The Giants lost their third straight game today, which resulted in the Diamondbacks’ sweep of the three-game series during MLB’s opening weekend. Thankfully, the first three games of a 162-game season aren’t too significant, but the Giants must be somewhat concerned that they were swept by their biggest NL West rival. Surprisingly, fans witnessed a lot of positive elements of this 2012 Giants team in this past series, but, unfortunately, they also witnessed some aspects that need to be improved immediately.

The Giants starting lineup for the first two games of the series was:
1) Pagan CF
2) Cabrera RF
3) Sandoval 3B
4) Posey C
5) Huff LF
6) Belt 1B
7) Theriot 2B
8) Crawford SS
9) Pitcher’s Spot
This starting lineup will most likely be the regular lineup for the rest of the season. This particular Giants team is supposed to feature stronger offense and more youth, which it does. If Burriss had started in Theriot’s place, the Giants would have featured their first all-homegrown Opening Day infield since 1993, which would have been fun to see. Regardless, Giants’ management has clearly made a stronger effort to be more committed to the younger players in this organization, which is an impressive step. In addition to this new committment, the Giants were able to score 14 runs in these three games, which is definitely an improvement since last season. The offense this season features more speed with Pagan, Cabrera, and Blanco, and this offense generally appears stronger through all eight spots (excluding the pitcher’s spot). Also, the fact that Buster Posey was able to catch all three games with no pain is a great sign for all Giants fans and a definite sigh of relief of some sorts.

The Giants showed some areas of concern in this series though. First of all, they committed six errors during the series (three on Friday and three on Sunday). Posey looks a little rusty behind the plate and has committed three errors. Posey hasn’t caught a full game in almost a year, so a couple missteps is to be expected. Brandon Crawford made this team because of his defensive prowess at the shortstop position, however, he has committed two errors on fairly routine groundballs and during important situations where outs were severely needed. Crawford is most likely nervous to be starting consistently now, so his confidence will hopefully come back soon.

Secondly, the Giants have a very left-handed heavy lineup. Against right-handed pitching, this is obviously not a very significant issue, but the Giants are bound to experience problems once they face more consistent left-handed pitching. After scoring six runs on Josh Collmenter (a right-handed pitcher), D-backs manager Kirk Gibson put in reliever Wade Miley (a left-handed pitcher) for four innings, and that’s when the Giants offense was completely shut down for the rest of the game. Bruce Bochy might have to consider starting Brett Pill more just to have more of a right-handed hitting presence.

Lastly, the Giants have to improve upon their batting average with runners in scoring position, which was one of their biggest problems last season. So far this season, the Giants are batting .167 with runners in scoring position and .125 with two outs and runners in scoring position. Last season, the Giants batted .219 with runners in scoring position and .173 with two outs and runners in scoring position. Even if the Giants offense is more well-rounded than last season, clutch hitting has to become a priority to everyone, because if not, the Giants won’t accomplish much this season. Excellent pitching can only carry a team so far, as we saw last season.

This past series didn’t exactly display superior pitching either. It is very early in the season, so fans shouldn’t be too concerned about pitching yet. However, Tim Lincecum continued his poor spring training performances into the first game and Madison Bumgarner looked frazzled in his start. Matt Cain pitched fairly well in the series finale besides a few poor pitching sequences. Lincecum will find a way out of his slump, because he always does. Once he gets into his usual rhythm, Lincecum will hopefully remain reliable throughout the rest of the season. Bumgarner didn’t do well at the beginning of last season, so hopefully his poor performance during this series is because he hasn’t settled into his regular form yet. Last season, Bumgarner had a 6.17 ERA in the month of April. In May of last season though, Bumgarner had a 2.21 ERA. Bumgarner is still very young, so hopefully he will settle down soon and get back to his dominant pitching.

Giants’ fans don’t need to worry, yet. The D-backs are an extremely talented team with powerful hitting and they have one of the best pitchers in baseball right now, Ian Kennedy, so this is not a total disaster that they lost this series. The Giants will face the D-backs in six more series this year, so there is ample time for recovery and revenge. The Giants face the Rockies in their next series, so hopefully they can start to find consistent hitting and pitching.

The San Francisco Giants traded Jonathan Sanchez and Ryan Verdugo (a left-handed pitcher in the Giants’ minor league system) to the Kansas City Royals today for outfielder Melky Cabrera. This past season, Jonathan Sanchez showed a decline and wasn’t the same dominating pitcher that he was during the 2010 season. He was 4-7 this season with a 4.26 ERA, and he missed the entire last month of the season with a left ankle sprain. Sanchez had somewhat of a rocky road while with the Giants. He went from being a strong prospect at the starting pitcher position, then struggled with command and became a relief pitcher. Then he threw a no-hitter and regained his starter status, he continued his dominance all the way through the World Series title, and this past season he never seemed to reach that same level of dominance. Ryan Verdugo was 8-6 with a 4.35 ERA for Double-A Richmond this past season.

