The Giants Baseball Blog

With Johnny Cueto passing his physical last week and officially being introduced  as a San Francisco Giant, the orange and black have shored up their starting rotation. Now, with roughly 8 weeks until players report for spring they can shift all of their focus into the outfield. Obviously a popular question after the Giants signed Cueto last week was whether or not the Giants had the resources left to upgrade left field. Most assumed that the Giants would pretty much be done, but Bobby Evans actually said he would be surprised if they weren't able to upgrade there. He also said recently that the team would be more than comfortable with Gregor Blanco heading into the year if need be. So the big question is which route is the most realistic way to upgrade left field, if they are indeed able to? All outfielders who were available after Jason Heyward are still available on December 22nd, which is a bit surprising as many thought things would start falling into place after Heyward si

Well, if you remember earlier this offseason when the top-three free agent starting pitchers came off the board so quickly, it left Johnny Cueto as the cream of the crop pretty early on. I also posted shortly after the Zach Grienke signing that it was Johnny Cueto or bust for SF . Needless to say, the team did not "bust"! The Giants were reportedly in on Johnny Cueto sort of all along, but were never considered favorites after signing Jeff Samrdzija to that big deal earlier this month. However, the Giants still needed a starter, probably compared the money they'd give to Cueto to the money they'd have to pay a guy like Mike Leake and decided it better to take that last "potential ace" off the market, signing him to a 6-year, $130M contract. I don't blame them one bit. I mean, Mike Leake, who's about the same age as Cueto, has nowhere near Cueto's ability to dominate when he's on. I mean, just look at game two of the World Series last ye

There has been so much talk all over the airwaves and throughout internet media sources about Major League Baseball free agency and most of the talk has centered on the free-agent starting pitching market. It does make some since though as there were really only two true, legit aces on the market in David Price and Zack Greinke. That's no knock on Johnny Cueto or Jordan Zimmerman (who are aces on plenty of squads out there) but the former two are the top guys on whatever staff they join, baring maybe a few exceptions. So, it makes since why so much attention has centered around the starting pitching market, but with Johnny Cueto the only real intriguing arm yet to find a home (and my guess is that should be coming sooner than later), let's just hope it's not the Dodgers. As for the next wave of arms (Samardzija, Mike Leake, Wie Yen-Chen, Hisashi Iwakuma, Kenta Maeda), Jeff Samardzija, considered by many the next best thing after the front-four, landed with the Giants. Alt

For a team that was heavy in the running for the two top arms on the free agent market, David Price and Zack Greinke, the Giants had to settle for a consolation prize on Saturday. The Giants came to terms with free agent right-hander Jeff Samradzija on a 5-year, $90 million deal in order to slot hard-thrower into the number 2 spot in their rotation behind Madison Bumgarner. Even when the Giants won their last tittle in 2014, they didn't really have a starting pitcher (or many relief arms for that matter) that Bruce Bochy felt comfortable using and Jeff Samardzija will give them just that. There are some concerns about the season Samardzija is coming off of with the ChiSox where he struggled throughout and posted an 11-13 record to go with a 4.96 ERA. It's not like it was a fluke ERA either as he was hit hard, giving up a league-high 229 hits coupled with 29 big flies. Now of course the Giants are hoping a return to the NL will mean a return to his pre-2015 numbers but to te

Now, bear with us for this post as the Greinke post broke just hours after we originally posted this article and didn't fell it necessary to redo the whole thing with another post coming Sunday. As you've probably heard by now, Zack Greinke will not be coming to San Franciso and inked a deal with the Diamondbacks instead.  In this article we broke down the similarities between Greinke and other top free agent right-hander Johnny Cueto. So, read the article by all means, just now that Greinke is no longer an option In fact, we here at The Giants Baseball Blog are kinda glad Greinke went elswhere besides LA as we'd be perfectly content with Johnny Cueto and here's why: Just last post we gave a lay of the land in the free agent starting pitching department, and with things moving so quickly over the last few days, we may not be able to get many more opinions out before it's too late and every body's been signed. Anyway, this one is going to be pretty short a

With the first two big offseason signings in the books and the Winter Meetings just around the corner, things are about to really start heating up on the baseball hot stove front. That first big signing of the winter involved a guy the Giants had firmly on their radar, and a guy they sorely could have used to help head their rotation with Madison Bumgarner. Instead of heading out west though, power-righty Jordan Zimmermann choose to ink a five-year deal with the Detroit Tigers as they attempt to fill the void they never were able to after Max Scherzer left. Zimmerman was a guy I really had hoped they'd target because I knew he would be significantly cheaper than David Price and Zach Grienke but not to the extent we're seeing. David Price just inked a ridiculous 7/$217M deal with the Red Sox as they try and right their ship after a very disappointing 2015 campaign. Now I like David Price and lefties like him don't come around too often but he's not even the best left-

