Where Does the San Francisco Giants' 2014 Season Rank in Recent Team History?
The San Francisco Giants have evolved into baseball's improbable dynasty over the last five years, bringing home three World Series titles despite averaging just 87.2 wins per season.
Championship banners were raised in 2010, 2012 and 2014 with many of the same players providing clutch hitting, pitching and fielding throughout the years. But minor moves by general manager Brian Sabean shaped each team differently, and even key cogs went through season-long slumps and surges.
Only the Giants' championship seasons were considered for purposes of this slideshow, since both the 2011 and 2013 teams missed the playoffs and were clearly inferior. Regular-season contributions weighed slightly more heavily than postseason hot streaks since there couldn't have been October magic without successful summers.
Offense
1 of 7
The 2010 Giants boasted the deepest lineup in the National League, with every starter boasting an OPS above .730 except right fielder Nate Schierholtz. First baseman/outfielder Aubrey Huff finished seventh in the NL MVP race with a .290/.385/.506 batting line, and castaways Pat Burrell and Cody Ross provided a surprising amount of cheap pop.
Catcher Buster Posey led the 2012 team with a .336 batting average and 7.4 WAR, both best in the league. Melky Cabrera and Marco Scutaro also tore it up, but Scutaro wasn't acquired until midseason and Cabrera was suspended for the last two months of the season for performance-enhancing drug use.
Other than Posey, center fielder Angel Pagan and first baseman Brandon Belt, San Francisco didn't have any quality offensive players make it through 2012 without missing significant chunks of time.
The lineup was weaker in 2014, though right fielder Hunter Pence emerged as the team leader on the field and in the clubhouse. Pence moved between the top and middle of the order with ease, and his 106 runs scored were 34 more than Posey's second-place total.
Advantage: 2010
Defense
2 of 7Many of the Giants' mainstays have experienced sizable fluctuations in their defense statistics over the last few years, none more so than shortstop Brandon Crawford and third baseman Pablo Sandoval.
Crawford ranked third among NL shortstops with a 9.0 Ultimate Zone Rating (UZR) in 2012, but he dipped to 31st in 2014, per FanGraphs. Sandoval has never been as mobile as the man to his left, though his UZR rose from -0.5 to 1.0 to 3.5 over San Francisco's championship seasons.
Despite Crawford's brilliance, the Giants had finished 27th in the majors in fielding percentage in 2012, compared to fourth in 2010 and 16th in 2014. The 2010 team featured lumbering outfielders like Burrell and (occasionally) Huff, but center fielder Andres Torres' range and Schierholtz's cannon arm were huge in spacious AT&T Park.
Sandoval, the only weak link in an otherwise sound infield, was often replaced by Juan Uribe in late-game situations. With Uribe at third, Edgar Renteria at short, Freddy Sanchez at second and Huff or Travis Ishikawa at first, any ball on the ground was swallowed up before it got to the outfield.
Advantage: 2010
Baserunning
3 of 7
The Giants usually rely on one or two speedsters and a whole lot of station-to-station runners in their lineups. While speed wasn't the most important aspect of any of the three championship teams, a little extra awareness on the basepaths never hurt anyone.
Andres Torres wreaked havoc as San Francisco's leadoff hitter in 2010, with a Ultimate Base Running (UBR) score of 5.4, third in the NL (h/t Fangraphs). Torres had a knack for stretching gap singles into doubles, especially if outfielders were lazy getting to the ball and firing it in.
Torres, Schierholtz and Huff were the only Giants regulars with above-average UBRs, though. Five players from the 2012 team had positive UBRs, led by Angel Pagan's 5.8, second in the majors.
Pence did everyone one better by posting a 7.3 UBR in 2014, best in the NL by 1.5. But the Giants were successful on just 67.5 percent of their stolen base attempts, well below the 2012 team (75.2 percent).
Verdict: 2012
Starting Pitching
4 of 7
Two-time Cy Young Award winner Tim Lincecum and Matt Cain stifled opponents all season long in 2010, while Jonathon Sanchez and rookie Madison Bumgarner exceeded expectations. Even Barry Zito wasn't so bad, considering how he floundered in other seasons with the Giants.
Cain was a horse again in 2012 and Bumgarner and Ryan Vogelsong were solid, but the back of the rotation wasn't so hot. This was the year Lincecum's struggles began, though his Fielding Independent Pitching (FIP) was a full run lower than his 5.18 ERA, according to Fangraphs, so he likely encountered some bad luck along the way.
The 2014 Giants were the deepest of the group by the end of the season, when Yusmeiro Petit and Jake Peavy had joined the rotation. The staff of Bumgarner, Petit, Peavy, Vogelsong and Tim Hudson combined for a 3.39 ERA, with no player's individual mark rising above 4.00.
Bumgarner in particular stepped into the spotlight with a legendary performance in the playoffs, remarkable considering he finished fourth in the NL with 217.1 regular-season innings pitched. He then gutted out a record 52.2 postseason innings with a 1.03 ERA, 0.65 WHIP and 7.5 K/BB, earning both NLCS and World Series MVP honors.
Verdict: 2014
Relief Pitching
5 of 7
With deadline deals for Javier Lopez and Ramon Ramirez, the 2010 Giants solidified their bullpen for the stretch run and postseason. Lopez, Ramirez, Sergio Romo, Santiago Casilla and Brian Wilson combined for a 1.78 ERA in 238 innings pitched and five Wins Above Replacement, which proved key as San Francisco snuck into playoffs on the last day of the season.
Wilson underwent Tommy John surgery at the beginning of the 2012 season, and while Romo dazzled and Casilla generally performed well as interim closers, their promotions left San Francisco a little short on capable setup men and middle relievers.
Romo struggled last summer and eventually lost his closing job to Casilla, who finished with a 1.70 ERA, 0.86 WHIP and .175 BAA. Lopez, Jeremy Affeldt and Jean Machi got most of the other high-leverage innings, though Machi's success seems kind of fluky because of his 3.43 FIP and opponents' .230 BABIP.
Verdict: 2010
Iconic Moment
6 of 7
Each team needed a little magic to win the World Series, making three exciting Octobers for Giants fans.
The 2010 team had the allure of bringing the championship to San Francisco for the first time, and NLCS MVP Cody Ross playing out his mind for three weeks. The Giants plucked Ross off waivers mainly to stop the NL West-leading San Diego Padres from claiming him, but his two home runs off Roy Halladay in Game 1 of the NLCS set the tone for the rest of the playoffs.
37-year-old second baseman Marco Scutaro left Game 2 after getting bulldozed by 6'4", 250-pound St. Louis Cardinals left fielder Matt Holliday. But Scutaro bounced back and went 14-for-28 in the series, then earned his sweet revenge by catching Holliday's pop-up in the pouring rain to end Game 7.
Neither of those can hold a candle to Madison Bumgarner's legendary performance in Game 7 of the 2014 World Series, though. After throwing a complete-game shutout in Game 5, MadBum held the Kansas City Royals scoreless over five relief innings three days later to close out the series and etch his name in baseball's history books forever.
Verdict: 2014
Best Overall: 2010 Team
7 of 7
The 2010 team had the best hitting, defense and relief pitching of the bunch. Key contributors like Aubrey Huff, Cody Ross, Matt Cain and Brian Wilson helped the boys in orange and black end San Francisco's 56-year title drought.
All three of the teams were spectacular, since winning the World Series takes more than just luck. The 2010 Giants were the most complete, though, with threats all throughout the lineup, rotation and bullpen.
.jpg?w=600 "Breaking News")
