The Giants Baseball Blog

Roughly a week ago news broke about Tim Lincecum declining a 2-year offer from the Giants while hinting that he'd like to test the market. However, within 72 hours of that news, the Giants and their former ace agreed to terms on a two-year deal that somewhat clouds the rest of the offseason. First off, if you look at the two years and $35 million the Giants are guaranteeing a guy who's gone 20-29 with a 4.76 ERA combined over the last two seasons, it may leave you scratching your head. Even in this inflated pitcher's market, that's about double what most other arms not named Tim Lincecum would have received this winter. At his best the last two seasons, Lincecum has looked nothing more than a quality number 3 starter, and for the most part, a number four or five. For the Giants to be giving a guy like that $17.5M each of the next two seasons is a bit concerning. I mean, that's nearly ace money, and Lincecum has not been an ace since early 2011. That said, the Gian...

The Giants' best shot at retaining their two-time Cy Young award winner was to do so before players could officially file for free agency after the World Series. Now, if Timmy has any shot at returning to San Francisco, the Giants will likely have to pony up more than they originally had hoped. With the way things have been adding up between Lincecum and the Giants, ever since his horrible struggles started early in 2012, you kind of had to see this one coming. The Giants have tried multiple times over the last couple of years to negotiate a long-term deal with their former ace, but they could just never get on the same page. Lincecum turned down a 5-year deal worth upwards of $100M before the 2012 season, and after the way his career has down-sloped the last 2 seasons, I'm sure he's got to be kicking himself for not taking that deal. The latest, and perhaps the last effort at retaining Lincecum again did not come to fruition, as the Giants offered him a reported 2-year d...

I was going to dedicate a whole post to things that went wrong for the Giants in the 2013 season that saw them sink from World Champs to a 10-game below .500 finish, but we already have a firm grip on that. Instead, I thought I'd discuss some of the things that they could actually fix over the winter to get this team back to championship caliber. Instead of analyzing every little detail, I figured it be best to nut-shell the negative in this case, cause every Giants' fan has heard the complaints enough over the last few months. To start things off, the main reasons why this team failed so miserably this season is because they simply had no depth to speak of. They didn't come in with a very good plan in left field, and they ended up getting minimal production there, then when Angel Pagan went down, they just couldn't fill the void. That, coupled with other minor injuries throughout (Pablo Sandoval's issues, Vogey's 2-month absence, Casilla and Affeldt's mis...

Any time a reigning World Champion fails to make the playoffs the following season, it has to be considered a large disappointment. However, there were some silver linings to be taken from the 2013 campaign for the Giants. Although there weren't a whole lot of things that went the Giants way in 2013, the biggest positive that can be taken out of this year was the play of team MVP Hunter Pence, and the reason why it's so big is because he'll actually be sticking around for a while Pence hit a career high 27 home runs, drove in 99, hit .283 and stole 22 bases, also a career high. He displayed a combo of power and speed the Giants haven't seen in their outfield since #25 left. Outside of Hunter Pence, I don't think there was a more steady, consistent Giant in that lineup than Belt throughout, especially over the 2nd half (after adjusting his mechanics a bit at the plate). Over the last two months of the season, Belt hit 7 home runs, drove in 27 and matched a .347 ...

The 2013 season finally comes to an end Sunday and the Giants attempt to use the same recipe for success two years in a row didn't work out for them very well. They had some glaring holes that got exposed throughout the season and it's the reason why they'll be finishing at the bottom of the NL West just 1 year after winning the World Series in 2012. We'll be going back and looking at some ups and downs of the season soon, but I first wanted to look forward to 2014 a bit, as they just completed their first move in shaping next years roster. The Giants inked Hunter Pence to a 5 year, $90 million deal that will keep the energetic, vocal leader in the Bay Area through the 2018 season. It took me a second to process my thoughts on this deal, but at the end of the day (had to throw in the Brian Sabean slogan there), this does make a lot of sense. Just look at Pence's production this year, his first full season in San Francisco. With the season wrapping up Sunday, Pence...

It's been a couple of weeks since my last post, in which time Brandon Belt won an NL Player of the Week award, but that's been about the only thing positive coming out of the Giants' world this August. Obviously, the team has really been out of it for a month or so now, but what's surprising me is the fact we're not seeing more of an infusion of younger players onto the roster. Granted, the Giants do have a lot of youngsters in their starting lineup right now, and other spots are being taken up by veterans who you really can't sit (Pence, Sandoval, Scutaro), I would have thought we'd be seeing some new faces up here sooner than September. There are certainly a few names down in the farm system who are making strong cases for getting a look see this season, and of course there's always those first rounders like Joe Panik and Gary Brown who could get the call just based on pure expectations. There are a few players I'd like to see come up and get sig...

For the first time in 5 seasons, the Giants will be playing the role of spoiler as we embark on MLB's home stretch of the regular season. Barring a miracle, there will be no playoffs this year, no World Series defense, but instead, a new direction for the seasons final 2 months. We're a week into August, the Giants are 50-63 and 13.5 games out of first place in the West, so needless to say it's time to mix things up on this roster, and Bruce Bochy and Brian Sabean are starting to do a little bit of that. The most notable addition to the lineup over the last week, and a guy who should really stay out there the rest of the year as the everyday left fielder, has been Roger Kieschnick. The 26 year-old missed his shot to make an impact at the big league level in '12 when the Giants needed offense, but this time around, he's healthy and he's off to a good start in San Francisco, going 8-24 with 3 RBI. I also wouldn't mind seeing Juan Perez get some looks in cent...