The 2017 season has been a rough one for the San Francisco Giants. They sit at last place in the NL West with a 26-45 record, 19.5 games out of first place.
With the biggest concern entering the season being who would play left field, and much of the 2016 team that made the playoffs back in the orange and black, almost no one saw this sharp of a downfall coming.
MLB.com columnist Richard Justice joined Gary and Larry on Monday to discuss the Giants’ rough season, and how there isn’t much they can do currently to turn around the state of the franchise.
“I think when you’re in the window that they’re in, you more or less stay the course…You’re not trading Buster [Posey]. You don’t have a player that’s going to bring you a bounty of young guys to jumpstart the whole franchise.”
Starting pitcher Johnny Cueto has been tossed around as a name that could be dealt at the deadline. Entering the season, Cueto, alongside Madison Bumgarner, Jeff Samardzija and Matt Moore looked to be one of the strongest starting rotations in the league.
“All these decisions that Bobby Evans and [Brian] Sabean made, they’re all smart decisions. Sometimes, that’s what drives you crazy about sports – you make a good decision and it turns out wrong.”
“You’re going to go through cycles. Players are going to get old. In a perfect world, you would have a pipeline from your farm system to replenish and always keep young. That almost never happens.”
The full interview is available below. To listen to Justice talk about where the Giants stand, skip ahead to the 0:25 mark.