MLB season preview: Will the Giants even-year success continue?

Editor’s Note: With the arrival of baseball season we’re previewing each MLB team, from worst to best. We’ll look at their key offseason moves, projected lineup, best and worst possible outcomes plus examine the team’s fantasy implications with the help of friends from Roto Arcade. Our daily series continues with No. 4: The San Francisco Giants.

Some teams wait decades (and even a century) for the stars to align just once. For the San Francisco Giants, it’s happened three times in the last six years.

In 2010, 2012 and 2014, San Francisco hosted a World Series championship parade, and based on that pattern perhaps there’s a little added optimism and excitement among fans headed into the 2016 season.

[2016 Yahoo Fantasy Baseball is open for business. Sign up now]

Buster Posey (left) and Madison Bumgarner (right) still hold the keys for the Giants. (AP) Is there really something to the even year run they’re on though? Maybe. But it has nothing to do with magic. The Giants have fielded consistently competitive rosters over that stretch. Teams that could have won championships in any of those given years had devastating injuries not removed key players from the picture.

There’s plenty of reason to believe the 2016 team is in that same boat. As a matter of fact, the Giants have made it a point to reload its once dominant starting rotation in search of that fourth crown. Still, the Giants success largely revolves around the health and the performance of two men: Buster Posey and Madison Bumgarner. As long as they’re in the mix, San Francisco will remain contenders.

Key additions: Johnny Cueto, Jeff Samardzija, Denard Span

Key subtractions: Mike Leake, Nori Aoki, Tim Hudson

The Giants may have missed out on target Zack Greinke, but they wound up spending that money elsewhere. The team brought in both Cueto and Samardzija to shore up the rotation. Both players are coming off questionable seasons. Cueto had an iffy second half that was saved by some strong postseason appearances, while Samardzija never got in sync with Chicago. Both have immense upside if they can get back on track. A similar sentiment can be expressed for Span. If healthy, he could prove to be a shrewd under-the-radar pickup. (Chris Cwik)

Matt Duffy: Matt Duffy never appeared on a prospect list, so it’s fair to say his .295/.334/.428 slash line shocked a couple people last season. Now, he’ll need to prove he can do it again. While he doesn’t have a strong pedigree, the Giants have done a fine job making hitters better once they reach the majors lately. Both Joe Panik and Brandon Crawford have developed into much better hitters than expected with the club. Duffy could be next. If he can retain his gains, Duffy could settle in as one of the better third baseman around. (Cwik)

Lineup:
1. Denard Span, OF (.301/.365/.431, 38 R, 5 HR, 22 RBI, 11 SB)
2. Joe Panik, 2B (.312/.378/.455, 99 R, 8 HR, 37 RBI)
3. Matt Duffy, 3B (.295/.334/.428, 77 R, 12 HR, 77 RBI, 12 SB)
4. Buster Posey, C (.318/.379/.470, 74 R, 19 HR, 95 RBI)
5. Hunter Pence, OF (.275/.327/.478, 30 R, 9 HR, 40 RBI)
6. Brandon Crawford, SS (.256/.321/.462, 65 R, 21 HR, 84 RBI)
7. Brandon Belt, 1B (.280/.356/.478, 73 R, 18 HR, 68 RBI)
8. Angel Pagan, OF (.262/.303/.332, 55 R, 3 HR, 37 RBI, 12 SB)

[Check out the Yahoo Sports Podcast Network and find a new favorite podcast]

Rotation:
1. Madison Bumgarner (18-9, 2.93 ERA, 218.1 IP, 234 K)
2. Johnny Cueto (11-13, 3.44 ERA, 212 IP, 176 K)
3. Jeff Samardzija (11-13, 4.96 ERA, 214 IP, 163 K)
4. Jake Peavy (8-6, 3.58 ERA, 110.2 IP, 78 K)
5. Matt Cain (2-4, 5.79 ERA, 60.2 IP, 41 K)

— Compiled by Kyle Ringo

Even with the talented Dodgers and agressive Diamondbacks there to contend with, the division seems prime for the taking. If the free agent additions all pay off, San Francisco could be a 95-win team and the class of that division. And if you’re into the odd-year theories, then it’s definitely World Series or bust. (Mark Townsend)

Spending doesn’t always equal success in baseball, so it will be interesting to see just how much value the Giants get from those signings. Even if they don’t all pay off, the Giants have enough different makers to win 88-90 games and take a wild-card spot. In that scenario though, they’ll be taking a back seat to some better teams come October. (Townsend)

How should we treat the bullpen? Santiago Casilla enters as the team’s defined closer, but he had a 1.28 WHIP last year and will turn 36 years old this season. Sergio Romo has a slider that’s death to righties, but his best pitch makes him vulnerable to lefties (they hit .371 against him in 2015), so he’s best suited for a setup role. Hunter Strickland, meanwhile, has a dominant fastball (averaging 97.0 mph in his career) with a developing slider. He produced a whopping 14.0 SwStr% last season and sure looks to be the team’s future closer, and it wouldn’t surprise if he overtakes the job as soon as this year. Strickland is an excellent late round flier in fantasy leagues.

[Elsewhere: 10 guys I won’t be drafting this season in fantasy baseball]

Who’s a sleeper? It’s fair to question whether Matt Duffy can repeat last year’s power (he didn’t hit a single home run in college), but he hits a lot of line drives and quietly posted a .295-77-12-77-12 line in fewer than 150 games last season. Most importantly, he’s eligible at 2B in Yahoo leagues (while playing the less taxing position at third), and he’s currently slated to hit No. 3 in San Francisco’s lineup, behind Joe Panik (who had a .378 OBP last year) and directly in front of Buster Posey. Duffy could regress some and still easily be a top-10 fantasy second baseman, yet his ADP doesn’t come close to reflecting as much, so he’s a sleeper to target.

As we’ve chronicled on the Stew before, Johnny Cueto’s Instagram account (and by extension his Twitter account) is terrific. Our favorite part of @JohnnyCueto’s Instagram is that while he mixes in his fair share of traditional selfies, there are many picture that go up that are clearly taken by someone else. Does the Giants pitcher have someone on staff hired to snap candid shots? He can sure afford it after signing a huge free agent contract with San Francisco in the offseason. We look forward to following Cueto’s latest adventures on Instagram, and we’re guessing you are as well. (Israel Fehr) EMBED:

style=”color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 8px; overflow: hidden; padding: 8px 0 7px; text-align: center; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;”>A photo posted by Johnny Cueto (@johnnycueto47) on Mar 17, 2016 at 7:56pm PDT

The Giants have several interesting and entertaining personalities in their clubhouse. Perhaps the most interesting though belongs to manager Bruce Bochy. The likely Hall of Fame skipper has been one of the surprisingly few constants during San Francisco’s run of success, and during that time he’s proven to be a stern but fair leader. Of course, he’s also shown that he doesn’t always take himself too seriously, as was evidenced when the team bus accidentally left him behind at Dodger Stadium last season.

He’s simply an easy guy to like and root for, even if the Giants success makes us a little jealous. (Mark Townsend)