San Francisco Giants: A guide to optimism in 2019

The San Francisco Giants have gotten off to a slow start in 2019, but it’s not as if that was unexpected. Here’s your go-to guide for optimism for what very well could be a long, exasperating season.

In what has seemingly become an annual tradition, San Francisco Giants fans everywhere are desperately searching for any sense of optimism surrounding the franchise.

And May has only just begun.

At the time of writing, the Giants sit dead last in the NL West with a lackluster 13-18 record, “good” for third worst in the National League and fifth worst in all of baseball. The team’s hitting has looked overmatched and often lost for most of the season as the Giants currently rank 29th in batting average and last in the majors in on-base percentage.

To say it’s been a struggle would be an understatement.

We could go on and on about the hitting concerns and the injuries to the team’s top minor league prospects. But why dwell on the negative?

This is a franchise that has dealt with very little positivity over the last three seasons that it only seems right to shed some light on the promising things happening within the organization. It’s time to cut some of the negativity out of our lives and look at the positives.

It’s time for some optimism.

1. Bullpen Dominance

There has been plenty of pessimism surrounding San Francisco Giants franchise this season, but you’d be hard-pressed to find someone with a negative thing to say about the team’s bullpen.  While the starting rotation has been hit or miss and the lineup has just been “miss,” the Giants bullpen has been dominant thus far in 2019.

Currently, the Giants bullpen ranks first in the National League and third in the majors in ERA posting a spectacular 3.23 mark to this point. The unit has allowed the second-fewest walks in the entire MLB and opponents are hitting just .231 against them, good for fourth in the National League.

Due to their lackluster offense, the Giants have been prone to many close one or two-run victories putting stress on the back-end of the bullpen to shut the door late in games. A remarkable seven of the Giants 13 wins have come in one-run games proving the importance of a strong, reliable bullpen.

The Giants have been led by the dynamic duo of Reyes Moronta and Will Smith who have done their best to hold leads late in games. Moronta, in particular, has been impressive averaging over 15 strikeouts per nine innings while holding down a stellar 1.93 ERA.

If the Giants continue to struggle, they could look to deal Smith — who will be a free agent this offseason — which would give Moronta a clear path to the closer job.

Other notable standouts have been veteran Mark Melancon, who has bounced back nicely since being removed from the closer role, and former Washington National Trevor Gott. Perhaps the only complaint is that they could use an effective lefty outside of Smith as both Tony Watson and Travis Bergen have struggled thus far.

But overall, it’s hard not to be thrilled with the play of the bullpen this season.