Getting back on track for 2016

First and foremost the Giants could use consistent numbers 2 and 3 starters. MadBum is obviously number 1, but then...? Maybe Matt Cain can come back to his old form and be that number 2 starter, but in the last 2 seasons he hasn't approached his old self. I have just about given up on Tim Lincecum who is a far cry from his Cy Young days, although having him as a consistent number 3 would solve a lot of problems. Chris Heston started out like a house of fire early in the 2015 season, but then tailed off badly in the second half, so who knows what's there. Hudson retired... Peavy is almost on social security, and the farm system is not exactly bulging with big-time arms.

Either signing one or more big-time FAs, or trading one of the starting position players (Brandon Belt?) for starting pitching could help, but trading Belt would leave a huge hole at 1B. And I think Buster Posey is too good behind the plate to play him at 1B a lot. Pagan is always hurt, and Gregor Blanco, while good defensively, doesn't have much pop in his bat. And Hunter Pence and Joe Panik are off limits on the trade front.

I don't know what Sabean is going to do during the offseason, but upgrades have to be made. With Ryu coming back to the Dodgers in 2016 (that will give them 3 very consistent starters), and the Giants not having played well against most of the NL West this past season (except for the Dodgers) .moves have to be made.

Anyone have any ideas what could be done to get the Giants back on track and in playoff contention?..

Originally posted by semicolin:
First and foremost the Giants could use consistent numbers 2 and 3 starters. MadBum is obviously number 1, but then...? Maybe Matt Cain can come back to his old form and be that number 2 starter, but in the last 2 seasons he hasn't approached his old self. I have just about given up on Tim Lincecum who is a far cry from his Cy Young days, although having him as a consistent number 3 would solve a lot of problems. Chris Heston started out like a house of fire early in the 2015 season, but then tailed off badly in the second half, so who knows what's there. Hudson retired... Peavy is almost on social security, and the farm system is not exactly bulging with big-time arms.

Either signing one or more big-time FAs, or trading one of the starting position players (Brandon Belt?) for starting pitching could help, but trading Belt would leave a huge hole at 1B. And I think Buster Posey is too good behind the plate to play him at 1B a lot. Pagan is always hurt, and Gregor Blanco, while good defensively, doesn't have much pop in his bat. And Hunter Pence and Joe Panik are off limits on the trade front.

I don't know what Sabean is going to do during the offseason, but upgrades have to be made. With Ryu coming back to the Dodgers in 2016 (that will give them 3 very consistent starters), and the Giants not having played well against most of the NL West this past season (except for the Dodgers) .moves have to be made.

Anyone have any ideas what could be done to get the Giants back on track and in playoff contention?..

You pretty much covered everything we need. At the end of the season, I was thinking that we were going to sign a top pitcher, resign Leake, and an outfielder that hopefully had power (or at least add someone and bring back Aoki). The David Price deal with the Red Sox is going to complicate things though... They set the market, and all the top free agent pitchers are going to want similar deals.

There's a report that Greinke will decide by the end of the week between us and the Dodgers, and if the rumors are true; he'll be getting a bigger deal than Price did. He's a great pitcher, but he's seeking a 5 year deal and he's already 32. That makes me a little wary of doing a long term deal; after all, those don't work out too great.

It's kind of crazy, but if we don't land a big arm, that will be two off-seasons in a row that we have been spurned by free agent pitchers. Which is the crazy part; it's understandable why hitters would shy away from signing with us because of AT&T's dimensions. They're probably all worried about their numbers declining. But by that same thought process, you would think pitchers would love to sign here. I guess it comes down more to money; it's not that Giants are necessarily cheap, but more like they don't want to overpay.

I am glad we didn't get grienke, thought we should have offered more to Atlanta for Shelby Miller. Hope beede has matured and showed enough to get a look in the bigs (sooner rather than later)

Is Beede the RHP from Vanderbilt?

I would still have preferred Grienke to Samardzija or Cueto (maybe to both of them). A starting pitcher with a 19-3 record and a 1.66 ERA the previous season doesn't come along that often. Samardzija has a losing career record, and a lifetime ERA above 4. Cueto is at least potentially better.

Well at least the Dodgers have to look elsewhere. Maybe they can re-sign Orel Hershiser?

Originally posted by semicolin:

Is Beede the RHP from Vanderbilt?

I would still have preferred Grienke to Samardzija or Cueto (maybe to both of them). A starting pitcher with a 19-3 record and a 1.66 ERA the previous season doesn't come along that often. Samardzija has a losing career record, and a lifetime ERA above 4. Cueto is at least potentially better.

Well at least the Dodgers have to look elsewhere. Maybe they can re-sign Orel Hershiser?

Yes and i didn't expect to here of his name until 2017 but he made the mlb futures allstar team or maybe it was the AA league allstar team last year and is making all the strides. The guy i am pissed about is leeke, we TRADED some of our young talent for his temporary services. I thought he'd fit well in the middle of the rotation also him and bum could compete for the nl silver slugger award for best hitting pitchers. I dont like the cueto signing other than he thinks he's worth the more than that and basically wrote the deal like grienke did a few years back to self op-out and pursue a bigger deal based on elite performance.

The problem I have with cueto is that because our clubhouse is a very self policed tight group that gets along better than any team. How will he fit in with that (no big heads). How will he respond to adversity? Can he and buster develope a good rapport? Rags and Gardiner got their hands full with both johnny and samardjza.

The unsexy however extremely important next signing should be to bring in a left handed reliever to replace affelt.

Also we still don't have a sure fire closer and should DEFINITELY consider figuring a way to acuire Chapman (even with the pending domestic abuse case that surfaced recently)
He only has 1 year left on his deal with the reds that spells low risk high reward

It wasn't that many seasons ago that Matt Cain was our no. 1 starter. His health and returning ability to get guys out may actually be the key to the team's outlook for 2016, despite the Cueto and Samardzija signings. If Cain can regain his form as a no. 2, either Samardzija or Cueto could be no. 3. The top 3 in the rotation need to be stoppers.

Pagan's health in CF (and Pence's health in RF--although unlike Pagan, Pence does not have a long injury history) are concerns, as well as a LF who can hit. And getting Brandon Belt to be a consistent hitter is also a need.

Bum, Samardzija, Cueto, Peavy, Cain,
Pagan in LF, with Denard in CF, Blanco to super4.

I was reading somewhere the other day that we were considered one of the top rotations in baseball. Gotta find that article.

What the HELL does water use at Buster Posey's home have to do with BASEBALL? Really? The AP is so freaking bored with training camp that they have to ask Buster about the water usage at his home?

Christ!

Looks good on paper.... But really need Cain to be an active participant In a successful rotation this year.... He had nothing last year... He's in the rotation because of $.... Time to earn it....

Cain had a cyst removed on his right arm. Man, can't this guy catch a break.

As someone who has been through one serious back injury, very expensive surgery for that back pain and still suffer somewhat from spinal stenosis, I can't tell you how big a sigh of relief it was to learn that Joe Panik did not have something similar.

Short and sweet? It would have ended his promising career before it really had a chance to start.

Since this was a bone fracture and fractures do heal with time and rest -- I'm holding out the best for Panik. Man, if Duffy can repeat his performance from last season and Panik returns to form, we will have one heck of a scary lineup. It may not be "power" scary -- but "hit for average" scary. We'll be knocking balls all over the place.

Can't wait for the season to start!

Learn more about Lumbar Spinal Stenosis here -- and yes -- I did have a Laminectomy (which was no fun, but it worked).