The baseball season’s coming up and Mike Krukow thinks Yasiel Puig is dumb for not pegging the Giants as their biggest rival. In San Luis Obispo, I’d say they are, though the two teams have not met in the playoffs since the Wild Card round started.

Over the past few weeks, we’ve been going position by position and comparing what personnel the two teams have in preparation for the 2015 season. Let’s finish up the defense with right field.

The “question” about right field in the Dodgers-Giants position-by-position comparison was already pretty simple. Then Hunter Pence got himself injured and now the issue is even more of a slam dunk in the Dodgers’ favor. Here’s how things break-down for both teams.

Gregor Blanco/Hunter Pence

Blanco, a utility outfielder who does everything decently except hit for power. In his age-30 season in 2014, Blanco played 146 games and managed 29 extra-base hits. His OPB/SLG/OPS line was .333/.374/.707 as Blanco won his second World Series title in San Francisco.

The outlook for Blanco is probably not as valuable in right field as it might be in center, where his defense can be utilized. He will definitely be spelling Angel Pagan there, but with Pence on the shelf for the near future, Blanco is the guy for now.

In Pence, who was hit by a pitch and broke his arm early in spring training, the Giants lose probably their biggest returning offensive threat not named Buster. Pence hasn’t missed a game in either of the past two seasons and batted .277 with 20 home runs and 74 RBIs in 2014. He will be back, but who knows how the broken arm will especially affect his power.

The Giants needed Pence at full-speed to be close to potent offensively this year. They’ll get by with pitching and defense for a while, but the Pence’s pop in the middle of the lineup will be missed early-on.

Can Yasiel Puig have an even better season in 2015? By Owen Main

Yasiel Puig

Much has been said about Yasiel Puig over the past few seasons. He had a ridiculous run in just over 100 games in 2013 and followed it up last season with a stellar year. His energy is something this team has fed off of and, as other players (Matt Kemp, Hanley Ramirez, etc…) have departed, this team looks more and more like Puig’s to take — if he’s ready for that leadership role.

Whether he’s ready to be that clubhouse leader, he’s been leading the team on the field for two seasons (during which time he’s put up about 10 wins above replacement) and figures to be the Dodgers’ best field player again this year.

When Puig gets a rest or is put in center field (neither will happen very often) the Dodgers have options still. Andre Ethier can play right field. So could Scott Van Slyke in a pinch. If he wasn’t manning center field, Joc Pederson could also be a guy in right, though Puig figures to play 150-plus games there if everything goes right this year.

While this team is much more diverse than years past, Puig is the centerpiece of the push this year. Dodger fans would like to think they can sustain any kind of injury or poor play from any of their roster, but Puig, along with Clayton Kershaw, is a player the Dodgers cannot afford to have perform at anything other than top gear.

This is my opportunity to once again say how dumb Puig’s benching was in last year’s playoffs. He was their best player, even if he was striking out a ton. Dumb Dumb Dumb. Now that I have that off my chest, let’s move on.

While Puig would have already been ahead of Pence, the Dodgers’ right-fielder is light-years ahead of a Pence/Blanco combination. Puig’s ceiling could see him in the thick of the MVP race. I can’t say that about many players.

Advantage: Dodgers. Resoundingly.

Whether it’s Carl Crawford, Scott Van Slyke, or Andre Ethier who spends the most time in left field, that person will be better than Gregor Blanco. By Adam_sk (Own work) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

I thought it would be fun to, over the next few weeks, go position by position and compare what personnel the two teams have in preparation for the 2015 season. Technically, we’re not done with the infield, but I wanted to talk about Carl Crawford, so we’re going to go out to left field today.

Position by Position: Catcher

Position by Position: First Base

Position by Position: Second Base

Position by Position: Third Base

Carl Crawford and co.

The Dodgers outfield is kind of a ridiculous log-jam. Despite trading away Matt Kemp, there are at least four, and perhaps five players who are good enough to start regularly. The problem is that only one of those five is really a center fielder. All five are probably best served in corner outfield spots.

So when we start to talk about left field, the log-jam is really between four players and two spots.

Carl Crawford is the presumed starting left fielder — as long as his body will hold up. When he’s played over the past two seasons, the 33 year-old Crawford has posted good numbers.

Crawford has played about 110 games per year in his two seasons in Los Angeles. The farther he gets away from his 2012 Tommy John surgery, the closer to his former numbers he seems to get. Last year he hit .300/.339/.429 and was a solid part of the lineup for about 2/3 of the season.

At this point in his career, having Crawford on the roster almost necessitates other readily available and prepared options. To back Crawford up, the Dodgers currently have both Scott Van Slyke and Andre Ethier. If Crawford were to get hurt, a Van Slyke-Ethier platoon could be one of the best platoon situations in baseball.

If Crawford manages to stay healthy enough to play 120-130 games, he will need consistent days off anyway, and this is where Van Slyke can really make an impact this year.

Van Slyke kills left-handed pitching, posting an OPS of 1.045 in 108 at-bats last year. With Adrian Gonzalez and Crawford in their mid-30’s and left-handed, Van Slyke figures to get some playing time against lefties.

Gregor Blanco and Nori Aoki

Looking at stats from players like Gregor Blanco really makes me question just how the Giants did it last season. Blanco racked-up almsot 400 at-bats last season, hitting .260 and slugging just .374. He did walk 41 times, so maybe he’s an ideal number-eight hitter. Blanco is projected by ZiPS to put up just over a single Win Above Replacement (WAR).

Blanco’s presumed backup, Juan Perez, isn’t burning-up the projections either. Juan Perez hit .170 in 100 at-bats for the Giants last season. Overall, the Giants’ left-field group is going to be pretty light-hitting, it seems.

Nori Aoki, also a left-handed hitter, was going to also factor into the comparison in left field. As the season goes on, he actually may, but with Hunter Pence out of the lineup indefinitely, Aoki will be included in the right-field comparison.

The verdict

The question for the Dodgers is whether having so many capable big leaguers is a good thing. Even though guys like Crawford and Andre Ethier are overpaid for what their production is likely to be, the question of this series is not one of value, but rather one of production. If Giants left fielders are more productive than whoever plays there for the Dodgers, it would be maybe the biggest upset of this whole position-by-position comparison.

Left Field Advantage: Dodgers

My prediction is that the Dodgers will probably sign Blanco for 8 years, $80 million during the off-season — because we know how much the Dodgers like those recycled Giants. Speaking of the Dodgers, we talked about them as well. In case you are wondering, Adrian Gonzalez is actually only 30 years old, a full year younger than me. That makes him almost a year and a half younger than Matt. Carl Crawford is 31, but younger than me. Josh Beckett was the old man in the trade. He is 32. One year older than me. That settles that.

Matt used the word “Machiavellian,” which is notable. He will hopefully be a regular contributor to the podcast to give some Bay-Area perspective to our Central Coast and Southern California-biased blog. Hope you enjoy.

THAT is a happy Giants fan aka Matt Dale.