SF Giants: What should we think about all the home runs?

So far this season, the SF Giants are off to a great start. With that said, there are many reasons to take the great start with a grain of salt. The Giants 11-7 start is good, but we should be a tad bit concerned.

The team is hitting just  .218 as a team, which ranks them 23rd out of the 30 teams in the league. Yes, the Giants are currently sitting with a record that wouldn’t reflect offensive woes, but it’s something that we should at least keep an eye on.

Are the SF Giants too reliant on home runs?

However, so far this season, one trend has stood above the rest. The Giants have hit 26 total home runs, which ties them for best in Major League Baseball with Atlanta. Sure, it’s good that the Giants have been showing how much power they have in their lineup on a nightly basis. But they have also scored 42 of their 66 runs scored on the season by way of the long ball, which is quite astounding. When you do the math, it comes out to 64% of the runs this season being scored by way of the home run.

The biggest concern with all the home runs that are being hit is that the Giants aren’t creating much offense outside of the longball. The Giants have built an undeniably deep lineup, but does it have the firepower to rank among the league’s elite in home runs over the course of a 162-game season? The fact is, pitching and defense have actually bailed out the offense far more often than the other way around.

This success may be sustainable if the pitching and defense remain stout. After all, the Giants won three World Series titles behind solid pitching and defense with mediocre at best offense. That’s one of the reasons I say not to worry quite yet. The team has gotten a nice start from veterans Buster Posey, Evan Longoria, and Tommy La Stella. Simultaneously, other players like Alex Dickerson, Mike Yastrzemski, and Brandon Belt are easily underperforming their recent performances.

So far, the SF Giants are off to a strong start. Interestingly, they have done it in a way that few expected. Rather than succeeding through a deep lineup consistently hitting extra-base hits, the offense has been inconsistent, relied almost entirely on home runs while trusting dominant pitching to pull out victories.