Young Guys Can Lead San Francisco Giants to Playoffs

After their first series win of the year in Anaheim, the San Francisco Giants went streaking and have taken the first two from the Nationals and have put together a nice little winning streak. 

This off season, everyone in baseball thought the Giants needed to get younger. Bobby Evans and company were confident in their veterans and that’s fine, but the baseball world was right.

The Giants went into 2018 with a young rotation, and they have done excellent so far.

The offense on the other hand, is feeling its age. After a horrendous start offensively to the season, the bats have finally woken up from their long winter hibernation.

In the rotation, guys like Chris Stratton have been a huge shot in the arm for the team as they begin to get healthy again. His youth and dominance was something no one saw coming.

The lineup was missing that spark, but would find it when Mac Williamson forced himself onto the team after absolutely humiliating Triple-A pitchers.

Now it’s still too early to say Mac Williamson is going to absolutely rake at the big league level, its been five games, but with what we saw out of him in Spring Training and what we’ve seen this first week, its real.

His adjustment and his new swing is real — as in real good. Through his first five games this year, he already has three homers and five RBI and is batting over .300.

His bat has not only won us games, but has woke up every other batter in the lineup. It’s a ripple effect, and one you will not get from Hunter Pence anymore.

Mac Williamson, Chris Stratton and soon Steven Duggar are the guys this team needs to balance out a roster full of veterans.

If the Giants want to make the playoffs, they need to give their young guys every opportunity in the world to succeed.

The Mac Williamson experiment no longer can be an experiment, it needs to be an every day routine now.

There’s no sign of Chris Stratton leaving the rotation soon, so no real concerns there.

With all the time they’ve invested in Steven Duggar, allowing him to be 100 percent ready, he needs to be thrown into the mix and he needs to either sink or swim.

We knew coming into this season that the Giants were going to be an improved offensive club. We knew the middle of that order was going to produce some runs and hit some homers, and it needs to do just that in order to make it to October.

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The way I look at it is like this — the Giants won three World Series titles off excellent pitching, great defense, and a lock down bullpen. That philosophy will no longer get them in the playoffs anymore.

This team not only needs to do all of those things, but on top of that needs to score runs and hit some homers.

While teams like the Dodgers, Cubs, Nationals and Astros can sit back and just do what they normally do, the Giants do not have that luxury.

They have to develop into an offensive team, or they won’t even sniff October.

This team not only needs one jolt, but it needs two or three. Guys like Williamson and Stratton and soon Duggar — and lets not forget the fantastic new bullpen arms such as Moronta and Watson.

Those are the type of guys that will take the pressure off the regulars and allow this team to thrive and fire on all cylinders.

Next: Williamson should replace Pence in left

If things work out the right way, this team has a lot of potential. After a rough first few weeks, things are starting to click and everything is going right for the Giants.