Following a roller coaster ride in June which featured plenty of ups and downs for the San Francisco Giants, the G-Men opened up the month of July like a team asleep at the wheel, losing their first seven games after being swept on the road by the Miami Marlins and Washington Nationals before dropping two of three at home to the Mets. Having endured their second 7-game losing streak of the season, Giants manager Bruce Bochy called upon Matt Cain who pitched his team to victory in his second start of the season and first at home since August of last year as the former Giants ace hurled six shutout frames in a 3-0 win.
With a series against the visiting Phillies prior to baseball's Midsummer Classic, the Giants headed into the All-Star break with a bit of confidence and a three-game winning-streak following a three-game sweep of struggling Philadelphia. With a few days of rest and the return of Hunter Pence to the lineup, Bruce Bochy's ball club would begin playing their best ball of the season with a stretch of 13 wins in 15 games as the Giants turned up the heat in the NL Western Division standings and pulled within a 1/2 game of the rival Dodgers. Series wins against the D-Backs, Padres and Brewers as well as the first three-game sweep of their bay area rival Oakland A's for the first time at AT&T Park since 2011, would catapult the G-Men 11-games over .500 with a record of 56-45. In the series finale against the Athletics, Giants starter Tim Hudson joined an elite group of players by becoming only the 15th pitcher in MLB history to beat all 30 current teams following the 4-3 win, besting the team he broke onto the big league scene with in 1999 where he played six seasons.
Entering a weekend series against the Texas Rangers to close out the month of July and spring forward the month of August, the Giants headed into the lone star state as the hottest team in baseball before cooling down after splitting the first two games and eventually dropping the rubber match in the team's first visit to Arlington since the clinching Game 5 of the 2010 World Series. After allowing just 4 runs in his last three starts combined entering the weekend, Giants ace Madison Bumgarner was roughed up on the road in Texas. The Texas heat coupled with the power-driven offense of the Rangers made for a disastrous night on the mound as MadBum was touched for 6 earned runs in the contest. With the health of Tim Lincecum up in the air and the team unsure whether or not they'll see the 2-time Cy Young Award winner pitch again this season as he recovers from a degenerative condition in his hip which he was recently diagnosed with and has kept him on the shelf since June 27, Giants GM Brian Sabean was forced to dig into his bag of tricks.
Seeking some depth in the Giants rotation, the pitching staff got some much needed help from the front-office with the acquisition of right-handed pitcher Mike Leake from the Cincinnati Reds before Friday's trade deadline in exchange for Minor Leaguers Adam Duvall and Keury Mella. Making his Giants debut in the series finale against Texas, Leake, who becomes a free-agent following the season, pitched an impressive 6.1 innings while striking out 5 and yielding 8 hits, 2 walks and allowing only 2-runs on a home run by Josh Hamilton. However, Leake would suffer the loss as the Giants fell, 2-1. Leake came over in the trade owning a record of 9-5 on the year and an ERA of 3.56 in 21 starts as Cincy's no.2 man in the rotation, not bad for a guy pitching in Cincinnati's hitter-friendly Great American Ballpark.
Overall, San Francisco finished 14-10 in the month of July and currently stand 2.5 games back of the Dodgers with a record of 57-47 as they get set to pay the Atlanta Braves a visit for a three-game set before closing their current road trip with four meetings at the friendly confines of Wrigley Field versus the Cubs. August will serve as a major test for the orange and black as 8 of the 9 remaining series' this month will be against contending teams (@ Cubs, vs Astros, vs Nationals, @ Cardinals, @ Pirates, vs Cubs, vs Cardinals and @ Dodgers) with the lone exception of the Braves. Let's just hope the Giants' emotional leader in Hunter Pence can stay healthy as the team sports a record of 27-11 with him in the line-up this season opposed to 30-36 without him.
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With the San Francisco Giants struggling to maintain the dominance they opened the season with for the first time in June, the month of July saw much of the same. Though they would finish the dog days of July by going 12-14, winning two more games than they did the previous month, manager Bruce Bochy would witness his ball club boast a sub .500 record for a second consecutive month. However, the team would continue their winning ways on the road where the Giants have clearly been more productive at the plate, winning 7 of 12 games. As for the friendly confines of AT&T Park, the Giants' home would be anything but friendly to the orange and black as they finished with 5-wins and 9-losses.
