top 3-5 standing in the majors/NL during that period.   This post will be the latest entry in my Giants business plan series.

Your 2018 Giants: Sweeping the Dodgers, Sort Of

The Giants swept the weekend series with the Dodgers, as technically their one loss was the game moved from the rained out game earlier in the month, but according to official rules (per Schulman), the loss counts as part of this series, so there you go, sort of.  Still, winning a four game series is good, doing it against the Dodgers is great.  I thought I would cover some subjects (plus celebrating winning a series against the Dodgers).

As always, thank you to Baseball-Reference.com for their data, I would not be able to do any of my work without their wonderful database.

Your 2018 Giants: Stratton Status Check

I've been writing about how Stratton is going to be a key starter for the Giants this season, of putting us back to the golden era of starters we had early on, and he has not disappointed so far, with a 2.32 ERA, which is close to his 2.42 ERA in his last 9 starts of 2017.  But there is a lot of noise in the data for both 2017 and 2018 because of SSS, and it probably still exists to a great extent if we just cover those 15 games started, but since I started the data collection, I thought I would finish up this thought.  As always, thank you to Baseball-Reference.com for their data, I would not be able to do any of my work without their wonderful database.

Your 2018 Giants: Big Mac Attack is Back

Like a lot of Giants fans, I'm excited to see Mac Williamson get to come back up and see what he can do in the majors.  Unlike a lot of Giants fans, I don't grouse about his lack of opportunities.  In this post, I'm going to see whose impression is correct.

Your 2018 Giants: Big Six Top Giants Prospect Lists

I sometimes post a Big Six Giants prospect list on my blog - as, generally, while there are a lot of interesting prospects, there are maybe 4-8 who are really interesting from the viewpoint of contributing this year or contributing in a big way in the future - but frankly have not made the time to do it before the season began.  Plus, frankly, I'm not that good deep into the Giants farm system, if you want that, DrB's website is a much better choice, and Roger Munter is also good for that too, I provided a link for him below as well.  But to add value, I break it out into two parts, basically one to cover players that should be expected in the majors this season, and the second to cover interesting players who are showing a lot of potential but perhaps not covered as much as others who are closer to reaching the show. 

One saying I've heard is that in any particular season, on average, you got two eventual starters and two eventual contributors in the farm system.  That seems to be a good adage, something to keep in mind when thinking about any farm system.

Here are some on-line links to prospect profiles (I tried to link to text below, but for some reason Blogger kept on dying on me...):

• MLB Pipeline:  http://m.mlb.com/prospects/2018?list=sf
• John Sickels:  https://www.minorleagueball.com/2018/2/28/17061970/san-francisco-giants-top-20-prospects-for-2018
• Roger Munter:  http://prospects1500.com/top-50-lists/san-francisco-giants-2018-top-50-prospects/
• DrB:  http://whenthegiantscometotown.blogspot.com/2018/01/drbs-2018-giants-top-50-prospects.html

The season has already begun, but I haven't really looked much at how the minor leagues are doing right now, so I'll write some notes regarding what I knew about the season before the season, just to get this out there.  And I thought I would get this out today since Beede is slated to pitch for the Giants.

Ignore if you don't care or it's too late for you, it's cool, I just wanted to get it out.

Your 2018 Giants: Offense Greatly Improved

After the Giants early offensive struggles (albeit, against one of the top rotations in the majors in one of the more extreme pitcher's parks in the majors), many were shouting, "The Giants Offense sucks!  The offense sucks!"  I disagree.

Your 2018 Giants: Giants Bullpen is In Good Shape

I see people worried about our bullpen, so I thought I would tackle that concern.