Rodon Loosely

 

A surprising trend from this year's Giants so far? Ex-Chicagoans.

You think I'm making this up, but we actually do have

• Carlos Rodon, former White Sox pitcher, having a great year with a 4-1 record and 53 Ks.
• Joc Pederson, former Cub, already with 6 homers and 11 RBIs
• Luis Gonzalez, former White Sox outfield prospect, hitting .327 with 11 RBIs

Rodon and Pederson I did see doing well this year for SF, but Gonzalez? A guy that was blocked in Chicago and who hadn't made an impact yet? That's a surprise. 

Rodon is probably the big standout, though, because he's doing the exact same high-strikeout, consistent firepower stuff he did with the White Sox last year, around a similarly-stacked rotation featuring Logan Webb, Alex Wood and Alex Cobb. It's the strangest thing, because before last year Rodon struggled mightily, both with injuries and with inconsistency. And now he's one of the most in-control pitchers in the game, and leading a very strong Giants team towards the main goal of overtaking LA.

The only thing is...right now everybody in the NL West is over .500. Even the Diamondbacks. And the division is currently belonging to the Dodgers and Padres. The Giants are in the middle, and 3 games behind. And they are dealing with more injuries, despite getting Evan Longoria back this week. LaMonte Wade Jr. just got back but he's gonna take more time to heat up. And they just lost a bunch of consecutive games to open May. The stronghold they were taking the league by storm with last year isn't quite there this year.

Not that it won't show up. With this rotation the way it is, even with Jakob Junis filling in for Disco, they could go on a tear any second now. With Belt, Crawford and Flores [and Thairo Estrada] all hitting, the heart of this team isn't in much immediate danger. This team is not perfect, especially not in comparison to last year, but this team is capable of doing some major damage, especially in divisional matchups. And seeing as the Giants just obliterated the Rockies this week, and have to play them again next week, that may be where this squad sprouts rings.

Dominance is not quite out of the question for the Giants. It's just a matter of when it comes.

Coming Tonight: Oh, you know...a one way ticket to burgeoning ebay sales if you're pulling his cards right now.