The San Francisco Giants are off to a red hot start.  They are 6-2 after winning their first two series two games to one and winning their home opener.  They have done it without their normal great starting pitching, but instead they have been led by a red-hot offense starring first baseman Brandon Belt.  Can this team really keep this up, though?

Right now what is probably going to be the core four on offense are all hitting over .300 with center fielder Angel Pagan hitting an astounding .441.  In addition to Pagan’s hot start the other three core players hitting over .300 are Michael Morse, Buster Posey and Belt.  These four have driven in 29 runs so far this season compared to only 17 by the rest of the team combined.  Belt has also found an early season power stroke with five home runs in only eight games putting him on pace for over 100 on the season. He will obviously not be able to keep up this pace as his career high is only 17.  This is all great, but can this continue on for the entire season?  They will have to be at least close if this team is going to seriously contend because the team down south in Los Angeles will score and pitch with the best of them all year long.

Can these four batters really be this good all season?  We have already seen firsthand that Posey can lead a team on offense, but it is doubtful that Morse will be hitting much higher than .250 by the end of the season and if either of Pagan or Belt hit .300 or over it would be a career year.  There are also health concerns with both Morse and Pagan that could eventually impact not only their play, but the play of the team if they’re not available.  With Morse it seems to be that his large body is somewhat frail and with Pagan his injury risk comes at the hands of his wild play on the field.  These concerns that they cannot carry this strong start throughout the season and injury concerns point towards them not being able to win because of the offense.  That means that the pitching will have to return to form.

So far the pitching has not been up to the levels of the past few years when this team has won the World Series with three fifths of the rotation giving up 15 earned runs in a combined four starts.  They do have something to look forward too with the other two fifths of the rotation as both Madison Bumgarner and Tim Hudson have had two strong starts to begin the season.  If this team is going to compete like the teams that have won two championships in the past four seasons the pitching is going to have to be better all the way through, not just with the top two.

So is this team for real?  Because of the small sample size on offense, and the lack of quality starting pitching right now I would say no.  If Belt can come even close to maintaining what he is doing in the first week of the season he could be in for an MVP caliber season, and he could carry this team to the next level.  It is hard to believe that he is ready to make that jump.