While some consider Giants from San Francisco they will fall in the West division of the National League in the second half of the season 2021 of the MLB, which begins today Thursday, July 15, 2021, here are some reasons why Giants they could win the Major League Baseball World Series again, which they haven’t done since 2014, when they defeated the Kansas City Royals in seven (7) games.
Home runs and pitching (modern baseball)
The Giants currently lead the MLB with 132 home runs, which is pretty surprising just given the recent history of this team, even when it was pretty good. They hit 103 home runs in the 2012 championship season. The entire regular season. They hit 107 in 2013. They hit 132 in the 2014 championship season. They hit 130 in 2016. Yeah, hitting 132 in 89 games so far this year is a lot.
The pitching context: In its great years, the pitching staff of the Giants was very good at limiting opponents’ home runs … But in 2021, the Giants They’ve only allowed 87 home runs so far, for an incredible spread of more than 45 home runs. If you play solid defense like you have San Francisco, you can win a lot with a half home run advantage per game.
There is some evidence that this is happening in some way by the design of Farhan Zaidi (president of operations) and Gabe Kapler (manager): last season, Giants they homered their opponents 81-69. Add in this season and in 149 total games under Kapler, the Giants they have homered opponents 213-156.
To be sure, there have been cases where teams with a large pitching corps have not made it to the pitch. postseason … But overall, a great pitching usually leads to at least one team in contention and probably the playoffs, and Kevin Gausman, Anthony DeSclafani, Tyler Rogers and the rest are currently a very good pitching staff.
So far, the Dodgers lead the MLB with a team ERA of 3.14. The Giants They are No. 2 at 3.26. And Los Padres is No. 3 at 3.41.
In addition, Giants from 2021 so far they have the fourth best ERA in bullpen on MLB, with 3.38, and the WHIP of bullpen lowest with 1.13. Those are numbers that can take a team through some series of playoffs.
Old acquaintance of the eternal rival
Zaidi already helped the Los Angeles Dodgers put together a World Series team, although the Dodgers didn’t win the title until 2020, two years after he left, but they were also in the World Series (and lost) in 2017. and 2018, in Zaidi’s last two years as general manager of Los Angeles. Zaidi has the unique ability to identify and acquire under-recognized talents who have carried over to World Series teams.
Zaidi is building in the Giants the system to make sure you can build a roster from MLB economically talented, maybe find your long-term stars in the draft and only move important pieces as long as a young superstar is available.
The Dodgers are not invincible
The Dodgers had a decidedly regular first half and yet they are 56-35, on track to win 100 games (the Giants are on track to win 104) and just two games behind in the NL West… So far, San Francisco is 3-6 against the Dodgers and comes the big four-game series in the Dodger Stadium next week.
Kapler and his coaching staff
Kapler and his great team of assistant coaches know what they’re doing – Posey, Crawford, Brandon Belt, and Evan Longoria have bought this since the start of 2020 and solid veterans like Gausman, Mike Yastrzemski and Wilmer Flores have done it right there by the side.
In addition, the effective deployment of lDarin Ruf, Alex Dickerson, LaMonte Wade Jr., Curt Casali, Steven Duggar and Austin Slater.
With some information from Tim Kawakami from The Athletic.