Jonathan Sanchez

Melky Cabrera, in his first season with the Royals, hit a career-best .305, 18 home runs, and 87 RBI’s last season. Cabrera came into MLB with the Yankees and played there from 2005-2009. He won a World Series title with the Yankees in 2009. In 2010, he played for the Atlanta Braves before being traded this past season to the Royals. Cabrera could play center field for the Giants, but it ultimately depends on if the Giants retain Cody Ross or Andres Torres. However, Cabrera is a versatile athlete who can play any outfield position, so this acquisition gives the Giants many options.

Melky Cabrera

This is a significant trade for the Giants. No one knows if Cabrera will become a huge difference maker this upcoming season. However, this trade is significant because it shows that Sabean is not afraid to trade pitching for hitting. He has shown reluctance to do so in the past couple seasons even when our hitting severely needed an upgrade. Sabean first showed this new trend when the Giants acquired Beltran last season for our strongest pitching prospect, Zack Wheeler. This trade is more significant though because it involves an actual starting pitcher, not just a prospect. Sabean said that they have not decided if they are going to target another starting pitcher, or if they will just stick with Barry Zito. If the Giants want to win another World Series title soon, the hitting had to be upgraded, obviously, and this is the first move towards a stronger, more well-rounded offense. The Giants still need to answer the shortstop question and need to bring in a few more hitters, but this is a great start to the offseason. The Giants re-signed both Lopez and Affeldt and have now brought in a quality hitter.

Carlos Beltran

This trade might also signal that the Giants are unlikely to bring Carlos Beltran back. This statement might be a little too speculative, but the Giants simply might not have the money or the space in the outfield to bring him back. To read my opinion on if Beltran is worth bringing back read here. So far, the Giants have been tactical and smart in their spending and trades, so hopefully this trend continues throughout the rest of the offseason.

It all started when MLB told Brian Wilson that he couldn’t show too much orange on his cleats. This was such an absurd claim, especially since MLB claimed that the hitters that Wilson was facing were “distracted” by the immense amount of orange on his cleats. The reason why these particular hitters might have been slightly “distracted” could be that Wilson throws 98 mph fastballs, which breeze past most competent hitters. I severely doubt that his shoes were at all offensive to the hitters. MLB required that his shoes be 50% orange and 50% black. This sounds amusing, but sadly, this is actually what was required by the league. Again, so absurd. As a form of mockery, Wilson “Sharpie-d” 50% of the shoes so it was a more “balanced” shoe.

The original orange shoes

Once he started to grow out the beard, Wilson decided to continue the trend of mockery. Wilson decided to use the “Just For Men” treatment for his beard, just to ensure that 50% of his hair was black. Wilson refused to admit to this, but it was quite obvious that he was making a statement. And it was a funny one. It was a proverbial slap in the face directed at MLB. Wilson proved to be an extremely effective closer down the stretch, so fans created the “Fear the Beard” trend. It became a national story and fans started bringing “Fear the Beard” signs on all Giants road trips. “The Beard” became a symbol for the 2010 Giants team and all the weirdness that defined it. “The Beard” was the perfect representation of the sense of hope, perseverance, and humor that this particular team exuded.

The Sharpie Shoes

As a diehard Giants fan, I’ve got to say that “The Beard” became more than just a funny story for the Giants during the 2010 season. “The Beard” became the national symbol for all the outcasts and misfits on that team. This team had all the possible quirks, yet everyone truly believed in them. At the beginning of the 2011 season, “The Beard” became bigger and more exaggerated. Wilson refused to let it go. The reason why wasn’t exactly clear, but it could be that Wilson was superstitious or he just really enjoyed being a trend setter. Also, fans still seemed to enjoy it.

I can maybe understand why Wilson would keep his beard for the 2011 season, because all athletes have a form of superstition, so he could have thought that “The Beard” could lead to another World Series title. Everyone knows how the story of how the 2011 season ends, so there’s no point on dwelling on it. Clearly, his beard’s “magical powers” don’t exist, so what’s the point of keeping it? Wilson loves his new fame, and “The Beard” certainly brings him lots of attention and adoration. Wilson has become quite the fame whore, especially since he has starred in two commercials this summer. The first was in a Taco Bell commercial:

The second is for NBA 2K12:

Some fans might find these commercials amusing, but I find them overly exaggerated and just annoying. “The Beard” is no longer the symbol of hope. It has become an overplayed, overused act that is no longer funny and no longer relevant. Brian Wilson needs to shave the beard not just because it’s not funny anymore, but in a sense, it would be a way for him (and the team) to move on from the torture that was this past season. New trends and new traditions can be started this upcoming season, because the Giants are an entertaining, creative team. There really is no point in keeping the beard anymore, except for purely selfish reasons on Wilson’s part. The Giants don’t need a beard to win. It clearly didn’t help this season. Wilson must be keeping the beard around because he loves the attention he receives and the fame that comes with it. “The Beard” started off as a humorous way to bring together the players on the 2010 Giants team, but now it doesn’t do any good for the team and is simply a publicity stunt. The Giants need to move on from the 2011 season, and if Brian Wilson shaved his beard, it would show that the players mean business and are serious about repeating their World Series title.

