2008 San Francisco Giants

2008 is the start of a new era in San Francisco as they no longer have the superstar Barry Bonds and his distractions he brought to the team. The team has added many veteran players over the years to try and win big before Bonds was done. Even without Bonds the team will put out one of the oldest teams in the league on the field. They are young in the pitching department and look like they have a bright future there. The team was only able to win 71 games in Bonds last go around as a Giant. Manager Bruce Bochy will have his hands full in 2008, as his team will likely struggle to win many games.

Pitching:

This is definitely the bright spot of the team as they have 3 very solid young arms in Matt Cain, Tim Lincecum, and Noah Lowry. Lowry looked the most impressive of the 3 in 2007, as he was 14-8 with a 3.92 ERA. The team also has a very solid pitcher in ace Barry Zito who was a Cy Young winner in his days with Oakland. Kevin Correia will finish up the rotation and should be a very solid 5th starter. The bullpen will let Brian Wilson step into the close role full time in 2008. He isn’t a proven closer so it will be interesting to see how he does as the teams man in late inning situations. They also have a solid setup man in Brad Hennessey who will be responsible for getting the ball in Wilson’s hand with the lead still in tact.

Offense:

The team wasn’t very impressive at the plate as they were one of the worst teams scoring runs and hitting for average. The team signed CF Aaron Rowand this off-season and he will instantly be the biggest threat the Giants will have at the plate. Rowand hit .309 with 27 HRs in 2007. The next best thing to Rowand is RF Randy Winn who hit .300 with 14 HRs. The only other players worth mentioning is 1B Dan Ortmeier who will likely improve on his 2007 season totals of .287 average and 6 HRs and C Bengie Molina who had 19 HRs and 81 RBIs. The team is pretty old the rest of the way with players out of their prime such as SS Omar Vizquel, 2B Ray Durham, and LF Dave Roberts.

Defense:

The Giants were pretty solid on the defensive side of things. The old guys know what they are doing as they only had 88 errors last season. The defense should improve in LF with Roberts being a much better defender than Bonds was with his knee problems. Molina is pretty solid behind the plate as he does a good job blocking the plate and throwing out runners.

Prediction:

This team really doesn’t have hope at all of doing anything in the loaded NL West. They will be the worst team in this division and they won’t even be close to the team that finishes 4th. The Giants need to get younger and soon, they have good pitching just need an offense to go with it.

2008 San Francisco Giants Odds to Win World Series 100-1

For every team’s odds head over to Sportsbook.com and check them out. You can also go to Sportsbook.com to look at the odds for teams to win their division or league pennant. Feel free to leave any comments in the comment section.

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