2017 Fantasy Baseball Draft Prep: Giants team outlook tied to Buster Posey and Madison Bumgarner, but they continue to fortify with veterans

The Giants remain one of the oldest teams in baseball, but their build-as-you-go philosophy has them once again poised to contend in 2017, according to Scott White.

We're overdue for a Giants World Series run, right?

An even-numbered year went by without Bruce Bochy hoisting the Commissioner's Trophy, which qualifies as an honest-to-goodness drought down by the bay. But it's not like they were out of the running last year, and they shouldn't be this year either thanks to the same old trusty formula.

That is, Madison Bumgarner, Buster Posey and a bunch of old guys.

OK, so they have worked in other homegrown talent over the years, such as Brandon Belt, Brandon Crawford and Joe Panik. But two of those three are now pushing 30, and yet they're still among the youngest players on a team that relies as much on free agency as any.

Of course, the Giants have also maneuvered free agency about as successfully as any, which is why they keep winning. Their $130-million gamble on Johnny Cueto last offseason paid off as he rebounded to give Bumgarner a sorely needed co-ace, and while Jeff Samardzija didn't return to ace standing, he at least settled in as a reliable innings-eater who benefits from a big home park. The Giants bought low on Matt Moore (not a free agent, but another established major-leaguer) last July and most recently addressed their biggest problem of 2016, closing out games, by inking the cheapest of the three ace relievers on the market, Mark Melancon, to a four-year deal.

So if you're keeping score at home, that's a deep and experienced rotation and a stabilized bullpen. By now, you're probably wondering what could possibly go wrong for the Giants.

They're lacking in big boppers, an issue exacerbated by their enormous home park and one that could come back to bite them at what's looking like the start of a new bat-first era. And then there's the issue of depth, which is what happens when an organization continually sells out for the now. Starting pitcher Tyler Beede is about their only major league-ready prospect, and he would be replacing a known problem in Matt Cain.

It's especially concerning for an older team that's certain to make use of the DL throughout the year. Ultimately, the Giants will go as far as their health takes them.

2017 projected lineup

1	Denard Span CF
2	Joe Panik 2B
3	Buster Posey C
4	Brandon Belt 1B
5	Hunter Pence RF
6	Brandon Crawford SS
7	Jarrett Parker LF
8	Eduardo Nunez 3B
Bench	Mac Williamson OF
Bench	Conor Gillaspie 1B/3B
Bench	Nick Hundley C

2017 projected pitching staff

1	Madison Bumgarner LHP
2	Johnny Cueto RHP
3	Jeff Samardzija RHP
4	Matt Moore LHP
5	Matt Cain RHP
Alt SP	Ty Blach LHP
Closer	Mark Melancon RHP
Setup	Derek Law RHP
Relief	Hunter Strickland RHP
Relief	Will Smith LHP
Relief	George Kontos RHP

Any upside to be found here?

Maybe the Giants aren't breaking in a bunch of 22-year-olds this season, but every team has players who didn't max out their upside the year before.

The most obvious is Joe Panik, who went from hitting .312 in 2015 to .239 last year despite improving both his walk and strikeout ratios, to the point having more of the former than the latter. His strikeout rate, in fact, would have led all of baseball if he had the at-bats to qualify.

It's a glaring aberration and one that should make Panik worth at least a late-round pick and possibly more in a points league, where his peripherals could push him into the top 12 at the position. Even batting .239, he had more Head-to-Head points per game than Dee Gordon and Devon Travis last year despite lacking the speed of the former and the power of the latter.

I'll also give a nod to Matt Moore now that he's pitching in the most power-stifling of ballparks. He gives up plenty of fly balls, after all, and fly balls are usually outs when they're not clearing the fence. Moore did cut his home run rate in half in his 12 starts with the Giants, but because of an unusually high walk rate, he wound up with the exact same ERA. The best of both worlds brings that ERA down to size and maybe allows him to pitch deep enough to deliver a 200-strikeout season finally.

What about bust potential, with so many older players?

It's a longer list here, but also a less conclusive one. The only Giant on my Busts 1.0 is Brandon Crawford, and he's only there because people are drafting him like the 20-homer shortstop he was in 2015. If the expectation is the .275-12-84-67-7 line he put together last year, then I don't know what the risk is.

In terms of actually bottoming out, the most likely candidates are Eduardo Nunez and Hunter Pence (with an honorable mention for Denard Span, who's probably too low-end to matter). Nunez was, of course, a nobody heading into last year and slid back into the abyss with a .244 batting average and .654 OPS in the second half.

The problem with dismissing him altogether is that he stole 40 bases last year, and the number of players who can do that, particularly at shortstop, particularly with some hope for power production, and particularly at the stage in the draft when Nunez is still available, is ... well, with all those caveats, it's pretty much nonexistent. It's not with a great deal of confidence that you draft him in Round 10 or so, but the one-of-a-kind package pretty much necessitates it .

As for Pence, his strikeout rate is slowly beginning to climb, and at age 33, he's no longer the iron man he once was. His actual production hasn't fallen off too much yet, but it's not as assured as it used to be.

Who's going to play left field?

The offseason isn't over yet, and you can never rule out the Giants bringing in another veteran to fill an opening. But for now, they seemed content to choose between in-house candidates Jarrett Parker and Mac Williamson. The former bats lefty and the latter righty, so the most likely outcome is something along the lines of a platoon, but they'll each have a chance of winning the job outright.

Parker would presumably have the leg up. Neither has a full season of at-bats under his belt, but both have enough for it to mean something. Parker has hit .267 with 11 homers and an .865 OPS in his 176 at-bats. Williamson has hit .222 with six home runs and a .726 OPS in his 144 at-bats. Parker is pretty much useless against lefties, though. Williamson has a slightly better pedigree and at least some hope of becoming the everyday player the Giants want their left fielder to be.

Still, seeing as neither exactly qualifies as a prospect, I'll be rooting for the guy who has shown he can at least do something at the highest level. Even as just the better half of a platoon, Parker could be a sleeper for homers in an NL-only league.