The Bench

The Staff

Team Synopsis, by Gantry

The Giants are my number two arcade team, occasionally spelling the mighty Yankess. Unlike the Yanks, they are very well-rounded and balanced. They have quality hitters throughout the the order and have a good mix or righties and lefties. Pitching also has a little of everything. All in all, the Giants are a very good team who matches up well against any lineup or pitching staff.

Pitching

The Giants sport a solid, well-rounded pitching staff. Gaylord Perry is a great straight-pitch starter, with a low gopherball ratio and plenty of longevity. He's built in the same mold as Bert Blyleven and Rick Rushel on the NES. Marichal is also a gamer, who's a respectable starter or long reliever. Hubbel is one of those sidearm lefties, great for getting that tough lefty out. McCormick is the closer and is prone to the blown save. When he's on his game, refer to him as Steve McCormick, a good friend of ours. If he's off his game, refer to him as Erin, his wife...

The Lineup

1. Chris Brown is awful in both RBI and real-life, so at least he's consistent. Bill Terry is the man here, decent pop and gets loads of singles/doubles. You can't go wrong with a leadoff man who hits .400, but watch out for his twin sister Bill Sherry.
   
   
2. Alvin Dark is surprisingly good. When you first glance at the stats, you immediatly think of the mediocre righty with 20-something homers (Doug DeCinces, Brian Downing), but that is not the case. He has very good power but what's impressive is the amount of singles he hits. The only thing I don't like about him is that he's awfully yellow in the face for someone with the name Dark. Perhaps he picked up a slight case of jaundice, but you can't complain about the production.
   
   
3. Boberto would be a world beater if he were lefty (think Darryl Strawberry), but god cursed him. Regardless, he has good speed and power and is an above-average number three hitter. He does foul out quite a bit though, perhaps the RBI programmers did that as a way to compensate for his incredibly high strikeout numbers.
   
   
4. Ahh Willie Mays... In my experience, the best right-handed hitter in RBI Arcade. Speed, power, you name it. Enjoy...
   
   
5. Willie McCovey is probably the best hitter on this team (Mays is awesome too, but I have a terrible lefty-bias). Good for 2-4 homers a game and will even throw down one or two singles. Though not a scientific assessment, he's a solid first-baseman as well.
   
   
6. Mel Ott rounds-up the Giants back-to-back-to-back 500+ Home Run hitters, and is definitely the worst of the three. Don't get me wrong, he's still a very good hitter, but lacks the game-to-game consistency of McCovey or Mays. Still, he's quality and a definite plus at at six spot.
   
   
7. Dave Rader is a slow catcher with mediocre power, there's no real reason to keep him in. Will Clark should go here, virtually the same player as his NES counterpart. This translates to real-good... Some think pitching him inside will render him useless, but I say this is bunk. Hit on, good William!
   
   
8. Outside of playing a mambo-ized version of the National Anthem, Tito Puente has no value. It's time to bring in to cocaine-slangin' Orlando Cepeda. Vintage powerful righty pinch hitter in the eight spot (think George Hendrick or Dave Henderson), good power though gets out too much. The key to Cepeda is keeping Pedro Guerrero and Pascual Perez away from the clubhouse, they're bad influences.