San Francisco Giants: Are They on a Collision Course with Oakland?

Defense

Jun 8, 2014; San Francisco, CA, USA; San Francisco Giants infielder Brandon Crawford (35) fields a throw from catcher Hector Sanchez (29) against the New York Mets in the first inning at AT&T Park. Mandatory Credit: Cary Edmondson-USA TODAY Sports

Giants: Defense was another one of the main focuses in spring training for the Giants. Last season, the Giants played sloppy defense and botched a lot of routine plays. They messed up on simple defensive fundamentals, but this season, they’ve cleaned up a lot of those mistakes.

This season, they’re turning double plays more efficiently, getting more assists (710 assists this season, third in MLB), using more shifts, and playing cleaner all-around defense than they did last season.

A’s: The A’s defense has been average this season. Their fielding percentage of .982 is right below the American League’s league average of .983 for 2014. They’ve committed 44 errors so far this season, which is just above the AL’s average of 39 errors. They do have 659 assists so far this season though, which ranks eighth in all of MLB.