It’s that time of the year. The time when I start to crave garlic fries and think about every “Dodgers suck” joke I plan to use when the Dodgers come to town. That’s right, it’s time for San Francisco Giants baseball.
All die-hard Giants fans still remember Detroit Tigers’ Miguel Cabrera watching the third strike call that propelled the Giants to their second World Championship in just three years. But just as soon as thoughts of repeating as champions enter our minds, so does the memory of the disappointing 2011 season.
So what has to happen for the Giants to repeat besides the obvious answer of staying healthy? The first thought is beat the Dodgers. Beating anyone is always the top priority, but the Dodgers appear to be the Giants’ biggest threat within their division.
It’s arguably baseball’s best rivalry and now we have a jealous championship-or-bust, money-bought Dodgers team versus the exciting, pumped-up, reigning world-champion Giants. It should be a great game every time the Dodgers and Giants face off.
The next thing the Giants need to do is solidify their pitching. Last year Barry Zito surprised many when he became a beast in the playoffs. I doubt he can do it again. Tim Lincecum, the Giants’ former ace, had a season the polar opposite of his dominating Cy Young years. Mr. Perfect Game Matt Cain will be consistent, Madison Bumgarner is good for 15 wins and Vogelsong is the league’s best three-spot pitcher if he’s in the three spot. Supposedly, Lincecum needs to “find himself.”
The Giants need Lincecum to finish the year with an ERA of three or four for him to get the 13 wins to solidify their playoff hopes.
Repeating as champions is always hard, but if the Giants beat the Dodgers and their pitching plays to its potential, then thoughts of a 2013 title are not far-fetched.
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The Oakland A’s had one memorable season last year. From the release of the movie “Moneyball” to the playoffs, the season was filled with excitement for A’s fans.
When the 2012 baseball season started, all the talk in the AL West was about the Anaheim Angels and Texas Rangers slugging it out for the division title.
No one talked about the Oakland A’s, until their season-ending sweep of the Texas Rangers crowned Oakland as the AL West champions .Besides winning the division, the Oakland Athletics have a lot of reasons to be happy and excited for the future. The A’s are one of the youngest, if not the youngest, teams in baseball and they have top-of-the-line pitching with a much-improved offense.
Oakland’s biggest problem is playing in a division with two other good teams: the Anaheim Angels and Texas Rangers. However, to counter the teams, the division also has one team that’s mediocre at best, the Seattle Mariners, and a team that is worse than some minor league teams, The Houston Astros. With the Rangers and Angels the division is hard to win, but the A’s also play the Mariners and Astros a combined 32 times, or 16 times each. The A’s should win at least 20 of those games and get about 90 wins for the season, good enough for a wild card spot.
The A’s biggest problem is their hitting; they are the Giants of 2010 with slightly worse but improving hitting. But the Giants of 2010 won the World Series, which is why I believe A’s fans should like the chances of their team winning the World Series.
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It should be a very good season for both teams. Maybe there will even be a 2013 Battle of the Bay World Series.
