It’s tough to know what to make of the San Francisco Giants in the early going.
They’re 5-6, with more than half of their games being blowouts in one way or the other. In a division with the high-spending Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres, the NL East looking competitive and both the St. Louis Cardinals and Milwaukee Brewers impressing, it’s hard to see how the Giants will fit into the playoff picture.
ESPN’s Tim Kurkjian joined KNBR on Wednesday morning to offer his thoughts on a number of things around the league. He broke down how he sees the Giants and their division rival Dodgers competing this season.
With a pretty clear hierarchy of seven competitive teams and six playoff spots, Kurkjian has a hard time seeing San Francisco as a real competitor.
“It’s hard to figure them because they’ve got the second most homers in the league and yet they’re right in the middle when it comes to runs scored,” Kurkjian said. “They lead the league, their hitters do, in strikeouts, so there’s your feast or famine that you’re talking about. I think they’re a .500 team. I just think that in that division with the Padres and the Dodgers, I just don’t see them making the playoffs.”
But. But! Kurkjian thinks the Giants will be interesting and competitive.
Especially as far as their pitching goes, he thinks there will be substantial improvements over the course of the season. That said, the competition might just be too much.
They’re gonna play better than this. Logan Webb is going to pitch better than this. I think their bullpen is fine. I liked what they did in the offseason. Ross Stripling is going to be way better than this eventually.
But I still don’t think that they have that star power and that offense that you can look at and say, well, they’re gonna hit a ton of homers all year like they did two years ago. I just don’t see that happening. But I think they’re gonna finish slightly above .500, be mild contenders for a while.
I just don’t think with the strength that we see in the National League right now — man that is a strong National League — three teams in the East now, two the Central and two really good ones in the West. That’s that’s formidable task for the Giants.
Mild contenders isn’t exactly a ringing endorsement, but as a team without any bona fide stars, it’s not exactly disheartening. Kurkjian seems to see a competitive team that just doesn’t have the firepower as the likes of those top spenders and the deep pool of talent in the NL.
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