January 14th, 2019 at 11:00 am 
by Ron Cervenka On Monday morning it was widely reported that the San Francisco Giants, the Dodgers fiercest rivals in the National League West Division, had re-signed 32-year-old left-hander Derek Holland to a one-year deal worth $7 million, with a club option for 2020.
As Rosenthal notes, the club option for 2020 is loaded with incentives based on the number of starts Holland makes this coming season and includes a $500,000 buyout after the 2019 season; a very team-friendly contract indeed … which is exactly what one would expect from former Dodgers general manager and current Giants president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi.
The bad news – at least for Dodger fans – is that the Newark, Ohio native, who was initially selected by the Texas Rangers in the 25th round of the 2006 MLB First-Year Player Draft out of Wallace State Community College in Hanceville, Alabama, posted a team second-best 7-9 record with a 3.57 ERA in 2018.
The good news – at least for Dodger fans but not so much for Giants fans – is that Holland went 0-2 with a 3.92 ERA against the Dodgers in 2018 in the six games (four starts) in which he appeared against them. In his combined 20.2 innings pitched against the Dodgers in 2018, Holland allowed 12 runs on 20 hits (including two home runs), while walking 15 and striking out 23 of the 97 total batters he faced for a less-than-stellar 1.53 K/BB ratio. A 2.00 K/BB ratio is considered good by most baseball analysts.
(Photo credit – John McCoy)
The cold, hard truth for Giants fans is that their team definitely has their work cut out for them if they hope to be in contention in the NL West, with many projecting them to finish fourth in the division behind the Dodgers, Colorado Rockies and Arizona Diamondbacks respectively.
But as we all know, “Any team can beat any other team on any given day.”
Play Ball!
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Posted in 
As of today, I think the Giants finish behind the Padres in NL West.
Which will continue as long as they refuse to do what they need to. That is go into rebuilding mode, trading guys like Bummer and Posey, probably Crawford too, for a ton of prospects. A few bad years (two and counting at this point) will happen either way. Intelligent rebuilding will shorten the time it takes.
Spot on!
Giants Fan here, of course there will be a need to begin a rebuilding of sorts, but Zaidi has indicated in the last few days, that it will be more of remaining a somewhat competitive team within the budget constraints they have (Heavy contracts for players such as Crawford, Belt, Melancon, Samardzija and Cueto will be an albatross for some time) Unfortunately, those contracts will be pretty hard to move unless they can work with other teams to trade bad contracts for other bad contracts for somewhat product players, just as he did a few years ago for the Dodgers. He also indicated (things can always change) but Buster would not be moved and that the reports about Bumgarner are being overblown and that there are no intentions on moving him. I suspect however, if the offers to get better and becomes too good not to accept (young prospects) a trade may happen. So, it will certainly be a while until they challenge in the NL West. That is the reward/penalty for winning three World Series (’10,’12’14) Best wishes to you LA fans. I have a feeling however, that Zaidi may return the Giants to respectability, like the Dodgers, his approach using metrics and certain usage patterns has its limitations; It appears that you still need bonafide stars at a few positions to beat teams like the Red Sox, Astros or Yankees.
This is from an article published on the Giants site aroundthefoghorn.com about Zaidi and how he transformed the Dodgers…this part was very interesting…hopefully by the time the Giants become competitive again, some tweaks can be made to the formula so that they can win a WS again…
“This is Zaidi’s brilliance. He knows how to replace wins and he knows how to utilize players to put them in positions to make meaningful contributions. That may also be his Achilles heel. Sure, he’s a genius at finding players that can get wins at a great value and that works great in the regular season. But having two or three cheap options contributing to the output of one superior player is not the same when you get into the playoffs.
On the other hand, maybe the Dodgers just had bad luck. Would the 2010, 2012 or 2014 Giants beat the 2018 Red Sox? I don’t know. Inversely would the 2017 or 2018 Dodgers beat the 2014 Kansas City Royals? That’s very possible. But this is the current make up of Major League Baseball. The previous three championship teams had bonafide stars all over the diamond and weren’t as match up dependent because they could just roll their best guys out there and those guys could get the job done.
NEXT:
Although, Zaidi was able to succeed and reach two World Series in his run as Dodgers GM he did so with some deeply flawed teams. If anything, his defeats to the 2016 Cubs, 2017 Astros and 2018 Red Sox reveal that taking a match-up dependent team into short series’ against teams loaded with talent doesn’t usually end well.
At the end of it all, if the Giants are a good, but match-up dependent team without the star power to get them over the top, they’re likely to live the same fate as the Dodgers if they even get that far. The Giants are a long way away from having that problem, but when they get there, this is the challenge they face. Like they always say, “Don’t bring a match-up to a star fight”. Or something.”
https://aroundthefoghorn.com/2019/01/05/san-francisco-giants-learn-dodgers/6/
This is arguably among the most comprehensive non-Dodger-fan replies we have seen on this site in a very long time. Thank you for taking the time to write and post it, and for your non-chest-pounding about winning three World Series titles in five years. Trust me, there isn’t a Dodger fan (or baseball fan) on the planet who isn’t well aware of this … and insanely jealous about it.
But as we all know, baseball is very much a “what have you done for me lately” sport, sometimes beyond reason and something that most baseball fans are very unreasonable about.
Your points about Farhan Zaidi are both very valid and very accurate. Having spoken with him one-on-one several times and been in on many of his media conferences, his intellect and foresight are remarkable.
Without going into a long-winded diatribe, I suspect (but cannot confirm) that F&Z did not see eye-to-eye on a variety of topics, more specifically about that analytics match-up thing. While I have long felt that the use of analytics is extremely important, especially on defensive positioning, I have also felt that it is not an irrefutable absolute, as Andrew Friedman believes that it is. I still believe that the so-called eye-test is essential.
How can a left-handed hitter learn to hit lefties if he is never given the opportunity to do so? How does it make good sense to bench a guy who hit leadoff home runs in two consecutive games solely because there is a left-hander on the mound for the third game (i.e., Joc Pederson)? My gut tells me that these decisions came from Andrew Friedman, not Farhan Zaidi.
Holding onto veteran franchise players in lieu of trading them (and their enormous franchise-choking contracts) cuts both ways. Keeping guys like Posey, Crawford and MadBum absolutely positively puts fannies in the seats. That being said, at some point even Mays, McCovey, Marichal and Davenport (I’m an old guy) outgrew their value to the team and eventually became that albatross you spoke of. That being said and like yourself, I am not convinced that Posey, Crawford or Bumgarner are there yet; unless, of course, the right trade package comes along.
The one thing that the Dodgers have that the Giants (apparently) do not is a ridiculously strong (and deep) farm system. In my opinion (as a Dodger fan and a writer who covers both the big team and their Advanced Single-A Rancho Cucamonga Quakes), this is where the Giants have fallen behind – i.e., smart drafting and excellent player development. I have been fortunate enough to have personally witnessed many of the current Dodgers play in the minors (at least High-A) and came to know many of them personally. And while I most certainly cannot say this about the San Jose Giants, I suspect that the (MLB) Giants’ front office has somewhat dropped the ball (no pun intended) in this regard during the draft and in player development over the past several years; but you would be far more well-versed on this than I.
Regardless, thank you again for your very comprehensive (and again, non-chest-pounding) response here on TBLA. You are most certainly welcome any time.
RC
PS: Please excuse my occasional Giants-bashing comments. Understand that I have lived in this rivalry since both teams arrived in 1958.