Brandon Belt’s latest blog post is one of his best. He shows this side of pure honesty that was always there throughout the season, but this post exemplifies it. Belt describes all the adjustments he had to make this year; in his confidence and mechanics. Belt is talented, but still a very young player. He realizes how complex baseball really is, and now he knows exactly what he has to work on. He has “graduated” from the summer school phase of the year, which included both his time with the Fresno Grizzlies and the Giants. Soon, he will move onto winter ball where he will be able to learn even more about the game, specifically hitting, which he claims was so inconsistent last year that “I’ve made adjustment after adjustment after adjustment so that it all kind of clustered together into one big complicated muddle.” Belt’s visit to the Dominican for winter ball is his first trip outside the country, so he must be very anxious. Being the classy player he is, Belt thanked the fans, not because he had to, but because he really meant it. With all the transitions that Belt had to make this season, he truly understands how important the fans’ support was to him.

Read his post in The Veteran and the Rook Blog here.

The Carlos Beltran signing was quite controversial amongst Giants fans. Some Giants fans believed that giving up top pitching prospect Zack Wheeler was too much for the aging Carlos Beltran. Other Giants fans believed that he was too good of a player to pass on and believed that we needed to acquire him in order to block the Phillies or Braves from getting him. This discussion is in the past though. Some fans continue to harp on the fact that the sole reason why he was brought here was to help this team win, and consequently the Giants didn’t make the playoffs. This is not only amateur, it’s just not true. Now that the season is over, we have actual, physical data to examine what his impact was and that will partially determine if he’s worth bringing back.

Fans need to accept the fact that when he was ABLE to contribute and fully HEALTHY, he contributed immensely to the team and did as much as HE possibly could to get the Giants to the playoffs. I’ve bolded select words to prove a couple crucial points that Giants fans must understand. Let’s examine the first bolded word. It generally takes one or two weeks for a player to truly settle into a new team. It takes time to adjust to a new team dynamic, a new setting/fan base, a new ballpark, and new teammates. In Beltran’s first 45 at-bats with the Giants, he had 11 hits, which equates to a .244 average (which is still better than 12 of the Giants’ regular players’ averages throughout the season). The Giants went 3-8 in that 11-game stretch, but this was not the defining stretch though that ended all playoff hopes.

A couple weeks after being signed, Beltran strained his right hand and wrist, so he was placed on the DL. Giants management probably could have avoided putting Beltran on the DL, but since he is a switch hitter, the Giants decided to not take any additional risk and wanted to ensure that he would be able to swing properly from both sides when healthy. Therefore, during a key stretch for the Giants in August, Beltran wasn’t physically ABLE to contribute. Getting injured is not a player’s fault. He cannot be blamed for the team going 5-8 while he was injured and losing several series against non-playoff teams, including Pittsburgh, Florida, and Houston. The period that Beltran was injured proved to be one stretch that severely dampened the Giants playoff hopes. If Beltran had been fully HEALTHY during that stretch, maybe the Giants would have made the playoffs.

The last bolded word is: HE. HE did as much as he possibly could do to get the Giants to the playoffs. In order to get to the playoffs, teams must have quality pitching, strong hitting up and down the lineup, and team chemistry. Obviously, the Giants have fantastic pitching and great team chemistry (and no, Beltran did not disrupt the chemistry of the team because he was already friends with a number of the current Giants players and is naturally a friendly, classy veteran). The hitting is, of course, the Giants main problem, but we all knew that. Beltran’s main job when he came here was to provide that middle-of-the-order spark the Giants were missing, which he did once he settled in. After his initial adjustment period and his injury, Beltran hit 43-122 for a .352 average, 7 home runs, and 16 RBI’s. He finished the year with a .300 average, 22 home runs, 84 RBI’s, .385 OBP, .525 SLG, and .910 OPS. These are all fantastic numbers. During the most important stretch of the season for any baseball team, the end of August through mid-September, he was not only able to produce, but he did produce. He provided that surge of energy that the Giants were asking for and desperately needed from him. However, teams can’t make the playoffs with just one man producing. With streaky hitting from Keppinger, Sandoval, Huff, and Ross, Beltran became their sole consistent contributor and that is just simply not enough to make the playoffs. Beltran did everything that was asked of him, and he did everything that a #3 hitter should do during playoff contention.

