A Season for us to be Proud Of -- Reflecting on the 2011 San Francisco Giants Season

The San Francisco Giants season has come to an end, without a playoff appearance, and no defense of our World Series Championship.  Major League Baseball will have to crown a new champion this year.  While fans of other teams and the casual Giants fan may look at this season as a disappointment and failure, they aren't looking at the whole picture and taking all things into consideration.  Yes coming into this season there were high hopes for the Giants to make the playoffs and repeat as champions, and yes the way the season came to an end sure caused us much pain and suffering, but we must take everything into perspective.  The baseball gods weren't on our side this year. 

The Giants were peppered with injuries and an anemic offense.  But with all of the injuries and the anemic offense, the fact that the Giants were still playing meaningful baseball games till September 25th and spent 81 days in first place should be looked at as an accomplishment in itself.  And while I hate to use injuries as an excuse because they are a part of the game, the sheer amount of them and the prolonged timed missed by pivotal players surely has to be taken into consideration as the serious cause to the downfall of the Giants not making the playoffs this season.  The Giants as a team sent 20 different players to the Disable List (DL), and using the DL 25 times this season.  The two most notable injuries, the malicious hit Buster Posey sustained early in the year at the hands of Florida Marlin Scott Cousins, causing Posey to break his leg and ending his season; and a separated right shoulder by Freddy Sanchez while diving for a ground ball and ending his season, plagued the Giants offense.  Without those two players, the Giants ranked last in the National Leagues or near the button in most offensive categories.     

Everything that could have went wrong for the Giants did this season.  We all knew that injuries were going to happen, but never to the extent that it did.  The Giants had suitable backup and depth at nearly every position on the field, expect one.  The one player that they couldn’t afford to lose, catcher Buster Posey, was lost of the year.  He wasn’t just the young star prospect who won the Rookie of the Year the prior year, he was quickly becoming a team leader, taking control of a dominating starting pitching staff, quality middle relief, and a lights-out closer.  He was also the Giants best offense player, poised for a .300 batting average, 25 home runs, and 90 RBI season.  Many would say that the season was lost on the broken left ankle of Buster Posey.  But the Giants kept on fighting and believing in one another, determined to not lay down and make something of this season; and it kept them in the playoff race this long. 

There was also much disappointment in the play of the veterans who the Giants brought back from last season's team and helped lead us to the playoffs and who brought us our World Series Championship.  Aubrey Huff, who was an offense stallworth last year, was the biggest disappointment offesively this season, posting a .290 batting average, .891 OPS, 26 home runs, and 86 RBI's.  This season however, it was dismal for Huff, posting a .244 AVG, .673 OPS, 12 HR's, and 59 RBI's.  Pat Burrell spent much of the season on the DL with a broken bone in his foot, but not much was expected from him.  Cody Ross, who came on late last season and came up huge in the playoffs, winning the NCLS MVP, posted a .240 AVG, 14 homers, and 52 RBI's.  Much more was expected out of Ross. And lastly, as I don't want to call out every player, but Andres Torres also was a let down after having a career year last season.  His final tallies, .221 AVG, .312 OBP, 50 runs, and a 2-1 strikeout to walk ratio.         

For all of the negative stated above, there is a lot of positives that we can take away from this season.  We know that our starting pitching staff is rock solid, and will surely continue to get better.  We all know what we have in Tim Lincecum and Matt Cain, but Madison Bumgarner's ceiling is so high.  After starting the season 0-6, he finished the season with a 13-13 win/lose record, over 200 innings pitched, 191 K's, 3.21 ERA, and a 1.21 WHIP.  This kid is a stud and will surely be coming into Spring Training next February as the Giants #2 starter.  Staying with the starting pitching, who can help but love the story of Ryan Vogelsong.  A non-roster invitee into spring training after pitching in Japan last year, he started the season in triple-A, came up on a spot start for Barry Zito, and ended up making the All-Star team.  Best thing to ever happen to the starting pitching staff was Zito spraining his ankle.  Vogelson will definitely be back as the 4th starter in the rotation, finishing this year 13-7, 139 K's, and leading the Giants in ERA with a 2.71.  If our offense can improve next season, with the returning starting pitching staff and our lights out bullpen, there is no reason why we can't expect another playoff run next season. 

We also got to take a look into the future of this Giants organization, and the future is bright.  I already mentioned Bumgarner up top, but the young position players are going to be something.  The numbers won't show it, but I really like what I saw out of Brett Pill, Brandon Crawford, and of course, Brandon Belt.  While the sample size for Brett Pill is small, in 50 AB's he managed to hit for a .300 avg, .560 SLG, and .881 OPS.  And while Belt and Crawford both batted in the low .200's, their AB's were good AB's, taking pitchers deep into counts.  Add this core with the likes of Pablo Sandoval, Nate Schierholtz, and Buster Posey; the offense whoas will be a distant memory.       

For me at least, I look at this season as one that is a free pass.  I heard somewhere, or remember hearing, a Boston Red Sox fan saying that in the season to follow after the Red Sox broke their curse and finally won their first World Series Championship in 86 years, that the team could go 0-162, and it wouldn't matter.  They were just so happy that they finally had their championship that whatever happened the following season was all for not, unless of course you repeat.  But coming back to the Giants and this season, that is the same feeling and mentality I had going into this season.  The Giants could have gone 0-162 this season, and I wouldn’t have cared.  Our streak had ended.  Our curse was broken.  Despite all the injuries, despite all the veterans’ under-performing, despite their CEO relinquishing control of the team, and despite a hot streak that is still sizzling for the Arizona Diamondbacks, the fact that the Giants were still playing meaningful games in the month of September was amazing.  I think the Giants did alright for themselves and the 2011 season is a season for us to be proud of.