A Bay Area lifer, Rich serves as the West Coast Correspondent for BaseballEvolution.com. Rich’s passionate, lifelong love affair with the game of baseball in general, and the Giants specifically, began officially on April 21, 1978 (retrosheet.org is really cool!) when he went to his first big league game and saw his hero Willie McCovey take on Tom Seaver and the Big Red Machine out at the ‘Stick. Rich has been writing for BaseballEvolution.com since 2006.

Richard Van Zandt Archive

October 20, 2014- 2014 World Series Preview - Royals vs. Giants - An in-depth look at the first World Series between Wild Card teams since 2002 and the first World Series between sub-90 win squads ever in a full-length season. Richard makes his none-too-surprising prediction for this ostensibly evenly-matched series.

October 11, 2014- 2014 National League Championship Series Preview - Giants vs. Cardinals - The St. Louis Cardinals and San Francisco Giants have a rich history of facing each other in the postseason. No matter which team wins this NLCS showdown, it will be the fifth consecutive season in which one of these two teams has represented the Senior Circuit on baseball’s ultimate stage.

October 2, 2014- 2014 National League Division Series Preview - Giants vs. Nationals - The Nationals finished the season with the National League’s best record and are the better team on paper. The Giants are battle tested and proven, having won the World Series in 2010 and 2012, not to mention seven straight elimination games in post-season play.

September 29, 2014- 2014 National League Wild Card Game Preview - Giants vs. Pirates - The Pittsburgh Pirates have beaten San Francisco eight times in 13 tries the past two seasons, and are 14-11 overall against the Giants under manager Clint Hurdle. But these Giants boast loads of winning postseason experience and send a legitimate ace to the mound in Madison Bumgarner.

October 24, 2012 - World Series Preview - Tigers vs. Giants - Three times since the LCS expanded to a best-of-seven format has a team that completed a four-game sweep advanced to face a team that went the full seven. In all three instances, the team with less rest won handily. San Francisco looks to continue that tradition against Detroit. One thing is shaping up to be certain: Baseball fans are in for a wild ride.

October 14, 2012 - NLCS Preview - Cardinals vs. Giants - The 2012 NLCS features two teams that by all rights should not be there. Both teams have proven their ability to come from behind, and know how to win the close games. This series may well come down to which team makes the fewest mistakes.

October 6, 2012 - NLDS Preview - Giants vs. Reds - Two clubs who stared adversity straight in the eye and refused to blink will meet Saturday in Game 1 of the NLDS at AT&T Park, where ten years previously Reds manager John B. Dusty Baker had skippered the Giants into the World Series. This Division Series matchup features the best combined record of the four and promises to go down to the wire.

April 3, 2012 - San Francisco Giants Preview: Cain They Score Enough? - The Giants’ quest for back-to-back World Series Championships in 2011 was derailed on the night of May 25. Without Buster Posey in the middle of their lineup, coupled with injuries to several other vital players as well as subpar performances from other key veterans, the Giants struggled to score runs, as they saw just 570 runners cross home plate, or just 3.52 per game. Only the Seattle Mariners offense floundered more than San Francisco’s.

Can this offense rebound in 2012?

The 2011 Giants: Defending the Title - Rarely do teams have a chance to do what the San Francisco Giants had a chance to do last season, which was to repeat as World Series Champions. The colorful Band of Misfits, that together had accomplished what no one else believed they could, had returned almost entirely intact and no one else in the NL West appeared to be an insurmountable threat.

It was easy to be optimistic in April, but things soon changed. Richard thoroughly dissects what went right and what went wrong in 2011 before suggesting what to do next for 2012.

It’s Time to Send a Message - The opportunity to repeat as World Champs doesn’t come around every day and the San Francisco Giants’ chances are slipping away, not by the day or even by the inning, but lousy at-bat by lousy at-bat.  Hitting slumps are said to be contagious, but this is getting ridiculous.  Something needs to be done and a message needs to be sent. Here’s how you do it.

Jose Reyes = Repeat - Rarely do teams have a chance to do what the San Francisco Giants have a chance to do this season, which is to repeat as World Series Champions. Richard has come up with a surefire way for an injury-plagued Giants squad to do just that. Despite the loss of catcher phenom Buster Posey, San Francisco has enough talent to go out and acquire another impact player: New York Mets shortstop Jose Reyes.

2011 San Francisco Giants: Ready to Repeat? - World Champion San Francisco Giants. If you ask Richard, it’s got a mighty nice ring to it. Since 1958, Giants fans in the Bay Area have ached to hear those words. In 2010, as we all know by now, that long suffering torture finally came to an end. So, what do you do for an encore when you’ve just brought home the franchise’s first title in 56 years? Well, how about you go out and win another?

2011 Oakland A's: Dangerous If Healthy - For the second consecutive offseason, the Oakland Athletics were rebuffed in their overtures towards free agent third baseman Adrian Beltre, who spurned the Athletics' advances in order to sign a six-year, $96 million deal with their division rivals in Texas. Nevertheless, and perhaps because of it, the A’s had a successful offseason. In fact, Oakland could be the team that unseats Beltre's Rangers for the AL West crown.

World Series Preview - Giants vs. Rangers - Among four Baseball Evolution prognosticators, only Scott picked the Texas Rangers to make the postseason and only Richard predicted the San Francisco Giants would get there.  But neither Scott nor Richard had either team slated for 90 wins nor a World Series appearance.  At the end of May, Texas was two games over .500, San Francisco was three, and both teams appeared to be the solid-yet-unspectacular teams that most people anticipated.  But the Rangers took steps to improve their pitching, the Giants took steps to improve their offense, and the result was two teams who were well-rounded enough to reach the postseason.    Only one of them is good enough to be World Champs, and it's apparently going to take five games to determine which one.  

Richard: Giants in Five | Keith: Rangers in Five

NLCS Previews - Phillies vs. Giants - Two of baseball's hottest teams square off in the NLCS this year. The Giants rode a 45-29 record in the second half and a 19-10 September record to overcome the Padres' early lead in the NL West while the Phillies went 50-25 in the second half and an absurd 23-7 in the final month of the regular season to finish with the best record in baseball.

The series begins - and potentially ends - with one of the best postseason pitching matchups our generation has seen: Tim Lincecum versus Roy Halladay.

Richard: Giants in Seven | Asher: Phillies in Six

NLDS Preview - Braves vs. Giants - Back in March, four out of four Baseball Evolution prognosticators all selected the Atlanta Braves as the 2010 World Series Champions.  Richard was the only one of the four who correctly predicted that the San Francisco Giants would make the postseason, and he had the two squads meeting in the NLDS with the Braves advancing in five games.

With the Giants entering the postseason as one of baseball's hottest teams, will Richard change his NLDS prediction?

Giants Prospect Meter: Who’s Hot: May 22, 2010 - Buster Posey was the San Francisco Giants' top prospect entering the 2010 season, and he hasn't done anything so far to contradict that ranking. He leads a large group of Giants prospects who have been sizzling so far this season. Learn more in the inaugural edition of The Giants Prospect Meter, a look at who’s hot among the team’s minor league prospects.

April 18, 2010 - The Giants Two Weeks In: Almost two weeks into the season the San Francisco Giants, by the estimation of some, have been among the surprise teams out of the gate. At 8-3 at this early juncture, they sit atop the NL West, but what's been most encouraging hasn't been the way they've played (which really has been very encouraging), but the obvious confidence with which they've been playing. Not surprisingly, their pitching has been strong, posting a 3.18 team ERA in the early going, second only to the Cardinals in that category.

Where the Giants have been surprising, however, has been at the plate.