The
Sailors Giants are in the post-
Bonds era, but with solid batsmen
Lance Berkman,
Paul Konerko (sadly, both of whom could have been with the
Pale Hose if things shook out differently last offseason), and
Ed Alfonzo, the problem in
San Francisco isn't really in run scoring, but the other side of the coin.
This is a team that's more accurately defined as being in the post-
Jason Schmidt era, as their pitching staff's still searching for an ace to replace the man who took home the NL's Cy Young three years ago.
Jesse Foppert may be up for the task, as scout-trout loves the 26 year old who threw 227 innings of slightly below-league-average ball last year, but I see a walk rate of 3.6 per nine and a K rate of 6.7 and think that he still needs some work. Still, a big jump's not out of the question. To compete, the
Giants will need that, as the remainder of the rotation is composed of control artist
Mark Hendrickson and three guys with single-digit wins and double-digit losses last year. The bullpen's similar to
Arizona's -- expensive, but decent enough. Won't matter much if the starters combine for an ERA of four and a half, and they just well might.
The ballpark and defense will keep the carnage to a minimum as much as possible, though, and the latter of those two is keyed by a double play combo of...(UD is going to scream when he reads this
)...
Luis Rivas and
Rey Ordonez, with
Neifi Perez backing up! To be fair,
Rivas ain't too shabby, if you'll recall from the offseason, and
Ordonez has hit .270 the last two years. But, man, those are some
empty batting averages. Having
A.J. Pierzynski wallop 35 doubles and hit .280 while wearing shin guards makes up for it quite a bit, though. If that hacktastic (TM) middle infield duo doesn't completely fall apart and
Jyse Cryz improves on his dreadful .231/.292/.374 line of a year ago (and he will),
San Fran should have no trouble finishing in the top half of the league in run scoring.
But, jeepers, that starting pitching is
dreadful, and in typical
Giants fashion, they have no one on the farm that'll help out. This is the same club that made a psuedo-number two starter out of
Woody for eight years, though, so they're used to it by now.