The Giants win the Pennant!

Finally, San Francisco baseball has won. The Giants moved from New York City to San Francisco in 1958 and have not been able to win it all since 1954.

Then this year’s Giants won it all. But how? After years of problems and controversy, how did this team full of castoffs win the pennant?

As little as two years ago, this team was in total disarray. The Barry Bonds era was officially over. Years of winning, playoffs, and a World Series berth was finally over. But then the Giants had all his accomplishments, and any signs of Bonds were swept under the rug. The team wanted to forget all about the controversial star. But can you blame them? Sure he brought people to the park, but his linkage to steroids had cast a cloud over the place.

While they had Bonds, the Giants would always try to find that “quick fix.” They would sign over–age and over–priced veterans, thus forfeiting valuable draft picks and depriving their farm system of much needed talented youth. They would use seemingly all their top prospects to get veterans such as in the AJ Pierzynski trade. And when they would have a high draft pick, they would waste it on low ceiling players that could get to the majors fast. So again, it didn’t help.

Until just the past couple years, the years of complete ignorance didn’t produce any young prospects that the team could be built around.

Then their farm system erupted full of high ceiling prospects that they had finally used their high draft picks on instead of veterans. It started back in 2002, when they drafted a young high school right handed pitcher by the name of Matt Cain. The 18 year old was the beginning foundation of their future. It took a couple years for the Giants to realize they needed to draft well again.

In 2006, the Giants picked a tiny pitcher from the University of Washington. It was a controversial pick because the kid had a violent pitching motion and that scared scouts. That player was RHP Tim Lincecum, the two time defending National League Cy Young award winner. That’s two ace pitchers in their farm system, Lincecum and Cain.

Continuing in their good drafting, in 2007 they drafted high ceiling players that have either already reached the major leagues, or got them a solid veteran in return. In the 1st round of 2007, the Giants selected LHP Madison Bumgarner and RHP Tim Alderson. Bumgarner (21 years old) just became the 4th youngest pitcher to ever start and win a game in the World Series. While, Alderson netted the Giants their starting second baseman, Freddy Sanchez, a former batting champ and solid defender.

The 2008 draft might have been even better than 2007. This was the year they got their offensive centerpiece of the future in catcher Buster Posey with the 5th overall pick. The 23 year old Posey was the reason why the Giants could get rid of veteran catcher Bengie Molina. In his debut season, Posey played in 108 games, producing a .305 batting average, 18 homeruns, and 67 RBI. He did all of this while playing the most demanding position on the field, catcher. The young Posey is already a star, but will soon challenge other catchers such as Minnestoa’s Joe Mauer and Atlanta’s Brian McCann.

Three seasons ago, the Giants had a record of 72–90; in 2009 they improved surprisingly with an 88–74 record. Even after a 16 game improvement, there was much work to be done.

In the offseason, the Giants came in needing another starting pitcher, more bull pen help and pretty much an all new lineup.

The starting pitcher the Giants added, Todd Wellenmeyer, was replaced later in the year by the previously mentioned Bumgarner.

Their bullpen was beautifully upgraded in the middle of the season with the additions of castoffs: Ramon Ramirez, Javier Lopez and Santiago Casilla. Add those three to closer RHP Brian Wilson and LHP Jeremy Affeldt, you have a pretty nice bullpen, well at least this year you do.

And finally they added some help in the lineup. As a late signing, the Giants signed 1B/RF Aubrey Huff. Huff had a great year, with a BA of /290, 26 homeruns and 86 RBI. They re-signed SS Juan Uribe after a surprising 2009 year. This year Uribe had numbers of 24 homeruns and 85 RBI. And centerfield was taken away from Aaron Rowand. His replacement, Andres Torres, produced a batting line of .268 BA, 16 homeruns, 63 RBI and 26 stolen bases before struggling after September. Torres speed gave the Giants great defensive range and a disruptive force on the base paths.

In mid–season, the Tampa Bay Rays released disappointing designated hitter Pat Burrell. The Giants quickly snatched up the power hitter and he gave them good numbers in left field.

Last but not least, they Giants traded for Mike Fontenot from the Cubs, and mistakenly claimed outfielder Cody Ross from the Florida Marlins. That claim on Ross ended up being a great thing, as Ross ended up being the Giants best hitter in the playoffs.

They also signed Mark DeRosa but he was lost for the majority of the year with a wrist injury.

Another lineup mistake was last year’s surprise 3B Pablo “Kung Fu Panda” Sandoval. Sandoval had come to camp so out of weight that he played catch up all year. He would have to do cardio before the games, but by the time the game came around, he was too tired. His performance suffered dearly with numbers of .268 BA, 13 homeruns and 63 RBI, after he produced a batting line of .330 BA, 25 homeruns and 90 RBI in 2009. “Panda” ended up getting benched down the stretch and partly throughout the playoffs. Hopefully for the Giants, Sandoval will come to Spring Training in better condition and will have a great season next year.

