Predicting San Francisco Giants' 2016 Record Going Into Spring Training

By Nick Vorholt

It’s 2016. It must be time for the San Francisco Giants to win the World Series again. They spent the offseason rebuilding their starting pitching rotation and outfield, while hoping for health in the infield.

Over the course of one week in December, the Giants changed the face of the NL West for 2016 and beyond. They made a huge splash in signing what the media was calling the best No. 3 starter in baseball by signing Jeff Samardzija. Then one week later the Giants made even a bigger splash by signing ace Johnny Cueto away from the World Series champions to support Madison Bumgarner. Those three are backed by Matt Cain, Jake Peavy and breakout star Chris Heston.

In the outfield the Giants let Nori Aoki, Alejandro De Aza, and Marlon Byrd walk as the plan in left field for 2015 didn’t pan out. In their place is Angel Pagan, having been moved from center by the signing of Denard Span. For the next three years Span will be patrolling center field, potentially with yet another left fielder in 2017 as Pagan is a free agent after this season.

Meanwhile the infield is similar to that of last year. Matt Duffy will be the full-time third baseman as Casey McGehee didn’t work out. The team is also hoping that Joe Panik can stay healthy for all of 2016. With Brandon Crawford and Brandon Belt both coming off of career years, there is nothing more important than health to this infield. Buster Posey returns behind the plate as the best catcher in all of baseball and light-hitting Ehire Adrianza backs up the infield heading into spring.

The Giants have won the World Series in 2010, 2012, and 2014. With the upgrades they made this offseason, they are in position to do so again. They’ll go 92-70 which was good enough to win the NL West in 2015.

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