Diary of a long-suffering Pirates fan: Can Pirates' young guns carry them to championship glory like the '69 Mets?

The 2010 Giants had a similar story to that of the '69 Mets.  They seemingly came from nowhere to win the World Series in 2010.  Like the Mets, the success was fueled by their pitching.

Matt Cain, Tim Lincecum, Madison Bumgarner, and Jonathan Sanchez formed the heart of a very successful starting rotation.  The Giants' offense, on the other hand, ranked 17th in the league in run production.  They had only two players with over 20 home runs - Aubrey Huff hit 26, and Juan Uribe hit 24.

Like the Mets, the Giants' pitchers had to endure trying times before winning a championship.  The Giants finished last in 2007 and 2008.  And while the Giants had a winning record in 2009 (88-74), they did not qualify for the playoffs.

The Giants' offense ranked 29th in the league in runs scored in 2007 and 2008, and the 2009 team finished 26th.

Cain, Lincecum, and Sanchez were all on those last-place Giants teams.  And during that 2007-2009 span both Cain and Sanchez had lost more games than they had won.  And thus, like the '69 Mets, the Giants pitchers had to endure losing seasons in a low-scoring environment.

On July 4, 2010 the Giants had a record of 41-40.  They were in fourth place 7.5 games out of first.  They had just completed a stretch where they lost 10 out of 12 games, which included a seven-game losing streak.

But in the midst of that losing streak, the Giants called up their prized rookie and former first round draft choice Madison Bumgarner.  His insertion into the starting rotation made what had been a good rotation into a dominant rotation. 

From July 5 onward, the Giants finished 51-30 and passed three teams in the standings.  The division was not clinched until the final game of the season when Jonathan Sanchez, Javier Lopez and Brian Wilson shut out the second-place San Diego Padres 3-0.

Once in the playoffs, the Giants beat first the Braves and then the Phillies to advance to the World Series.  They then defeated the Rangers in five games to win the World Series.

Recall that on offense the '69 Mets, for the most part, had the same hitters that they had in previous seasons.  Conversely, the Giants rid themselves of the poor-performing hitters of 2007-2009 and brought in new talent.  Bengie Molina lost his starting position to Buster Posey.  Aubrey Huff replaced a retired Ryan Klesko.  Freddy Sanchez replaced Ray Durham.  Juan Uribe replaced Omar Vizquel.  Pablo Sandoval replaced Pedro Feliz.  Aaron Rowland replaced Dave Roberts.  Nate Schierholtz replaced Randy Winn.  Pat Burrell replaced Fred Lewis. 

The improvement on offense was modest (26th to 17th in runs scored), but it was more than enough when your rotation has Cain, Lincecum, Sanchez and Bumgarner, and your relief corps has Brian Wilson, Sergio Romo and Javier Lopez.