Five surprises that make the Giants special this season

The Giants are the best team in baseball. There’s no sense fighting that fact anymore.

And with a healthy lead over both the Dodgers in the National League West and for the best record in baseball, overall, it’s becoming increasingly likely that the Giants will hold onto both top slots once the final 30% of the season is played.

How did this happen? How did the Giants turn from a team amid a longterm rebuild in a tough division into a juggernaut seemingly overnight?

There are countless reasons, but I think these five surprises go a long way to explaining this magical San Francisco season:

A NEW STAR » Let’s be honest, you didn’t know who LaMonte Wade Jr. was when he was acquired from the Minnesota Twins. I know I needed to look him up.

At the time, Wade was viewed as a depth piece, another Farhan flyer who would spend a lot of time in Triple-A Sacramento.

But the outfielder/first baseman has carved out a place in the Giants’ best lineup this season by being one of the better hitters in the game.

His 132 wRC+ (weighted runs per plate appearance where 100 is league-average) is better than or on par with some of the biggest names in the game: Freddie Freeman; Manny Machado and Giancarlo Stanton are just a few. The Giants didn’t make a big splash on the trade market, but Wade has been, statistically, a better player this season than Trea Turner — one of the Dodgers’ big acquisitions — and Joey Gallo, the powerhitting outfielder who was one of the Yankees’ big moves at the deadline.

What turned Wade into one of the better hitters in the game? To start, Wade is swinging more than he ever has at the Major League level, both in quantity and percentage. And when he does hit the ball, he’s pulling it more often, and it’s more frequently in the air than in the past. In short, he’s swinging for the fences, and it’s turning line drives into home runs.

Easy enough, right?

He’s making it look that way. And if this keeps up, the guy no one knew when he was acquired will be a household name across baseball soon. Think the next Mike Yastrzemski without the famous lineage.

POSEY HAS FOUND THE FOUNTAIN OF YOUTH » Future Hall of Famer Buster Posey made the difficult decision to step away from the game last season, skipping the shortened 2020 campaign.

But there’s no question that decision is paying dividends in 2021.

The seven-time All-Star is arguably having his best season as a pro at age 34. The only fair comparison is his MVP season of 2012.

The catcher has found the fountain of youth. Well, sort of.

Heading into the weekend, Posey was slashing .336/.429/.988 — right in line with that fabled age-25 season. The counting stats won’t match as Posey has only 301 plate appearances, less than half of what he had back in 2012, but that’s what comes with age and modern baseball.

A year away allowed Posey to recalibrate both physically and mentally and the Giants’ constantly rotating lineups have done a solid job of keeping him fresh when he’s available.

It’s highly likely that Fernando Tatis Jr. will win the National League MVP. If it’s not him, Bryce Harper will take it. They’re the big names doing flashy things for teams that baseball fans enjoy talking about. Remember, the Giants are effectively the Tampa Bay Rays with a few veterans, like Posey.

But as of this week, you could land Posey at 100-to-1 to win NL MVP.

I really don’t see it happening, but I didn’t see this season coming in the first place. By the end of September, he could make the argument that he’s the best player on the game’s best team. That could be a strong one.

WEBB IS AN ACE » The Giants didn’t add to their starting rotation at the trade deadline, despite it being Farhan Zaidi’s declared priority. That lack of a move is looking foolhardy after two Giants’ starters went on the injured list in recent weeks.

But San Francisco has been able to manage because of the emergence of their youngest starter, Logan Webb.

The Rocklin native was outstanding in the Cactus League this spring, leading to plenty of speculation — especially from me — that he could be poised for a breakout season behind an elite changeup.

In his first start of the season, the Seattle Mariners sat on that changeup and knocked him around. One start later, he was out of the rotation.

Webb spent April and May bouncing back and forth between the bullpen and starting before he went on the IL in late May.

But since returning, he’s been a starter, and he’s been one of the best in baseball.

Webb has the secondbest ERA in the National League since his return to the mound on July 9 at 1.71. Only Dodgers’ace Walker Buehler has been better.

Webb has also been nails against high-level competition. He’s shut down the Dodgers twice and the Astros once during that stretch.

The key has been a move to using his two-seam fastball to get ahead in the count and then more usage of his slider, which is a plus pitch. It’s a more mature arsenal. And paired with that wicked changeup, it’s getting serious results.

The Giants now have two aces in their rotation — Kevin Gausman and Webb.

The Giants’ rotation can’t compare with the Dodgers’, but with Webb pitching at this level, the gap is a bit closer. LINEUP SUMMERSAULT » A few days ago, Giants manager Gabe Kapler openly marveled at the depth of his lineup. Not yet at “full strength”, the Giants, with new acquisition Kris Bryant, were going to be able to put one of the strongest teams in baseball out night after night.

The joke was that the Giants could flip their lineup — No. 8 bats No. 1 and vice versa, all the way down — and it wouldn’t be a problem.

And given the success of the No. 8 batter for the Giants this season, that might not be a bad idea every now and again.

This is a bit of a strange stat, but the Giants have the second-best production from the No. 8 spot in the lineup in the National League this season. And given the fact that pitchers still bat in the National League (Why? I don’t know), that’s huge.

There hasn’t been one particular player slotted in the No. 8 hole this season. Twentyone players have seen a plate appearance at the spot, with nine hitters seeing 20 or more.

Thairo Estrada and Steven Duggar have been best in the eight-hole. In 39 plate appearances, Estrada has a 203 wRC+. Duggar has a wRC+ in 55 plate appearances.

In all, the Giants’ No. 8 hitter is doing better than a league-average hitter. Only a handful of teams — most in the American League — can make that claim.

That’s the kind of sneaky production that helps a team have the best record in baseball.

MORE THAN A FLASH OF THE LEATHER » Typically teams that are put together the way the Giants are — in a Moneyball style — don’t spend much time worrying about defense.

Who needs to field when you can lead the Majors in home runs?

Well, the Giants might be hitting homers, but they don’t seem to subscribe to that overall theory.

This season, San Francisco is the best fielding team in baseball, per MLB’s Statcast metric Outs Above Replacement. To date, the Giants have prevented 25 runs from scoring with their defense. The next-best National League team is the Mets at 15. Why’s this a surprise? Well, the Giants were astoundingly average with the gloves last year.

But whether it’s ranging to the left or right, moving backward or forwards, the Giants are a plus defensive team. Even Donovan Solano and Wilmer Flores — widely seen as defensive liabilities — have been positive defensive players this season.

A big part of the Giants’ defensive success is Brandon Crawford, of course, but also Yastrzemski, who is 26th in baseball with six outs above replacement. The Giants have moved Yastrzemski to center field full-time this past week to allow average defender Kris Bryant to play a corner outfield spot with the return of strong fielder Evan Longoria imminent — he subsequently made one of the best catches of the season for any team.

So the Giants have elite hitting, strong pitching, and topof-the-league defense.