Just like Christmas, October only comes once a year. And when October comes around it usually plays to the flavor of the month. This year it was the Cardinals who earned the privilege of putting the star on the tree. Like the Giants did in 2010, the Cardinals were the hottest team entering the playoffs and used fuel from the end of the regular season to propel them over their sufficient playoff contenders. Giants fans would have liked to see their team make the same heroic run in 2011, but with the Cardinals being the “lightning thief”, it just wasn’t in the cards for them.
The Giants are coming off of a favorable yet post season-less disappointing 86-76 season. In MLB history, I’m not entirely sure how often World Serious Champion teams don’t make the playoffs the year following their trophy hoisting ceremony, but I’m going to go out on hunch and assume that it doesn’t happen very often. It seemed like a definite possibility for the Bay Area Bombers to come out and at least make an appearance in October, seeing as they had virtually the same line-up as they did in 2010. The Problem was the line-up simply didn’t perform like it did the previous year. And with the mid-season signing of Carlos “I love playing for Champion teams now” Beltran, who was deemed the final piece to solving the 2011 puzzle, there was a certain expectation of at least viable contention. But the Diamondbacks had other plans.
With their major off-season signing being the acquisition of the Mets former faithful Angel Pagan, it looks like Giants fans will be relying on Kung Fu Panda to delegate the dreary offense again. With a healthy Buster Posey, I would expect the Giants to regain control of N.L. west in 2012, pending their offense produces to its proven capacity, Bochy manages with a fiery attitude, and Lincecum doesn’t blow out his arm and/or he continues to shine in ESPN office commercials.
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