They remind me a lot of the 2005 Houston Astros. Led by great starting pitching and a very good bullpen. The Astros were terrible offensively but they got a lot of clutch hitting, until the World Series unfortunately....
Last point: to understand just how far the Giants' offense has come, their 2009 offense wasn't just the worst in baseball last season, it was the worst in all of baseball over the past 6 years and one of the 3 or 4 worst of the entire previous decade. They were worse than this year's Astros who were historically bad through the first month-plus! This year, including the pre-Posey/pre-upgrade stage where they were still anemic, they ended up with the 6th best offense in the NL. For a team with a sub-$100 million payroll that didn't sacrifice much to upgrade, that's nothing short of an astounding improvement. Their GM deserves tons of credit for making the moves he's made over the past 12 months. There have been a lot of far worse offenses in the playoffs over the years, including the 2005 Astros, who had one of the worst offenses in the NL. The Giants have tremendous pitching and a good (not great) offense. Also, I never claimed their offense was better than the Rangers' - I actually stated the opposite. I was just pointing out that they are a quietly dangerous offensive team - apparently so quiet that a Giants fan isn't even aware of it. :grin: Btw, why am I trying to convince you of this. I'm pulling for Roy to advance even though I'm not liking his chances at this point. The Giant offense is gonna pummel Blanton!
Yes the sample size maybe small but the outcomes are still the same. The Giants offense is still average at best, it's just that the starting pitchers have outdueled their opponents and timely hitting (luck) is going right for the G-men.
OPS+ removes the park factor which is huge for the Giants given their spacious ballpark. Their OPS+ ranking is a lot more telling than straight OPS. You also have to remember that those totals include the period at the beginning of the season before Posey and a lot of the upgrades. And you can take it how you want and I won't try to convince you any further. I'm not even a Giants fan. I'm pulling for the Phillies. But, they had the 6th best OPS+ this season and it almost surely was even better with the current group of players. If they were top 4 in that category post-Posey/post-upgrades, that's very, very good.
From a statistical standpoint, the Giants' offense was better than the NL average in most categories, and I assume that it was significantly better during the post-Posey/post-upgrades period which means a lot more since that is where we are at today. This is not even close to same offense that they had on Opening Day. It's much better. And small sample sizes in baseball are about as meaningful as a brian_chapman post. :grin:
The sad thing is this great GM you speak of was about to be fired if they would have lost to the Padres at the end of the season. I would have bet my lifesavings on it. The blunder of the Zito AND Rowand contracts are inexcusable. Zito will be getting paid more than Halladay or Lee ($20+ million thru 2013) and Rowand will be getting paid $13.6 million this year and $12 million for two more years (2012). Also Ross was picked up at the waiver wire so that the Padres wouldn't get him. Huff was a Plan B free agent signing because we couldn't get Adam LaRoche when he signed with AZ. And if it wasn't for Molina struggling at the plate Posey would still be in AAA.
Almost all teams never have the same opening day lineup. Trades, Injuries, call ups, etc. Most teams doing well in the regular season always do trades to improve their roster. Most teams that do bad end up trading away their old players for younger ones. Around the trade deadline, the Giants were in the middle of the pack so they did not improve their roster much. All the Giants did was get Cody Ross (so that the Padres wouldn't get him), which proved to be the best move Sabean has done. He was just very lucky and struck gold with him. Either than that this was the same team (with the exception of Posey being called up and Burrell signing a minor league deal) from opening day.
Yes I remember that... I was pissed when that happened. How's about Zito (the highest paid cheerleader) for Lee (their salaries match)? Lee is better than Burrell right?
Pretty gutsy move by Girardi, starting Puma vs a lefty with Austin Kearns on the bench. Puma is the better player but is god awful vs southpaws.
Geez, Yankee fans look like huge douchebags. I want Texas to win and then turn around and lose to San Francisco in the Series.
Holy ****! Rangers imploding, Posada should have been out at 3rd and home, but the Rangers kept over throwing!
