San Francisco Giants 2015 MLB Season Preview and Predictions

“Three in five.”  That’s all you need to know about how well the San Francisco Giants have played since the turn of the decade.

“Every other year.”  That’s all you need to know about when the Giants won their World Series titles.  However last year was different.  The Giants weren’t the complete underdog they’ve been in their past two World Series runs, nor did they sweep their American League opponent in the 2014 Fall Classic.

However much like the first two World Series years, the Giants had one player step up in the postseason and guide them all the way to (another) championship.

The catch you ask?  None.  Except that this Giants core is still young and can only get better and more dominant.

The Giants won the 2014 World Series behind the left-arm of Madison Bumgarner, who had one of the greatest postseason performances in baseball history, going 4-1 in October, including winning two of his World Series starts and earning the big save in Game 7, striking out 17 Royals while recording a 0.43 ERA.

But the big question surrounding the Giants has to be if they can repeat as World Series champions.  During their championship stretch, the Giants have failed to reach the postseason the year after winning it all, creating the theory that they could only be World Series favorites in an even-numbered year.

San Francisco Giants

While the “even-year theory” is fun to joke around and talk about, the Giants potential road to a repeat comes with a share of big obstacles.

They lost key players during the winter while re-signing key parts to their World Series squad, however despite avoiding and filling (big) holes, the Giants themselves have more questions going into 2015 than an episode of Jeopardy!

While many have talked about these San Francisco Giants being a “dynasty” (myself included), it’s worth noting that the Giants are in rare company riding their current trend.  The last team to come close to what the Giants are doing are the Yankees of the late 90’s, who won four titles in a six-year span, three straight from 1998-2000, which could’ve been four straight if not for Luis Gonzalez’s single off of Mariano Rivera in 2001.  Should the Giants win it all again this year, it will not only mark the first time in San Francisco history that they’ll win back-to-back titles (second time in overall franchise history: 1921-22 as the New York Giants), but they’ll become the first team since that Yankee dynasty to win four World Series titles in a six-year span.

The question is, is this the year they break the “odd-year” curse?

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