Giants Remain In Position To Catch Dodgers
The San Francisco Giants may be two games behind the first place Los Angeles Dodgers, but they are sitting in a much better position going into the remaining stretch of the regular season.
August was supposed to be a very tough month for the Giants with games against the Texas Rangers, Atlanta Braves, Chicago Cubs, Houston Astros, Washington Nationals, and the St. Louis Cardinals.
San Francisco is 9-9 during that stretch.
It's not great, but it's not terrible either.
When you take into account the large number of injured players the Giants have had to endure, a .500 record is outstanding.
If there was a time for the Dodgers to pull away from the Giants, it would have been this month.
But they didn't.
The Giants are going to slowly improve over the next few weeks with players returning from injury.
Nori Aoki, Tim Hudson, and Mike Leake are scheduled to make their returns in late August, while Hunter Pence and Joe Panik should be back in early September.
San Francisco only has room to improve from now until the end of the season.
The Dodgers, however, seem to have hit panic mode. On Wednesday, Los Angeles pulled off a trade to acquire former All-Star Chase Utley from the Philadelphia Phillies.
If this trade happened a few years ago, it would be a fantastic pick up for the boys in blue, but Utley is at the end of his career now.
Not only did they make a trade for a guy who is hitting .217 on the season, but he also plays a position which is already held by Howie Kendrick.
Kendrick is currently on the Disabled List, but he should be making his return in a week or two.
What does that say about how the Dodgers feel about the team's position?
It's a clear sign that the team does not have time to wait for players to get healthy. The team knows that if they waste any time waiting for Kendrick to return from injury, the Giants could catch up and surpass the Dodgers in the short amount of time.
Acquiring Utley is a questionable move. The Dodgers have a good offense. They do struggle at times, but it's not the biggest worry the team should have at this point.
If they haven't noticed, the Dodgers' bullpen is atrocious.
The only reliable arms in that bullpen are Kenley Jansen and J.P. Howell.
So why wouldn't the Dodgers use the prospects they traded in the Utley deal to attempt to improve the bullpen?
The trade was definitely a move caused by panic.
The two teams have just two more series against each other. A three game series at the beginning of September in Los Angeles and a four game series in San Francisco at the end of September.
Prediction:
As players return from injury for the Giants, the team will get hot and surpass a Dodgers team who will remain inconsistent because of the shaky bullpen.
The Giants will win the National League West by three games over the Dodgers.
However, Los Angeles will still make the playoffs by sneaking into the second Wild Card spot.