Why Is San Francisco In the Playoff Hunt???

Why are the San Francisco Giants even in the National League Wild Card race? Taking a quick glance over their team, I see nothing special besides OF Barry Bonds, and SP Jason Schmidt. Those two cannot be enough to carry a team as far as the Giants are, right?

To find out what was going on, I took a deeper look at each player on the Giant's statistics.

This really didn't help much at first. Here's what I am talking about:

**Players are listed by position. Whoever has the most plate appearances at a position is listed. Stat lines go as follows (AVG/OBP/SLG, VORP)**

Marquis Grissom CF: .273/.312/.440, 16.1 VORP
Barry Bonds LF: .362/.608/.802, 112.2 VORP
Edgardo Alfonzo 3B: .280/.344/.395, 13.2 VORP
Michael Tucker RF: .269/.363/.444, 21.1 VORP
Pedro Feliz 1B: .266/.293/.472(I didn't think his SLG was possible with his OBP), 14.9 VORP
A.J. Pierzynski C: .296/.339/.456, 23.1 VORP
Ray Durham 2B: .254/.333/.450, 19.8 VORP
Neifi Perez SS: .232/.269/.295, -10.1 VORP

***It is worth noting that J.T. Snow has less appearances at 1B than Feliz but is playing much better (.317/.419/.519, 34.3 VORP), and Deivi Crus has less appearances than Perez at shortstop and is playing much better (.313/.343/.462, 20.2 VORP). So feel free to plug these two players in at their respective positions.***

This offense does appear to be good, but not great. I don't see this offense helping them, or hurting them. But I was wrong--BIG TIME. I didn't see it at first, but when I looked at the total team stats, I saw how great this offense was. But, let's get back to the analysis.

Now, I'm forced to think that it must be their pitching that is carrying them. I was wrong again. Look for yourself:

**4 Starting pitchers are listed along with the top 7 relievers by Innings Pitched. Stat lines go like so- (ERA, K/BB, VORP, IP)**

Jason Schmidt SP: 2.52, 193/60, 59.2, 174.7
Kirk Reuter SP: 5.02, 44/52, 5.5, 148.7
Brett Tomko SP: 4.80, 66/49, 6.0, 146.3
Jerome Williams SP: 4.41, 77/43, 10.6, 122.3
Dustin Hermanson RP: 4.36, 82/38, 14.2, 115.7
Jim Brower RP: 3.77, 53/28, 8.5, 76.3
Matt Herges RP: 5.40, 35/16, -4.9, 58.3
Noah Lowry RP: 3.88, 48/17, 9.2, 53.3
Wayne Franklin RP: 6.70, 36/21, -5.8, 44.3
Scott Erye RP: 4.26, 31/20, 5.2, 38.0
Jason Christiansen RP: 3.86, 18/21, 4.3, 30.3

You've got to be kidding me! Their pitching is not good at all. And put that on top of what I thought to be an average offense, and it makes absolutely no sense that they are in the Wild Card race.

At this point in my analysis, I decided to look at their team pitching stats to see how they ranked against other NL playoff-chasing teams.

I looked at team K/BB ratios, team K/IP ratios, and team ERA.

Please note that the team stats below will not be equal to total of the statistics of the players listed earlier because only the most used players were use in the earlier list, and the stats below take every player on the team's stats no matter how little used.

Here are those lists:

K/BB
1. Houston: 1013/412 = 2.46

2. San Diego: 816/334 = 2.44

3. Chicago: 1032/434 = 2.38

4. St. Louis: 799/351 = 2.27

5. Florida: 883/408 = 2.16

6. Philadelphia: 837/394 = 2.12

7. Los Angeles: 814/394 =2.07

8. Atlanta: 808/422 = 1.91

9. San Francisco: 791/435 = 1.81

K/IP

1.Chicago: 1032/1137.1 = .91

2. Houston: 1013/1133.0 = .89

3. Florida: 883/1113.0 = .79

4. Philadelphia: 837/1141.2 =.73

5. San Diego: 816/1136.0 =.72(tie)

5. Atlanta: 808/1125.2 = .72(tie)

7. Los Angeles: 814/1138.1 = .71

8. St. Louis: 799/1144.2 = .70

9. San Francisco: 791/1165.0 = .68

ERA

1. Atlanta: 3.70

2. Chicago: 3.71

3. St. Louis: 3.76

4. Los Angeles: 3.83

5. San Diego: 3.88

6. Florida: 4.02

7. Houston: 4.14

8. San Francisco: 4.43

9. Philadelphia: 4.68

These lists show exactly what I thought in the first place. The Giant's pitching stinks. (Last place on two lists, and second-to-last on the other)

Now back to that thing that I said I didn't see at first, that I was wrong about--BIG TIME. I didn't see how great, spectacular, phenomenal, excellent, and outrageously supreme they are at getting on base.

For the following list, I am not going to use just playoff-chasing teams, I'm going to use the top ten NL teams in OBP, just to show how awesome the Giants are at getting on base.

Look at this unbelieveable list:

OBP

1. San Francisco: .357

2. Colorado: .347

3. St. Louis: .344

4. Philadelphia: .342

5. San Diego: .341

6. Atlanta: .340

7. Houston: .340

8. Los Angeles: .337

9. Cincinatti: .333

10. Florida: .330

10 POINTS HIGHER THAN THEIR CLOSEST COMPETITOR!!!! That is how they are in this playoff race.

I did not see this with my first look at all their player's individual numbers. I was blind.

Getting on base wins baseball games, and that is exactly what the Giant's are doing.

But I do not believe they will make the playoffs, because, in addition to getting on base, you also have to keep your opponents off the bases to win. And as shown earlier, the Giants are not good at that.

The question has been answered swiftly and precisely. "How are the Giants in the NL Wild Card race?" "They are getting on base more than anybody else--by ALOT."

Frank Bundy III

Please email me at frnkbndy@yahoo.com with any questions, concerns, suggestions, or comments.