San Francisco Giants ranked seventeenth: All is right with the world

Bleacher Report’s featured columnist, Joel Reuter, started off 2015 with the usual fireworks in the form of his MLB rankings, an always-entertaining piece of frippery from San Francisco Giants fans’ perspective, because the Orange and Black inevitably end up somewhere south of the intersection of Ordinary and Bland.

Conversely, the Los Angeles Dodgers are comfortably ensconced in the number four slot, right behind last year’s National League-best (in terms of win/lost record) Washington Nationals, American League-best (ITOW/LR) Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim and the St. Louis Cardinals, who garnered the top spot.

One wonders if Joel Reuter sees the same irony as Giants fans, that ranked higher than the Giants are eight teams who were also ranked higher than the San Francisco Giants in the just-completed 2014 postseason.

Having just witnessed the Giants ranked number ten for the recently completed postseason, fans can see how reliable said polls are.

In point of fact, the Giants were ranked dead last of the ten teams to enter the postseason tourney, and we all know how that worked out.

To be fair to Reuter, he did insert a disclaimer in his introduction that fans were not to interpret his rankings as a prediction for the ultimate final standings of 2015, only the way he would see things turning out were the season to begin today. Honestly though, what did San Francisco do to deserve being ranked behind the New York Mets?

June 7, 2014; San Francisco, CA, USA; San Francisco Giants first baseman Michael Morse (38) celebrates after hitting the game-winning RBI-single during the ninth inning against the New York Mets at AT&T Park. The Giants defeated the Mets 5-4. Mandatory Credit: Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports

Aside from heartily wishing that the season did indeed start today, there are still a few thoughts to be expressed at the general notion that sixteen teams rate more consideration than the current World Champion San Francisco Giants, who have also claimed top honors three of the last five seasons.

Those thoughts are currently being stored in a crock clearly labeled “baloney.”

Of the ten teams who did enter the postseason in 2014, only the Oakland A’s are ranked below the Giants. It’s as if the 2014 playoffs were all just a trial run with nothing having been established. You can bet your bottom dollar that if the Dodgers or the Angels had won 2014’s title, they would not be ranked seventeenth in the current poll.

All that being duly recorded, it’s time to express the thought uppermost on the minds of Giants fans everywhere: Great success! Who would want it any other way? Going back to 2010, when San Francisco overcame the odds to first win the National League Pennant, and then to defeat the heavily-favored Texas Rangers, on through to the present, the Giants have been habitually viewed as underdogs.

Let’s face it. San Francisco is not East Coast, Hollywood or the St. Louis Cardinals, “who just know how to win-it’s as simple as that,” according to Reuter. Huh? Did not San Francisco defeat St. Louis in both 2012 and 2014? And now the Cards are number one while the Giants are SEVENTEEN? How can that possibly make sense?

Examining statistics does not answer the question, nor does comparing the payrolls of different teams, but the term cohesive camaraderie, introduced at this site one fine day recently by SD Craig, seems to fit the bill pretty nicely. It conjures up images of hustling players who do not take it upon themselves to do it all; rather, they keep within their abilities, confident in the belief that if one does not get the job done, the next one(s) will. It has been a formula for unparalleled success for the past five years. You can look it up.

Now, if Reuter would like to list the Giants as seventeenth in terms of winter transactions, he would get no argument from this site. However, to disregard the accomplishments of a team which has consistently outperformed all opponents over the past five seasons, and rank them as low as seventeenth is pure, unadulterated balderdash.

Additionally, if the Cardinals “simply know how to win,” why is it that they keep failing with apparently superior teams when they face the Giants? One definition of insanity is to repeat the same steps over and over again, always expecting something different to result. If the Giants are consistently able to win with the same core of players, why are they just as consistently overlooked when it comes to ranking MLB teams?

Does it matter?

Not to the girls the Giants go with, that’s for sure. They keep ending up in parades decked out with orange and black confetti, and hundreds of thousands of cheering fans. 

Ranked seventeenth? Why not? if it ain’t number one, they’re wrong anyway.