San Francisco Giants

Jeff Samardzija and Mac Williamson get their First Start of 2018









rd and 4th on the Giants in hits behind Panik and Posey. Jeff Samardzija makes his return from the Disabled List today against the Angels. The Angels come in with a 13-6 record compared to the Giants 7-11. The Giants have struggled of late losing the last 3 series. After splitting a shortened series with LA due to rain they have only taken one game per series going 1-2 at home vs Arizona, 1-3 in San Diego, and 1-2 this time in Arizona. Hunter Strickland has had a couple blown saves but has avoided getting a loss. Evan Longoria and Andrew McCutchen have started to get in a groove which is much needed for this ball club if they want to compete until Madbum returns. Longoria has gone deep twice in recent games and we all saw McCutchen’s walk off against LA that got me off the couch jumping around with him. They sit 3and 4on the Giants in hits behind Panik and Posey.









Johnny Cueto returned from a short stint on the DL and continued to be dominant. If Cueto had any run support he would have 3 wins. Currently he is sitting at 1-0 with a 0.45 ERA in 20 innings with 16 K’s. Chris Stratton has done his part in keeping the Giants in the game going 1-1 with a 2.22 ERA in 24.1 innings with 19 K’s. Tyler Beede had a chance to start two games while Cueto was on the DL and got rocked. The kid shows promise but may need some more experience in the minors before he is ready for big league hitters. In two games he has not made it past the 4inning. He performed well vs Arizona but his pitch count got inflated with a couple dicey innings. Overall he has started 2 games but only thrown 7.2 innings allowing 7 earned runs.













Jeff Samardzija has been an average starter his whole career. The only year he had more wins than losses is 2016 where he posted a 12-11 record. Last year he was 9-15 in 32 starts, partly due to the Giants poor offensive production but he did have a 4.42 ERA. I say partly in result to the Giants poor offensive because even with a 9-15 record he posted 20 quality starts last year (6+ innings w/ no more than 3 runs). Quality starts like that are what give us a chance to win games. Although I don’t expect him to deal as Cueto has this year, the fact that Cueto has only 1 win thus far shows how Samardzija was a better pitcher last year than the numbers show. Run support has always been the struggle for this ball club.









Hunter Pence has been put on the 10 Day DL and Mac Williamson will get his first start of the season today, and he has definitely earned it. So far in 11 games in Sacramento, the Giants AAA affiliate, he is hitting .487 with 6 HR’s and 16 RBI’s. His OPS is through the roof at 1.626. Mac has been absolutely on fire to start the year. After not making the 25 man roster to start the year, you can bet he is determined to prove he deserves to stay there. The question is if he can keep up this level of play who gets sent down once Hunter Pence comes off the DL. To be honest the answer at this time is Hunter Pence. Both Gregor Blanco and Gorkys Hernandez have been productive at the plate with a .370 and .316 AVG respectively. Hunter Pence’s AVG is only above Nick Hundley (who has been hitting the ball hard right at people) with a .172 AVG. He has 10 hits in 58 at bats and is leading the team with 22 K’s. I love Pence but he is not showing up the way his competition in the outfield is. Mac put up a .318 AVG this spring and just missed the cut to Blanco and Hernandez.





My unpopular opinion: We need to trade Hunter Pence and Brandon Belt for either a star outfielder or a starting pitcher we can build around with Madbum and Cueto for as long as they are here. Move Buster to 1B and leave him there. Hundley has a good bat and could be the starting catcher moving forward. Tell me on twitter what you think, let me know what you think needs to change, or just give me your thoughts on the piece.





-Patrick Hart