Since we all know you keep coming back here to FTG for the cold hard facts, here's a quick one to start off this preview: the average age of the Giants' hitters one through eight is exactly 35 years old. Think about that. There's not a single player in the starting defense under 30 years old. Albert Pujols is only 27, A-Rod is 31. Hell, Andruw Jones is only 29. By comparison, the average age of the Florida Marlins' starting eight is under 26 years old. The Giants are also hanging on to 34 year-olds Armando Benitez and Steve Kline, just to balance things out for the pitching staff. Sadly, the team declined to pick up 42 year old Steve Finley's contract. Egregious. Seriously though, doesn't the age of this team tell you all you need to know? It's certainly enough for me. The locker room is going to be like an AARP meeting. How could this team possibly stay healthy for an entire year? It's just not going to happen unless the league agrees to let Bonds run the bases in a rascal scooter (towing another rascal for his gigantic melon).Okay, so the Giants lineup is old, we get it, right? Moving on to the rotation, they have some real potential. The Zito contract was utterly ridiculous as I mentioned in my Dodgers season preview, but he's still a good pitcher and they have Matt Cain (only 22!) and Noah Lowry as young studs and still are going to hold out some hope Matt Morris will regain some old form (4.98 ERA last year, ouch). Of course, since that would probably be his 2001 form, it would probably take some divine intervention.
The verdict? Well, I like the pitching staff just fine, but when you have a lineup full of guys with creaky joints and your only power threat is a 42 year old fat head who hasn't had more than 400 at bats since 2002, I'm not terribly impressed. They'll finish behind LA and SD.
1 comment:
Happy Half-Birthday FTG!!!
Post a Comment