'Experts' bullish on 2016 Giants (as are we)

You know how it is with this preseason stuff. Everyone has an opinion about everything. This team should win it all, another team can contend if these 46 things happen, and that team would save its fans time by heading to the garage and sucking on the tailpipe of a ’57 Falcon with a leaky manifold.

Depending on who you read, the same team might be all of the above. All that’s assured is that no one really knows what the blazes they’re talking about. Ah, but when they say something good about your team…..

CBS Sports has released its 2016 preseason power rankings, and there’s a lot of talk about the Top Three: Cubs, Royals and Mets respectively. But who sits at Number Four? Your San Francisco Giants.

As with most predictions, you can take this any number of ways. Two National League teams are projected to be better: bummer. The Giants are the highest ranked team in the NL West: awesome. You get nothing for preseason praise: dammit!

A year ago the Giants were coming off a third World Series title but also a lousy off-season in which every major free agent seemed to be just out of reach. Jon Lester, James Shields, Max Scherzer, et al appeared to be perfect fits for a team looking to repeat, and all acted like the “10” on singles night fleeing the guy in frayed jean shorts and a SpongeBob tank top.

Giants Nation (that’s not a thing and we need a better name; comment with your idea) knew going in that pitching, a strength of the ’10 and ’12 teams, was going to be an issue. We accepted that, as if we had a choice, but assumed the defense and a solid move-the-line order would keep the team in contention.

Then someone began sticking pins in Giants voodoo dolls and the team bus was replaced with an ambulance. What should have been the everyday line-up lost over 300 games to injury with Hunter Pence, Nori Aoki, Joe Panik, Brandon Crawford, Gregor Blanco and more missing copious dates.

With so many key players missing the roster seemed more like the flight manifest of Malaysia Air Flight 370, and Bruce Bochy was basically left to ask for volunteers. That can’t happen again, right?

Bobby Evans and Brian Sabean tried to plug the dam. Adding Alejandro DeAza and Marlon Byrd doesn’t exactly sound like the cavalry coming over the ridge, yet the Giants still had mathematical hope until mid-September. A real bugle call? How about Johnny Cueto, Jeff Samardzija and Denard Span?

As much as the 2015 off-season was a disappointment, 2016 looks like a dream. Yes, the faithful had their eyes on bigger prizes only to see Zack Grienke, David Price, Justin Upton, Jason Heyward and other elude their grasp.  But before despair set in, management moved swiftly and decisively. Despair turned to hope, and finally excitement.

It also doesn't hurt to hope Pence and company spend less time on the bench, and their on-field exploits won't occur face down waiting for aide. Can another season in the Major League M*A*S*H 4077th really be their fate?

Assuming the predictions have any merit, the overall top six will yield four of the NL’s five playoff entries, with the Dodgers and Cardinals slugging it out in the Wildcard Round. That’s a comforting thought for Giants fans, who have grown accustomed to seeing LA flame out in the postseason.

The rankings also affirmed something we said here a few entries back.  There’s plenty of snack food for the better squads to fatten up on. CBS’s bottom six are all from the National League with the Padres and Rockies at numbers 25 and 26 respectively. In the West, only number-16 Arizona is expected to put up a murmur of protest, and remember that despite bagging some top talent (including Grienke) the Diamondbacks gave up a lot in the process.

The Giants chances look pretty good. Las Vegas pegs them for 90 wins in a watered-down division, and despite the praise for Chicago and New York that total would grant San Francisco the home field.

Just for spits and giggles, we took a look at the 2015 rankings just to see how giddy a high mark should make us this time around. Uh, sorry to be a kill joy.

Washington was the obvious team to beat. The Nationals unraveled like a ball of yarn being dragged around the house by a calico on crystal meth. The Red Sox, Indians and Mariners were consensus choices for success,  and each saw it’s season take on a Hindenburg-like trajectory. No sure deal here.

And yet, the Giants lofty position does make us want to believe there’s some merit to all of this. We saw how the team fought with one arm and one leg (each broken by a wild pitch) tied behind its chronically-aching back. A healthy group, led by some new arms, is cause for elation.

As a fan, it’s nice to see someone acknowledge two things that appeared in the brief (Foster the People had a longer run) write-up: 2015’s failure was driven by injuries and starting pitching failures, and the Giants have addressed the pitching woes.

Forget pumped up kicks. We'll take some pumped up (and healthy) arms instead.