2011 MLB Season: Can the San Francisco Giants Replicate Their World Series Win?

In 2010, the San Fransico Giants came up and shocked everyone when they beat the Philadelphia Phillies in the National League – just as the Texas Rangers shocked us all by defeating the New York Yankees in the American League. The Giants were able to defeat the Rangers in the World Series by only allowing the Rangers to take one win. The question is, though, can the Giants do it again and make it to the World Series to win two years in a row?

While the Giants did find success with the 2010 Fall Classic, they are still not considered the favorite to repeat their success in 2011. Bodog online sportsbook currently has three teams ahead of the Giants – Philadelphia Phillies, Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees – but the Giants are favored to repeat as NL West division champs.

While many teams scrambled to obtain players during the offseason, the Giants didn’t make many headlines. The team did acquire free agent Miguel Tejada and re-signed a number of players including Pat Burrell and Aubrey Huff. A number of new deals went to Jonathan Sanchez, Cody Ross, Andres Torres, Javier Lopez, Santiago Casilla, Ramon Ramirez as well as Mike Fontenet while Minor League contracts were given to Guillermo Mota and Jeff Suppan.

The Giants did suffer a major loss when one of their largest rivals, the Los Angeles Dodgers signed Juan Uribe. While Uribe is the most significant of the losses, San Francisco also lost Edgar Renteria, who was their MVP in the World Series, to the Cincinnati Reds, Eugenio Velez found his way to the Dodgers like Uribe, Chris Ray signed with the Baltimore Orioles and Jose Guillen headed to free agency.

Looking ahead at the 2011 MLB season, the Giants have an impressive starting rotation despite the fact that the Philadelphia Phillies by far have the best starting lineup in the National League – and to many, possibly all of baseball. Tim Lincecum obviously returns as the Giants’ ace with Matt Cain as the No. 2 pitcher who has definitely been underestimated. Jonathan Sanchez, Madison Bumgardner and Barry Zito round out the rest of the starting five pitchers.

The bullpen still has Brian “Fear the Beard” Wilson and players will still fear the beard this season. The bullpen is as rock solid as it has ever been and prove to be huge for the Giants with Javier Lopez, Jeremy Affeldt as well as Sergio Romo as the setup.

While the Giants will suffer in the offense without Uribe, they have a solid lineup from top to bottom.

The Giants can definitely repeat their success as their division champion in the NL West despite the fact that the rest of the division has improved this offseason and spring. It will be hard for the Giants to win the World Series yet again and if the Phillies and Giants find themselves head-to-head for the NL pennant, which is very likely, the Phillies aren’t going to give it up easily. The Phillies will look to redeem themselves from last year’s loss to the Giants. The Giants can surely replicate their World Series win but it’s going to be tough.

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