The Giants Baseball Blog

The Giants took care of one of their big up coming arbitration cases by dealing Jonathon Sanchez to the Royals rather than sinking upwards of $8 million into him for 2012. However, they still have a few big decisions to make with players who were huge during their 2010 Championship run. One of the big names who won't be facing arbitration, but someone the Giants must make a decision on is Cody Ross. It's no secret that Ross was a major disappointment in 2011 after winning NLCS MVP in 2010, but a lot of his slow start can be attributed to injury. Then after the Carlos Beltran trade, he seemed to become the odd man out. Still though, Sabean and Co. need to determine whether or not they'll give Ross the two-year d eal he's seeking (likely for $7 mill per year). Right now, the only guy assured to be in the Giants 2012 starting outfield is Melky Cabrera, so they will definitely be exploring their options over the next couple months. Another key outfielder they need to make a...

Coming off their first big move of the offseason in obtaining Melky Cabrera from the Kansas City Royals, plenty of fans are wondering whats next! One of the biggest needs on the team lies up the middle at shortstop, where offense was non-existent in 2011. Rookie Brandon Crawford had his moments, especially early on after his call-up, but had his batting average well below .200 for most of the season. His glove and arm at short are 2 nd to nobody in the organization, and it's what kept him up at the big league level for so long, but when a guy is hovering around .200, that's a tough bat to keep in the everyday lineup, especially in the NL . The Giants had one of the leagues worst offenses last year and cannot afford to just hand the reigns over to Crawford until his bat improves. Brian Sabean said early on that the Giants are strongly considering sticking with Crawford at short for 2012, though that could just be strategy on Sabean's part letting any potential free agen...

They started out a lot quicker than I was anticipating, but the Giants made their first move of the 2011/2012 offseason, trading Jonathan Sanchez to KC for outfielder Melky Cabrera. It's a very run-of-the-mill trade and not one that has the Giants comunitty necessarily "buzzing". Never the less, one of the Giants biggest problems this season was that leadoff spot and center field, where Andres Torres failed miserably in his attempt to repeat 2010's performance. In comes Melky Cabrera, who had an all-star, break-out 2011 season that saw him hit .305 with 18 homers, 87 RBI and 20 steals, and he should immediately grab hold of one of the outfield jobs and likely the leadoff spot. What's a little concerning though, is that despite his .307 average, Cabrera only managed a .339 OBP, and h e's never been a very high on base type of hitter so he's not a typical leadoff guy. Also, his defensive range suggests he's not a prototypical center fielder either. KC ha...

Even though their offense was dreadful, the Giants managed to keep the season interesting until the final week or so of the season, so they don't have too far to go to improve their chances at returning to the postseason next year. In the 3rd and final segment of the 2011 Season in Review, we take a look at what the Giants must do this winter to get back on top in the NL West! As good as the pitching was, it's caused some people to start to question whether or not Brian Sabean plans to break up that fine staff in order to get more offense onto this roster. At the end of the year, it was put in papers that Sabean would "consider" parting with either Tim Lincecum or Matt Cain if it were to make a big enough offensive impact. I don't agree with that though, as good as this teams pitching is, they really don't have a bunch of arms knocking down the door to get to the big leagues like Cain, Lincecum and Bumgarner did. If they decide to deal one of those guys, it al...

Well, we started our season review off last week here , with the things that went right with the 2011 San Francisco Giants. Today, we break down what kept them out of October and from defending their Championship this Fall. First off, as you can probably guess, this one doesn't take a rocket scientist, because even those not close to this organization, knew exactly what the 2011 Giants problem was and you can sum it up in 2 words: No offens e! However, it goes a little deeper than just that. This team was last in the league in offense because of a few reasons. No, you can't blame it all on Aubrey Huff or Andres Torres, and although it's an easy scapegoat, you can't blame it all on the injuries to Buster Posey or Freddy Sanchez either. They lost Sanchez, but Jeff Keppinger came in and did a fine job in his place. Maybe not quite up to Sanchez's standards defensively, but a strong contact hitter who certainly didn't hurt the team. The one injury that did really h...

Last year, we all know, the Texas Rangers were no match for the potent San Francisco Giants pitching staff, but this time around, they face a starting rotation that isn't nearly as imposing. I just wanted to get a quick World Series preview/prediction out of the way with the series starting tonight, not that I have any outstanding interest in it. I do think the Rangers are the better team and should win, but I also would have never picked St. Louis to make it out of round one with their pitching, so they have been surprising people all month long. It should be a high-scoring se ries and the Rangers have more ammo. Even with Albert Pujols destined in what could be his final year in the Red and White, I see Texas winning in 6. They were there last year and have looked good all postseason long and I just don't see the Cards knocking them off. I think the Brewers would have certainly been a better matchup because of their strong pitching, but if you like offense, you should be i...

In the first part of our 3 part end of season wrap, we'll talk about some of the main things that went right with the Giants in part one, the things that didn't go so well in part 2, and what needs to be done in order to get back where they were in 2010 in part 3. Obviously, as we've been harping all year, and since the season ended, the starting pitching, and really the pitching staff as a whole, was brilliant. There's really nothing more Bochy and Sabean could have asked out of guys like Tim Lincecum, Matt Cain, Madison Bumgarner and Ryan Vogelsong. In the bullpen, the same guys who were nails in the playoffs last fall, picked up right were they left off as Jeremy Affeldt, Javier Lopez, Santiago Cassilla, Ramon Ramirez and Sergio Romo were the main passages from the starters to closer Brian Wilson, who battled some physical problems late which cost him nearly a month of play, but still notched 36 saves and sported a solid 3.11 era. None of the Giants starters won over...