If the season ended today, the San Francisco Giants, W.S. champs every other year since 2010, would win the NL West. pic.twitter.com/RGwgynUxWL
— Season's Over (@seasonsover) May 20, 2016
Today we’re looking at the San Francisco Giants (25-18), who have quickly risen to be one of the hottest teams in baseball. Thanks in no small part to back-to-back series sweeps against Arizona and San Diego, the Giants are winners of eight straight and sit comfortably atop the NL West.
Leading the charge has been San Francisco’s pitching triple threat of Madison Bumgarner, Jeff Samardzija, and Johnny Cueto, with respective ERAs of 2.45, 2.66, and 2.70. The three hurlers are a combined 17-5 on the season, with marks that are going to make it tough for teams to compete in a best-of-seven series. Matt Cain and Jake Peavy are both struggling mightily to start the season though, and will need to get back on track fairly soon for this rotation to be a season-long force.
A nice surprise for the Giants has been just how effective Hunter Pence is in the lineup. The 33-year-old leads the team in batting average (.297), RBIs (32), and even home runs (7) at the quarter-season mark, all of which would be on-pace to beat career averages. Few teams are going to want the face the Giants if the rest of their offense – currently 7th in the league in runs scored – produces just a bit more.
The Giants face a big test this weekend as they host the first-place Chicago Cubs for a 3-game set. It’s still very early, but this series could be a good gauge as to whether or not the 2016 Giants are pretenders, or are indeed still on pace to win every even-year World Series for the rest of time.
Leading the charge has been San Francisco’s pitching triple threat of Madison Bumgarner, Jeff Samardzija, and Johnny Cueto, with respective ERAs of 2.45, 2.66, and 2.70. The three hurlers are a combined 17-5 on the season, with marks that are going to make it tough for teams to compete in a best-of-seven series. Matt Cain and Jake Peavy are both struggling mightily to start the season though, and will need to get back on track fairly soon for this rotation to be a season-long force.
A nice surprise for the Giants has been just how effective Hunter Pence is in the lineup. The 33-year-old leads the team in batting average (.297), RBIs (32), and even home runs (7) at the quarter-season mark, all of which would be on-pace to beat career averages. Few teams are going to want the face the Giants if the rest of their offense – currently 7th in the league in runs scored – produces just a bit more.
The Giants face a big test this weekend as they host the first-place Chicago Cubs for a 3-game set. It’s still very early, but this series could be a good gauge as to whether or not the 2016 Giants are pretenders, or are indeed still on pace to win every even-year World Series for the rest of time.
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