San Francisco Giants: Superlative Awards for the 2017 Season

The 2017 season is behind the San Francisco Giants, and it was mighty disappointing. So let’s take a few minutes to hand out some fun superlative awards for the season.

Best Argument Against the DH:

Madison Bumgarner on Opening Day

In the National League, not much can fire up a team or crowd like a pitcher coming up with a big hit. There aren’t many pitchers better at that than Madison Bumgarner. The Giants’ opening day starter wasted no time in reestablishing himself as the most powerful-hitting pitcher in baseball.

Leading off the fifth inning, Bumgarner victimized Zack Grienke, crushing a ball 416 feet with an exit velocity of 112.5 miles per hours. In the seventh inning, he broke a 3-3 tie by taking Andrew Chafin 422 feet out, with a 112.1 mph exit velocity. Giancarlo Stanton is the only other hitter in the Statcast era to hit two home runs with 112+ mph exit velocities in one game, so Bumgarner is in good company.

No other Giant hitter would top Bumgarner’s exit velocity on a home run in 2017, and they didn’t do it in 2016, either. He became the first pitcher to ever hit a pair of home runs on opening day, and the first Giants’ player to go deep twice on opening day since Barry Bonds in 2002. Those home runs were his 17th and 18th career, pushing him into the lead for most home runs by an active pitcher (he would hit his 19th on September 3rd).

There’s reason to hope that the DH never comes to NL baseball, but heaven help the person who has to tell Bumgarner he can’t hit anymore if that ever does happen.