Opening day, The San Francisco Giants Are Looking Pretty Good

08 Apr 2022

JC Carlston

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It’s that time of the year again folks. Baseball is back in full swing in what appeared to be a day that was never going to happen due to the lockout. Both sides came to an agreement, gave us some new rules including a permanent designated hitter in the National League (I don’t have the time nor the energy to dive into my thoughts on that here) and here we are. Swing batter batter swing. Opening day and the freshest grass in all the land, you heard me San Francisco.

The Giants are coming off of a league and franchise best 107 win season topping the mark of 106 wins in 1904 by the then New York Giants who refused to play the AL winners as the franchise deemed the league as the minors, small smirk over here as i sit typing watching the Masters with Johnny Utah at Perry’s on Union. A blown check swing call on Wilmer Flores in game 5 to the 106 win Dodgers brought us to another rule change that I am down with. No 100 win teams will ever face each other in a 5 game series again due to the expanded playoff format.

Show your Giants and broke-ass pride with one of these Broke as Fuck shirts. “Fellas” cut here. “Ladies” cut here.

So here is what we know rolling into the 2022 season. Buster Posey is in Georgia raising a family. The rental Kris Bryant is in Colorado, and Longoria is hurt to start the season. No real shocker there. What you might not know is while on paper we can’t obviously match the Dodgers lineup of All Stars we have a starting rotation that I feel matches anyone in the league. Logan Webb who is already being spun around as a CY Young candidate is teamed up with the addition of Carlos Rodon. Anthony DeClafani had a breakout year and will fill out the rotation with Alex Wood and Alex Cobb. I feel good about it. Not to mention we have bullpen depth with Sam Long who can go long innings if needed. The only question mark would be Tyler Beede who wasn’t the same last season after tommy john surgery but that’s expected and I’m pulling for him. We also sent two pitchers back to the minors who had a great spring so I like our options.

It’s Joey Bart time. The Posey days are behind us and if the spring was any sign the duo of Bart and Casali will get the job done. Farhan was even quoted on KNBR as stating they had no intention to go out and grab a veteran catcher to replace Posey. This is Joey Bart time.

Joc Pederson returns home to the bay hopefully pearls and all. The ex Dodger original Giants fan and Palo Alto native will join our typical platoon of outfielders including Yaz in right, Slater, Ruf and Duggar. Wade Jr who like Ruf also plays first and outfield is on the injured list to start the season. In Farhan we trust.

A man who was picked up in a trade and had a great spring utility man Siete Guantes, Luke Williams, who also homered in his first at bat in a Giants uniform made the cut. He is known as seven gloves because he basically can play every position and brings that glove to the yard. How long he stays remains on his production and the absence of La’Stella at second base. Crawford will be Crawford after resigning no worries there. Those locks though. Thario Estrada who had clutch moments last season had another great spring. I’m looking forward to him. Mauricio Dubon everyones favorite little leaguer since Pablo Sandoval is also on the roster rounding out the infield.

I was team Kapler from day one. While I love the old guard that brought us three parades I trusted “the process” and analytics. Farhan is not stupid and I trust him. I mean heck we had an epic baseball season for the ages last year in our run up with the Dodgers. We won’t be hanging a world series banner at the yard today. We will however be hanging an NL West Pennant which is more than the 106 win Dodgers ended up with.