At last, the torture that has been the San Francisco Giants' 2017 season has finally come to an end. Finishing the month of September as well as the final game of the season on October 1 with a record of 11-15, skipper Bruce Bochy saw his underachieving ball club fall to 64-98 on the year, some 40 games behind the first place Dodgers as they failed to log a single winning month all year. And though they were able to avoid the dubious 100-loss mark, the Giants still finished last in the National League West and finished tied with the Detroit Tigers for the worst overall record in all of baseball. But as forgettable as the season might have been while the negatives far outweighed the positives, there were plenty of heartfelt moments down the stretch including the retirements of two fan favorites and Giants postseason heroes -- Matt Cain and Ryan Vogelsong.
Despite not appearing for the Giants since 2015 and most recently playing for the Pittsburgh Pirates a season ago, 40-year old right-handed pitcher Ryan Vogelsong was signed to a one-day contract to officially retire as a Giant as he suited up one final time in a Giants uniform and was honored by throwing out the ceremonial first pitch prior to a 7-2 win against the Arizona Diamondbacks. Having played seven of his twelve Major League seasons with the same organization that drafted him in 1998, Vogelsong is best remembered for his breakthrough season in 2011 which saw him make the National League All-Star team as well as his postseason contributions most notably in 2012 when his 1.09 ERA in four starts helped the Giants win the World Series that year before helping them win it again in 2014.
As for Cain, the Giants saw their longest tenured player call it quits after 13 seasons in San Francisco, the longest for any player to remain exclusively with the franchise since moving from New York in 1958. Appropriately nicknamed "the horse", Cain, the owner of the only perfect game thrown in Giants franchise history, was integral in both championship runs in 2010 and 2012 before a mid-season injury in 2014 kept him out of action for the 2014 World Series. Ironically, the 34-year old righty would be, "Cained" one final time after tossing five shutout innings in his final start, a term appropriately used by Giants fans when a pitcher receives little to no run support during a well pitched game. With Cain departing with a 1-0 lead thru 5 innings, the Giants bullpen gave up the tying run in the following frame and then two more runs in the 9th inning to blow a 2-1 lead and eventually fall to the Padres, 3-2, giving Cain yet another no-decision. Finishing his career with an ERA of 3.68 and an overall record of 104 wins and 118 losses, few pitchers have suffered luck as bad as Cainer who should easily have 30 or so more career wins than losses as 109 of his 331 career starts have led to no-decisions. And like Vogelsong, Cain would exit to a thunderous ovation and hugs from his manager and teammates upon exiting the game.
Another starting pitcher who the Giants are hoping can mold into the next Matt Cain is former first-round pick Chris Stratton who emerged as one of the more surprising players for the Giants in 2017 and made his first career start in 2016 while filling in for an injured Matt Cain. The 27-year old righty is expected to at least be considered for San Francisco's fifth spot in the rotation next season barring any changes to the roster heading into the offseason after boasting a 4-4 record and an ERA of 3.68 in 10 starts. One question mark that rotation will face heading into 2018 will be whether or not it'll still feature starter Johnny Cueto who can opt out of the six-year, $130 Million contract he signed before last season. But after finishing 2017 with an 8-8 record and an ERA north of 4.50, a down year statistically to Cueto's standards, it's unlikely he'll find a better deal on the market than what he has on the table with the Giants. Giants brass hopes Cueto will join a 2018 rotation that will also feature ace Madison Bumgarner, Matt Moore who's 2018 team-option was picked up a week ago and strikeout specialist Jeff Samardizja.
