“Success is measured by where you ARE versus where you COULD be”.
My Warriors TV partner Jim Barnett always tells me that and I use it a lot in life, for just about everything. So let’s apply that to the Giants season.
Did the 2016 Giants have a successful season? Two days after a postseason loss, it doesn’t feel like it. But running down a list of factors, it would be hard not to call 2016 a success.
The Giants did a great job of spending the money in the offseason acquiring Jonny Cueto, Jeff Samardzjia and Denard Span.
They did a great job mid-season in acquiring Matt Moore, Will Smith and Eduardo Nunez both for the stretch run and for future years. All excellent moves.
They had the best record in the sport through the first 90 games this season.
Now let’s evaluate where the Giants ARE versus where they COULD be:
They made the playoffs. Yes it was a wild card but it’s still only the fourth playoff appearance in 12 years for the Giants. Making the playoffs on a yearly basis should be the goal of every sports franchise. And the Giants acquitted themselves very well in the postseason. They beat the Mets and battled Chicago for four tension-filled games. Considering the Cubs are the best team in the sport, the Giants did very well in that series and just simply lost to a better team.
In baseball, you need money, period. The Giants have a top five payroll and are a top three revenue team in the sport.
They played the second easiest schedule in baseball (Dodgers had the easiest). This is directly the result of playing the Padres, Diamondbacks and Rockies 19 times each. That’s 57 of the 162 the Giants play each season. It’s a huge advantage every season considering those teams are unlikely to improve any time soon.
They play in a 15 team league that had only six teams with a winning record and five make the playoffs. The National League was god-awful this year and may not change significantly in the near future. Playoff qualification is not a high standard for NL teams currently.
The Giants had a sporadic offense, record-setting fielding percentage, excellent starting pitching and an atrocious bullpen. The 29 blown saves prohibited the Giants from winning the NL West, period.
The Giants’ flaws are now completely obvious and yet, they are now built for perennial contention. They need a veteran closer (Mark Melancon) and a left fielder that hits for power (Yoenis Cespedes, 30-home-run power). They have Angel Pagan, Jake Peavy, Sergio Romo, Javier Lopez, Gregor Blanco and Santiago Casilla all coming off the books. That’s $50 million in contract money from this year. More than enough to get a closer and a power hitter to play left field.
Just like a year ago when the need for starting pitching was so obvious that it had to be addressed, the current flaws are not debatable.
Just look at the roster and you see the opportunity to be excellent for the next few years. Buster Posey, Brandon Belt, Joe Panik, Brandon Crawford, Eduardo Nunez and Conor Gillaspie around the infield. Span, Hunter Pence and Gorkys Hernandez are already filling three outfield spots. Madison Bumgarner, Cueto, Samardzjia, Moore, Matt Cain and Ty Blach give them excellent starting pitching. And there are six or seven bullpen arms that just need a real closer to build backwards from the 9th inning.
This year, 87 wins, a wild card win and a spicy series vs. the Cubs made 2016 a success.
But in 2017, after adding a closer and a power hitter, this is a team that should contend for a World Series. This is a sweet spot opportunity for the Giants that doesn’t come along often.
Now is the time to be very aggressive adding to the title total.