San Francisco Giants: Treading Water or Learning To Swim?

The San Francisco Giants have made it through fifteen games so far in 2016, and are looking at a lot of unresolved issues.

They’ve had seven good wins, and eight lackluster losses. The season is still early, so there’s still plenty of time to correct the early issues and get back on track to capture that even year magic.

Through these fifteen games, the Giants have had two distinct periods of up and down. They opened the year in Milwaukee, taking the first two games of the year from the Brewers before losing the last game. They put up sixteen runs in these three games, largely from the 12-run game on Opening Day. As they returned home to face the Dodgers, they looked good again, winning three of four against the formidable rivals.

Once again the Giants put up some impressive offensive numbers, hanging 27 runs on the Dodgers in four games. The pitching was rocky at times, but it wasn’t enough to hinder them. Then came a trip to Colorado and Chavez Ravine.

The Giants got roughed up in the Rockies, by the Rockies, because of the Rockies. In other words, Coors Field in Denver is a scary thing for pitchers, as simple contact can easily become a longball in this Twilight Zone of a baseball stadium.

The Giants knew their opponents going into their second series of the season, seeing another matchup between Madison Bumgarner and Clayton Kershaw. Sadly Bumgarner didn’t take Kershaw deep once again, and the Giants faltered. They lost the series again, like in Colorado, and the starting pitching wasn’t to blame.

The offense had slumped, and the defense looked absolutely atrocious. The same can be said about the next series at AT&T against the Arizona Teal-Backs (they’re still the Diamondbacks but their new jerseys are the talk of the league right now). It’s worth noting that none of the World Series Trilogy teams were under .500 through fifteen games.

The time to panic, however, is not upon us just yet. There’s no need to dump the roster or abandon faith, but it is time to take a look at each group of players thus far.

The starting pitchers have largely done well. Bumgarner has looked shaky at times, but looked better in his last start. Johnny Cueto has been by far the best pitcher, making the front office look smart in signing him during the off-season. Jeff Samardzija, the other big acquisition of the off-season, has performed much better than the previous year, in which he had the worst numbers of his career.

The back-end of the rotation, Jake Peavy and Matt Cain, haven’t looked all that impressive, and look to be on the edge of losing their spots to young players waiting in the wings, such as Chris Heston and even the likes of Clayton Blackburn or Ty Blach.

Live Feed

That Balls Outta Here

The offense itself has been good as a whole, and is currently in the top five or ten in almost all offensive categories. The hitting was hot early, but has dwindled out over the last week. However, the Giants simply haven’t been winning games. This offense may be the best offensive lineup the team has ever had, and they will need it to continue and improve as the year goes on.

On paper, this team should never be shut out, like they were at home Tuesday against Arizona.

In 2010 and 2012, the team had an amazing rotation, and in 2014 they were carried by Bumgarner. This is the first year that they may have to count on the hitting more than the rotation. Gone are the days of Lincecum striking out a dozen in seven innings and turning it over to the trusty bullpen of Jeremy Affeldt, Sergio Romo and Brian Wilson.

Related Story: Giants Bullpen Looking Like a Big Problem Early

Now the Giants still have Romo, but he has been inconsistent the last few years in spite of his great pitches, much like current closer (for about another week at this rate) Santiago Casilla. The entire back-end of the bullpen has been shaky at best to start 2016, and that’s not a good thing.

The one bright side, however, has been the other guys in the bullpen. Young guys, such as Cory Gearrin and Derek Law, have joined the club and made immediate impacts already.

As a whole, this Giants team is not bad. They are a great team on paper, and have great chemistry. Also counting a Hall of Fame manager in Bruce Bochy and stars Madison Bumgarner, Buster Posey and Hunter Pence; they have too much talent to fail this early in the year. It may not be easy, but none of the other three title runs were either. The Giants now find themselves in a place where it may in fact be time for a gut check early on, something they certainly weren’t planning on in this even year.