San Francisco Giants

Offense

Just as the case has been since Barry Bonds left the club seasons ago, the San Francisco Giants’ offense continues to be nothing more than mediocre. And the only noteworthy addition made during the off-season was replacing one old shortstop with another.

While Edgar Renteria will be an offensive upgrade, his numbers have been declining dramatically over the past three seasons. He went from hitting .332 as a leadoff hitter in 2007, to hitting just over .250 this past summer.

While Rent has never been known for his power, his five homeruns last year only added up to half his total from the year before. The only bright spot in this offense shines on Pablo Sandoval, who broke out last year in a major way.

The third baseman hit a blistering .330 from the third spot last year, belting 25 home runs and bringing in 90 RBIs. As Sandoval is only 23, this season will test if he is in fact the real deal. The only protection that he is going to get is coming from Bengie Molina, whose numbers have been dropping consistently (yes, his home runs were up but it is more telling that his RBIs were significantly lower than his 2008 total) as his thirties have crept up on him.

Freddy Sanchez will provide some speed and a high batting average for the club, but the rest of the lineup that includes Aaron Rowand, Aubrey Huff, Mark DeRosa, and Nate Schierholtz will have to find something special to back up the studs that the Giants have in the rotation.

Pitching

The Giants’ staff is anchored by super-stud Tim Lincecum, coming off the second of back-to-back Cy Young awards. Armed with his new $25 million contract and some of the nastiest stuff in the game, he is a lock for at least 15 wins this year, and if he gets any run support, potentially 20 or more.

The Giants also have Matt Cain pitching behind Lincecum in the rotation, who is coming off of the best season of his career. Cain posted a 2.89 ERA while picking up 14 wins with an offense backing him up that has no business being in the major leagues.

Lincecum and Cain make up arguably the most deadly one-two punch of any team in the league, and it is not impossible that they could put together 40 wins between the two of them with any help from the rest of the team.

Behind them in the rotation is Barry Zito, the former Cy Young winner who managed to win 10 games last year, and Jonathan Sanchez, who lost his starting job in the middle of last season, but also pitched a no-hitter when he started for Randy Johnson.

Brian Wilson returns as the Giants closer, trying to build upon the two strong seasons that he has had so far with the club.

It is by no means a stretch to say that the Giants have the bets rotation in the National League. The season will come down to whether they can stop more runs from crossing home than the offense can put up.

Story of Interest

Fred Lewis has been in and out of the lineup for a few seasons now, sometimes showing signs that he is their left fielder of the future, but lacking patience at the plate. It will be interesting to see if he finally breaks out this year, because if he does, he will provide the giants with a strong bat that they desperately need to contend in what has become a surprisingly deep NL West.

Prediction

With a rotation so strong and a lineup so weak, the Giants will need great team chemistry to keep up with the Dodgers and potentially the Colorado Rockies or Arizona Diamondbacks in a strong NL West.

I see the Giants having an up and down season, with a collection of win streaks leaving them in second place, fighting for the wild-card spot and their first playoff series since Bonds led them to the World Series eight years ago.