Everyone should be very afraid of the San Francisco Giants

After posting the worst record in baseball last year, the San Francisco Giants look to rebound in more than one way.

It was a brutal year last season to be a San Francisco Giants fan. Following the World Series success the first half of the decade brought, the Giants finished dead last in all of baseball in 2017 — but things are looking up.

Rather than overspending to land Giancarlo Stanton, the Giants pivoted and made even better moves. Where Stanton was one giant bat, San Francisco added veteran talents, Evan Longoria and Andrew McCutchen. Offloading Matt Moore and Denard Span’s contracts were perks this offseason as well, and the team was able to add Austin Jackson and Tony Watson to the mix as a result.

Winning in the National League is never an easy feat. But the Giants have a track record of being able to figure out their opponents and wreck havoc when everyone’s least suspecting.

Best Case Scenario

The Giants boast what would have been an amazing All-Star team five years ago. Both Andrew McCutchen and Buster Posey are recent mainstays on All-Star rosters, while Evan Longoria had a run in the late 2000s of his own (he somehow hasn’t been voted in since 2010).

If all three can tap back into whatever the best they have left is, the Giants could be a very special team this season. Madison Bumgarner is perhaps the best pitcher in baseball and reasserting himself as such would go along way in completing a roster that seems stacked on paper.

While much will be made about the trifecta of veteran All-Star talent the Giants boast, people forget that the rest of the lineup is just as good if not better. Joe Panik, Brandon Belt, and Brandon Crawford all have World Series rings and bring with them a continuity that helped make the Giants a force in the early 2010s. The team is less than a half-decade removed from winning a title, and much of the same pieces are still in place. Health was an issue last year, but if the Giants can stay fit all year long they could be a surprise dynasty that no one every properly saw coming (four Wolrd Series in less than 10 years is hard to argue with).

Worst Case Scenario

This may already be playing out in real time. Madison Bumgarner starting the season on the DL is the opposite of what San Francisco needs. There’s still room to capitalize on the Justin Turner injury, but without their ace, it’s a lot harder to jump out to a hot start.

Injuries to veteran additions like Longoria or McCutchen could cause problems too. Father Time catching up with them would also put San Francisco on the wrong side of the gamble it’s taking in trotting those two out every day. There’s also the hump of going from the worst team in baseball to a playoff team that could prove to be too steep for San Francisco to climb over.

Nothing is promised, and the Giants flaming out in 2018 wouldn’t be the first time a team that looked good on paper ended up disappointing everyone.

Team MVP

Buster Posey – C

San Francisco has a potential dynamite roster, but they’re only as good as their best player. Posey is having what’s arguably a Hall of Fame career and will go down as one of the greatest players in franchise history. He’s the sort of guy who can hang around for a while, laying in the weeds while waiting for an opportunity to strike. He’s on what amounts to an old school All-Star roster alongside Longoria and McCutchen, and that’s before you get to stalwarts like Joe Panik and Brandon Crawford. Posey is the leader in San Francisco for a reason, and if the team is truly going to turn things around like the Minnesota Twins did last season, Posey will need to lead the charge.

Prediction

It’s always hard to go from worst to (almost) first in a year, and it’s especially harder when you play in the NL West. The division is Los Angeles’ to lose, but the Giants will be a team no one wants to play in the Wild Card or NLDS should they get that far. All signs point to this being a bounce back year and a return to the playoffs for San Francisco.