Pitching and Defense Reign

First, congratulations to the 2010 San Francisco Giants on winning their first World Series since moving from New York in the 1950s.  Second, how?  I'm not a believer in the phrase 'pitching and defense win championships.'  I guess it worked for the Giants, though, who shut down the Rangers offense in this Series probably making that more important than anything either team did offensively.  Once in Texas, the Giants allowed only five runs in the three games, and the Giants won two of three of those.  The Giants also won the last two games, allowing only one run and scoring seven.  After being shut out only once in the regular season at home (to Dallas Braden of the Oakland A's) in 81 games, Madison Bumgarner shut out the Giants for eight innings before giving way to the bullpen.  The very next night was between Tim Lincecum and Cliff Lee and a pitching duel that ensued was supposed to happen in Game 1, but didn't.  Lincecum beat Lee for the second time thanks the Series MVP Edgar Renteria's three-run homer in the 7th inning which put the Rangers away.  The Rangers got one run back, but the bullpen contained the Texas offense that was so key against the Yankees.  Brian Wilson, the closer, came on and struck out Nelson Cruz on a high fastball to end it, doing his trademark cross hand finger pointing before celebrating on the mound with his mobbing teammates.

Main thought about this series and the Giants run: it came out of nowhere.  I didn't feel like the Giants were a serious contender to win it all in the beginning of the postseason, but they did win it with pitching.  This feeling can be compared to the 2006 Cardinals, a team that was awful late in the season and still squeezed into the playoffs.  Somehow, they beat San Diego, New York, and Detroit that fast and won the World Series, although they probably deserved it less than anyone else in the playoffs.  I didn't expect them to win but once they did they were off and running and the sports media swirled and swirled around them, much like the Giants.  They just kept winning and testing everyone's judgment to see how long this thing would keep going.  The Giants beat the Braves in what wasn't an upset, but a series with a lot of historical significance due to Bobby Cox retiring and such.  The Giants certainly upset the Phillies in six games and that was just incredible.  Sports analysts didn't give anyone else in the National League a chance because of the 'Big Three' of Roy Halladay, Cole Hamels, and Roy Oswalt.  However, this Giants team proved that a team doesn't need big names to pitch well; what they did using Matt Cain, Jonathan Sanchez, and Madison Bumgarner was just incredible.  And to that I salute them.  Something else the Giants did really well is come through late in the game in clutch at-bats.  San Francisco scored 12 in the 8th inning combined through the Series, tying the Rangers total output through all innings.  The Giants put up runs in the 7th and/or 8th in every game.  And while the Giants certainly have no stars on offense like the Rangers do in Josh Hamilton and more, it's just a great bunch of guys put together who have talent and give the team great at-bats and do their best to put something together.  It is an all-team production, also known as teamwork.  Plenty of teams in baseball should be taking notes on this, as the wisdom is clearly abundant.

Bonds Era Over, Franchise Moves On

Unlike the Texas Rangers, pitching has been a big strength of the Giants when they've been good, specifically early in the 2000s.  In 2000 the team ranked 4th in Major League Baseball in ERA, followed by 11th in 2001, 2nd in 2002, and 3rd in 2003.  Those teams were powerhouses led by Russ Ortiz, Jason Schmidt, Kurk Rueter, Robb Nen, Jeff Kent, Benito Santiago, Reggie Sanders, and of course, Barry Bonds.  This era was great in its prime, with the Giants winning 483 games in five years between 2000 and 2004, but then it ended ugly as Jeff Kent signed with the Dodgers after 2002, Nen never played in another major league game after 2002, and only two years later from 2002 to 2004 only two starting position players remained, right fielder Bonds and first baseman J.T. Snow.  The majority of the middle of the 2000s for the Giants was disappointing and bad baseball, before they showed signs of hope in 2009.  The middle of the 2000s was dominated by Barry Bonds, but the team didn't do much else well.  The team didn't have a true ace during this time fielding a staff of mediocre starters like Jason Schmidt, Noah Lowry, Matt Morris, and a formerly mediocre Matt Cain.  The bullpen also had issues as Tyler Walker led the 2005 club with only 23 saves, Armando Benitez led in 2006 with only 17, and Brad Hennessey led in 2007 with only 19.  Even in 2004, when the team won 91 games just missing the playoffs, the leader was Matt Herges with 23.  With Tim Worrell saving 38 in 2003 and Nen getting 43 the year before that, very few teams can say their saves leader changed six years in a row.  In 2008, their dependence on the just retired Bonds showed as Bengie Molina led the team with only 16 homers and Matt Cain, owner of a good 3.76 ERA that year, finished 8-14 with little run support.  The fact that Tim Lincecum won 18 on his way to his first NL Cy Young award is amazing, and playing on a better offensive team Lincecum could've won upwards of 20, 21, 22, somewhere up there.

Progress was made in 2009 as the team won 88 games missing the playoffs but showing significant signs of improvement.  Pablo Sandoval became the first fan favorite on offense since Bonds hitting 25 homers and leading the offense.  The Giants led the league in strikeouts and the pitching overall was great.  This set the stage for 2010, when San Francisco put it all together.  Brian Wilson had another superb season saving 48 for the starters who were also very very good.  No Cy Young three-peat for Lincecum, but a great season nonetheless at 16-10.  Buster Posey fired up San Fran as a Rookie of the Year favorite and many surprisingly effective pickups like Juan Uribe and Pat Burrell and Aubrey Huff hit stride to power the Giants to 697 runs, a lot for that franchise recently.  They allowed a ridiculous 583 runs thanks to an unhittable bullpen of Sergio Romo, Wilson, Santiago Casilla, Jeremy Affeldt, and Ramon Ramirez and the rotation of Lincecum, Cain, Jonathan Sanchez, Madison Bumgarner, and Barry Zito all of whom who sub-4.00 ERAs except Zito.  The combination led to a winning team, a positive group of guys with no negative distractions like Bonds.  The cloud that hung over Bonds and steroid allegations made the club suffer the middle of the 2000s, but as we can see on the field last night and tonight, the San Francisco Giants franchise has moved on.