SF Giants 2012 World Series Champions!

[Honus Wagner Rules]

Share you thoughts on this second World Series title in three seasons. Can they do it again?

[mandrake]

Share you thoughts on this second World Series title in three seasons. Can they do it again?

Congratulations to the World Champion Giants !!!!

In 2010, they took the WS trophy back to NYC to celebrate. I hope they do it again this year !!!!! (I had to work last time)

Last Wed I took a tour of Citi Field and wore a NY GIANTS retro jacket; just my way of thumbing my nose at the horrible NY Mets owners.

Every summer I visit Southern CA on vacation and catch the Dodgers, Angels or Padres. I have not been to AT&T yet; my wife and I did go to the 1989 Playoffs vs Chicago at the Stick.

The Giants have the potential to make a dynasty run over the next 3-4 years ! Best of luck in 2013.

[KHenry14]

It's interesting, a lot of the Bay Area media is saying just that, that the team has a very good chance to repeat, and or possibly get two or three more. Even The Merc's biggest negative nellie, Tim Kawakami, has said as much.

It boils down to a few things....Cain is locked in, as is MadBum. Posey will get a pretty good contract through at least his last Arb year. Panda is under control for two more years. Belt and Crawford has quite a few seasons under control. So a lot of the core will be around for a while.

And Sabean has proven over the last few years to be VERY adept at bringing people in who will contribute. Pagan > Torres, Blanco > Scheirholtz, Scutaro > Theriot and Sanchez And let's not forget bringing in Ross and Burrell in 2010, which Sabes got for virtually nothing. Even bringing in Beltran wasn't a bad idea. 2011 team couldn't hit a lick with Buster out and needed the kind of stick that was missing from the lineup. Although I still am worried that Wheeler will turn out to be a fine pitcher.

My only concern for the future is that the system seems to lack prospects. Brown and Panik are intersting kids, but as of now, neither are in the picture for the big club anytime soon, if ever. But pitching prospects like Hembree, Blackburn and Crick might pan out, and we might even see Hembree try and take Mota's spot on the roster.

As for FA's, no way Hamilton comes to the City. I think Scutaro is a lock to stay, and Affeldt would be a fool to leave, unless he got a crazy good deal from someone. Pagan is a great fit for the team, but he he may price himself out of the market for the Giants. Blanco is better suited as a 4th or 5th OF rather than as a starter. And that leaves a hole in LF that has to be filled.

Lincecum is a huge question mark, but he did earn HUGE brownie points for accepting the role he was given in the post-season and performing at an extremely high level. But Timmy is an enigma, here's hoping he has found what was wrong during the season and has a great season in 2013 in his walk year. He may want to play in the northwest for Seattle, but with them trying to keep King Felix, one wonders if they could afford both of them. He's been a great pitcher, a warrior for the team, and I hope he stays long term...but I'm doubtful that he will.

All in all, I am very optimistic about the long term prospects of the team.

[Honus Wagner Rules]

Win two or three more World Series titles? That seems overly optimistic. Other than the Yankees how many teams in baseball history have won 4-5 World Series titles with the same core group of players? The 1971-75 Oakland A's won five straight AL West titles and three straight World Series titles. If this core group of Giants could even match those A's with three World Series titles I would consider that the best case scenario. The Altanta Braves won 14 straight NL East titles, five NL pennants, and only one World Series title. Granted the Giants now have two World Series titles. I think one more is definitely doable. If things go right for the Giants they could win 100 games in 2013. The Giants won 94 games in 2012 with basically no help from Tim Lincecum.

As for Timmy, how he pitches in 2013 will go a long ways whether the Giants resign him or not. If he returns to his 2010-11 form I'm inclined to believe the Giants will resign him long term. But if 2013 is more of the same as 2012 then the Giants need to decide if Timmy should become a reliever. The question is does Timmy want to be a reliever for the rest of his career? He's won't get paid anywhere near what he would get paid as a starter. But he would make a great long man/closer type. That is a rairty these days since the long man has become extinct these days.

I sure hope Sabean learned from 2010 and that he doesn't just stand pat. He needs to try to incorporate Gary Brown and Joe Panik and Clayton Blackburn in the future. He needs to look for low cost solid free agent players. He just can't sit there and think just because Scutaro and company won it all in 2012 they can simply do it again. Scutaro hit .362/.385/.473, 145 OPS+ for the Giants. If Sabean thinks he'll get that kind of production next year he's smoking some serious crack.

I'd like to hear what Rich the Giant Fan thinks.

[KHenry14]

Please note, that's not me saying they will win all those titles. I culled that stuff from a variety of sources.

BTW, I can't see any way that Timmy comes to accept being a reliever anytime soon. He's going to pursue a contract similar to CC's, and he will likely get it unless he repeats his abyssmal 2012 regular season. Mind you, I doubt he'll get it from the Giants.

I absolutely agree about not standing pat. It's a fatal mistake that GM's make after winning a title, but I think Sabes is too smart to get caught like that. It's not inconcievable that Gary Brown takes a spot on the big club, essentially he's a right handed Blanco. But there are some hard choices that need to be made this off season, it will be interested to see what happens.

BTW, Joe Panik is playing a lot of 2B now, and with Crawford firmly established at SS, Panik's future is at 2B. That's why a 2 yr deal with Scutaro makes sense, as Panik won't likely be ready till 2014-15 at the earliest. Kid looks like he can really hit, one wonders if he can do the job defensively. This team just showed the world what great team defense can do, to play with the Giants you better bring a good glove.

[StanTheMan]

The took the trophy to NYC? Got to admit, that is pretty classy.

