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The San Francisco Giant's topped ESPN's Buster Olney's first offseason power rankings, he posted on Tuesday.
The full article requires insider access, but the preview has the nuts and bolts of Olney's praise for the Giants. The Giants are close to default champions at the top as defending World Series Champions, but Olney points out that unlike last year, the Giants have fewer question marks heading into this season.
The Giants really only lost outfielder Melky Cabrera as a key piece of the team that won the World Series last year, and they did their entire playoff push and championship parade without Cabrera after he tested positive for performance enhancing drugs on Aug. 15, 2012.
They return the reigning NL MVP in Buster Posey, and even without Tim Lincecum sitting around at Cy Young caliber, they still have a formidable starting rotation. After re-signing Angel Pagan and Marco Scutaro the Giants return the meat of the squad that propelled them to their second World Series Championship in three years.