Are the San Francisco Giants That Bad, or Are the Diamondbacks That Good?

After a disappointing four game series loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks for the San Francisco Giants, it may be time to reassess the National League West.

I went back and looked at predictions for the 2016 season, and we quickly forget how high a lot of people were on the Arizona Diamondbacks.

ESPN had seven people pick the Diamondbacks to win the division, and four more had them as a wild card team. Over on CBS only one of five people picked the Diamondbacks to finish ahead of the Giants.

The reason I bring this up is because the Diamondbacks were supposed to be a really good team last year. But injuries and a lack of production in the pitching staff derailed their aspirations.

A healthy A.J. Pollock really makes this lineup dangerous. Plus, some of their young players got another year of experience under their belt last year.

The biggest question for the Diamondbacks this year will be their pitching staff. But there will be no questioning their offense in 2017.

Before I go any further, let me reiterate that this is just one series — four games. You can’t judge an entire season on four games, but you can definitely re-evaluate your thinking.

I believe we may have seriously undervalued this Diamondbacks team coming into the 2017 season. They will be a much better team this year as long as that lineup stays healthy.

Now what San Francisco Giants fans are really concerned about is whether or not the Giants are as bad as they played in this series.

Again, I’ll say this is just four games.

However, it was a very bad four games for the San Francisco Giants. All of the concerns from last year were brought to life in these four games.

The bullpen gave up 8 earned runs in 11 innings during this series with 7 walks and 12 strikeouts.

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Meanwhile, the starting pitching — thought to be the strength of the team coming into the season — wasn’t much better. They gave up 19 runs (16 earned) in 22.2 innings pitched.

The starters did rack up an impressive 28 strikeouts with just 6 walks. That gives me hope for improvement once they get out of offensively friendly Chase Field.

I thought the offense played pretty well, especially considering they lost Denard Span after one game. They scored 22 runs on 40 hits in the four game series.

The San Francisco Giants now go to Petco Park, a much more pitcher friendly park, to face a terrible Padres team. I think our pitching has a chance to get on track there, and the Giants should be able to pick up some wins.

And then the Giants go back home for a re-match with the Diamondbacks. I think by the end of that series we’ll have a better idea of where the Giants and Diamondbacks stand in this NL West race.

Next: San Francisco Giants Drop Series vs. Diamondbacks: 5 Takeaways

So while it’s just one series, I think we can learn a lot out of those four games. I think we have to rethink our perception of the Diamondbacks, and give the Giants some time to find out who they are going to be in 2017.

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