The San Francisco Giants Had An 8.9% Chance To Make The Playoffs At The Start Of The Season And Last Night Became The First Team To Punch Their October Ticket
No one thought the Giants would be good this season, right? No way anyone thought they'd be good. I mean the players moms didn't think they'd be good and here they are clinching a playoff berth for the first time since 2016. Not only did they clinch a spot, they clinched the first playoff spot in the league and did so in arguably the toughest division out there. Coming into the season we all slobbered over the Dodgers and Padres, meanwhile the Giants were right there for the taking and and no one even thought about them. 94-50 is the best record in baseball and they've held that mark for basically the entire season. Baseball Reference had them at 8.9% to make the playoffs, FanGraphs had them at 5.2%, an insane turnaround and you have to give credit to the front office, ownership, Gabe Kapler and the coaching staff, and of course the players. Not many things better than these zero to hero stories.
This is a legit rag tag group of guys who snuck up on us in the first half, held their lead, added arguably one of the biggest pieces at the trade deadline and now have their eyes set on a World Series. 10 guys with double digits home runs and some of those names are Austin Slater, Darin Ruf, Lamonte Wade. You don't know those names, you don't hate to lie. Evan Longoria was fantastic before he got hurt, Buster Posey is acting like it's 2014 again, Kevin Gausman is a legit Cy Young candidate, and the rest of their pitching staff has been unreal and people you've never heard of. Anthony DeSclafani, Logan Webb, Tyler Rogers is suddenly one of the best relievers in the game. I legit have no clue where these guys came from. They didn't add any top prospects to their lineup, they didn't sign some massive free agent, they even went 29-31 in 2020. No one had them in October, no one, yet here they are. Now they don't have their even year magic going like they did in 2010, 2012, and 2014 but I don't think it would surprise anyone if they made another run to another ring. These Giants may be the guys that baseball fans who's teams are out of it rally around and pull for in October. I don't think anyone outside of the state of California hate the Giants, might as well pull for them in the playoffs.