[mandrake]

The took the trophy to NYC? Got to admit, that is pretty classy.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/30/sports/baseball/the-giants-plan-to-pay-homage-to-their-new-york-roots.html?_r=0

It’s understandable. Murphy, the Giants’ avuncular equipment manager, and Mays share a deep friendship. It goes all the way back to Murphy’s first day with the team as the Giants’ bat boy in 1958, the year the club moved to San Francisco from New York.

In 2010, when the Giants won their first World Series as a Bay Area team, Murphy did the same thing as he did Sunday night. And the Giants as a team are basically sticking to their script, too. After they won in 2010, they paid homage to their New York roots by sending Mays, the star catcher Buster Posey and the championship trophy to Manhattan for what amounted to a sentimental victory tour of the city.

And now they’re going to do it again. “We’re bringing it back,” exclaimed Giants General Manager Brian Sabean amid the euphoric celebration here Sunday night after his team won Game 4 to sweep the Tigers. “Tell everyone in New York to get ready, because we’re coming with it.”

That may not be such heartening news to the Mets and the Yankees, the two local teams who would prefer to be parading the trophy around the city themselves. But instead it will the Giants, who played in New York for more than 70 years. It was in January 2011 that the Giants contingent carried out its initial championship visit. Sabean was part of the group, as was the team president, Larry Baer, now the team’s chief executive. They met with two groups of old-time New York Giants fans, all of whom faithfully attended games at the old Polo Grounds in Upper Manhattan and never lost their love for the team, despite being abandoned by it. The fans regaled Mays with their recollections of his majesty at the Polo Grounds, and happily listened to his stories.

In addition, Mays and the rest of the Giants contingent visited a public school in Harlem, where Mays told students about living in their community as a young player on the Giants. And the Giants also took the trophy down to Finnerty’s, a Second Avenue pub that has become a New York hub for transplanted Giants supporters from the Bay Area.

“It was a really cool trip,” Posey said Sunday, not long after his two-run homer helped the Giants win the title.

Although there was real heartache when the Giants, who were founded in 1883, left New York, their departure did not engender the same animosity that the Dodgers encountered in deserting Brooklyn for Los Angeles. For one thing, it was the Dodgers’ owner, Walter O’Malley, who was seen as the catalyst — or culprit — in the decision of both teams to move to the West Coast; for another, the Giants, despite their distinguished history in New York, did not have the romance attached to them that the Dodgers did in Brooklyn.

The bitterness was simply more profound among Dodgers fans and, as such, it might be harder for the Los Angeles Dodgers to ever attempt a victory tour of Brooklyn similar to what the Giants are now doing in Manhattan for the second time.

“The whole thing with New York is that we see ourselves as a 130-year-old franchise,” Baer said. “It’s not just the 55 years in San Francisco. The New York roots are important to us and we don’t forget them, so yeah, I’d like to bring the trophy back. I think we should do it every time we win.”

Shawon Dunston, a spring training instructor and part-time coach for the Giants, grew up in Brooklyn, where he was a high school baseball star. His parents still make the borough their home. Dunston said that when the Giants take the trophy back to New York this time, he wants to be a part of the celebration. He also noted that the current Giants had a strong connection to another New York team — the Yankees.

After all, Sabean worked in the Yankees’ front office, and Dick Tidrow, the Giants’ scouting director, was a pitcher on the Yankees’ championship teams in 1977 and 1978. The Giants coaching staff also includes several other former Yankees, most notably Dave Righetti, the pitching coach.

“We learned from the Yankees,” Dunston said. As for the Giants becoming a West Coast dynasty that would mimic the Yankees’ overall success, Dunston said, “We’re not there yet, but we’re getting close, yes we are.”

In fact, the Giants, who now have seven championships, are still 20 shy of the Yankees. Their first title came in 1905, and all six before now were celebrated in New York at some point. And now the seventh will be, too. Perhaps with Mays again joining in the celebration.

“He was all excited and said, ‘Murph, we won it again,’ ” Mike Murphy said Sunday night in the champagne-drenched Giants clubhouse as he recounted his phone call with Mays. “He said he was on pins and needles the whole game. We waited a long time for the first one. Now it seems like every other year, we win one.”

A version of this article appeared in print on October 30, 2012, on page B13 of

[StanTheMan]

Good stuff... Even if the Yankee bit will not please everyone, there is a lot lf feel-good going on here. They should take a pic of it on the Brush Staircase!

[Honus Wagner Rules]

A good article by ESPN's David Schoenfield.

http://espn.go.com/blog/sweetspot/post/_/id/30601/what-we-learned-from-the-2012-postseason

[Honus Wagner Rules]

Rob Neyer article about Buster Posey.

http://mlb.sbnation.com/2012/11/2/3582818/sf-giants-2012-player-year-season-review

[Long Island Mike]

Everyone: After a long absence from this website I wanted to look at the posts concerning the 2012 World Champion SF Giants...

I did not realize at all that the Giants were actually thinking of their NY roots-that is a class move to visit NY in their celebration...
I now understand how some feel about the old NY Giants after looking at their topic thread here at Baseball-Fever...

They proved something to me back in 2010 and again this year: They do not need Barry Bonds and his outside problems to be
a successful team...

Hopefully this team is kept together-I am noticing something good here and for the near future for the Giants and their fans...
After 54 years in SF they finally have their now two hard-earned World Championships...

LI MIKE

[west coast orange and black]

^
as a nod to the polo grounds, it was important to magowan & co to have lotsa pennants at the new ballyard.
the giants have long celebrated their past... most often with class.