San Francisco Giants Preview 

With Bonds back in the lineup and manager Felipe Alou managing his playing time impeccably, I expect the Giants to be a good team to pick your spots and make money on this season. They had a down year last season, but then again, what do you expect without arguably the best player to ever play the game in the lineup. Here’s why the Giants should be on your list of teams to back. They have gained their supporters 91 total units the past 6 seasons without enduring a losing season and they play in a very weak division.

I expect the Giants to make a run for the top spot in a weak NL West division in 2006. The Giants finished third in the NL West behind Arizona and San Diego, but they were just 7 games back of the Padres who were just 2 games over .500 and who had less wins in 2005 than they did in 2004. The Giants are capable of cleaning up their league and mounting a huge 10+ game turnaround with Bonds in the lineup everyday. We all saw the impact he had in his short stint at the end of last season.

It’s easy to say the Giants are a good team to back and throw out a few numbers, but let’s take a more in depth look. You’ll want to look for the Giants at home when they are going up against lefties. Over the last 3 years, they are an unstoppable 49-17 for a positive 27 units. You might find this somewhat surprising knowing that Bonds is a lefty. Bet even lefties pitch around the top power hitter in the game.

The Giants starting pitching staff struggled last season with Jason Schmidt enduring health problems. If he can return to his form and become the ace of this staff again, they have a legitimate threat for the NL Cy Young award on their squad and a guy who can win 20+ games. San Fran also picked up Matt Morris in the off-season. This guy is getting up there in years and has had problems of his own with going on the disabled list, but he’s another threat and a solid 2-man in the rotation. The bullpen is a question mark just as it has been for quite sometime, and it could be the weak spot that keeps San Francisco from capturing a division title this season.

The Giants are an experienced team to put it nicely. In Layman’s terms, they are old. Alou, Bonds, and Winn are all up there in years and won’t be tracking down a lot of balls. How many games will Bonds be able to play? This is a big question and Alou seems to be managing his playing time well in the early going. But having to play everyday down the stretch in order to win a division title is a scenario that could cause Barry to revisit his knee injury. I also think it will be important for this team for Barry to break Ruth’s homerun mark early. After that weight is off Bonds’ shoulders, we might really see him get hot.
 

2006 Baseball Previews

 

Free MLB Picks by Jimmy Boyd