Kuzul

Both Aubrey Huff and Pat Burrell had 2009s worth forgetting. 

Huff had the worst year of his career, batting .241, hitting only 15 home runs and racking up 85 RBI between Baltimore and Detroit. 

Burrell signed a big deal with Tampa Bay after winning a World Series with Philadelphia (against the Rays, coincidentally), but never lived up to the signing, batting only .218 with 16 home runs and 77 RBI over 146 games.

Yet here in 2010, in the heat of a suddenly interesting race for the National League West title, these two 30-somethings, supposed shells of their former dominant selves, have come together in San Francisco to emerge from the ashes and produce. 

If the Giants make the playoffs this year, and that is still a big if, there’s no doubting that Aubrey Huff was a huge part of it throughout the season. I think Giants fans realized his presence about halfway through his inside-the-park homer way back on April 14th, and there might still be some fight left in this castoff. 

Since then, he’s hit at or around .300 all year long, and is the Giants current leader in hits (145), runs (87), home runs (24), RBI (81), total bases (257), and on-base percentage (.386). That’s almost every offensive category, and this is not the same feeble offense that Bengie Molina lead in the last couple years. 

Burrell had a lot to prove, and while a lot of fans were clamoring for a more established hitter (more Prince Fielder rumors, Jayson Werth, Corey Hart), Burrell came on the cheap, and after coming home to San Francisco and reuniting with former teammates Aaron Rowand (Philadelphia) and Huff (University of Miami), he made an immediate impact.

His 15 home runs and 40 RBI since being called up in the first week of June have been a boon to the team. Burrell had a four-game stretch in August, where he homered three times and had 10 RBI, all of which figured in the final score.

He homered in his first at-bat back in Philadelphia. He homered in the four-home run comeback against the Dodgers. His slugging percentage is a team-high .531, and he’s back to being Pat the Bat.

In the dugout (visible) and in the clubhouse (less visible), Burrell and Huff seem to be each other’s fountain of youth. They scream at their teammates, they punch each other in the chest, and are pretty much back in college having a great time. 

Yet neither of them is signed for 2011, which brings me to the point of my article. 

The Giants and their fans have had nothing but appreciation for the Water Buffalo since they formed their alliance of awesomeness. And if they can produce in 2011 like they have in 2010, I doubt you’d find anyone who would be running for the hills in protest. 

But that’s just it. Both these guys are in their 30s, and probably past their primes on the baseball field. Both could probably get a multi-year deal on the open market, and both probably will. Yet there’s something about them being together that is beneficial.

So here’s what the Giants do:

Keep them together. 

They love playing together, and that can’t be denied. They’re as much of a gruesome twosome that you can find on this team.

So sit them both down in the front office, and lay it down on the table.

They’ve got to be a package deal. 

They might both be able to make more money for another team, but San Francisco is most likely the last place they’ll ever be able to play on the same team. Not many other teams in the league have the luxury (if you can call it that), or the audacity (or luck, or whatever you want to call it) to sign two aging hitters to fill separate holes in their lineup.

It’s also not a given that they can recreate the magic that they did here in San Francisco, and I think that they’ll both take one-year, incentive laden deals (around $5 million each, I’d say) to be given the chance to catch lightning in a bottle twice.

If they do, the Giants will have two veteran presences in their clubhouse again, much different from the days when everyone stayed clear of Barry Bonds and kind of led in their corners. They’ll also be leading the offense, something that other veterans (Rich Aurilia, Randy Winn, Ray Durham) failed to do in their last years in San Francisco.

To have players on your team that can get it done both on and off the field is a boon to younger players like Buster Posey and Tim Lincecum, who can continue to perform but defer to the older players for guidance and leadership. 

If, for some reason, Burrell and Huff do not perform, the Giants will not have locked them in for multiple years (a la Renteria and Rowand), and will have the financial flexibility to make the moves without losing a long-term investment. 

This is all speculative, but getting Huff, Burrell, and Brian Sabean in a room and discussing altogether could end up benefiting both sides. Huff already knows what it’s like to lose (a lot). Burrell knows what it takes to win, but also knows the expectations that come from a winner. 

