Nowes the hard part; repeating.

If the Giants are to make a return engagement to the Fall Classic, they’ll need another strong year from the pitching staff. The starting rotation posted the third-best ERA in baseball last year (3.54) led by two-time Cy Young award winner Tim Lincecum. The righthander was 16-10 with a 3.93 ERA. He had one tough stretch last year when he went 0-5 with a 7.82 ERA in August. The rest of the season he was 16-5 with a 2.94 ERA.

With Tim Lincecum, Matt Cain and Jonathan Sanchez, the Giants have a solid 1-2-3 punch at the top of the rotation (only exceeded by the Phillies 1-2-3-4 punch). Cain went 13-11 with an ERA of 3.14 and the 26-year old righthander only figures to get better. Sanchez (13-9, 3.07 ERA) had 205 strikeouts in 193.1 innings.

Rounding out the rotation are Madison Bumgarner (7-6, 3.00 ERA) and Barry Zito (9-14, 4.15 ERA). Zito would be the first to tell you he’s been a borderline bust after signing a seven-year, $126 million contract which has two years remaining.

“Fear the Beard”

Closer Brian Wilson has improved in each of his years as closer and last year was his best. He had a sparkling 1.81 ERA to go along with his 48 saves. He’s a real kooky character who made the talk show rounds during the off-season and was even chastised by Giants management after spending some “quality” time with Charlie Sheen. If he pitches like he did in 2010, San Francisco will let him be.

Buster mania

The Giants have a bona fide superstar in Buster Posey who didn’t even get called up from Triple-A Fresno to the Giants until late May. But when he arrived he made his presence known, batting .305 with 18 home runs and 67 RBI in 108 games while playing catcher and some first base. Posey hit eight of his homers after Sept. 1 and helped the Giants to their first NL West crown since 2003. He’ll be heading into his first full big-league season as a World Series winner and Rookie of the Year all at the young age of 23.

Giants in general

With apologies to Cody Ross and Aubrey Huff, the Giants just don’t have much going offensively. Take Posey out of the equation and you’ve got a lineup consisting of mainly veterans who may or may not have another good year left in them. San Francisco was 9th in NL runs scored (697), and the revamped line-up needs to improve on that number in 2011 to succeed.

You say goodbye and I say hello

World Series MVP Edgar Renteria who signed with the Reds and Juan Uribe who signed with the Dodgers will be missed. To try and fill the void the Giants did signed shortstop Miguel Tejada to off-set the loss of Uribe and Renteria, and brought back infielder Mike Fontenot. San Francisco also re-signed Huff and Pat Burrell in the offseason. Huff, who signed a two-year deal worth $22 million, hit .290 with 26 home runs and 86 runs batted in. Burrell should be the Giants starting left fielder on opening day but he’ll need to cut down on the strikeouts to keep the job. He hit 20 homers but struck out more than a third of the time.

Numbers game

The Giants are +160 favorites to repeat as champions of the NL Western Division and are listed as 8-1 to win the NL pennant. MLB odds boards also have the defending champions are 16-1 favorites to win another World Series title.

The sportsbooks have listed the Giants season win total at 88.

2011 Odds to win the National League Western Division

Arizona Diamondbacks +1300

Colorado Rockies +200

Los Angeles Dodgers +225

San Diego Padres +1200

San Francisco Giants +160

 

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