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If the Giants were more like a 66 or 67 win team last year...and if Cueto and MadBum return to being ~5 WAR pitchers....And if they get Stanton...And if Belt plays a full season and heck maybe even say Crawford rebounds somewhat and gains them another 1 WAR...you can see where they might start to sniff .500 and that's pretty close to being a #2 wild card contender. That's a lot of stuff that has to go right. They could increase their odds by making some other moves, too. But with no depth they basically need all this stuff to go right and for the extra move or two they make to also work out. I don't like their odds but what the heck it's an even year.

Hoot45 wrote:

MinorLeagueGuy wrote:Because Miami threatened to abandon Stanton around minor leaguers for the next 3 years, while SF would at least attempt to compete in a 2 wildcard setting.

The Giants payroll for 2018 is already $166M, second highest in MLB. And from 2019-2021 (as of now) it is the highest in baseball. The MLB roster is looking awfully old and expensive. The farm system is thin. I'm not sure how they are going to compete for a Wild Card. Adding Stanton to a 64 win team, while trading away one of the younger bright players, isn't going to get you there.

But SF isn't literally telling Stanton he'll be surrounded by virtual nobodys. Miami is telling him just that.. Miami does this type of sale regularly, it was inevitable. SF doesn't really rebuild like that. If you asked Stanton, between the 2 cities, who would have a better chance on getting to a playoff game in the next 3 years, it would be SF.

SF is an awesome city. I mean, if the money is the same I could see that's reason enough. From his perspective who knows which club will be better in 2-3 years? If I had as many years left on my contract as Stanton I'd prioritize location and my comfort level with ownership, not immediate chances of winning.

Michael wrote:SF is an awesome city. I mean, if the money is the same I could see that's reason enough. From his perspective who knows which club will be better in 2-3 years? If I had that many years left on my contract I'd prioritize location and my comfort level with ownership, not immediate chances of winning.

Except, not winning immediately is allegedly his reason for wanting out of Miami. Stanton has never played in a playoff game in his career and he's not going to get to one in San Francisco. Stanton+Shark+MadBum+Posey is certainly good for quite a bit, but most of that team fell off its cliff already and their payroll is already top in MLB through 2021.

Now if he wants to lose in front of more fans and still be in an awesome city, San Francisco is great. He can chill there for a few years and at least hit HR's in an awesome park with some fans in the stands. In three years, see what's up in SF or opt out and move on to a winner. That's totally understandable.

Miami doesn't want him anymore. That's reason enough to leave. That goes back to my ownership comfort level comment.

Regardless, SF has a history of winning and they won a world series title 3 years ago. The fact that they want Stanton shows they are still serious about competing. We might see a big difference between the organizations but Stanton might not.

Stanton wants to play for the Dodgers. I think the Dodgers will be pretty clearly better than the Giants over the next 2-3 years, even if the Giants get Stanton. Wouldn't it kind of suck to go play for the top rival of the team you wanted to play for, and then finish behind them every year?

Obviously SF is an awesome city and the Giants would be an improvement over Miami and all that. But if winning is some kind of factor at all, he's got to be asking the Giants' brass in this meeting how they plan to beat the Dodgers. They'll probably make something up that sounds good.

They don't have to beat the Dodgers. Someone else can eliminate them. All the Giants have to do is get in. Isn't that all that this Org wants out of their club? Getting in?

This FO isn't concerned with competing directly with Chicago. All they want to do is compete for a WC berth. Why should SF do any different, when the Dodgers have the obvious upper hand in the division?

Be nice to have someone actually want to play in StL who was a star.. We had Max Schezer wanting to come home, but we showed about zero interest.

MinorLeagueGuy wrote:They don't have to beat the Dodgers. Someone else can eliminate them. All the Giants have to do is get in. Isn't that all that this Org wants out of their club? Getting in?

This FO isn't concerned with competing directly with Chicago. All they want to do is compete for a WC berth. Why should SF do any different, when the Dodgers have the obvious upper hand in the division?

If the Cardinals land Stanton, they will be right there with the Cubs. Easy to look at the dominant team from 2 years ago, but the current Cubs are not at that level going forward.

MinorLeagueGuy wrote:They don't have to beat the Dodgers. Someone else can eliminate them. All the Giants have to do is get in. Isn't that all that this Org wants out of their club? Getting in?

This FO isn't concerned with competing directly with Chicago. All they want to do is compete for a WC berth. Why should SF do any different, when the Dodgers have the obvious upper hand in the division?

I will settle for a coin toss but I'd really prefer the Cards win the division. Even better if they can get home field in all rounds like the Dodgers did last year. Also, the D-Backs and Rockies were the two wild card teams last year. Gotta pass one of them to get to the coin toss game.

In all honesty, you could *almost* argue that the Giants would have about the same playoff odds as the Reds or Phillies. Yes, the Giants are better on paper right now but not by a ton. I couldn't find playoff odds yet but the opening 2018 World Series odds has the Giants with the same odds to win the World Series as the White Sox, Braves, and Angels.