Though Samardzija wouldn't necessarily finish his 2017 campaign the way he would've liked (9-15, 4.42 ERA), Shark did manage to register 207.2 innings pitched as well as 205 strikeouts and only 32 walks, the best strikeout to walk ratio in Giants franchise history at 6.41, besting than the previous mark of 6.17 shared by two Hall of Fame pitchers -- Christy Mathewson (1908) and Juan Marichal (1966). It would mark the second most strikeouts in a single season for Samardzija and third time he's finished above the 200 K plateau. Another impressive feat would be one accomplished by second baseman Joe Panik who dazzled in the month of September with a .375 batting average. During a three-game road trip in Denver, Panik would put on a show against the Rockies, collecting 12-hits in the series to set a franchise-record. Panik's historic series of going 12-for-15 (.800 avg) with 3 doubles, a home run, 5 RBI and an OPS of 2.000 helped increase his batting average to .288 on the year and also helped the Giants secure an 11-3 victory in the series-finale that snapped a 10-game losing streak at Coors Field. The Giants would face the Rockies just two weeks later in San Francisco where they would win both games to complete the short 2-game sweep while also stringing together their first 3-game winning streak since June 30-July 2.
Madison Bumgarner who put a damper on San Francisco's season early on after a dirt-biking accident led to the Giants ace spending nearly three months on the disabled-list, had his worst month of the season statistically due to a pair of sub-par starts in which he gave up 11 earned runs in 11 innings. However, after losing four straight decisions for the first time in his career, Bumgarner bounced back with consecutive solid starts including a gem in his final outing of the year to beat the Dodgers, 2-1 and finishing 4-9 on the year with an ERA of 3.32. But it would be MadBum's battery mate who had the best overall season for the Giants as Buster Posey led the club in batting average and finished tied for fourth in the National League and sixth overall with a .320 batting average. It would be the fifth season batting over .300 for Posey who shook off an early concussion after taking a pitch to the head in the Giants home-opener as the former NL MVP once again managed to put up solid numbers that helped him secure the starting nod in July's All-Star Game. A few other team leaders on offense included Brandon Crawford who led the team in RBI's for a second straight year with 77, Brandon Belt who had a team-high 18 home runs despite missing the final month and a half with a concussion and Eduardo Nunez who stole 18 bases with the Giants before being traded to Boston at July's trade deadline.
The power-less Giants once again finished at the bottom of the pack in home runs, slugging a league-low 128 long balls, 23 behind the next closest team (Pittsburgh Pirates). Oddly enough, the final at-bat of the season for the Giants would be a walk-off home run by Pablo Sandoval who's solo shot in the 9th inning of the season-finale gave the Giants a 5-4 victory over the Padres. But as joyful as the moment was, it was received with mixed reviews in the baseball world as the win surrendered the first overall pick in next year's MLB Draft to the Detroit Tigers, meaning the Giants will select second. Take it as you want it, it was a nice reminder of what its like to win a game, something the Giants did very little of in 2017 and something they hope to improve on heading into 2018. In need of bullpen help which is expecting a bounce back year from a healthy Mark Melancon and contributions from Wil Smith who was plagued by injury and lost for the season during Spring Training as well as an outfield power presence in the lineup, the Giants may be one of the more active teams come December's winter meetings.
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If you're looking for the perfect comeback story, look no further than Giants pitcher Ryan Vogelsong. To begin the season, the Giants knew they had a cast of All-Star quality pitchers. What they didn't know was Vogelsong would soon be one of them. Since being drafted by San Francisco in the 5th round of the 1998 Major League Draft, the soon-to-be 34 year old right-hander has overcome just about every hardship in the book. After making his debut with the Giants in 2000 as a September call-up, Vogelsong was packaged a year later to the Pittsburgh Pirates in exchange for Jason Schmidt among others. Though the deal worked in favor of the Giants who saw Schmidt blossom into a 3-time All-Star, Vogelsong would appear to be on a downward spiral after needing Tommy John Surgery just two starts into his campaign with the Pirates, keeping him out of the bigs until the end of the 2003 season.
