The Giants Baseball Blog

With Opening Day upon us, and what hopes to be the beginning of a trip back to the postseason for the Giants just hours away from starting, I wanted to take a look at the 25-man roster and post predictions for each player. Lineup 1. CF Angel Pagan: 147 G, 540 AB, .285 avg, 10 HR, 52 RBI, 84 R, 20 SB, .732 OPS 2. *2B Marco Scutaro: 103 G, 414 AB, .289, 7 HR, 44 RBI, 52 R, 23 2B, .711 OPS 3. 1B Brandon Belt: 152 G, 550 AB, .292, 20 HR, 79 RBI, 67 R. 11 SB, .845 OPS 4. C  Buster Posey: 146 G, 532 AB, .313, 23 HR, 91 RBI, 72 R, 90 BB, .922 OPS 5. RF Hunter Pence: 155 G, 602 AB, .275, 26 HR, 92 RBI, 85 R, 17 SB, .829 OPS 6. 3B Pablo Sandoval: 140 G, 515 AB, .305, 23 HR, 83 RBI, 66 R, 38 2B, .837 OPS 7. LF Michael Morse: 141 G, 498 AB, .269, 21 HR, 71 RBI, 52 R, 29 2B, .740 OPS 8. SS Brandon Crawford: 153 G, 504 AB, .260, 7 HR, 40 RBI, 52 BB, .691 OPS Rotation 1. LHP Madison Bumgarner:: 34 GS, 18-7, 2.96 ERA, 215 IP, 205 K, 1.07 WHIP 2. RHP Matt Cain: 33 GS, 14-8, 3.55...

Opening Day has arrived! We'll have our annual Giants preview going up a little later today before the game, but I wanted to get our Playoff and Award post out before the games started picking up. Playoffs NL Wild Card Giants over Reds AL Wild Card Royals over Angels NLDS Cardinals over Giants Dodgers over Nationals ALDS A's over Royals Tigers over Rays NLCS Dodgers over Cardinals (7 games) ALCS Tigers over A's (6 games) WORLD SERIES Dodgers over Tigers (6 games) As hard as it is to pick the Dodgers to run the table this year, I think it's accurate. They've had this team set-up for two years now, and it will be their first full year with Cuban phenom Yasiel Puig. If Matt Kemp comes back healthy, Puig misses a sophomore slump and that pitching staff stays healthy, they just have too much firepower to compete with. The only other team I see up in their class in terms of talent are the Washington Nationals. If there's one team who can ...

Finally, we've come to the end of our divisional previews, winding up in the AL East. This is by far the toughest division to pick for me this spring. You could make a compelling case for each of the top-3 teams in this division, so basically it'll come down to a coin flip in terms of predicting them. When in doubt though, take the young, exciting talented team! 1st Place: Tampa Bay Rays Much like the AL West, the East has what is shaping up to be a three team race and whichever team finishes at the top could really be any ones guess. My guess is it goes to the team that stays the healthiest and has young enough core to be playing at a high level come September, and that tells me to pick the Rays. They have some young studs in that lineup led by Longoria and Myers, and the rotation is about as good as any in the AL. Plus, they have the Joe Maddon effect working for them. As long as guys like Ben Zobrist and Desmond Jennings rebound and provide what they're capable of, a...

Here's our take on the AL Central for the upcoming 2014 season. AL Central 1st Place: Detroit Tigers This is one of the easiest picks of our 2014 previews/predictions. They have three top-notch arms at the top of their rotation, and they have a nice, well-rounded lineup with speed and power. If Justin Verlander gets back to his pre-2013 form, then lookout, Detroit could once again be representing the AL in the Fall Classic. They need to address their shortstop issue though, preferably adding one that can hit to help out the lineup. Stephen Drew could help them. 2nd Place: Kansas City Royals   (AL Wild Card) I really like the Royals young lineup, as they have a ton of guys who I think are primed for big seasons. Alex Gordon needs to breakout and hit 30 jacks and .300 already, and Salvador Perez looks like he may be the best young hitting catcher in the AL. Outside of James Shields and Greg Holland, their pitching staff has questions but they have some young talented arms....

We broke the NL down division by division and team by team, but unfortuantely, we don't have time to do that for the entire AL this year. Instead, I will pick how I thing each division will end up, with a brief explanation why. AL West 1st Place: Oakland Athletics The A's should once again be a scrappy, tough to beat team, even after losing talented young righty Jarrod Parker for the year, which is a huge blow. They definitely need A.J. Griffin back ASAP and need to see other youngsters like Dan Strailey and Sonny Gray to take a few more steps forward in 2014. I think Scott Kazmir is going to be a great add though, and they shouldn't miss a beat in the ninth with Jim Johnson taking the reigns. Their lineup has power and speed and should have no issues scoring. If Texas can't get/stay healthy, the A's become the favorites. Right now it's really a crap-shoot between the two anyway as both enter the year neck and neck. Whichever team receives better h...