With only Madison Bumgarner, Jake Peavy and an uncertain Matt Cain under contact for 2016, it's obvious where the majority of the Giants' attention should be early on in the offseason. Luckily for them, there are set to be more than a few options in the free-agent market. Last winter, the Giants were in heavy pursuit of one of the top arms on the market in Jon Lester, narrowly missing out to the Chicago Cubs. They also strongly considered James Shields too, but wound up spending significantly less by re-signing Jake Peavy and I think they did so with an eye towards this offseason. Here is the list of the upper-tier arms that are set to hit the open market after the World Series: RHP Johnny Cueto, RHP Zach Grienke, LHP Scott Kazmir, LHP David Price, RHP Jordan Zimmerman. Any of those guys, some more than others obviously, would look nice slotted behind MadBum in the Giants rotaion. The problem is, the Giants need more than just a single, top of the rotation arm, so that may en

It looked for a second there towards the end of August that the Giants may have a late season push in them after all, however, as the injuries amounted down the stretch, the Giants drifted further and further out of contention as September grew later. First off, I'd like to thank you for returning to The Giants Baseball Blog , as we've been on a short hiatus for over the last month or so. The Giants falling out of contention coincided with hour changes at work and it enabled me from watching games on a daily basis and prevented me from being able to give genuine thoughts that weren't already being discussed on the web on airwaves. However, the season has ended and everybody has their own opinion on how things went, what can be taken from the 2015 season and of course, what needs to be done to return to success in 2016. During the offseason, we'll certainly be checking in weekly then once spring training rolls back around we should return to multiple posts per week a

For the most part over the last few years, when the Giants have stayed healthy as a team, they've found themselves atop the baseball world. However, in 2011 (Buster Posey the big one) and 2013 (Pagan, Scutaro missed significant time) they struggled mightily and failed to even reach October. Here we are In 2015, and as we hit the stretch drive, the injury bug has reared it's ugly head in SF once again. Hunter Pence has been a stud when he's been been able to stay on the field this year, but the right fielder missed two months to start the year and now has re-landed on the DL at one of the worst possible times with a strained oblique. This could be tricky because, while best-case scenario has the Giants' star right fielder will be back in uniform for the first week of September, obliques are far from predictable. It's kept some players out up to a month at a time and one has to wonder with Pence's violent plate approach if it may take him a little longer than av

After seeing a 6-0 lead evaporate in Atlanta on Monday night behind Matt Cain, the Giants were determined to not let another winnable game slip away Tuesday. Fortunately this time they got a strong outing out of Jake Peavy, as well as a huge Hunter Pence 3-run blast to avoid another late letdown. For fans who were wondering why the Giants were so adamant about adding a starting pitcher before the deadline, they got their answer on Monday night. With the amount of time he's missed and questions still surrounding that flexor-tendon in his right forearm, Matt Cain has sort of become the big question mark in the Giants rotation. Tim Lincecum is shelved for the foreseeable future and Tim Hudson was ousted from the rotation after the Mike Leake acquisition so Cain has all the sudden been put under a microscope. He's made 6 starts now since his return, so we have a pretty good idea of what he's going to present down the stretch. He's rocking a 2-2 record with a 4.91 ERA, a 1

With moves happening left and right and targets the Giants had on their radar finding new homes (David Price and Cole Hamels in particular), Bobby Evans decided to go with plan B. The Giants and Red agreed to a deal that will send RHP Mike Leake to San Francisco in exchange for bright young right-handed prospect Keury Mella and power hitting pseudo-prospect Adam Duvall. Fans that were holding out hope that the team would be able to find that true number two starter, and another ace to pair with Madison Bumgarner didn't quite get their wish, but the Giants are bringing in a rock solid starter nonetheless. Leake had posted a 9-5 record with a 3.56 ERA and 1.15 WHIP over 21 starts for the Reds and he's coming off back-to-back sub-4 ERA seasons in which he had double digit wins (14 in '13 and 11 in '14). While he's going to deepen the rotation and will likely slot in behind MadBum in the 2 slot, he wasn't quite the caliber of pitcher I was hoping the Giants co

We're about 72 hours from the July 31st non-waiver trade deadline and although their isn't one particularly glaring area of concern on the Giants' roster right now, it hasn't kept Bobby Evans and Brian Sabean from scouring the market for potential upgrades. The Giants have been on of the better teams in baseball since the All-Star break, and now with the return of Nori Aoki Monday night, they are finally working with a full deck. Surprisingly, the Giants have cruised to their 55-44 record without having their projected opening day roster in-tact together much at all. They were without Cain, Peavy and Pence for much of the first couple months, then Aoki and Affeldt hit the shelve, but the gang is back in full force and in plenty of time for the stretch run. Now, with all the key cogs healthy, you get an idea of how good this team can be, and it's no surprise they've gone 9-1 since break but that doesn't necessarily mean this team is flawless and is a sure f

The Giants have been struggling mightily since the calendar flipped from June to July, and a big reason for those struggles has been the play of the offense. They've had multiple guys go through slumps at the same time in recent weeks but all that came to a halt on Friday night at AT&T as the Giants had a historic night at the plate. Duffy relevant in ROY chase Facing what appears to be one of the most sought after commodities of this trade season, Cole Hamels, the Giants surprisingly put forth their best offensive performance of the season, scoring 15 runs, but also set a San Francisco Giants record with 22 hits in the game. 3 different players had four-hit games, and all three of them really needed it. None perhaps more than Justin Maxwell, who's roster spot may be in jeopardy as the trade deadline approaches and the Giants' apparently searching for outfield depth, needed the breakout and he definitely got it. He went 4-5 with 3 doubles, helping distance his bat