{"id":994,"date":"2010-10-13T15:56:07","date_gmt":"2010-10-13T19:56:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.broadstreetbelievers.com\/?p=994"},"modified":"2010-10-13T15:56:07","modified_gmt":"2010-10-13T19:56:07","slug":"2010-mlb-playoffs-the-san-francisco-giants-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/?p=994","title":{"rendered":"2010 MLB Playoffs: The San Francisco Giants"},"content":{"rendered":"

When the Phillies return to action on Saturday, for Game 1 of the NLCS, they’ll be taking a big step up in competition from the Reds to the Giants.\u00a0 At the risk of beating a dead horse,\u00a0you win with pitching in the postseason, and the Giants clearly have the only\u00a0<\/em>group of starting pitchers in baseball that can match-up with the Phillies.\u00a0 Objective baseball fans across the country should be thrilled with the pitching\u00a0match-ups they’ll get to see every single night in this series.<\/p>\n

The Giants are a storied franchise, as they were one of the original teams into the league in the 1880’s and they’ve had plenty of success throughout their history.\u00a0 Legendary manager John McGraw led them to 9 NL pennants\u00a0(and 3 World\u00a0Series titles) in the early-1900’s.\u00a0 They won two more World Championships, including one led by Willie Mays and another legendary manager, Leo Durocher, in 1954, before leaving New\u00a0York City behind and moving out to Northern California in 1958.<\/p>\n

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Will The Thrill<\/p><\/div>\n

In their time in San Fran, they’ve had periods of decent success. There were the late-80’s teams led by Will “The Thrill” Clark and, of course, the Barry Bonds era in the late-90’s\/early-00’s that produced a string of 8 straight years where they finished 1st or 2nd in their division. But the Giants have yet to capture another title since their move out west, a 56-year drought that is surely starting to wear on some of the older Giant die-hards.<\/p>\n

They return to the postseason this year for the first time since 2003, since that Bonds era ended, and I wouldn’t be the first one to point out the irony of them being led into this NLCS by a 5-foot-nothing, 160-pound, 26-year-old pitcher, with a laid-back personality (Lincecum), rather than a surly veteran with such a grotesquely altered physique that steroid rumors hung over him like a dark cloud for the last five years of his career.<\/p>\n

To preview this 2010 edition of the Gigantes, we’ll go through their team player-by-player, like we did for the Reds last week, and break out the old Momentum Meter once again to see which Giants are coming in hot, and who’s scuffling, based on a 1-5 rating.<\/p>\n

Starting Line-Up:<\/strong><\/p>\n

1. Andres Torres- <\/strong>CF:\u00a0<\/em>.268\/.343\/.479, 16 HR, 26 SB. This 32-year-old seemingly came out of nowhere to have an excellent season and take the CF job away from Aaron Rowand. After very brief stints in the majors early in the decade, he spent all of ’06-’08 in the minors. Apparently during that time he began taking medication for ADHD. Whether that’s the reason or not, he returned to the majors last year and was productive in 150 AB’s before his breakout season this year. A switch-hitter that is far better from the left-side.<\/p>\n