By: CAMERON MITCHELL
Staff Writer
Going into Sunday afternoon, the San Francisco Giants were tied with the Milwaukee Brewers with a record of 29-30 for the 2020 Playoff Race. All the Giants needed to do to make the playoffs were to win their game against the Padres and the Brewers would have to lose to the Cardinals. The Giants got what they needed on one side because the Brewers lost to the Cardinals 2-5, but the Giants couldn’t help themselves because they ended up losing to the Padres 4-5. This was a very disappointing way to end a season no doubt, but no one thought the Giants would even be in the position they were in going into Sunday not even the Giants coaching staff. Going into this weird MLB season, the San Francisco Giants had the fifth worst odds to make the playoffs. FanGraphs Baseball gave the Giants a 3.1% chance to make the playoffs and a 0% chance to make the playoffs. The Giants roster on paper did not look very promising and with very little off-season moves it was pretty clear the Giants were planning to continue their rebuild and get a solid draft pick.
You may ask, how did the Giants do so well with such little talent on a roster? Well there is something called overperforming. The Giants were 6th in the whole league with a .263 batting average which is a huge change from last year when they were 28th in the league in batting average. Their roster was very similar to last year’s team, but they improved their hitting so much that they almost snuck into the playoffs. Hitting has always been a problem for them, but this year the problem was pitching. There weren’t many players they could rely on to close out a game which resulted in blown saves in the 9th inning in multiple games which would have put them in the playoffs if they just closed out the game. You can’t really blame it all on the pitchers because the Giants manager Gabe Kapler made a lot of poor decisions that you can arguably say blew games.
All in all, the Giants should be pretty satisfied with how the season went and the front office should be excited for what’s to come in the future for Giants baseball. The Giants have the top Catcher prospect in the league who they brought up to the Big Leagues this year who had a mediocre year but you can’t really blame him because there was a lot to learn in a short amount of time. They have many intriguing prospects and young players who they are looking forward to taking the field along with veterans who played a huge role on the team this year such as Brandon Belt, Alex Dickerson, Kevin Gausman, Tony Watson, and more. Although it was a sad ending to the 2020 season, I’m very proud of the team and excited for what’s to come in the future for the San Francisco Giants.