This year's San Francisco Giants are playoff or bust.
This team on paper has all the tools to make the playoffs in a significantly weaker National League. They can make the playoffs by winning the National League West – but this might be a tough task because the Arizona Diamondbacks are very good after acquiring Trevor Cahill from the Oakland A's and are only getting better with the likes of Trevor Bauer and Tyler Skaggs waiting in the wings.
Or the Giants can make the playoffs by using the new play-in game rule instated this year. They would play the other wild card team in a one game playoff to get into the postseason. And as I said before, this is a much weaker National League where the Giants will surely finish as the 4th or 5th best team. And considering that either Tim Lincecum, Matt Cain or Madison Bumgarner would pitch that game, you have to figure the Giants will win that game no matter who they play, whether it's the Braves, Brewers, or Nationals.
They have Lincecum, Cain, and Bumgarner – older, more polished – creating arguably the best 1-2-3 top of a rotation, along with Ryan Vogelsong and Barry Zito - Is this the year he finally gets it together? - rounding out the rotation. They bring back the same bullpen that was one of the best in the league last year, minus Ramon Ramirez (sent to Mets with Andres Torres for Angel Pagan). And although Brian Wilson may be on the decline, he is still a dynamic closer.
The Giant's final 25-man roster definitely shows that Bruce Bochy is trying to increase the offense to support his great pitching. They chose to keep Hector Sanchez as back up catcher – who can hit but the jury is still out on his catching ability – over the hitting challenged Eli Whiteside and chose to ship Chris Stewart out of town.
The Giants also kept Brandon Belt and Brett Pill on the major league roster and will start Belt at first base. I am hoping that Belt wins this job outright and gets the chance to keep the job. But I feel the Giants (Bochy in particular) has set up Belt to fail. Belt can flat out hit, but he needs time and support behind him so that he can progress. If Belt starts to slump, he has Pill breathing down his neck and an Aubrey Huff, who does not want to/can not play the outfield, waiting to jump on that 1st base job.
Huff starts the season in left field. Hopefully his mindset has finally accepted the move to the outfield – he had a bad attitude last year and look at the disaster that was. New comer Melky Cabrera now starts in right field and that bumps Nate Schierholtz to the bench. This new Huff-Pagan-Cabrera is devoted to hitting and is an upgrade over last year's Burrell-Torres-Huff and the World Series' outfield of Burrell-Torres-Ross.
The infield is anchored by the return of Buster Posey at catcher, with Belt at first, All-Star third baseman Pablo Sandoval, and hometown fielding wiz-kid Brandon Crawford at shortstop. The big question mark in the infield is at second base. Right now, a platoon of Ryan 'TheRiot' Theriot and Emmanuel Burriss are holding down the fort for Freddy Sanchez. Sanchez is now a slightly above average hitter, but he just seems to be perpetually hurt.
The newest addition is the increase in speed at the top of the line-up. It will be interesting as we've almost forgot what a Giants base runner steals a base. Pagan and Cabrera have the ability to steal 50+ bases between the two of them. Burriss and Theriot also provide plus plus speed whether it's off the bench or filling in for Freddy Sanchez.
So, yes, the Giants should make the playoffs one way or another. And once in the playoffs, the Giants become one of the most dangerous teams around. The name of game in the playoffs is all about shut-down pitching. We all remember what our pitching did in the 2010 postseason – Lincecum, Bumgarner, and Cain with 2.43, 2.18, and 0.00 ERAs respectively.
If they get to the playoffs, the Giants have a good shot at winning the World Series. They just need to get there first.
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