Doubters are nothing new for the San Francisco Giants

The San Francisco Giants have made a habit of proving people wrong this decade. Can they do it again in 2019?

Three improbable title runs brought three years of baseball pundits doubting the San Francisco Giants. It truly is an interesting phenomenon.

The baseball world’s groupthink when it comes to the Giants is something worthy of further examination.

Whether it was those who doubted that a ragtag team of veterans in 2010 could win it all, or those who doubted the team throughout the entirety of the 2012 playoffs, people simply seem to have a hard time believing in this team.

There is already a slew of pieces chalking up the team’s performance over the past month as a fluke. Months ago, the baseball intelligentsia decreed that the Giants needed to rebuild, and it’s been tough to shift away from that narrative.

Apparently, the writers of these pieces seem to have a memory that only goes back about three years. All they seem to remember is how teams like the Chicago Cubs and Houston Astros blew things up and rebuilt from the ground up to win a title.

It is pretty incredible that blowing up your team and trading away your best players has become the safe option. It’s as if they think every prospect acquired will turn out great and the team will be able to contend right on schedule in three or four years.

There is no guarantee that a rebuild will prove to be fruitful, yet the baseball world seems convinced that is the only answer.

Well, the baseball world has been wrong before. Let’s examine those occasions just to refresh our memories.

2012

It is understandable why so many people counted the San Francisco Giants out during the 2012 postseason.

They lost the first two games of their NLDS matchup with the Cincinnati Reds and had to win the next three on the road if they wanted to advance.

Luckily, a few Hunter Pence sermons and a Buster Posey grand slam later, the team found themselves with a date against the St. Louis Cardinals in the NLCS.

They again found themselves with their back against the wall in that series. Down 3-1 on the road with Barry Zito on the mound, hope was hard to come by.

I distinctly remember all five Fox Sports analysts—the likes of Eric Karros and A.J. Pierzynski—picking the Cardinals to win that game.

Instead, Zito proceeded to pitch the game of his life, and they went on to win the series as the skies opened up in the last inning of Game 7.

All that doubt in those first two series was understandable. It seemed nearly impossible that a team could win so many elimination games.

The doubting continued on into the World Series, where it seemed like no one was even giving them a chance against the Detroit Tigers.

Justin Verlander mouthing “wow” after Pablo Sandoval hit his second home run off him in Game 1 proved to be emblematic of the baseball world as a whole, and the Giants went on to sweep the Tigers in four games.

What does all of this doubting mean for 2019, though?

2019

If the 2010 and 2012 seasons are any indication, the San Francisco Giants should take solace in the fact that most writers and experts are doubting them.

After all, it’s familiar territory for this team, and those experts have been wrong before.

None of that changes the fact that it still is unlikely that the Giants will make a deep playoff run.

The conventional wisdom of national writers when it comes to the Giants is something I have always been wary of trusting. Many of those writers do not watch the Giants, and many of them are prisoners of recent history.

Giving it a go in 2019 could end in sadness and disappointment.

But 2017 and 2018 ended that way too. Trading away Madison Bumgarner, Will Smith, Pablo Sandoval, and the rest does not ensure playoff readiness in 2022. Far from it.

The Giants have young talent producing and they have veterans with playoff experience. They also have Bruce Bochy who is has pushed all of the right buttons in the playoffs three times before. In all reality, this could be their last shot at the postseason for some time.

The next road trip will decide what happens next.

If the San Francisco Giants keep playing good baseball, they deserve the chance to prove the doubters wrong once again.