March 2, 2017

Andrew Sullivan's 2017 San Francisco Giants team preview. His fantasy baseball draft strategy, advice and outlook for their pitchers, hitters, prospects and rookies.

Spring training is officially underway, and it's time to get ready for your fantasy draft. As part of RotoBaller's ongoing effort to help you win your leagues, we're previewing all 30 MLB teams. Today's installment covers the 2017 San Francisco Giants Outlook, and previews their potential fantasy baseball contributions.

In these articles, we discuss each team's offseason moves, as well as their hitters, pitchers, and prospects. Let's get to it.

Editor's note: make sure to use our free Rankings Wizard - all of your 2017 fantasy baseball rankings, in one easy place. Tiered rankings for every position, points leagues, auction values, impact rookies and lots more. Bookmark the page, and win your drafts.

Offseason Moves

The Giants allocated the majority of their resources to revamping the back-end of the bullpen. They inked top-free-agent reliever Mark Melancon to a four-year contract in December. Melancon is one of the top fantasy closers and should restore order to a San Francisco bullpen that led the league in blown saves with 30 in 2016. The team also signed relief men Will Smith and George Kontos to one-year deals. Both pitchers are not expected to pitch in the later innings, and thus don't hold fantasy value for 2017.

San Francisco solidified its third base position by signing midseason acquisition Eduardo Núñez to a one-year deal. He probably won't eclipse his career-high 16 home run mark. But Núñez possesses enough pop to reach the low double-digits. That plus his 20–30 SB potential places his value in deeper mixed and NL-only leagues.

The other two major offensive signings were of catcher Nick Hundley and South Korean star Jae-Gyun Hwang. However, both players aren't expected to be fantasy viable heading into this year due to playing time concerns. Hundley is expected to be the back-up to Buster Posey. Hwang is not projected to be a starter. If Hwang receives substantial lineup nods, however, he is an intriguing power bat in deeper formats.

Hitting Overview

Posey headlines the band of San Francisco fantasy hitters. He and Gary Sanchez are your number-one choices at the backstop position heading into fantasy drafts.

Brandon Belt will man first base again in 2017. While he is a fantastic on-base threat, Belt just hasn't put up those eye-popping HR totals like the rest of the elite first base bunch. His career-high .199 ISO last season was stellar, but he has yet to hit at least 20 homers in his career. Belt hit the most fly balls this past year (46% FB%) in his career and still hit the ball hard with a 36.4% Hard%. Yet, he still hits the ball too much to the opposite field and his average fly ball distance dropped approximately 20 feet from 2015 to 2016. Have we seen Belt's power peak? Maybe so. Although, he is still 28-years-old, so there is still time. For now, he is a top-15 fantasy first baseman.

Brandon Crawford's bat may not be as golden as his glove, but it is certainly serviceable in NL-only's. He should be good for a double-digit dingers and an above-average ISO at the position. Joe Panik's calling card is only his BA. If he can muster a double-digit homers as well, he can be rostered in deep NL-only's. In other leagues, take a pass on Panik.

In the outfield, Hunter Pence is only big name fantasy player for the Giants. He comes with health risks, however. If he can avoid the DL, he will give you at the minimum 15 taters. Denard Span will tally 10–15 SB and a good BA, but that would be scraping the bottom of the barrel even in deep NL-only's. Jarrett Parker doesn't hold any fantasy value.

Pitching Overview

The Giant's rotation is full of fantasy studs. Leading off is the ace Madison Bumgarner, who should be one of the top five starting pitchers taken off of the board. Johnny Cueto is the number two man, but could be many fantasy owner's number one in their rotations. He is a top-50 fantasy player overall and a borderline top-10 pitcher.

After Cueto comes Jeff Samardzija, who bounced back from a tough 2015 campaign with a solid 2016 season. The righty went 12–11 with a  3.81 ERA  and a 1.20 WHIP in a little more than 200 innings of work. Expect similar results from Samardzija and draft him as a top-50 starter. Matt Moore rounds out the order for San Francisco. The Giants traded for the southpaw last season and pitched admirably for his new squad. Moore pitched to the tune of a 3.72 ERA (3.52 FIP, 4.41 xFIP) and a 1.32 WHIP. Even though he ran a 4.32 BB/9, Moore compiled an improved 8.88 K/9 and 0.60 HR/9 in the Bay. He is a early-to-mid round selection in all leagues. The fifth spot is up for grabs at the moment. Matt Cain, Albert Suarez, Ty Blach and Tyler Beede are competing for the spot. None of these players bring much fantasy value to the table for 2017.

As mentioned earlier, Melancon should be one of the first couple of closers chosen in drafts in 2017. Hunter Strickland and Derek Law will compete for the setup job this spring training. Fantasy owners should keep an eye out to see who wins the gig come Opening Day.

Prospects Overview

San Francisco sports one of the more lackluster farm systems in the majors. Nonetheless, the Giants have two prospects ranked in MLB Pipeline's Top 100 prospects. Beede is the highest ranking prospect for San Fran, coming in at number 88. He is projected to debut sometime in 2017. He built to be a starter, but as mentioned previously, he will be vying for a rotation spot. Even if he earns the spot, Beede probably won't have a serious enough fantasy impact. Scouts have said Beede offers average stuff and iffy command and has little upside.

The Giants number two prospect is infielder Christian Arroyo, who is ranked number 89 in the top 100. Arroyo has logged playing time at third and second base as well as shortstop. Those positions seemed to locked up for the moment at the major league level. So Arroyo does not hold any fantasy value this upcoming year either.

Conclusion

The San Francisco Giants are primed for another run at the National League West Division crown. Although the Los Angeles Dodgers appear to be the odds on favorite to win that title. In terms of fantasy baseball, fantasy owners will have an array of options to sort and choose from on offense and on pitching to fill out their rosters on draft day.