The Giants Lineup Has Problems And That's A Good Thing

I was going to complain about you Ryan, but now we're cool! You have a great nickname! Let's be friends!

              

             I was ready to write about how the Giants need to change their lineup because Brandon Belt blah blah blah OBP, wOBA yadda yadda Angel Pagan blah blah blah Ryan Theriot lololololol and then that be that. It was all planned out, I had my generic-angry-at-Bochy-face and everything. Then they beat the Dodgers and moved within one game of first place in the NL West, I looked at the big picture and wondered "what am I really complaining about?"



               In 2008, this was the Giants lineup on opening day, also known as the post-Pedro Feliz Giants:

Lineup
Dave Roberts LF
Rich Aurilia 1B
Randy Winn RF
Bengie Molina C
Ray Durham 2B
Aaron Rowand CF
Jose Castillo 3B
Brian Bocock SS
Barry Zito P

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table

                    Now that, is a lineup to complain about. It had everything: over the hill players, old players, players that were past their prime, players who were past the age of 3 billion, players that fought in the revolutionary war, players that played like Brian Bocock, players that were Brian Bocock etc. 4 years later, none of the position players are in still in baseball, with the exception of Bocock who's still doing Brian Bocock things in the Blue Jay organization. Management was trying to decide if it was Dan Ortmeier's time or not. That is a lineup you could make a fuss about. Like, the part about having major league baseball players. 


               In 2012, the Giants have 3 potential starting All Stars in their lineup (Posey, Cabrera, Sandoval), a promising 24-year old OBP monster (Belt), the 11th best NL outfielder in WAR (Blanco),  the 15th best WAR (Angel Pagan) and Brandon Crawford (Brandon Crawford). Granted, small sample size WAR can be misleading, but the two have been effective players none the less. For the first time since 2004, Brian Sabean constructed a lineup that Giants fans aren't treating like a bad report card they are embarrassed to show their parents. This lineup is better than the 2010 World Series lineup, which had Juan Uribe's .310 OBP batting 5th. Sure, expect Cabrera to come back to earth a little more, but how much is that going to change the lineup? Pagan and Blanco have crashed back to the surface in June and the offense hasn't skipped a beat. Expect those two to improve from their lousy month and Sandoval to get back to being Pablo Sandoval after figuring out his post-hammate bone era swing. 


              No doubt, I would like to see Belt hit 2nd, Pagan hit 6th and Theriot hit 7th. High OBP at the top of the lineup, followed by the best hitters to worst hitters in 3rd to 8th. But I just can't bring myself to complain about one of the best Giants offenses in recent memory. For too long I've been staring at the corpse of Orlando Cabrera, trying to swing a wooden stick a white ball. Back then, fans were just waiting for Omar Vizquel to save us all from Brian Bocock. Fans were pinning their hopes on Fred Lewis. Jose Castillo was playing a position for a professional baseball team. None of that is true anymore. I was going to complain about Brandon Belt hitting seventh. I decided to just be happy the Giants have Brandon Belt. You're off the hook Bochy. Until it's still happening in August.