After stumbling into the All-Star break with series losses against the St. Louis Cardinals and Oakland A's and wins against two of their mediocre division rivals in San Diego and Arizona, the Giants bounced back by highlighting a successful road trip out east with two wins in three games in Miami and by taking three of four in Philly. But the G-Men would fail to bring that magic back home with them as they were swept at AT&T against the archrival Dodgers in a three-game series before avoiding nearly being swept by Pittsburgh. The sluggish home stand resulted in the Giants falling as many as three games behind L.A. in the NL West. And with injuries to Matt Cain and Joe Panik as well as the uncertainty revolving veteran second baseman Marco Scutaro, Giants general manager Brian Sabean was forced to make a move.
Hoping one team's trash would be another team's treasure, Sabean signed second baseman Dan Uggla to a Minor League deal. But Uggla, who was released earlier this year by the Atlanta Braves, would be called up much earlier than anticipated as Panik went down with an injury. The acquisition would prove to be a short lived experiment as Uggla failed to log a single hit in his 11 at-bats while also committing a handful of errors. With Matt Cain likely to undergo surgery to remove bone chips in his throwing elbow which would sideline him for the remainder of the season, Sabean went out and acquired Jake Peavy from the Boston Red Sox in exchange for Minor League pitchers Heath Hembree and Edwin Escobar. Having spent the better half of his eight seasons with the San Diego Padres under Giants skipper Bruce Bochy, few pitchers in the game today know the NL West as well as Peavy where he won the NL Cy Young Award in 2007 as a Triple Crown winner.
Peavy, a victim of little to no run support this season (received two runs or fewer in support in each of his last 8 starts) while with the Red Sox, went 1-9 with the defending World Series champs this year while posting a 4.72 ERA. But returning to pitch in the division he grew up in and had plenty of success, could result in a second half rebound. The 33-year old Peavy is a 3-time All-Star that plays with his emotions on his sleeve and will supply a fiery mentality while providing stability to the rotation. Perhaps the most important note of all is that he's been known as a Dodger killer throughout his career with a record of 14-2 and an ERA of 2.21 against L.A. That wouldn't be the case in his Giants debut, however, as the Dodgers tagged him for three runs in six innings in a losing effort.
Many thought San Francisco would be a bit more active at this year's July 31st trade deadline but instead the Giants braintrust decided to stay put following the acquisition for Peavy while adding that, "Bad deals were to be made." And while Sabean has been known as somewhat of a genius for making key deals at or near the deadline, only time will tell whether or not the same could be said regarding his latest transaction. Perhaps the highlight of the month just because of its rarity would belong to Tim Lincecum who stole the spotlight as the Giants' headline for the month of June as well. After continuing his brilliance with a stellar first half of July, the Freak treated fans to a bizarre sighting they aren't used to seeing as Timmy recorded his first career save, becoming only the 9th pitcher since 1969 with a no-hitter and a save in the same season. With ugly outings in each of his last two starts, Timmy and the rest of his pitching mates will be counted on to pick it up the rest of the way if the Giants plan to fend off the rival Dodgers for the top spot in the West. The Giants' bullpen, meanwhile, was lights out in the month of July, boasting the best ERA and opponent average against in the NL.
The Giants will kick off a 10-game road trip to begin the month of August with a trip to New York to face the Mets and stops at Milwaukee and Kansas City as the NL Central division leading Brewers and playoff hopeful Royals look to make a push for the postseason. A homestand vs the White Sox and Phillies will take place before the G-Men hit the road again to meet with the Cubs and Nationals before returning home and rounding out the month of August with a series vs the Rockies and Brewers at AT&T Park.
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For the second time in three years, the San Francisco Giants have followed up a successful World Series triumph with a disappointing season in which they've failed to make the postseason. Trying as hard as ever to manufacture a team capable of climbing back to the pinnacle of baseball immortality, Giants general manager Brian Sabean has already done some early shopping and knocked off a few key needs on the team's Christmas list. With outfielder Hunter Pence signing a 5-year extension one day before the end of the 2013 regular season and pitcher Tim Lincecum inking a new two-year deal just weeks later, Sabean continued his early spending by landing another seasoned veteran in right-hander Tim Hudson as the team officially cut ties with Barry Zito.
Hudson, 38, signed a two-year, $23 Million deal earlier this week. Along with his veteran leadership and valuable knowledge of the game, Hudson brings a repertoire of pitches that includes everything but the kitchen sink as well as over 200 career wins along with him to the bay area where he first established himself as a big league pitcher from 1999-2004 with the Giants' cross bay rival -- Oakland A's where he helped create 1/3 of the Athletics' "big three" alongside Mark Mulder and Barry Zito. Through 15 big league seasons, the last 9 of which with the Atlanta Braves, Hudson has been named to three All-Star teams and has yet to log a season in which he's recorded a record at or under .500. 2014 will see the return of Hudson to the baseball diamond after a fractured right ankle in July put an abrupt end to his 2013 campaign. A season in which the Braves finished the regular season 96-66, good enough for the number 2 seed in the National League before being bounced out of the postseason by the Los Angeles Dodgers in the National League Division Series.
