The 2006 baseball gambling season was a roller coaster ride for the San Fran Giants, and a pretty disappointing roller coaster ride at that.
The team looked awful and terrible all at the same and was about as streaky as any team in the baseball gambling majors. Some of that had to do with injuries and having Barry Lamar Bonds (I couldn’t even get past the second sentence of this summary before I mentioned his name) in the lineup and other factors, but at the end of the day this team was nothing more than a tease.
And it broke the hearts of baseball odds fans down the stretch when it needed to win the most, but just kept losing. Even as deep into the baseball gambling season as September it seemed that this team was bound for the baseball gambling playoffs, right in the thick of things, but it all came to naught as the Giants finished up the baseball gambling season going 1-9 and getting their doors blown off by the Dodgers, one of the teams they needed to beat to get into the baseball gambling playoffs. For Giants baseball odds fans it was just awful.
On the baseball gambling season the Giants strung together a baseball odds record of 76-85, which in the end was not nearly good enough to make the post season. The team finished third in the very competitive NL West, which also might have been the weakened division in baseball as well. The difference maker in this baseball gambling season was obvious: road games. The Giants were a comfortable 43-38 within the cozy confines of Qualcom Park but on the road they were terrible, winning only 33 and dropping 47. Their winning percentage of .472 was in the bottom half of the NL and when it was all said and done the Giants sputtered to finish 11.5 games in back of the baseball gambling division winning San Diego Padres.
So what went wrong? Well, not too much actually as most analysts didn’t feel that this team had that much potential to being with. Most saw this team as a .500 ball club that might get lucky and sneak into the baseball gambling playoffs by beating the other mediocre teams in the NL West. The thin about this team is that it’s old. And old players tend to get injured more and of course are slower and not quite where they were in their prime. And of course the constant distraction of having Bonds on your team has to create a lot of headaches and make wins harder to come by. In 2006 baseball gambling season, Bonds was in and out of the lineup. It took him awhile to get warmed up but once he got into a rhythm he put together some decent numbers. He starts the 2007 baseball gambling season healthy and that means the media circus will hot and heavy from the get go. He pulled to within 22 homers of Hank Aaron’s scared baseball odds record last baseball gambling season and if he’s healthy enough to play to a hundred games he’ll get the baseball odds record and than the circus will die down and this should help the team out. But until he gets it, consider this media distraction the equivalent of ten losses for the Giants.
Aside from Bonds there are some other good players on this team and one of them, Omar Visquel had a great baseball gambling season in 2006. Omar has never been a huge offensive threat but his value lies in his glove work and keeping the infield defense tight. And he did that last baseball gambling year all while batting .295, not bad for a guy that should collecting social security. His switch hitting talent came in very handy last baseball gambling year and seemed he couldn’t help but get on base in 2006 baseball gambling season. At second base the team also was pretty strong in 2006 baseball gambling season with Ray Durham, one of the more powerful hitting second baseman in the NL, putting up career numbers. He batted .293 with a career high 26 homers and should offer Bonds some protection in the line up in 2007 baseball gambling season.
In 2006 baseball gambling season Jason Schmidt was the ace. He’s gone now and replaced with the very talented Barry Zito signed from across the Bay in the off-season. He’ll be followed in the rotation by a very talented 21-year old pitcher, Matt Cain who earned the number two spot last year by going 13-13 with 4.15 ERA. But this guy’s real strength is the K, and he recorded 179 strikeouts in his first full baseball odds season. He throws heat and could be a key to the Giants having more success on the field in 2007 baseball gambling season.