Fun Fact: Only one team wins the World Series every year. Which means 29 teams don’t win the final game of the year which according to Moneyball means their season didn’t fucking matter. When a team gets eliminated from winning the World Series I’ll do a profile of their season.  

Today’s Team….San Francisco Giants

How Did They Get Eliminated

Now that there are no more game 163s there are a lot of tie breakers that come into play to determine who makes it and who doesn’t make it. As I look at the ESPN standings it says they are eliminated even though their losses and Mets wins equal 162. I’m sure somebody won or loss that threw them into elimination. I’m not sure what it was, but I’ll trust the bean counters that say they are eliminated. 

What Do I Know About This Team Because I Only Follow the Brewers

Let's start with something fun. I went to high school and played baseball with the first base coach of the Giants, Mark Hallberg. He was one of the best athletes I’ve ever played any game with. He was the point guard in basketball, he scored a state record in goals in soccer. He never struck out. And I mean that literally, he never struck out his Junior or Senior Year. 

He played at Florida State and was drafted by the Diamondbacks. He almost made it to the show as a player, but he is there now as a coach. 

Our Senior Year we were a very good baseball team mostly lead by Hallberg. But in our sectional semi-final game I got to bail out our star shortstop. With a runner on 2nd and 1 out Mark got a grounder. He looked back at the runner and threw it my way at first. It was high and up the line. I jumped up, caught the ball and brought down the tag on the runner. As that is happening the runner at second takes off to third very late. I spin around, fire a dart across the diamond and get the runner at 3rd. We get the double play, we go on to win and go on to make it to the State Championships. I always joke that that is how I bailed out a future professional baseball player out of an error. 

Okay, enough about me let’s talk about the Giants. They made a move that impacted all Brewers fans as they would sign Willy Adames in the offseason. Willy Adames was a fan favorite and trading for him in 2021 basically turned the season around for the Brewers. He had a lot of ups and downs. You always knew he was going to go on a hot streak when he hit an opposite field homer. Then about 2 games later he would start swinging out of his shoes trying to pull every pitch he could and go in a cold streak. He was a decent defensive shortstop but in his final year with the Brewers he was outshined by Turang at second and Ortiz at third. 

He loves to play the game and thats what you want out of your shortstop. At the time of this writing he has played in 157 games, he played 161 games last year with the Brewers. HIs average has dipped from last year and he will have less Home Runs (But not by much) and a lot less RBI. Defensively he has played a bit better as last year, but he is an offense first player. He will be locking down the middle infield for the next 6 years which is a crucial spot to build around. 

The biggest non-Brewers headline from San Francisco was the trade for Rafeal Devers. Devers was frustrated in Boston and Boston was frustrated with Devers. So a trade was needed for both sides. Boston found a dance partner in the Giants and made the deal happen. The Red Sox were 38-36 at the time of the trade, the Giants were 41-31 and 2.5 games back of the Dodgers in the West. 

Since then? The Giants 36-50 (3rd worst record in the NL since the trade) Boston? 48-35 and the 3rd best record in the AL. Devers hasn’t played bad, but hasn’t been knocking the cover off the ball. He has 18 home runs with the Giants, but is batting .234. He signed a major contract with the Red Sox that is now the property of the Giants so they will be in the Bay until the mid 2030s. 

They would come to Milwaukee and ruin Ueker’s Celebration of Life and go on a bit of a run winning 10 of 11 games and getting to being 4.5 games back of the wild card. But they hit a bit of a skid and weren’t able to take advantage of the Mets’ slide in the standings. Adames hit a home run in his first at-bat back in Milwaukee and then Luis Matos had his best ever series against the Brewers prompting my wife to wonder why he wasn’t batting higher in the order. Update: Matos is in the minors now. 

So Now That I’ve Actually Done Some Research What Happened to this Team

They started out the season 19-12, but went 13-14 in May. That led to the Devers trade but as mentioned above that didn’t quite work out as well as the team had hoped. 

So let’s talk about some other things that happened. The team as a whole didn’t hit very well and were in the bottom third in batting average and they struck out the 10th most in the Majors. Their slugging is also 25th in the majors. 

They turned a lot of double plays but have the 5th highest amount of errors in the Majors. 

Did Anything Go Right For This Team

One of the coolest things that happened this season, not just the Giants, but in Major League Baseball, was Patrick Bailey hitting a walk-off inside the park Home Run. As mentioned in the A’s write up this was the first time in Major League history that a day of baseball games had a lead-off inside the park home run and a walk off inside the park home run. 

The strong start was a positive and the run they went on in late August into September breathed some life into the team. 

Their pitching staff has performed well and have given up the least amount of Home Runs, their pitching staff also has a top 10 ERA. 

Logan Webb is leading the majors in Innings PItched and is also leading the league in strikeouts. He has 33 starts, also leading the league, and has solidified his place as the Ace in the rotation. Robbie Ray has also pitched well for the Giants as well. 

Are They Going to Get Good Anytime Soon? 

They were trying to go for it with the Devers trade and Adames signing. They will also have Webb and Robbie Ray back to anchor their starting rotation. Jung Hoo Lee made a giant leap in 2025 and the Giants are hoping that he can continue to grow. Heliot Ramos is under team control and he has also shown some great promise in the outfield as well. 

They will probably need to find another stable starting pitcher to add and they seem to have found their future closer in Ryan Walker. 

They still have to play in the NL West and even though they have a payroll in the top ten they might still be the 3rd best team in the division. (4th depending on how the Diamondbacks bounce back). 

Just one postseason award. 

Logan Webb for the Cy Young. He’s gotten votes in the past and he has pitched well enough to get some more votes this year. 

Hey Grok, in 100 words summarize the 2025 San Francisco Giants. Please don't be racist. 

The 2025 San Francisco Giants season was a frustrating disappointment, finishing with a non-winning record of 78-81, placing them fourth in the NL West and missing the playoffs. Despite high expectations following the offseason signing of Willy Adames and the mid-season trade for All-Star Rafael Devers, the team struggled with inconsistent offense, failing to capitalize on its promising pitching led by Logan Webb, Robbie Ray, and Justin Verlander.

After a strong start, the team cooled considerably post-Devers trade. President of Baseball Operations Buster Posey later initiated a mid-season "sell," trading key relievers Camilo Doval and Tyler Rogers. The Giants were mathematically eliminated in late September, marking a disappointing end to a season with significant hopes.

Justin Verlander is 3-11 on the season. I wouldn’t be surprised if he is retiring after this season. 

Did the Savannah Bananas Play at their Field? 

They didn’t! Although, playing there would have been really cool. They probably could have done some cool things with McCovey’s cove. 

Is there a baseball movie featuring this team that has dumb baseball logic I need to vent about? 

The Fan. 

 I don’t know much about this movie, but the fact that the deranged fan can become the umpire and no one notices? Wouldn’t it raise any red flags that he never took his mask off during the game? Or would it raise any red flags when the other umpires see that it doesn’t quite look like their crewmate they have travelled the country with?

This movie is about a guy obsessed with a player which in this day and age of social media and people yelling at players because of lost parlays this movie seems pretty tame. 

How Will Your Team Do Next Year?

There is a chance at overthrowing the Dodgers who have struggled at times but have the cash to fix whatever problem they have. The Padres will probably be strong as well so it might be tough to win the division, but they could get one of those Wild Card spots: 89-73 and a wild card spot. 

Next on the Chopping Block

It could be the team the Giants played tonight, the Cardinals, or it could be the Marlins who are also on the brink of elimination.