Vogelsong would continue to struggle at the Major League level, causing him to pursue his baseball career elsewhere in Japan where he spent three seasons from 2007-2009 before stints in the Minors for the Phillies and Angels. While being hung out to dry on the free-agent market, general manager Brian Sabean of the defending World Series Champion Giants signed Vogelsong to a Minor League deal with an invite to Spring Training where he impressed skipper Bruce Bochy, but was left off the Opening Day roster due to a crowded pitching staff. However, Vogelsong would get his chance less than a month into the season, when Bochy saw his number 4 starter in Barry Zito fall to injury, resulting in a call up which saw Vogelsong fill the void of the former Cy Young Award winner. Little did he know Vogelsong would pitch his way into the rotation for good, despite being four years removed from his last start in the big leagues.
With a disappointing win-loss record of 10-22 and a mediocre ERA of 5.86 to show for after 6 Major League seasons, it would've been nearly impossible for anyone including Vogelsong to predict he'd make the Giants roster with as big of an impact he's made, let alone earn a spot on the All-Star team. After making his season debut on April 28, it wasn't long before the Giants struck gold as the right-hander paved his way to success by making nine consecutive starts where he allowed two runs or fewer to highlight his All-Star campaign. In the midst of his stellar season that's been nothing short of a Cinderella story, Giants manager Bruce Bochy has taken heavy fire lately as many believe his decision to name Vogelsong (6-1) to the All-Star Game was a homer move considering he already has two of his starting pitchers being represented in the Midsummer Classic. 
Though his ERA of 2.17 is tops in the NL, he doesn't meet the number of innings pitched required to qualify for the ERA title which is a result of his late-April call-up. While Vogelsong's story of rags to riches alone merits a trip to the Midsummer Classic, arguments could also be made for Atlanta's Tommy Hanson and Pittsburgh's Kevin Correia who coincidentally served under Bruce Bochy as a Giant. The only starter Vogelsong would stand in the way of however, would be Hanson as Correia was a late add to the roster, replacing Philadelphia's Cole Hammels who took the mound on Sunday. And though I do think Hanson was snubbed from the All-Star team, I won't discredit Vogey for all he's done to get here, not to mention Hanson who at the young age of 24 will make multiple cameos in the Midsummer Classic before his career is all said and done. After all, it's unlikely Vogelsong will ever get this opportunity again.If I'm going to make the argument to defend Vogelsong, I might as well stick up for Bruce Bochy too who fans are making it sound like he's made the only mistake when in fact it's the fans who get the voting wrong time and time again. Who's to judge Bochy's decision when the fans are the ones who vote Derek Jeter and A-Rod in every year regardless if their stats are All-Star worthy or not. It's bad enough that fans have the power to select the starting position players, but if they were in control of who the pitchers are also, it might as well be a Yankee-Phillies game given all the All-Star game really is is a popularity contest. And given the game decides which league gets home-field advantage in the World Series, the smart thing to do would be to outlaw the fan-voting. Besides, Bochy isn't the first All-Star manager to choose a player of his own. Phillies skipper Charlie Manuel did it two years ago when he decided to elect Shane Victorino over Pablo Sandoval who finished the season as the runner-up for the NL batting title behind Florida's Hanley Ramirez.
Also being named to his first ever All-Star team is the aforementioned Giants infielder - Pablo Sandoval who was a late addition to the roster, filling in for the injured Jose Reyes. Similar to Volgelsong, many believe Sandoval isn't deserving of an All-Star appearance due to a month long stint on the disabled list caused by a broken hand. To his credit, Sandoval entered the All-Star break on a 20-game hitting-streak, finishing the first half on a high note. The addition of Sandoval gives the Giants a total of 5 All-Star's (Tim Lincecum, Matt Cain, Brian Wilson, Ryan Vogelsong and Pablo Sandoval), the club's largest representation since the 1966 season which saw 6 Giants represent the orange and black -- Willie Mays, Willie McCovey, Juan Marichal, Gaylor Perry, Jim Ray Hart and Tom Haller. One thing is for sure and that's that the orange and black will be well represented this year as Arizona's Chase Field gets set to kick off the 82nd annual MLB All-Star Game on FOX (5 p.m. PST).
