SF Giants: 3 takeaways from the Giants' recent hot streak

The Giants' bullpen has been the best in baseball

You would think that in order to put together this sort of win streak, the Giants rotation has had to also be nails. However, that has not been the case as Giants starters have posted just 0.7 fWAR (outside the top 20 in the league) in their last 15 starts with a 4.25 ERA and 4.11 FIP. Their strikeout rate and walk rate have been middling and they rank dead last in innings pitched. So what is the deal?

Well, a huge part of it has been the play of the bullpen. Since June 6th, the Giants' relievers have been the best group in all of baseball and it isn't close with 1.6 fWAR. Some of that is from the sheer amount they have been used as they have 84 innings pitched in 52 appearances during the streak which is a LOT. However, they have also been awesome with a 2.25 ERA and 2.98 FIP over all of those innings.

Sean Manaea holds the fWAR lead in the bullpen over this stretch thanks to his FIP, but the San Francisco bullpen has six relievers that have made five or more appearances who also have ERAs of 1.42 ERA or lower during this hot streak. That is a team effort and it has been more than enough to compensate for the deficiencies in the rotation in June.

The National League West may be decided at the trade deadline

Now that the Giants have firmly inserted themselves in the division race, the NL West is looking more and more like it will be decided at the trade deadline. The Diamondbacks, Dodgers, and Giants all have roster holes they would like to fill and whoever shores up their roster shortcomings best in the next month or so could have an edge.

The Giants may have an advantage if that is the case. In addition to having a farm system that has prospects that are both expendable to the organization as well as have real trade value, they also have Kyle Harrison sitting there in the minor leagues all but ready to fill one of the Giants' biggest needs at starting pitcher.

We don't know how this will all shake out the rest of the season, but it sure is nice to see the Giants put themselves in a position to have fans optimistic in 2023.

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