San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Dodgers best in West? Giants might be better
The Giants get no respect, which is right in their wheelhouse.
A team with 107 wins would figure to be the team to beat the following season, at least in its own division, even after losing a catcher who appears headed to the Hall of Fame.
The Giants universally are picked to finish third, and Dodgers manager Dave Roberts joined the rest of the industry by refusing to call the Giants the team to beat in the National League West. In fact, he calls the Dodgers the team to beat in all of baseball, proclaiming, “We’ll win the World Series this year,” and, “Put it on record.”
To which the Giants’ Gabe Kapler says nothing of the kind. He won’t play the prediction game when addressing baseball’s most storied rivalry.
So let’s play devil’s advocate. Here are 10 reasons the Giants can surpass the Dodgers again:
Rotations: Don’t laugh, but the Giants feature a deeper rotation with Logan Webb, Carlos Rodon, Anthony DeSclafani, Alex Wood and Alex Cobb. The Dodgers are top heavy with Walker Buehler, Julio Urias and Clayton Kershaw, who has been on the injured list six straight years and had a 3.55 ERA last season, highest since his rookie year. The other 40% of the rotation are Tony Gonsolin, who had command issues last year, and Andrew Heaney, who had a 5.83 ERA in 2021. It prompted this L.A. Times headline: “Will lack of depth haunt Dodgers’ talented rotation in 2022?” No such Chronicle headline on the Giants’ fivesome, which posted a 1.98 spring training ERA before Wood got hit hard in Tuesday’s exhibition finale. Giants’ depth: This is what the Giants were all about in 2021. Ten players had double-digit home run totals, and 15 had at least seven. The depth is thinner at the outset with infielders Evan Longoria and Tommy La Stella and outfielder LaMonte Wade Jr. on the injured list, but the Giants had their entire No. 1 infield on the shelf during a stretch in July and kept winning. Newcomer Luke Williams, acquired in spring training in a trade with the Phillies, is the epitome of versatility (he carries seven gloves in his bag), and at some point, outfield prospect Heliot Ramos is expected to join the mix. The Dodgers, meanwhile, rely on a set lineup.
Intangibles: For an analytic franchise, it might be uncommon to address this subject, but Kapler talks about it every day as an element that “can be a separator for us” in a division with the Dodgers and Padres, as it was last year when there were many moving parts and players maintained what Kapler called an “unselfish behavior, a willingness to accept and embrace roles.”
Joc Pederson: Is the Giants’ biggest offensive acquisition motivated to take down the Dodgers? We lean toward yes. His final year in L.A., they tried to trade him to the Angels, beat him in arbitration and used him solely as a platoon player. Drafted out of Palo Alto High School in the 11th round in 2010, Pederson said in the final days of spring training, “It’s really nice to go home. Something I always wanted to do was play for the Giants.”
Dodgers’ depth: In the not so distant past, the Dodgers had incredible depth with Kiké Hernandez and Chris Taylor playing multiple roles and often coming off the bench to win games. Then Hernandez signed with the Red Sox. Then Taylor got inserted into the lineup. Furthermore, AJ Pollock is gone, traded to the White Sox for Craig Kimbrel, and Gavin Lux is a regular. The Dodgers’ Opening Day roster had a whopping 16 pitchers, and that left room for just 12 position players — three on the bench, including a catcher. Hanser Alberto and Edwin Rios, you’re up.
Bullpens: The Dodgers are heralded for having Kimbrel and Blake Treinen, but the Giants posted the majors’ best bullpen ERA last season and have pretty much everyone back. As deep as the rotation is, the bullpen might be deeper. While Kimbrel will serve as the ninth-inning reliever in save situations, the Giants will counter with three relievers with three different looks — hard-throwing Camilo Doval, lefty Jake McGee and submariner Tyler Rogers — but also have Dominic Leone and Zack Littell to absorb high-leverage innings. The Dodgers’ loss of Kenley Jansen, now a Brave, could be significant. While Jansen, 34, experienced his share of rocky moments in recent years, he solidified the bullpen for a decade. It remains to be seen whether Kimbrel, who turns 34 in May, will take up the slack this season, especially after his rough patch with the White Sox in 2021.
Joey Bart: Yes, Joey Bart. The general feeling in the Giants’ clubhouse is that he’s ready. Not to become the next Buster Posey. Just to be a good version of Joey Bart, which we didn’t see in previous big-league stints. He’s noticeably more comfortable, and his mind-set is right. “I mean, I can’t be thinking about Buster when I’m playing,” Bart said. “He’s been a tremendous asset for this franchise, obviously, for a long time. Good friend, great guy. I’d like to see him around, but now it’s time to kind of get things dialed in and focus on what I can focus on.”
Bosses: The Dodgers won eight straight division titles mostly on Roberts’ and Andrew Friedman’s watch, but the streak ended last year, a big reason Kapler and Farhan Zaidi are the reigning manager of the year and executive of the year, respectively.
Cody Bellinger: The Dodgers will continue to try riding the 2019 MVP no matter how much it disappoints their fans, and that’s probably cool with the Giants. Bellinger was 2-for-48 last year off San Francisco pitching — 2-for-48 — good for a .042 batting average with 21 strikeouts. Look at this epic slash line: .042/.148/.104. Bellinger didn’t exactly find his groove in spring training: He was 5-for-36 with 18 K’s.
Cool factor: Brandon Crawford. End of story.