Wednesday, December 4, 2024

This Week in Dodger Baseball

Around the Bases

Series Preview: SF Giants

Before Opening Day begins on July 23, we will be previewing and breaking down the four teams that the Los Angeles Dodgers will have to take down to clinch another postseason ticket. After all, 40 of the Dodgers 60 games will be against the NL West.

Today we will take a look at the San Francisco Giants. After all these two teams face off for a 4-game series that begins tonight!

Ballpark: Oracle Park
Manager: Gabe Kapler (1st year)
General Manager: Scott Harris
2019 record: 77-85 (3rd)

The San Francisco Giants haven’t made a postseason appearance since 2016, and it’s highly unlikely that they qualify in 2020. This team on paper looks terrible despite hiring Farhan Zaidi to turn around the roster. The Giants did not make any impact signings this offseason and allowed both Madison Bumgarner and Will Smith to walk away in free agency when both players were hot targets during the 2019 trade deadline. In 2019 the Dodgers won 12 of the 19 H2H matchups against The Hated Ones. The Giants new manager, Gabe Kapler, was fired after two seasons with the Phillies, but he did have some experience as a player development coordinator with the Dodgers before that. He is taking over for Bruce Bochy, who retired from baseball. Last season the Giants offense was awful. They were 14th in the NL in runs scored, 13th in home runs, and 14th in team batting average. The Giants finished 9th in the NL with a 4.38 team ERA. 77 wins definitely feels like they overachieved in 2019

Additions: Kevin Gausman, Wilmer Flores, Drew Smyly, Hunter Pence, Tyler Anderson, Zack Cozart

Losses: Madison Bumgarner, Will Smith, Kevin Pillar, Stephen Vogt, Fernando Abad, Dan Winkler, Kyle Barraclough, Ricardo Pinto

Offense

The Giants offense is almost not worth talking about. Future Hall of Famer Buster Posey has opted out in 2020. Brandon Belt and Evan Longoria will not be ready for Opening Day. Brandon Crawford is on the decline, and Hunter Pence had a nice comeback story last season, but they’re not going to get the 2014 guy. Michael Yastrzemski is arguably their best hitter with 21 home runs last season, which is not what you want as a Giants fan. The Giants are lucky this is a 60-game season because this lineup might be historically bad. Check out their projected lineup below:

Pitching

Johnny Cueto has been announced as the Giants Opening Day starter. He did not pitch much in 2019 due to Tommy John surgery. Jeff Samardzija is their likely number two starter and though a solid right-handed arm, he is a guy who has been burned a lot by the long ball. After that it’s a bit unclear who will round out the rotation. Kevin Gausman was an effective reliever, but as a starter he is just not good. Drew Smyly has the potential to be a solid left-handed starter but he could also collapse like Matt Moore and Drew Pomeranz has done for this team in the past. The Dodgers announced their probables to be Kershaw, Stripling, Wood, and Urías in that order, while the Giants as of 10 A.M. this morning couldn’t even announce their game 2 starter. Logan Webb appears to be their 5th starter, but can’t confirm that.

The Giants bullpen could arguably be the worst in the division. Tony Watson is slated to be their closer, which isn’t a good thing in 2020. Reyes Moronta is a respectable arm worth mentioning. After that it’s a mystery. I’m sure a couple of their other relievers will have great seasons because it’s the Giants and the bullpen historically is one of their strengths, but with Bochy gone who knows.

 

There are no expectations for the Giants this season. They are projected to win 25-26 games, but honestly 20 feels like their ceiling. It’s hard to imagine this team scoring many runs, and their best player is unable to play for them. The Dodgers should be able to have their way with this team. If they don’t win at least 3 of the 4 games to start the season, then that would truly be a disappointment. I reiterate this Giants team is bad.

Author: Kevin Klein

Follow me on Twitter @Klein25

Listen to the Incline: Dodgers podcast on your favorite streaming service.

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