The San Francisco Giants: A Pitcher Away from the Postseason

Finally, the Giants are no longer the "Barry Bonds Show."

The San Francisco Giants haven't played in the postseason since 2003. With the declining play of the aging and often hurt Barry Bonds from '03-'07, the Giants offense was their Achilles' heel. 

The front office has finally put all their resources into a full-fledged youth movement.  With Peter Magowan stepping down as team president, the Giants and their GM Brian Sabean now have some freedom to try a different approach.

Instead of creating a supporting cast of washed up veterans around a prima donna, the Giants have recently started to the phrase "pitching and defense wins championships." 

However, despite Tim Lincecum's probable Cy Young award, the Giants supposed "strength" of pitching isn't quite what people thought. Matt Cain has struggled with walks, Barry Zito hasn't nearly lived up to his contract, and 2007's 14-game winner Noah Lowry was hurt all of '08.

When you think about it, how much of the recent poor trades/signings should really be attributed to the Giants GM?

Magowan and the Giants' ownership group were the ones pushing for the Zito signing, as well as finding a replacement (Armando Benitez) for Rob Nen. People forget that Sabean brought the Giants the future Hall of Famer Jeff Kent and stole Jason Schmidt from the Pirates. Let's wait and see if Sabean can do it with some more freedom.

Going back to the Giants' pitching staff, their starting pitching has always been the strength of their team the past few seasons. But other than Lincecum, where the Giants were 22-12 in his starts, the Giants went 50-78 behind all other starters. 

Yes, their lineup was rather feeble, but Zito and Cain didn't exactly have their best seasons last year.

AT&T Park is a pitchers park. Most big name, free-agent hitters don't have San Francisco at the top of their list, but one big-name pitcher does. 

His name is CC Sabathia. Of course, the Yankees will throw big money at him, same with the Angels and Dodgers, but the Giants make the most sense. Sabathia grew up in Vallejo and has expressed interest in playing close to home.

If the Giants throw $100 million at CC, even with the Yankees and others offering over $130 million, Sabathia might just decide to stay home.

Just think about it, this move would make the Giants instant contenders for not only the N.L. West title, but for the World Series.

Now, the Giants were terrible last year, and so a move making them World Series contenders is not likely. I'm only giving this move a 10 percent chance, but hey, there is a chance it could happen. 

A rotation headlined with Sabathia and Lincecum, to go along with Cain, Zito, and Lowry would hands down be the best rotation in baseball.

The Giants would then not need to go out and beef up their offense like fans have been preaching for the last couple of seasons. Their offense would only need to be respectable, and with some of the emerging players from last season, and guys coming back from injury, the 2008 Giants lineup will be improved without bringing in any new talent.

A potential lineup could look like this:

1. Emmanuel Burriss SS

2. Kevin Frandsen 2B

3. Fred Lewis LF

4. Pablo Sandoval 3B

5. Aaron Rowand CF

6. Bengie Molina C

7. Nate Schierholtz RF

8. Travis Ishikawa 1B

Nobody in that lineup screams .300, 40 HR, and 100 RBI, but the lineup itself is solid from top to bottom. Ishikawa and Schierholtz have tremendous power to be hitting seventh and eighth in the lineup, and Burriss at the top can steal 40+ bases. 

All this lineup would have to do is put up respectable numbers, and from the looks of it, that is a definite possibility.

With Sabathia and Lincecum at the top of the rotation, and Brian Wilson closing games out, the Giants may become a contender once again. Sooner than people may think.

And even though Sabathia as a Giant may be a pipe dream, visualizing ways the Giants could make the playoffs means they are making progress. And isn't progress what every team is looking for?