Tuesday BP: Depth on full display

Happy Tuesday, San Francisco Giants fans.

You can easily break the Giants season into two parts. There’s the first part, which we can call “when the Giants were really bad.” It lasted for about three weeks, from the season opener on March 30 until April 21. The Giants went 6-13 during this period, which was better than just one team in the National League.

We can call the second part “and now they’re really good.” It’s lasted nearly two months, from April 22 until right now. They Giants are 34-19 during that period, which is best in the Majors. They’ve outscored their opponents by 69 runs, which is nice, and also second-best in the Majors.

They’ve also made it so no one replies to my tweets from the McCovey Chronicles account, but that’s a different story.

A few weeks ago, when it was becoming clear that the Giants were, at the very least, a halfway decent baseball club, it was easy to point to the difference between the two halves. The Giants hadn’t been healthy for those first few weeks. And then they were.

Except now they’re not. And the team still looks just as good. Just in the last few days, the Giants have placed four key players on the Injured List: Alex Cobb, John Brebbia, Scott Alexander, and Wilmer Flores. And it doesn’t even feel particularly concerning.

Part of that is because new, awesome players like Luis Matos, Patrick Bailey, and Ryan Walker have emerged to become clear-cut quality Major Leaguers, which gives the team more margin for error. And part of it is because even the question marks have stepped up when their name is called. Monday’s win over the San Diego Padres — the team’s eighth-consecutive victory — had that on full display. David Villar, who had a highly-disappointing start to the season before being optioned, hit a home run. Keaton Winn, pitching in just his second career game, threw five brilliant innings.

The depth is on full display. Of the 40 players on the Giants 40-man roster (which doesn’t include those on the 60-day IL), 36 have been used this year, and 35 have played fairly critical roles. The Giants would feel fairly comfortable with all 36 of those dudes playing (plus a 37th, Isan Díaz, who is on the taxi squad right now). You would feel fairly comfortable with all 36 of those dudes playing. Half because of what each player brings to the table. And half because their teammates are bringing so much to the table that it’s OK to not even bring anything to the potluck.

The Giants depth will continue to be tested over the next few weeks. But right now, it sure looks nice.

What time do the Giants play today?

The Giants play the Padres at 6:45 p.m. PT tonight in the second game of a four-game series.