All of this information proves that Beltran was a solid contributor to the Giants this season and that he was worth signing. The question is though, will Beltran re-sign with the Giants this upcoming season? It really depends on how arbitration plays out, and how much money management decides to allocate towards the pitching staff. Sabean has already said that they will approach the free agency period by first addressing their pitching staff, because they are the cornerstone of this franchise and should be the top priority. After that, Sabean claims they will determine how much left of the payroll they have to address free agency, and specifically Carlos Beltran. The Giants would love to re-sign Beltran, but does Beltran want to be in San Francisco after missing the playoffs? He has publicly stated that he is definitely going to consider the Giants as a possible destination. He would love to come back, but he says that the Giants must address the hitting problems. A healthy Buster Posey, Freddy Sanchez, and Pablo Sandoval isn’t enough for Beltran, which is totally fair. Based on the number of injuries this season, Beltran suggests the team needs more offensive security than just those three. He says the Giants need to bring in a reliable leadoff hitter. Andres Torres was an amazing sparkplug in 2010, and was a huge reason why the Giants won the World Series. However, he proved to be a complete non-factor this year. Beltran suggested his former Mets teammate, Jose Reyes, as a possible addition.

Jose Reyes

So who can the Giants acquire to fill the void at leadoff hitter? Here are a few players who the Giants could target who will be free agents this offseason. One option is Jose Reyes. With a high amount of money to be owed to Reyes in the coming years, it’s unlikely the Giants will have enough money to acquire him, but let’s examine anyway. Jose Reyes is 28 years old, so he’s currently in his prime and this season, it for sure showed. Reyes is an All-Star shortstop, which is certainly a void in the Giants lineup with Tejada doing absolutely nothing productive and Brandon Crawford proving to still be in “development mode.” Reyes plays solid defense and has outstanding numbers on offense: .337 average (highest batting average in the NL this season), 7 home runs, 44 RBI’s, .384 OBP, and 39 stolen bases. However, Reyes earned $11,000,000 this past season, which the Giants surely cannot afford unless they are able to dump some of their larger contracts, such as Huff or Zito. If the Giants can pull off signing Reyes and Beltran, that would be the best offseason of the entire Sabean era.

Coco Crisp

Another option for the Giants is Coco Crisp, the centerfielder and leadoff hitter for the Oakland A’s. With Torres’ inability to hit this past season and Cody Ross unlikely to be re-signed, Crisp would certainly be helpful in the defensive category because of his ability to play centerfield. (Sidenote: Coco Crisp has, by far, the best name in all of sports, so it’d be fun to see his name on the Giants roster.) Crisp had a .264 average, 8 home runs, 54 RBI’s, .314 OBP, and 49 stolen bases. For a leadoff hitter, these numbers aren’t All-Star numbers like Reyes’, but they are still quality numbers. He’s 31 years old, but he is still producing good numbers and still has excellent speed. He earned $5,750,000 in 2011, and probably wouldn’t cost too much for the Giants.

Jimmy Rollins

Another option for the Giants is Jimmy Rollins. Now, I’m never a fan of signing players from rival teams (in this case, the Phillies), but Rollins is another solid option for leadoff hitter who can also play exceptional defense at the shortstop position. Rollins had a .268 average, 16 home runs, 63 RBI’s, .338 OBP, and 30 stolen bases. Obviously, Rollins is more of a power hitter than the previous two players, but what really sets him apart from the other two players is that he has won a World Series and has been starting for a strong, contending team for his whole career. Rollins is 32 years old and is a very intelligent player, but the Giants don’t have great luck with aging shortstops. Rollins also earned $8,500,000 this season, which the Giants, most likely, will not be able to afford.

Personally, I believe that best option of these three players is Coco Crisp. He has the most stolen bases of the three, and decent numbers for his batting average and his OBP (all numbers that are very important for a leadoff hitter). He is the least expensive and could prove to be the best option the Giants have for a centerfielder. If the Giants sign him though, will that be enough to lure Beltran back? Not sure. It depends on if the Giants are able to bring in any other strong hitters for the 6, 7, 8 positions in the lineup. If the Giants could sign Coco Crisp and maybe one or two other inexpensive role players, ideally a starting shortstop, I believe the Giants could bring Beltran back. Beltran would most likely have to sign a 2 or maybe 3 year deal (not a long-term contract) and earn less, but if he knows the Giants are committed to winning and hitting consistently, he just might be able to deal with that. Carlos Beltran has proven he can play with the Giants. He can play left or right field, he’s a versatile switch-hitter, and he can hit consistently, even in AT&T Park. If the Giants approach the offseason tactfully, address the areas of need, and handle the payroll effeciently, Carlos Beltran will re-sign with the Giants.