Finally, with a few days before opening day, we've arrived at the division all of us are interested in. The NL West. Unfortunately for most, you may not like who we've placed atop the division this year, but it just goes to show you we are as unbiased as possible here when making predictions. I'll tell you one thing though, the NL West is no longer the "NL Worst". 1st Place, Los Angeles Dodgers Lineup LF Carl Crawford RF Yasiel Puig CF Matt Kemp*  SS Hanley Ramirez 1B Adrian Gonzalez 3B Juan Uribe C  A.J. Ellis 2B Dee Gordon Rotation LHP Clayton Kershaw RHP Zach Grienke LHP Hyun-jin Ryu RHP Dan Haren RHP Josh Beckett* SU: RH Brian Wilson CL: RH Kenley Jansen Had the Dodgers entered October with a healthy Matt Kemp, who knows what would have happened, as they cruised to a division tittle last season while their star outfielder spent most the year sideline. Kemp is now back and healthy and should be ready to join the team within the first wee...

Yesterday, we broke down the NL East as we see it unfolding over the next 6 months. Today, we'll take a glance at the Central. 1st Place, St. Louis Cardinals Lineup 3B Matt Carpentar 2B Kolton Wong LF Matt Holliday RF Allen Craig C Yadier Molina 1B Matt Adams SS Jhonny Peralta CF Peter Bourjos   Rotation RHP Adam Wainwright RHP Michael Wacha RHP Shelby Miller RHP Lance Lynn LHP Jaime Garcia SU: RH Carlos Martinez CL: Trevor Rosenthal The Cardinals have done a pretty good job at keeping a stronghold on the NL Central over the last 7-8 years and 2014 looks like it will be no different. No matter who the Cards seem to lose, they always end up finding a replacement and that's a sign of a very good organization. Their lineup doesn't really have that one big superstar like they did when Pujols was around, but it's extremely deep with guys who are tough outs nonetheless. I'm curious to see what Matt Adams does with a full-time gig after hitting 17 bi...

Every year towards the end of March, we do our MLB Previews so we can kind of get a lay of the land as the upcoming season gets ready to open. Typically we do previews of all divisions, including the AL, but this year, we're going to narrow it down to NL only for obvious reasons. As always, we'll start in the East: 1st Place, Washington Nationals Lineup CF Denard Span SS Ian Desmond RF Jayson Werth LF Bryce Harper 3B Ryan Zimmerman 1B Adam LaRoche 2B Anthony Rendon C Wilson Ramos Rotation RHP Stephen Strasburg LHP Gio Gonzalez RHP Jordan Zimmermann RHP Doug Fister RHP Taylor Jordan (R) SU: RH Tyler Clippard CL: RH Rafael Soriano The Nationals were the best team in the NL in 2012, looked like they would cruise to the World Series after taking a lead on St. Louis in the NLDS that fall, then coughed it up and never really recovered in 2013. They still have that squad pretty much in tact, with some improvements throughout. Their front-3 in the rotation can ma...

We're roughly halfway through the Cactus League schedule, and with opening day just over 2 weeks away, the Giants look like they're ready to start the marathon! So far, the only pressing question hanging over the Giants surrounds second base and when exactly starter Marco Scutaro will be ready to go. Aside from recovering from surgery he had that inserted a pin into his mallet-finger last September, Scutaro has been battling some back issues that have become a growing concern. He has taken batting practice a couple of times now, which is a good sign, but he's not close to appearing in a Cactus League game and is all but ruling out being ready by opening day. Scutaro's a veteran and has been around a long time, if he says he's not optimistic about starting the season, you should probably take him for his word. With the 39 year-old a likely candidate to start the year on the 15-day DL, it opens up a door in the infield for someone like Mark Minicozzi, Ehire Adrianza...

Perhaps the single biggest disappointment on the Giants roster over the last two seasons looks like he may have figured some things out this offseason. After revamping his offseason workout regimen, signs of the old Tim Lineceum are surfacing. The former ace turned in his second straight impressive start in Surprise on Friday, shutting the Royals down over three frames, allowing just 2 hits with no walks or strikeouts. It took him just 35 pitches to get through the three innings of work, which shows growth in itself. Through his first two starts this spring, Lincecum looks like he's more focused on throwing to contact and keeping hitters off balance than he is on throwing the ball by the hitters. He said at the beginning of spring that his goal this spring was to get quick efficient innings under his belt before flying north to start the year, and so far he's stayed true to form. One of his major problems over the last couple of years has been that long, laboring inning in w...