SB Nation’s McCovey Chronicles:
There’s no way to take this for granted.
Think about how many great stories there are on this team. Matt Cain, who just turned 26, is the longest tenured Giant, and he has suffered horrific loss after horrific loss. Aubrey Huff was unwanted last winter; he’s in the playoffs for the first time, largely because of his own play. A rookie catcher — a rookie! — came up and managed the staff to a legendary September while also being one of the team’s best hitters. Pat Burrell, as he’s fond of saying, could have been watching all this from home. Tim Lincecum’s career was obviously finished in August, at least if you listened to all the wrong people.
The eighth and ninth innings were locked down by homegrown products with questionable draft pedigrees. The seventh and eighth innings were locked down by mercenaries and deadline acquisitions. Jonathan Sanchez went at least three seasons without knowing if he was going to survive the trade deadline and offseason. The little pieces acquired by Sabean helped a bunch — there wasn’t a blockbuster, but sometimes quantity over quality works just fine. Andres Torres just might be the most surprising four-win player in history. Sounds like a question for the offseason. What an amazing find.
Freddy Sanchez, who has watched a lot of bad baseball in his career, finally gets to see the postseason. Without his two-out, run-scoring hit, the Giants are probably still killing us with a 0-0 game. Every Eckstein at-bat could have turned into a bloop double, which would have been followed by a grounder to second, which would have been followed up with a sacrifice fly or a wild pitch. That was the fear, at least.
Man, this team, this disparate collection of personalities, has been absolutely amazing to watch.
See the rest here.