ALL DECADE GIANTS

Make no mistake about it -- the San Francisco Giants are one of the best All Decade teams out there. It makes perfect sense after they took home three of the first five World Series titles of the 2010s. However, the Giants "dynasty" is a bit of a misnomer to me, as none of the Giants' championship teams were dominant over the course of 162 games. This takes nothing away from their incredible postseason performances (in fact, with their trio of aces and timely hitting, they were built for the playoffs), but the Giants really don't have the type of firepower you'd expect from a team that won the title 3/5 years. After all, they were never even the favorite to win it all and Showdown is based more on "who had the best regular season and squad on paper" versus the intangible qualities needed to actually take home the top prize! All that's to say...... this team is great, but they're looking up at the Dodgers, so will can luck be the Giants lady in the All Decade league??

It's hard not to love MVP Buster Posey, an absolute force behind the plate!

LINEUP: The good news is that the Giants feature four OB 10 hitters and have an MVP hitting second.... the bad news is San Francisco is severely lacking in the power and speed department. However, still expect a good season out of Melky Cabrera, who's going to put a lot of balls positively in play. MVP Buster is clearly the best hitter on this team and the orange Colby used pops really well! The trend of OB 10 guys who get lots of hits continues with Beltran, who's got a sneaky solid chart thanks to that triple. Aubrey Huff is like a slightly downgraded version (and only worth more because he was better compared to his compatriots in the 2010 set). After the four tens, the production drops off a bit, but 09 Pablo (great catch here!) brings an electric OB 9 card to the 5 hole.... OB 8 Yastrzemski has a lot of XB power, but to put an OB 8 in the five hole without at least 16-20 HR is rough... he's also the sole Giant capable of HR at 17. Belt has speed and a good chart, but he's on at 7...  Rounding it out are the good fielding (but unintimidating) Crawford and Scutaro. At 3530 points, this lineup would clearly dominate in a lot of normal leagues, but considering the wealth of aces they'll face in the All Decade league, I have a lot of fear that there just isn't enough power for this lineup to have consistent success. However, it's got 7 OB 9 or better hitters and one really dangerous 8, so the depth may end up being more successful than I project. Perhaps its greatest weakness is lacking top end speed, which makes small ball difficult to sustain. Do any of you see more hope for the Giants lineup than I do?

(should be FB out 3-4)

ROTATION: Straight Tier 2 filth coming at you with the San Francisco Giants rotation of ACES! The multiple Cy Young winning Lincecum starts things off with his dominate 2009 card, featuring a large K range and no doubles to go with his Control 5, IP 7 card. Another no doubles Tier 2 follows him, as 2012 Matt Cain was the ace of that World Series squad. Somehow the number three starter is the face of the Giants franchise the past few seasons, Madison Bumgardner. Mr. Country Strong has a Control 6, Tier 2 card capable of mowing opposing lineups down. Finishing the rotation out is Johnny Cueto, who was fantastic as an addition to the Giants in 2016, putting up another Tier 2, Control 6 card for the rotation.

BULLPEN: The Giants have the luxury of supporting their rotation with a deep and studly bullpen. They start out with a pair of Tier 1 relievers, including the legendary Brian "the beard" Wilson as the primary closer. Casilla brings another Tier 1 card and as we saw in Matt's league with LeClerc, a Control 4, on at 19 pitcher can be nearly unhittable for long stretches. Then they've got THREE Tier 2, Control 5 pitchers to choose from. Petit is an IP 2 guy, giving them a potential long reliever and a guy to use in blowouts. Romo and Smith also provide great innings as Tier 2, Control 5 guys. The biggest "weakness" to this pen is the lack of "no doubles" guys, but considering the total tier of 8 between 5 pitchers, I think this bullpen will be MORE than up to the task of supporting all the SF aces in the rotation.

Overall, the Giants are a disappointing All Decade team on paper thanks to a lackluster lineup in terms of power. However, they're undeniably well stocked with arms and have stellar OB guys capable of scoring runs. Count this team out of the running at your own peril, as just like the Giants of reality, this would be a scary team to face in the postseason thanks to the ace after ace after ace approach! San Fran comes in at 6800 points, really underwhelming comparatively but still proving to be a monster next to your standard 5000 point lineup. Also shocking is that 48.5% of their points comes from the pitching, considering that 5/9 are bullpen guys who tend to have much lower salaries than hitters in the All Decade league. Honestly, the Giants and Tigers are two teams that I expected a lot more from points wise, and yet here we are. Here's the standings in pure points after 1/3 of the league has been revealed!

1.   Yankees     7920 points
2.   Nationals   7670 points
3.   Astros        7420 points
4.   Blue Jays   7140 points
5.   Rockies      7090 points
6.   Mariners   6880 points
7.   Orioles      6830 points
8.   Giants       6800 points
9.   Marlins     6750 points
10.   Tigers        6710 points