The Giants Baseball Blog

When Brandon Belt went down with the broken thumb a few weeks back, the Giants were going to need someone to step up in his place. Now despite missing 1/4 of their projected 2014 lineup, they have managed to not only keep the team afloat, but become one of the more potent offenses in league. Through the first 6 weeks of the season, Brandon Belt was off to one of the better starts of any hitter in this lineup and was pacing the team in home runs and seemingly coming up with big hit after big hit. However, as hot as Brandon Belt was those first few weeks in April, Pablo Sandoval has been hotter since the big first basemen went down with the fractured thumb. He continued his torrid May with a 1-3 with his 8th home run of the year and 2 runs scored. The Panda was terrible in April and didn't really get it going until the 2nd week of May when he had his first 3-hit game of the year (3-5) vs. the Dodgers on May 11th. Since that game, the all-star third basemen has 25 hits in 67 at-bats...

Through the first month-plus of the regular season, every starter in the Giants rotation aside from Tim Hudson would tell you they need to be pitching better. A huge reason why the Giants are 10 games above .500 despite the hot-and-cold starting pitching has been because of their rock solid bullpen. Look no further back than Monday night's slug-fest with Pittsburgh in which Yusmiero Petit couldn't get the job done filling in for Cain, yet the bullpen came in and combined for 8 2/3 innings of 2 run ball. Juan Gutierrez had a rare hiccup in his 1.2 innings of work, allowing the two runs to score, but the other five relievers went the remaining 7 shutout innings allowing 5 hits, 2 walks and 8 strikeouts. Everybody in that bullpen is doing their job, top to bottom. Petit had a forgetful outing Monday, but was dominant upon being pressed into duty for Cain last week, and should rebound in his next start. The three guys who have really been nails in getting the ball to Romo have be...

After a hot start and a sluggish middle of April, the Giants are heating up again. The starting pitching seems to leveling out a bit after an up-and down couple of weeks to start the year and the offense keeps coming up with the big hit which has led to a 17-11 month of April. We'll talk a little about both units in this post but I wanted to start out with the offense. If you would have told me that Pablo Sandoval would be hitting sub-.200 and Pence and Posey were hovering around .250 with Marco Scutaro still shelved, I would have assumed this offense had a disastrous month. Instead, while Posey and Pence took some time to find their groove, it allowed other players to step up and shine. The offensive MVP for the month would have to be a toss-up between newcomer Michael Morse, who slashed .302/.351/.581 with 6 home runs and 20 RBI in April, and Angel Pagan, who went .340/.380/.470 with 2 HR, 14 RBI and 4 steals. The biggest surprise offensively for the first month would have to g...

We're approaching the 2 week mark here at the start of the season, and with just about everybody in the rotation having had two starts (besides Vogelsong who goes Thursday night), it's pretty obvious where the question mark lies with this team. Tim Lincecum was roasted by the D-Backs for a second straight start Wednesday night, and he once again has people wondering out loud if this is the Lincecum we're stuck with going forward. We all know how bad things were for him throughout 2012, especially the first 2/3 of the season and although he had his moments in 2013, his numbers at the end of the year left much to be desired. This is why it was so crucial for him to get off to a good start this year but instead, if his first two outings are an indication of things to come, 2013 all the sudden doesn't look so bad. He's thrown 10 innings over two starts, allowing 11 earned on 15 hits (including 4 big flies). On a positive, he's walked just 1 batter and struck out 1...

Well, I'm sure I wasn't the only one shaking my head and wondering if this team was still mentally in Spring Training mode as they repeatedly fumbled playable balls and failed on routine plays like a simple run-down. It was certainly a forgettable game on the defensive front for Pablo Sandoval, Joaquin Arias and Brandon Belt, but luckily for those three, the Giants tapped into some of their comeback mojo, 2012 style, and erased a 7-3 deficit in the late innings. San Francisco got on the board first as Angel Pagan drove in Brandon Crawford with an RBI single in the 3rd inning but Arizona came answering back with a 4 spot in the bottom of the fourth inning. They were all of the unearned variety as Madison Bumgarner pitched through some tough luck. It was a strange game in which Bumgarner wasn't really as sharp as he is when he's on and there were runners on seemingly all night, but none of the four runs the D-Backs plated vs. him were earned. He wasn't throwing pa...

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 ...