Among the 25 World Series champions since 2000, how did the 2012 Giants land in this spot?
The 2012 Giants won 95 games, three more than their 2010 cousins, but they were actually the lesser team. They outscored opponents by just 69 runs, and because of that, their expected record put them at just 88 wins. Obviously, the “extra” wins were in the bank, but we’re comparing the quality of teams that won a World Series this century. If there’s a time to pick nits and then explain those nits, it’s now.
The 2012 Giants might be one of the lesser champions of the century, but you can’t criticize Buster Posey even a little bit. In 2010, he was the Rookie of the Year backstop who helped lead the Giants to their first championship since 1954, when they were still playing in New York. In 2012, Posey was a monster, leading the National League in wins above replacement while winning a batting title and the NL MVP.
Left fielder Melky Cabrera (.346/.390/.516), center fielder Angel Pagan (.288/.338/.440), third baseman Pablo Sandoval (.789 OPS) and first baseman Brandon Belt (.360 OBP) were the other lineup standouts. They helped this team have a well above-average offense, the strength of the club.
What was missing from this club was the pitching that powered the 2010 championship. Matt Cain was even better than he had been in 2010, but Madison Bumgarner was just a bit above average, as was Ryan Vogelsong. Barry Zito was flat-out bad; Tim Lincecum was appreciably worse. The Giants didn’t upgrade on either of those two former Cy Young Award winners throughout the year, and it’s their performance that made the staff below-average overall.
This is what people mean when they talk about this era’s Giants possessing even-year magic, though. Lincecum was truly awful in the regular season, with a 5.18 ERA and the worst control of his career to that point. In the postseason, he threw 13 innings in long relief, including a 4.1-inning appearance in Game 4 of the NLDS, and gave up just one run. Zito kept his rotation spot for October, and in Game 5 of the NLCS went 7.2 scoreless innings in a 5-0 win. Then in the World Series against the Tigers, Zito allowed only one run in 5.2 innings.
Lincecum and Zito were a drag on the Giants all season, until they were as much of a reason that they won the title as anyone else on the roster.
Pablo Sandoval would win World Series MVP after slashing .500/.529/1.125 with three of his six postseason homers. He had a monster October in general, batting .364/.386/.712 with 24 hits and 13 RBIs. The Giants crushed the Tigers in the World Series, sweeping Detroit, but in the NLDS and NLCS were pushed to Game 5 and Game 7. That Tigers team won just 88 games, though, so that sweep is a bit of a push, as far as tiebreakers in these rankings go.
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