[Mick]

It is kind of crazy how a 107 win season seems to have been memory-holed.  I think had the Giants made it past the first series, we might remember the season differently.

BC

Sports are always “what have you done for me lately”.  But I certainly haven’t forgotten 2021.  It was amazing. It also was led by the “core” of Posey, Crawford Belt.  One of the great parts of that season were those 3 shutting up people that said they were done.  

It also wasn’t sustainable.  Which I said repeatedly.  They lost Posey.  Crawford and Belt were bound to regress and to have the kind of good fortune they had in ‘21 was not likely to return.

If after ‘23 they have another year where they are out of the race by Mid August; have not had at least a couple prospects (Harrison and Schmidt being the most likely candidates) make the Show; and the farm system is still considered a bottom tier system (I’ve seen it ranked by several at 18-20),  then I suspect Zaidi will be on thin ice.

Despite improving the minor league system and improving the Giants winning percentage every year except last year, despite having literalliy a record winning year for the Giants, and despite having a winning percentage that is superior to Bochy's/Sabean's/Evans' regular season winning percentages, I think Zaidi is already on thin ice. This is the fifth year of his five-year agreement and no extension has been announced. He might be under the microscope already.

It's interesting...except for last year, the Giants improved in winning percentage every year, and missed the 2020 playoffs by a whisker. Personally, I think the Giants will win at least 86 games (ZiPS has them at 88 wins).  I think they'll make the playoffs. I think every starter in the field has the potential to hit 20+ HRs, and I think the Giants will have more than 200 HRs this year.

With respect to 2021; Crawford, Belt and Posey were the unquestioned OPS leaders and had great seasons, but all of the starters had career OPS seasons except Longoria who had the second best season of his career. The Giants led the NL in team OPS and were second in HRs and second in the NL in runs scored. The perennially slow Giants were 17th in MLB in stolen bases, but they were second in MLB in stolen base percentage. Basically, everything was going right. The next season, everything went wrong, and they still finished 81-81. More to the point, the 1B consortium of Belt, Ruf, Flores and Wade had a season that was collectively far superior to the NL MVP's season; e.g, 48 HRs, and were better than that of any team at any position, with the best production from 1B that any Giants team has ever had, including the days of McCovey, Cepeda, Terry and the like.

I think 2022 was a perfect storm of negatives in the same way that 2021 was a perfect storm of positives, from the major league club to the minor league club. Law and MLB.com both rank the SFG minor league system #18 after two consecutive years at #8 and #9. And their system hasn't produced, despite Bailey and Schmitt winning minor league gold glove awards (only one per position was awarded). Speaking of which, Grant Brisbee of the Athletic had a pretty good article on SFG defense this year. Basically, the Giants' pitching staff is more built for ground balls than strikeouts and walks, so it depends on a good defense -- which isn't there, outside of Crawford. Only three NL teams allowed more balls in play than the Giants in 2022, but two of them -- Diamondbacks and Cardinals -- had the best and 4th best defense in MLB.

Outfield defense has improved with Conforto and Haniger, and Yaz and Slater as more or less permanent CF residents. Conforto is a very strong fielder, and so were Yaz and Slater in CF. Haniger takes good routes and has a strong arm. Crawford will be fine. Estrada -- yeesh. He's actually a very strong shortstop, not so much at 2B. Villar was solid, Wade at first was actually pretty good (Belt had his issues).

[Mick]

It is kind of crazy how a 107 win season seems to have been memory-holed.  I think had the Giants made it past the first series, we might remember the season differently.

BC

Sports are always “what have you done for me lately”.  But I certainly haven’t forgotten 2021.  It was amazing. It also was led by the “core” of Posey, Crawford Belt.  One of the great parts of that season were those 3 shutting up people that said they were done.  

It also wasn’t sustainable.  Which I said repeatedly.  They lost Posey.  Crawford and Belt were bound to regress and to have the kind of good fortune they had in ‘21 was not likely to return.

If after ‘23 they have another year where they are out of the race by Mid August; have not had at least a couple prospects (Harrison and Schmidt being the most likely candidates) make the Show; and the farm system is still considered a bottom tier system (I’ve seen it ranked by several at 18-20),  then I suspect Zaidi will be on thin ice.

Despite improving the minor league system and improving the Giants winning percentage every year except last year, despite having literalliy a record winning year for the Giants, and despite having a winning percentage that is superior to Bochy's/Sabean's/Evans' regular season winning percentages, I think Zaidi is already on thin ice. This is the fifth year of his five-year agreement and no extension has been announced. He might be under the microscope already.

It's interesting...except for last year, the Giants improved in winning percentage every year, and missed the 2020 playoffs by a whisker. Personally, I think the Giants will win at least 86 games (ZiPS has them at 88 wins).  I think they'll make the playoffs. I think every starter in the field has the potential to hit 20+ HRs, and I think the Giants will have more than 200 HRs this year.

With respect to 2021; Crawford, Belt and Posey were the unquestioned OPS leaders and had great seasons, but all of the starters had career OPS seasons except Longoria who had the second best season of his career. The Giants led the NL in team OPS and were second in HRs and second in the NL in runs scored. The perennially slow Giants were 17th in MLB in stolen bases, but they were second in MLB in stolen base percentage. Basically, everything was going right. The next season, everything went wrong, and they still finished 81-81. More to the point, the 1B consortium of Belt, Ruf, Flores and Wade had a season that was collectively far superior to the NL MVP's season; e.g, 48 HRs, and were better than that of any team at any position, with the best production from 1B that any Giants team has ever had, including the days of McCovey, Cepeda, Terry and the like.

I think 2022 was a perfect storm of negatives in the same way that 2021 was a perfect storm of positives, from the major league club to the minor league club. Law and MLB.com both rank the SFG minor league system #18 after two consecutive years at #8 and #9. And their system hasn't produced, despite Bailey and Schmitt winning minor league gold glove awards (only one per position was awarded). Speaking of which, Grant Brisbee of the Athletic had a pretty good article on SFG defense this year. Basically, the Giants' pitching staff is more built for ground balls than strikeouts and walks, so it depends on a good defense -- which isn't there, outside of Crawford. Only three NL teams allowed more balls in play than the Giants in 2022, but two of them -- Diamondbacks and Cardinals -- had the best and 4th best defense in MLB.

Outfield defense has improved with Conforto and Haniger, and Yaz and Slater as more or less permanent CF residents. Conforto is a very strong fielder, and so were Yaz and Slater in CF. Haniger takes good routes and has a strong arm. Crawford will be fine. Estrada -- yeesh. He's actually a very strong shortstop, not so much at 2B. Villar was solid, Wade at first was actually pretty good (Belt had his issues).