What Has Happened to the San Francisco Giants?
The one-time dynasty has gone from on top of the baseball world to the worst team in baseball in a matter of three years.
The San Francisco Giants were the most feared team in baseball, from a period of 2010 til 2015. In that span, they won three World Series Championships. In 2010, they beat the Texas Rangers in five games. In 2012, they swept the Detroit Tigers. In 2014, they beat the Kansas City Royals in the full seven games.
Looking at the roster for the Giants, there are a lot of nice pieces. Heck, even the players which carried them to their three championships are there. Buster Posey, Brandon Belt, Joe Panik, Brandon Crawford, Hunter Pence, Madison Bumgarner, etc. But, behind those guys….there isn’t a lot, and that’s the problem.
The Giants have no depth. During their run, they didn’t care much for upgrading the farm system, and they are facing the consequences now. Like, in the outfield… an aging Denard Span is patrolling a spacious center field, left field is a revolving door, so much so that Belt has even had to go play a few games out there. Hunter Pence has been a walking DL stint in 2017, leading right field to be a bottomless sea of badness.
Even Madison Bumgarner has spent time on the disabled list after a dirt bike accident. Much like Span, the entire roster is over the good part of the age curve, so to speak. Posey will be 31 next year, Belt will be 30, Bumgarner will be 29, Crawford will be 32. Not only that, there is money… a lot of money tied up in all these guys for multiple years. This is a Phillies’ trajectory, folks.
Now, what about the roster? Why is it bad? Why is there no depth? Well, for starters, here are their first round draft picks since 2010:
- Gary Brown (2010)
- Joe Panik (2011)
- Chris Stratton (2012)
- Christian Arroyo (2013)
- Tyler Beede (2014)
- Phil Bickford (2015)
- No pick in 2016
- Heliot Ramos (2017)
The only guys out of that group that have seen any major league time at all, are Panik, Stratton, and Arroyo. Stratton has a very small sample size, just 13 major league games. Arroyo, in 34 games this season, posted just a .192/.244/.304 slash. Part of that is that Arroyo very well could have come up to the major leagues too early. Tyler Beede has been injury prone in the minor leagues, while Bickford was traded right at last year’s trade deadline to the Brewers, in exchange for lefty Will Smith.
Based on these numbers, it feels like a combination of things, ranging from bad scouting, bad luck with injuries, or just plain bad drafting. But, above all, there has been bad development.
Injuries aside, the Giants were actually bad before 2017. Since the second half of 2016, the Giants have the second worst record in baseball, at 77–115, just ahead of the Philadelphia Phillies, who are 72–116. They were able to sneak into the playoffs last year thanks to a strong first half, but were promptly sent packing by the Chicago Cubs in four games. If there is one lesson to be taken from what has happened to the Giants, that lesson is this:
HAVE. A. SOLID. FARM. SYSTEM. In this day and age of baseball, team’s need depth, and good depth. The Giants didn’t have it, still don’t, and are feeling the effects of it.
