Originally posted by Niners99:
So jrg, as a fan who has probably watched your fair share of Johnny Cueto and Jeff Samardzija from an opponents perspective over the years, what is your honest opinion of those 2 guys? (Setting aside any ill will, of course.)
Between my previous knowledge from the occasional matchup, and looking over the numbers, I have a good idea of what were getting, but im curious to get your perspective on it.
Honestly I think both are great signings for you guys. Your offense doesn't necessarily have the "big" bat (Posey is great, but I mean a big HR/RBI threat), but you guys still score runs. Giants have a lot of guys who aren't household names, yet are very solid overall. Guys like Crawford, Panik, Duffy, etc. If you don't follow the game super close you may not know who they are. With that being said, they still get the job done.
The red flag for me was the pitching. You have one of the best in baseball in Bumgarner, but after that where do you go to? Playoff series. Who do you go to after Bum? Leake gone, Heston eh, Cain and Peavy eh. Cueto and Samardzija adds some MUCH needed depth. Now (if they go in as is) you have Bumgarner, Cueto, Samardzija, Peavy for that series. Absolutely critical moves to bring those in.
Now this is all assuming Cueto and mainly Samardzija bounce back. Cueto is a little more reliable, but you never know. Samardzija was one of my favorite non-Cardinals players. Ask John or vrabbit. I always had him in our fantasy leagues. With these two I think its either gonna be a great signing or a bad signing. Both have the potential to be solid and near top of the rotation guys. They also have shown lately they can be very "average" pitchers as well. Pitching at AT&T I think will help both tremendously.
I think the NL West will be fun to watch. The NL Central and NL West both are right there as the best divisions in baseball IMO. I think it was the Diamondbacks and Dodgers as favorites before, but following these two moves the Giants are right there in the mix. If they add a bat like Cespedes/Gordon/Upton they may leapfrog to favorites in that division.
[ Edited by jrg on Dec 25, 2015 at 9:38 PM ]