Hudson logged an 8-7 record and an ERA of 3.97 in 21 starts in 2013 before being bit by the injury bug. Better known for their dominant pitching over the last few seasons that saw a World Series Championship in 2010 and another just two seasons later in 2012, Hudson joins a Giants starting pitching staff that looked very much unlike itself this past season by boasting an overall ERA of 4.37, the third highest in the National League. What direction Sabean and skipper Bruce Bochy look to head in with the team's fifth starting pitching spot is not yet known. While Ryan Vogelsong remains an option, the Giants may look elsewhere and sign another lefty to join Madison Bumgarner, granted Matt Cain, Linececum and Hudson are all right-handers. One southpaw the Giants will for sure be bringing back, however, is reliever Javier Lopez. Coming off his best Major League season yet (1.83 ERA), Lopez, who's been nothing but nails for the Giants since being traded in 2010 from the Pittsburgh Pirates, entered the offseason as one of if not the top left-handers on the free-agent market and was said to have drawn the interest of at least 10 other ball clubs before San Francisco retained one of its key cogs in the bullpen.
While the Giants still have a hole to fill in left field, GM Brian Sabean has been very on point thus far in the offseason in addressing the teams top priorities. And given how Sabe's likes to do his work early in the off-season, don't be surprised if he makes a move anytime soon and surprises us with an early Christmas present before the holiday.
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If you love the San Francisco Giants as much as I do, you're probably still celebrating the fact that for the second time in three years they're World Series champions. And while the fans and players are still busy soaking it all in, the Giants front-office has been equally as busy this off-season, making moves in preparation of doing it all over again next year. With key contributions during the team's improbable playoff run coming from Jeremy Affeldt in the bullpen and both Angel Pagan and Marco Scutaro at the plate, general manager Brian Sabean made it his off-season priority to bring back all three players. And on the opening day of Major League Baseball's Winter Meetings, Sabean who also had his contract extended on Tuesday, managed to have all three players crossed off of the Giants wishlist.
Though reliever Jeremy Affeldt who's become a mainstay in the Giants bullpen since 2009 signed his new three-year, $18 Million deal several weeks ago in mid-November, the Giants filled not one, but two vacancies in their batting order on Tuesday by signing Pagan to a four-year, $40 Million contract and Scutaro to a three-year, $20 Million pact after the two were said to have spoke to other teams. While the Philadelphia Phillies reportedly offered Pagan a four-year deal, the St. Louis Cardinals who Marco Scutaro took home NLCS MVP honors against with a .500 batting average, offered the 37 year old second baseman a multi-year deal. But at the end of the day, it was San Francisco where both players found themselves signing. And after winning it all for the first time in their career, why not take another shot at it with a chance to defend your title with virtually the same exact group of guys you won it with?
While Scutaro showcased just what he could do in front of a nationally televised audience during the postseason after being traded from the Rockies mid-season where he'd hit .362 in 268 regular season plate appearances with the Giants, Pagan shook off a cold start to his 2012 campaign by setting career bests in doubles and runs as well as set a single-season franchise-record for triples with 13 which also led the National League. And though a four-year deal wasn't ideally what Sabean wanted to award the 31 year old Pagan with, he did what he had to in order to lure in the spark plug of the Giants offense. The re-signing of Pagan also means Bruce Bochy will have a speedy lead-off man who's a threat on the base paths to depend on in the outfield for at least a few more years. Bochy who's been the skipper of the Giants since 2007, will also be around a little longer as he too had his 2014 option picked up by team president and chief executive officer Larry Baer.
With the Giants lineup for the 2013 season just about in place with the likes of Buster Posey, Brandon Belt, Brandon Crawford, Pablo Sandoval, Hunter Pence, Gregor Blanco and Pagan and Scutaro, Sabean and company hasn't shot down the possibility just yet of adding another piece to the puzzle, one that would most likely be an outfielder, meaning Blanco would have to surrender his duties in left. Such names as Ichiro Suzuki and Nick Swisher who according to reports has San Francisco atop his list of desired destinations have both been thrown around, but might be asking for more greenbacks than what the Giants brain trust has in mind.
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