San Francisco Giants Mailbag: Cain, McGehee, Concerns for 2015

Feb 19, 2015; Glendale, AZ, USA; San Francisco Giants pitcher Tim Lincecum (left) with Jake Peavy during spring training practice at Scottsdale Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports

One of the key concerns for the Giants is their health, up and down the roster. That is a fairly common concern though for most MLB teams.

However, for the Giants, health is a little more of a concern than for other MLB teams because of their longer season in 2014. Don’t get me wrong, we can’t complain about a longer season in 2014 and for the Giants adding another World Series trophy to the case, but fatigue could definitely become a factor in 2015, as it did for certain players in 2011 and 2013.

Another concern for the Giants in 2015 is their lack of power. The Giants no longer have the power that Sandoval and Michael Morse brought last year. In addition, the Giants replaced these two with players who aren’t known for their power in Nori Aoki and McGehee (although, McGehee is capable of having power).

However, a full season from Brandon Belt will help make up for that power, and Brian Sabean and Bruce Bochy believe that Panik and Brandon Crawford are expected to hit for more power this season too.

For me though, the lack of power isn’t the biggest concern. The Giants have proven in recent seasons that they can win (games and World Series titles) with and without power. The Giants don’t need power up and down their roster to succeed, as they can win in other ways. For example, they can play small ball and win by capitalizing on their opponent’s errors, getting clutch hits, moving baserunners over, etc.

The biggest concern for the Giants in 2015 is the starting rotation. Fatigue is a close second, but there are lots of questions and concerns surrounding the Giants’ starters heading into 2015, despite the fact that the Giants have seven capable starters on their roster.

Just because they have an abundance of starters compared to other teams, it doesn’t mean that the Giants’ starting pitching, overall, will be strong enough over the course of the season. Starting pitching has always been one of the Giants’ strengths, except for the end of the season in 2014 when the Giants heavily relied on Madison Bumgarner. If the starters struggle, the defense and the bullpen suffers too.

Bumgarner’s workload was extremely high last season, but he should be fine in 2015 because of his brute strength. However, there are plenty of concerns about the rest of the starters, mostly involving age (Ryan Vogelsong, Jake Peavy, Tim Hudson, and Yusmeiro Petit, somewhat), recovery from surgery (Cain and Hudson), and just general uncertainty (Lincecum).

These are some of the concerns surrounding the Giants’ 2015 team, but I’d say the starting rotation and fatigue are the most concerning.

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