2020 San Francisco Giants Preview – MLB Preview & Prediction
The Giants are one team that has not really looked that impressive in the recent past. However, the Giants are also a team that has not done much to improve themselves and allowed one of their star pitchers to leave in the off season and that will definitely not help for the Giants who last year could not even provide him with the run support which is one of the reason why he decided it was time for him to move on.
San Francisco Giants Starters
With the Giants the rotation will be looking for a new ace this year a Bumgarner left the team during the off season. However, the Giants are looking to have Johnny Cueto step up and fill the roll like he did for the Reds in years past. Following up in the rotation behind Cueto is Jeff Samardzija, Kevin Gausman, Drew Smyly, and Trevor Cahill. Last season Cueto only threw in 4 games and ended up with 16 innings total. He ended up with a 1-2 record and a 5.06 ERA and struck out only 13 batters.
San Francisco Giants Relievers
When it comes to the bullpen the Giants are fairly young as well with Tyler Rogers, Trevor Gott, Sam Coonrod, Wandy Peralta, and Dany Jimenez. The closer for the Giants is projected to be Tony Watson. Last season Watson ended up pitching in 60 games for a total of 54 innings, but only managed to get 41 strikeouts. He did end up getting a 4.17 ERA and posted a 2-2 record with no saves, but did blow 3 saves.
San Francisco Giants Catchers
When it comes to the catching duties the player who will handle those should be familiar to the Giants as the projected starter is Buster Posey. He is backed up by Tyler Heineman and potentially Aramis Garcia. Last season Posey played in 114 games, but was not that good hitting with a .257 average and only 7 homers with 38 runners brought home. When it comes to playing defense Posey managed to throw out a decent amount of the base runners at 32.4%.
San Francisco Giants Corners
The corners are going to be familiar faces as well for the Giants. The downside is the corners were not that productive last year and shaping up to be much the same this year. First base looks to be manned by Brandon Belt, but Evan Longoria is slated to hold down third base. The backup for first is Wilmer Flores and the backup for third is Donovan Solano. When it comes to last season Belt played in a total of 156 games and hit at a clip of .234 with 17homers and 57 RBIs. For his part Longoria played in 129 games and only hit at a clip of .254 with 20 homers and brought home 69 runners.
San Francisco Giants Middle Infield
The middle infield for the Giants does not look that different either with Mauricio Dubon starting at second. Dubon is backed up by Flores. Brandon Crawford is projected to start at short and he will be backed up by Solano. Last season, Dubon only played in 30 games, but did hit decent at a clip of .270 with 4 homers and 9 runners brought home. Crawford for his part played in 147 games, but his offensive numbers were not good hitting at a clip of .228 with 11 homers and bringing home 59 runners.
San Francisco Giants Outfield
The outfield for the Giants looks somewhat stable with Alex Dickerson in left, Billy Hamilton in center, and in right field is Mike Yastrzemski. The backup for the corner positions in the outfield is Hunter Pence. The downside is Yastrzemski backs up the centerfield. When it comes to playing, Dickerson played in 68 games last year and hit at a clip of .276 with 6 homers and 28 runners brought home. Hamilton for his part played in 26 games for Atlanta and 93 for the Royals last season, but did not get any homers and brought home only 15 runners. For his part, Yastrzemski played in 107 games and could be a bright spot as he hit at a clip of .272 with 21 homers and ended up bringing home 55 runners.
San Francisco Giants Prediction
The Giants are one team that has not really looked that good and with the changes the Giants have made it looks more like they have lost the talent that they had picked up. Look for that to be a problem for the Giants heading into the season here as the Giants are unable to do anything to support the pitchers this year with runs and that leads to the Giants losing a lot more games this season again.
