World Series Media Dump

[gp956]

Nice article from Grantland

The 2002 San Francisco Giants may have been the least homegrown baseball team of all time. They were an ancient ball club, with only one starting position player under 30, exactly zero of whom had been drafted and developed by the Giants. Only two starting pitchers were homegrown, and none of the team's top five relief pitchers were. Then-general manager Brian Sabean probably had some sort of roster-building strategy beyond hiring old guys from other teams so Barry Bonds could fill out his weekly Parcheesi game. It was just really hard to figure out what that might be.

A decade later, the Giants are World Series champions for the second time in three years. And the composition of this year's team couldn't be more different from the 2002 squad.

The World Series MVP is a Venezuelan-born cartoon character who signed as a 16-year-old amateur free agent six months after the most painful Game 6 loss this side of Freese and Buckner. The starting catcher is probably winning the regular-season MVP award. The starting first baseman and shortstop are defensive stalwarts. The no. 1 starter threw a perfect game, started the All-Star game, and started the deciding games of the NLDS, NLCS, and World Series, all in just over four months' time. The no. 2 starter fired seven innings of two-hit scoreless baseball in the World Series. The team's shutdown relief pitcher is a two-time Cy Young winner who was completely unhittable throughout the postseason. The oldest player in that group is 28 years old. All of them have been Giants for life.

 

[gp956]

Kind of a mea culpa by Fangraphs:

And this is where we just have to admit that we screwed up. Back in March, when we rolled out our organizational rankings, a number of people took umbrage with the fact that the Giants placed 27th among front offices. In retrospect, that looks like our version of the Barry Zito contract, and there’s no use in defending it.

 

[gp956]

Good stuff from ESPN's Stark:

From the precipice of getting swept by the Cincinnati Reds and winning no games in this postseason to sweeping the World Series? Who could have seen that coming? Not even the men wearing those uniforms.

"If you had told me that then, I couldn't believe it," outfielder Gregor Blanco was saying, as the Mumm Napa Brut Prestige sprayed around him on this unforgettable night. "Nobody here would believe it. But we did it."

Oh, they did it, all right. And when you step back and allow yourself to digest what they just accomplished, you realize this one will be reverberating through time for many, many years. Here's why:

• The Giants trailed St. Louis Cardinals 3-1 in the NLCS -- and never lost again. They were the first National League team ever to sweep a World Series after fighting off at least three straight elimination games in the LCS. And they joined the 2004 and 2007 Boston Red Sox as the only teams ever to do that in either league.

• Add in the division series, and these Giants won a total of six elimination games on the way to winning this World Series. Only one other team in history ever did that: the 1985 Kansas City Royals.

• This makes two World Series these Giants have won in the past three seasons. And that, too, is a feat for the ages. Over the past 90 years, only three other National League franchises have pulled that off: the 1975-76 edition of the Big Red Machine, the 1963-65 Dodgers and the 1942-44 Cardinals.

• This team now has won six consecutive postseason series since 2010. And only two other franchises have done that in a three-year period during the division-play era: the 1998-2000 Yankees (nine in a row) and the 1972-74 Athletics (six in a row).

• Finally, we should remember that merely to sweep a World Series under any circumstances is special. Only four other NL teams have done that in the past 90 years, too: the 1990 Reds, 1976 Reds, 1963 Dodgers and 1954 Giants.

 

[filosofy29]

Kind of a mea culpa by Fangraphs:

lol, Fangraphs is saying that the Giants are a deep team and won because of it and numbnuts from ESPN Insider said that was to be our downfall.....which one is it??? I guess I'll just have to put on my World Series Crown Thinking Hat and figure that one out.....I'll let you all know when I come to a conclusion.