San Francisco Giants 2008 Preview

It’s that time of year again. Spring training is in full swing, and the baseball season is just around the corner. Over the next month, The Sports Lounge will run a season preview for each team in the majors, leading up to the season opener in Japan on March 25th. Today we continue the season preview with a look at the San Francisco Giants.



Manager: Bruce Bochy
2007: 71-91, 5th NL West

Projected Batting Order:

1. Dave Roberts, lf (.260, 2 hr, 23 rbi)
2. Ray Durham, 2b (.218, 11 hr, 71 rbi)
3. Randy Winn, rf (.300, 14 hr, 65 rbi, 42 2b)
4. Bengie Molina, c (.276, 19 hr, 81 rbi)
5. Aaron Rowand, cf (.309, 27 hr, 89 rbi, 46 2b, 105 r)
6. Dan Ortmeier, 1b (.287, 6 hr, 16 rbi)
7. Rich Aurilia, 3b (.252, 5 hr, 33 rbi)
8. Omar Vizquel, ss (.246, 4 hr, 51 rbi)

Projected Starting Rotation:

1. Barry Zito (11-13, 4.53 ERA)
2. Matt Cain (7-16, 3.65 ERA)
3. Noah Lowry (14-8, 3.92 ERA)
4. Tim Linececum (7-5, 4.00 ERA)
5. Jonathan Sanchez (1-5, 5.88 ERA)

Setup: Tyler Walker
Closer: Brian Wilson

The San Francisco Giants are going to have a tough time getting attention now that Barry Bonds has departed because, quite frankly, this team is not as talented as any of the other teams in the NL West. The Giants are pretty far behind their counterparts in the division, especially offensively now that Bonds’ bat is gone. On the bright side, this team has developed a solid set of young starters that was one of the best in the league, despite Barry Zito’s nightmare debut season. The former Cy Young winner proved to be a $19 million dollar waste a year ago, suffering the worst year of his career. Zito still has six years left on his deal, and isn’t getting any better.

Offensively, the Giants’ best attempt at replacing Bonds was through the signing of Aaron Rowand to a fat five-year, $60 million deal. Rowand was a tremendous in Philly during his contract year, but his movement from the hitter-friendly Citizens Bank Park to AT&T Park cannot be understated. However, Rowand’s fiery attitude will go a long way towards building a new image in San Francisco. The rest of the lineup isn’t imposing at all, with Bengie Molina and his 19 home runs slated to bat clean-up if Bochy decides to use Rowand at fifth spot. Molina joins Rowand as the only players on the projected Opening Day roster that hit at least 15 home runs a year ago. Dave Roberts will bat leadoff, but at 35, San Francisco is hoping Rajai Davis can supplant him this year. Ray Durham (second), Omar Vizquel (eighth), and Rich Aurilia (seventh) have all done great things in the bigs, but all looked way past their prime last year. Vizquel still brings it like no one else defensively, but his bat leaves much to be desired. Durham had a solid 2006 season, but he fell off a cliff last year, hitting only .218. He was such an important contributor two years ago, and his lack of production made an anemic offense even worse. Randy Winn was one of the few veterans to overachieve last year, and will hit third, setting up opportunities for Molina and Rowand. Dan Ortmeier finally got a chance to play on a consistent basis a little bit last year, and showed some much-needed pop at first base. He’ll likely hit sixth; the Giants are desperately hoping he can hit 20 homers this year. Rowand’s presence will make this lineup much better, but he’s never had to carry an offense on his own, and he will be asked to do that in ‘Frisco.

Zito may be the ace of the staff, but there are three great young studs behind him that are closer to being frontline starters than he is. Matt Cain, who experienced pitiful run support in going only 7-16 last year, leads the group. His 3.64 ERA is a much better indicator of his true performance from last year. His fastball-curve repertoire is developing fast; hitters across the league have already had trouble figuring him out (.235 average against), but he’s got an enormous amount of untapped potential. Behind him as the number three is Noah Lowry, who was the only Giants starting pitcher to have a winning record. His 14-8, 3.92 season was a great effort on a bad team, but he must find a way to get more strikeouts. Last season, Lowry had 87 strikeouts in 156 innings, a number that equaled his unusually high walk total. If he can increase the K’s and lose the bases on balls, he can really start to handcuff hitters that can’t be as selective as they used to be against him. Perhaps the youngster that made the most noise from the rotation was Tim Linececum, who showed some electric stuff in going 7-5, with a 4.00 ERA. Big things are expected out of him in his first full year as a starter, and he’s on the fast track to being a Cy Young caliber pitcher real soon. There’s a big drop off at the fifth spot in the rotation is a battle between Kevin Correia and Jonathan Sanchez, neither of whom has had much success in the majors.

Brian Wilson, a largely unproven pitcher trying to be the team’s closer, will lead the bullpen. He showed the team enough in 24 appearances for them to give him the responsibility of hammering down games, even though he only has seven career saves. In front of him, Vince Chulk and Brad Hennessey will serve as set-up men. Hennessey served as the team’s closer for parts of last season, but didn’t impress the franchise enough to keep it. Tyler Walker looked strong in limited action last year, and will serve as a reliever in the middle innings. Steve Kline will be the team’s main reliever from the left side, Jack Taschner as the other left-hander.

It would be improbable for San Francisco’s pitchers to be any more unlucky this year than they were last year, but this offense simply doesn’t have the weapons to relieve the pressure. The Giants pitchers are very talented, but forced to be near perfect, just to win games. There’s no way Matt Cain is going to go 7-16 against this year, so that should be good for a few more victories. But, that’s about it as San Francisco wins 76 games and finishes last in the NL West.