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The nicest thing that can be said about the general perception of the San Francisco Giants heading into the 2021 season is that people didn’t think they would be bad, they just didn’t think so. not at all. And, well, it’s hard to fault anyone for thinking that National League West would belong to the Dodgers or the Padres, two teams full of talent, star power and resounding acquisitions during the offseason. San Francisco, meanwhile, was coming off four straight losing seasons and not only carrying the longest-running majors roster, but also one with virtually no players on contract beyond 2022. They were a team on the move, regardless. how often the president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi professed a will to win.
Fast forward seven months and the Giants are set to host the NLDS ‘opener. More than that, they’ve just wrapped up a regular season in which they won a franchise record and the 107 best MLB games, forcing the lowly Dodgers to 106 wildcard wins and setting up not just the division rivals’ first playoff. showdown (yeah, yeah, two 50’s and 60’s tiebreaker and something about a team called the Brooklyn Bridegrooms, whatever), but also MLB’s first postseason series between teams with more than 105 victories. If you hadn’t anticipated this Bay-tle Royale, you are not alone.
In order to make sense of this turn of events, let’s take a walk into 2021 to examine the extremely specific reasons for this extremely unexpected result. We are all flies in Zaidi’s web.
Being old is good, actually
The simplest explanation for the success of this Giants team is that many of the team’s veterans who had been in gradual decline for years have come out and posted career seasons. The Giants were the oldest lineup in the NL at a year and a half, and as spring training approaches, it looked possible that 2021 could be a wobbly last hurray for the remaining heroes of the squads that won a trio. of World Series championships early last year. decade.
Buster Posey, who retired from the 2020 season and whose recent injury-dragged campaigns had some to question the former NL MVP’s chances of being the former MVP, scored on the third pitch as he saw this season and then continued to do exploits. . Posey’s .889 OPS marked the second-highest of his career, after just that 2012 MVP performance. He was at his best in the home stretch, cutting 0.327 / 0.381 / .473 in the final three weeks of the season. . Brandon Crawford, meanwhile, has become one of baseball’s most successful shortstops. This season, he has the most homers (24) and RBIs (90) of his 11-year career, as well as a batting average of .298 (his all-time best) and 6.1 WAR (tied for sixth in the NL). He was also good with his glove:
Then there is the captain:
Brandon Belt, 33, who jokingly recorded a C on his uniform in a September game against the Cubs, had the best year of his career in many ways, crushing 29 career-high home runs, including nine in September. A broken thumb suffered in the final week of the season brought an end to requisitions, but Belt — whose captain’s hat is still shaped like a ship– said he hopes to be back in time for the NLCS.
Together, the trio Posey, Crawford and Belt were the team’s top three players in terms of WAR. The last time this happened was in 2017.
Taylor Swift is a witch, sorry
Say what you want about Taylor Swift’s mystical baseball powers (we said, well, a lot), but we’re not fooled yet. Did Swift release an album this year? To verify. Swift’s album release / The Magic of Giants World Series victory held up until the mid-2016 explosion between Swift and Kanye West and Kim Kardashian, who got engaged at the Giants stadium? To verify. Were the Giants the best baseball team in the first half of 2016, then miserable in the second half and until the end of the 2020 season? To verify. Did Kardashian file for divorce just days after the teams showed up for spring training in February? To verify. Have the Giants absolutely ripped apart since then? To verify!
Is it an even year? Trick question, it doesn’t matter.
Whozits (and Whatsits) galore
The Giants have hit 241 home runs this season, the most in the NL. Eighteen of these were pitched by pinched hitters. It’s an MLB record, and encapsulates what I like to call the San Francisco hike effect.
It’s Edgar Rentería’s home run in the decisive 2010 World Series game after starting the playoffs on the bench. It’s Travis Ishikawa who leaves the Cardinals in the 2014 NLCS. This season it’s Austin Slater hitting four homers and Alex Dickerson hitting three. Here is the power of Donovan Solano:
But it’s not just the pinch strokes. Consider Camilo Doval, the NL reliever of the month for September, or the brilliant final month of the season for pitcher Kervin Castro. At 35, Darin Ruf was a mainstay of the attack; Steven Duggar, called up from Triple-A only after injuries to other players, suffered an absurd tear in September that saw him become the second Giant to hit two triples and a double in the same game in the past 20 years.
Not everyone is a hike, of course: The Giants grabbed the Cubs trade deadline fire sale to add Kris Bryant, who, at least as Bay Area luminary Smash Mouth, predicted he would get “very hot”In the playoffs.
Mike Tauchman: Magnets?
I want to say:
I mean:
He also became the Giants’ first non-pitcher to score a grand slam from ninth place in order in June. I want to say!!!
About these weapons
Pitchers win championships, or so they say, and the Giants are first in ERA majors in relievers (2.99) and third in ERA rotation (3.44) . Dominant was Logan Webb and All-Star Kevin Gausman, who will start NLDS Games 1 and 2 respectively; Webb, 24, has not recorded a loss in 20 straight starts. Take it from my colleague Zach Kram: “San Francisco has six different relievers who have pitched at least 50 innings with an ERA of less than 3.00. That’s twice as much as any other team.
Tyler Rogers, meanwhile, doesn’t make sense in such a deep way that he just might be the perfect 2021 giant. Also? Gausman can rake:
The LaMonte Wade Jr.
Everyone salutes the king of the ninth round. Wade, who once pretended to be right-handed after being put on shortstop while playing in the Cape Cod League, was responsible for six ninth hits or equalizers. In early October, his batting average of .571 in the ninth inning or later was the highest score for almost 50 years. That’s more than double his season average (0.253), which, generally speaking, isn’t how math works. Is the clutch a myth? Sure. Is Late Night LaMonte the most committed human being to ever groom a baseball field? There is currently not much evidence to the contrary.
Wade also managed to hit a home run straight over his mother’s head:
His parents were also on site to see one of these walk-offs. Naturally.
That’s no reason, I just think everyone should watch it
Giants in five. Thank you.
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