Giants raise banner, waste Heston's effort

Ho hum, another World Series Championship banner was raised in SF yesterday. Put it next to the other two even year banners, would you fellas?

Another solid start by Heston, as he now is beginning to look like the most sturdiest option not named Bumgarner in the starting rotation.

from Giants Extra:
UPDATED: Not a banner performance for Giants offense in 2-0 loss to Rockies - Giants Extra:

“Every year is it’s own entity,” said Buster Posey, part of the dwindling core that has been part of all three World Series championship teams. “It’s too early to tell. I mean, look at the first two months last year. It looked like we’d win 100 games.” 

 They won 88, which was just enough to squeak into October. With their lineup lacking power and missing key personnel, and their aging rotation already rummaging for quality starts, what is their strength this time around? How will they build to 85 wins and beyond? 

 “That’s the appealing part of baseball,” Posey said. “You know there will be ups and downs and you’ve still got to be tough through the long haul.”

'via Blog this'

You can be an optimist like Posey and say "we've been here before" or "we know when and where to turn it on", blah, blah, blah. In some way I feel like this inevitably leads us down the odd year blues path.

I suppose you could also look at it my way and say "OMG, since the first two months of last year, when we looked like we were going to win 100 games, this team has virtually limped through regular seasons at a barely .500 pace and amped things up during the playoffs.".  The problem is you somehow have to find a way to slog through the 162 game regular season and MAKE the playoffs. This team is looking like it may not have the capacity to do that at anything more than a .500 pace and that is an early concern.

I don't buy the premise that we came off a good road swing either. A 3-4 record is not a good road swing. You balance a .429 road wining percentage with a .571 home defense and you are still staring into the .500 abyss, which is Out of the Playoffs-ville. A good road swing would have been 4-3. I know it sounds like a thin margin or pessimistic hair-splitting, but the difference between a good season (or player) is either built or destroyed on such razor thin margins.

In the past, teams like the Lakers used to very vocally and publicly stick a flag in the ground and say they were going to repeat and virtually dare the competition to step up and stop them. Maybe baseball is somehow different, but I'm not sure I get the same vibe from the team or the organization as far as defending the title(s). It is a tougher row to hoe.