This year, they came in as a sleeper. Most analysts and “experts,” said they had a chance to make the playoffs due to their great pitching staff, but their pedestrian lineup didn’t scare anyone. They ended up going 92–70 and winning the NL West division title on the last day of the season.

Still with all the additions, not many people even had the Giants winning a playoff series.

In the National League Division Series, they faced the Atlanta Braves. The Giants won the series 3 games to one. The Braves pitching staff couldn’t hold up as their lineup was injured and cold at the time.

After their series with Atlanta, they ran into the team that had reached the World Series two years in a row and won it all in 2008. The Philadelphia Phillies. The NLCS was when the Giants were supposed to bow down to the superior team. Nope. Not going to happen. RHP Tim Lincecum outpitched the presumed Cy Young winner for this year, Phillies RHP Roy Halladay, not once, but twice. RHP Matt Cain continued his dominance in the playoffs, posting an ERA of 0.00.

The Giants dominant pitching staff led this surprise team past the team that was picked at the beginning of the season to return to the World Series.

Finally, this was it. They were back in the World Series. The first time since 2002, and only the fourth time since they moved out west to San Francisco in 1958.

It was the team that hasn’t won since 1954 against the team that had never reached the World Series in franchise history, the Texas Rangers. Whoever was to win this series, it was going to be a long time coming.

In Game 1 of the World Series, it was a matchup of Lincecum and Rangers LHP Cliff Lee in San Francisco. Home field advantage went to the NL due to the NL finally winning the All–Star game. It was expected to be a low scoring game and a total pitching duel. Well, it didn’t go as planned. The Giants won at home, 11–7, after both pitchers were knocked out of the game much earlier than expected.

Game 2, Cain continued his playoff dominance by going 7 2/3 innings and not allowing a single run. Final score, 9–0 after a 7 run 8th inning by the Giants.

Games 3 was back in Texas. Giants LHP Jonathon Sanchez went against Texas RHP Colby Lewis, a great story in his own right. Sanchez’s outing didn’t last long, as he gave up 3 quick runs in the 2nd inning. Texas added another run in the 5th inning. The Giants just couldn’t recover, falling to the Rangers 4–2.

Game 4 was a must win for Rangers. Win and your tied in the series 2–2, lose and your down 3–1. The Giants threw out the young LHP Madison Bumgarner vs. the underwhelming Rangers RHP Tommy Hunter. Hunter went only 4 innings, while Bumgarner went on to be the 4th youngest pitcher to start and win a game. His final line was eight IP, three hits and six strikeouts. Oh and by the way, he didn’t allow a run. That is a great regular season start, much less a World Series start.

Do or die, Game 5, Texas down 3–1 to San Francisco. A pitching rematch of Game 1. Except this time, we got what we all desired. “Blogger–in–Chief at Hardball Talk at NBCSports.com,” Craig Calcaterra had a great analogy for this game on Twitter, “Pitching Porn.” Sounds crazy right? Well they were both that amazing, there is really no other way to explain it. Neither pitcher allowed a run until the 7th inning. The 7th inning! That is crazy. The last time a game went this deep scoreless was the 2005 World Series Game 4 clincher for the Chicago White Sox. That game ended 1–0, after the lone run was scored in the 8th inning.

Unfortunately for the Rangers, the first runs scored were a three run homerun by Edgar Renteria. Wait what? Renteria? He was on the disabled list three times this year and was even benched. But just like he did 13 years ago for the Florida Marlins, Renteria delivered the big hit to win the game and the Series.

Renteria’s blast won him the World Series MVP. But that looks like it will be his last hit. Renteria looks like he is going to retire. It’s not all lost though, Renteria gets to pull a John Elway and end his career on a ridiculous high note.

This team is built around pitching. Plain and simple. They have some good players they would like to re-sign, but they need to be smart because some of their prospects could be ready to the join “the Show.”

They have young reinforcements in RHP Zack Wheeler, 1B Brandon Belt, 2B Charlie Culberson, C/ 1B Tommy Joseph, SS Brandon Crawford, OF Thomas Neal, and CF Gary Brown. With all these prospects and many more, currently a top five farm system, they can afford to let aging veterans go and not overspend on other free agents.

Bottom line, it was a great victory for the Giants and for the City of San Francisco. Don’t count out this team in a future, we could see this team winning a couple more pennants if they continue to draft and develop well, make smart free agent moves, keep their own stars, and most importantly, don’t take this victory for granted.