Dodgers: Sizing Up the NL West Competition- Giants

This article is part five of a five-part series in which I will break down the Dodgers’ competition in the NL West for the 2018 season. The articles will feature the teams’ offseason additions and subtractions, a pitcher to watch out for, a batter to watch out for, and a season expectation.

The San Francisco Giants: last in the division, last in this series of articles, and last in a Dodger fan’s heart. Love them, hate them, or anything in between the Giants put together a huge offseason overhaul that saw them trade for a lot of big names.

The Giants are coming off of their worst season since 1985. In 2017 they finished with 98 losses, the second most in the team’s history since the MLB moved to a 162 game format in 1965. The season was riddled with injuries and loss after loss the Giants fell quickly to the bottom of the division where they would stay for the year in its entirety.

Most notably, Madison Bumgarner went down with a whole list of injuries suffered not in a baseball game but on a dirtbike and after he missed the majority of the season the Giants’ ship was sunk.

The Giants, like many others, shifted their offseason focus from free agency to the trade market. The team completed the most trades of any team and in doing so they added a couple superstars and gave up what most would consider a minimal amount of prospects.

Last season, the Giants finished with the least amount of home runs in the league at 128. With the MLB trending heavily in the power department this was a major deficiency for the last place Giants. This problem was one of many that needed to be solved this offseason and as mentioned above, they did so through the trade market.

First, the Giants looked to the rebuilding Rays to acquire third baseman, Evan Longoria. In Longoria, the Giants will get about 20 home runs a year and a gold glove level defender. Longoria’s 3.6 WAR in 2017 would have ranked second among all Giants players only behind the great Buster Posey. The addition of Longoria was a step in the right direction for a team that could not get worse and the Giants did not stop there.

About three weeks after acquiring Longoria the Giants grabbed Andrew McCutchen from the Pirates. McCutchen, like Longoria, will provide another 20-30 home runs a year and will also bring his leadership and well-known likeability to the locker room. But, with McCutchen, the Giants will get a defender on a rapid decline ever since his gold glove days of 2012. McCutchen is rated below league average in center field and his deficiency there may explain the Giants’ addition of Austin Jackson just a week later.

While his bat is good for about 350 at-bats, Austin Jackson is a premier defender in center field. He was all over highlight reels last season when he went flying over the bullpen wall in Fenway to rob Hanley Ramirez of a home run to center. Jackson will provide that defensive boost needed to help the declining McCutchen.

The Giants also added reliever Tony Watson and catcher Nick Hundley by way of free agency. Both of the two should help the Giants in their own ways with Watson providing much-needed bullpen help.

The Giants added a lot of hitting this offseason but those names are too big and too obvious to talk about here. For that reason, I am going with 31-year-old shortstop Brandon Crawford.

Crawford’s defense is incredible. He has won the NL Gold Glove for three straight years starting in 2015 so his skills there are undeniable.

But, sure-handed with a glove as he may be, Crawford showed declining skills with his bat in 2017 and that is the reason he finds himself as the player to watch in 2018.

Crawford has never really been known for power and that could explain his 11 total home runs in last year. But, perhaps more concerning, Crawford’s batting average dipped from .275 to .253 and his triples total dropped from a league-leading 11 to a measly one.

While the connection may not be as strong as I am making it seem, the Giants seem to hinge on Crawfords success and that was one of the reasons they refused to trade him this offseason. If Crawford can find his magic again he will certainly help the Giants return to where they want to be.

Crawford has the skills to do better and that is why fans should keep a close eye on him.

The Giants’ pitching staff was nothing special in 2017. They lost Madison Bumgarner early in the year to a dirt bike accident and like Bumgarner’s bike, things seemed to crash once the young ace went down.

But, one of the Giants biggest issues last year was not the rotation but rather the bullpen, a group that combined for the most blown saves in all of baseball. So, with that in mind, I picked the newly added Tony Watson as my pitcher to watch.

Watson, the former Dodger, has closing experience. He served as the closer for the Pirates for a season and when he was not the closer he was the setup man in front of Mark Melancon. History would align to reunite Watson and Melancon who was once the best eighth-ninth inning duos in the league.

Watson is the pitcher to watch because he is capable of bridging the gap to the closer, a job the Giants could not get done in 2017. If Watson is successful in his role, the 32-year-old lefty could make a huge impact in San Francisco all while pitching in front of his former closer with the Pirates.

If Watson pitches well, the Giants could be in good shape.