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San Francisco Giants
Scouting Report
By the Numbers | Players To Watch | Projected Roster
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Like first baseman Snow, last year's surprise
division-winners, the Giants, will be going all out to
repeat.
(V.J.
Lovero)
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Eleven times
last season the
Giants lost a game by nine or more runs. The team finished
10th in the
National League in batting average, eighth in stolen bases
and sixth in slugging percentage. The lineup did not
feature a single .300 hitter. The pitching staff
ranked ninth in ERA, 10th in walks and 11th in runs and hits
allowed. San Francisco finished 10th in fielding
percentage.
Q: How the heck did Dusty Baker's club win 90 games and the
National League West
title?
A:
Dustiny.
Dustiny is a dash of Dusty, a pinch of destiny and gallons
of sweat. Dustiny is becoming only the third team ever to
reach the playoffs despite being outscored during the
regular season. Dustiny is producing 46 come-from-behind
victories, including 23
in your team's final at bat, and winning 11 of 14
extra-inning games. Dustiny is tying the Mets for the
league lead with 59 sacrifice flies. Dustiny is a
journeyman catcher named Brian Johnson, who had been
demoted to the minors by the Tigers on July 9,
getting traded to the Giants on July 16 and helping propel
San Francisco to the division title. "Baseball isn't
like some machine where you plug in the right amount of
quarters and you win the pennant," Johnson says.
"There's room for magic in the game,
but you have to work very hard to put yourself in a position
to use
it."
It was particularly surprising that the '97 Giants came to
symbolize
blue-collar teamwork, because for four years the franchise had
revolved around one
player—leftfielder Barry Bonds. But a funny thing happened
last season. Bonds struggled in April,
and some players who were new to the team took matters into
their own hands. "Barry is one of the greatest players
in the game, but even he can't win every game by
himself,"
much-traveled rightfielder Stan Javier says. "For years
opponents' strategy was
to not let Barry beat them [he led the league in walks the
last four years], so we had to prove we had other players
who could beat
them."
Second baseman Jeff Kent and first baseman J.T. Snow,
veterans who were
off-season pickups, carried San Francisco through the first
half of the schedule and joined Bonds to become the first
Giants trio to knock in 100 runs apiece in the same year
since Johnny Mize, Walker Cooper and Willard Marshall did it in
1947. Johnson hit 11 homers in just 56 games with San
Francisco, and third baseman Bill Mueller led the team in
hitting (.292) in his first full season with the club.
Skillfully directed by
Baker—a 26th-round draft pick of the Braves in 1967 who went
on to play in three World Series with the Dodgers—the
Giants were a team brimming with overachievers. Says Bonds,
"Now we know that there are lots of guys on this team
who can be
heroes."
The mastermind behind the resurgence is general manager
Brian Sabean, who believes that because San Francisco is a
medium-market team, the front office must take risks to
compete. Last winter Sabean gambled by trading popular
four-time All-Star Matt
Williams for Kent and three other important role players. Next
he engineered a deal for Snow, who had struggled mightily
in '96 and fallen out of favor in Anaheim. Then, just
before the July 31 trading deadline, Sabean dealt six
prospects to the White Sox
for lefthander Wilson Alvarez, righthander Danny Darwin and
closer Roberto Hernandez, who helped bury the Dodgers down
the stretch. "Our philosophy is that baseball is so
competitive these days you don't have the luxury of a
five-year plan," Sabean says.
"To be thought of among the best organizations, you
can't just wait for a new stadium to open and expect it to
be nirvana. You've got to be willing to seize the
moment."
Thanks to Sabean's proactive maneuvering, Bonds and Javier
are the only holdovers from the Opening Day lineup of just
two seasons ago. After the Giants were swept by the Marlins
in the Division Series in October, Sabean went right back
to work, adding
more postseason experience by acquiring closer Robb Nen
(Florida) and starter Orel Hershiser (Cleveland) from the
two World Series combatants. Now the Giants stand at a
crossroads. Will they revert to their days as one-hitter
wonders or will Dustiny
revisit San Francisco in '98? "Each one of our players knows
that the only way we'll keep winning is to be the best
team," Kent says. "We may not have great stats, so we
have to lead the league in heart and
desire. That's
Dustiny.
—by Tim Crothers
Scouting Report | By the Numbers | Players To Watch | Projected Roster
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