The San Francisco Giants are hanging in tough, but this won’t be an easy playoff race by any means.
After a 19-10 start, the Giants have been a .500 team in May. At 31-22, they’re one game up on the St. Louis Cardinals for the third Wild Card spot, if you believe those things matter yet at this time of year.
Whether it’s more pitching or a new first baseman, the Giants could certainly use reinforcements at the trade deadline to keep pace in the playoff race. But in a year with more parity than ever before, it’s tough to figure out the teams from whom they might be able to nab talent.
However, one baseball analyst believes the Baltimore Orioles are positioned to be obvious sellers, and that the Giants can land a reliable starter from the last-place team in the American League East.
In a recent YouTube video, Jim Riley of BALLCAP Sports predicted that the Giants would trade for starting pitcher Tomoyuki Sugano, a 35-year-old Major League Baseball rookie who arrived from Japan this winter on a one-year, $13 million contract.
“Give me the San Francisco Giants,” Riley said. “I’m building my postseason rotation here. I would feel much better going (Logan) Webb, Sugano, and then Robbie Ray.
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“If you’re getting bad Robbie Ray in October, you won’t have to worry about it if you have added another reliable arm like Sugano.”
Sugano has a 3.07 ERA and 1.3 bWAR through his first 10 major league starts, which is all the more impressive considering he strikes out almost nobody. He’s punched out 32 hitters in his first 58 2/3 innings, allowing 10 home runs.
If home runs are your Achilles’ heel, there’s hardly a better place to pitch than San Francisco. Sugano has a low walk rate and relies on his defense to make plays for him, and the Giants would be the ideal fit for this veteran-rookie hybrid to succeed on a playoff contender.
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