STRENGTHS: Power, power and more power. The Jints were 1st in the league in runs scored and second in homers. Opposing pitchers must have quaked in their cleats seeing back to back to back sluggers in Willie Mays (40 HR), Orlando Cepeda (46 HR), Willie McCovey (18 HR) and Felipe Alou (18 HR). Mays was right in the middle of his prime. He finished two stolen bases short of a 20/20 season. McCovey hit his 18 homers in only 106 games. The "Baby Bull", Cepeda, finished 2nd in the MVP voting thanks to his 142 RBI's. Down by 1 run in the 9th this team can not be counted out. Even catcher Ed Bailey (13 HR) and third baseman Jim Davenport (12 HR) could launch the long ball.
WEAKNESSES: As would be the theme throughout the decade of the 60's the Giants lacked a strong middle infield combination and top of the lineup tablesetters. Joe Amalfitano (.255) and Jose Pagan (.253) were a serviceable keystone combo, but neither got on base much and when they did get on base they were no threat to swipe a bag. Harvey Kuenn hit just 5 homers while playing over 130 games in right field. He had an average glove at best and probably held back a young base hitting machine Matty Alou from reaching his full potential, by blocking his playing time.
PITCHING: The Giants boasted the #2 pitching staff in the NL. Mike McCormick was a 250 inning workhorse who pitched in hard luck. McCormick (13-16, 3.20) should have won at least 16-17 games if he had the run support that Jack Sanford (13-9, 4.22) received. A young Juan Marichal (13-10, 3.89) was just learning the ropes. A lack of a bonafide 4th starter will hurt.
BULLPEN: Stum Miller (14-5, 2.66, 17 SV) pitched in 63 games out of the pen and finished 46 of them. His record indicates that the Giants had many late inning comebacks in their repitoire. Bill O'Dell (7-5, 3.59) and Sam "Toothpick" Jones (8-8, 4.49) are the lefty/righty setup/spot starters who need to carry their weight for the G-men to win big.
BENCH: Matty Alou (.310) is the pro-typical 22 year old 4th outfielder waiting for his chance to shine. The Giants had 3 back up catchers, with none of them truly distinguishing themselves. Other than Alou the pinch hit options look to be slim at best.
UPDATED CARDS:
I personally did not update 1 card for this set. The updated cards that you see below are courtesy of my friend Jeff Drought, who created a brand new card for every MLB'er from 1957-1972 utilizing either the exact Topps template or creating his own variations.
Here are some great cards that he created featuring the heart of this dangerous lineup.
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