Don’t forget about the Giants

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The Giants are 27-19 and three games up in the National League West. They’ve won nine of their last 10 and games, and are 15-6 in May after a 12-13 April. They’re playing much better baseball than you would suspect given their run differential, too: the Giants have given up at least 10 runs in four games this year, losing all of them by a combined score of 51-20. It’s helped throw their expected record and run differential out of line -- you can’t just erase those blowouts, of course, but the team’s true talent is likely a lot closer to what they look like in the rest of their games instead of just Matt Cain’s and Jake Peavy’s low points.

And neither Cain nor Peavy -- especially Peavy -- need to be permanent rotation pieces. The Giants will likely attempt to upgrade on at least one of them, but in the meantime they have Johnny Cueto, Madison Bumgarner, and Jeff Samardzija to go along with a bullpen that has helped propel them to a 10-5 record in one-run games this season. The lineup has only been average, but that’s because Buster Posey has looked good instead of great, and Matt Duffy is struggling. The rest of the order -- especially Hunter Pence and Brandon Belt -- have been doing their thing, and once Posey comes around, this won’t be a league-average lineup any longer. The same goes for if Duffy regains some of 2015’s magic.

They’ve been a bit lucky to start, sure, but also plenty unlucky. The NL West looks unsettled, with much of it hanging around .500 almost two months into the season, so if the Giants are banking wins before they even play the way they are capable of -- including a series win against the Cubs this past weekend -- it’s going to be a tough summer for the rest of the West. They could use another starter and for one of Posey or Duffy to dig themselves out, but neither of those goals is impossible to achieve in the next couple of months.