We still have a long way to go in 2010, but I would love to see these two both back in Giants uniforms in 2011. 

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For the entirety of the San Francisco Giants 2010 season, there has been an air of inconsistency that can only be described as Duane Kuiper has: torture. 

The team itself had a real good April (.591) followed by a .500 May, a sub-par June (.481), a torrid July (.714), and a dismal August (.464). 

This is the team that scored one run in three games against Oakland in May and then scored 11 runs in three straight games against the Reds in August. 

After having one of the top defensive teams in the country over the first portion of the season, San Francisco has made 23 errors in their last 30 games. 

They have had stellar starting pitching. In their best two months (April and July), the starters had ERAs of 2.64 and 3.29, respectively. The starters pitched 80% of the innings, keeping the bullpen fresh and sharp. 

But in their worst two months, it was a different story. In May they maintained a respectable ERA of 3.80, but in August it ballooned to 4.55, and it showed in other places as well. In August, the runs allowed jumped 20 runs from July, and the batting average against leapt up 40 points.

The starters only pitched 67% of the innings, meaning a lot of long relief and bullpen games, which can be both physically and emotionally draining for the team and the fans. 

But if you’re going to have a bad month followed by a good month, there’s no better time to have a spike in performance than September. We’re seeing that from the Padres right now: if you perform well all season and drop off in the last month of the season, nobody cares about the first five. 

On Wednesday Tim Lincecum followed up an abysmal August (0-5, 7.82 ERA) with a dominant start to September, hurling eight innings of one-run, five-hit ball and striking out nine batters for the first time since July 30. 

Hopefully Barry Zito can emulate that against the Dodgers. Usually a strong second half pitcher, Zeets had an equally rough August (0-4, 7.76 ERA) that included three losses in one week (one in emergency relief). But his career line in September (27-14, 3.65) is encouraging, to say the least.

Many were ready to write off Pablo Sandoval as a one-season wonder. His first-half line was unimpressive (.267/.322/.382) compared to 2009’s production. But then August came around, and even though the Giants didn’t have a great month on the pitching side, Sandoval suddenly rediscovered his stroke.

After hitting a low point on August 1 of .263, the Panda’s August average of .321 has raised his average significantly and is certainly encouraging to this Giants team. He also pounded six homers in August, matching the amount of dingers he hit in the entire season up to that point. 

In the middle of August, Freddy Sanchez had significantly cooled off from his torrid return from the disabled list, hitting a low point of .255 on August 11. Since then, he’s raised his average 40 points in 17 games, including back-to-back 4-hit games against Cincinnati. This comes at a good time for San Francisco, as Juan Uribe’s stats have dropped every month so far this year.

Baseball is a streaky game, and the Giants have been playing well lately. If not for the “Broken Bat Heard ‘Round the West” on Monday, they could have swept the Rockies (how often does that happen?). 

And even though there’s been our fair share of fan heartbreak in 2010, there have been just as many games that the Giants have proved worthy of praise. This 2010 team can come back from the dead (10-1 against the Reds to 12-11), can make things exciting (any time Brian Wilson comes in), and can win when they need to most (Darren Ford flying home against Ubaldo Jimenez). 

Now they’re entering the final month of the season in the heat of a pennant race. There are still four head-to-head games with San Diego, and six games against the Dodgers. 

And if we base this final month on the season as a whole, I can promise you that the rest of the way will be about as far from boring as possible. 

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When you take a look at the Giants organization, from top to bottom, they’re arguably one of the best in baseball. In fact, in 2009, they were the best in terms of overall organizational record. 

Four of the six Giants affiliates made the postseason (San Jose, Fresno, Augusta, Salem-Keizer), and two of those four won their respective league titles (San Jose Giants, Salem-Keizer Volcanoes). 

The San Francisco Giants were arguably the most improved team in the majors, and have had one of the biggest transformations of their minor league system since the days of the Build Around Barry Era. 

Right in the middle of that minor league system has been manager Andy Skeels. Skeels is a former catcher, like Giants manager Bruce Bochy, Grizzlies manager Steve Decker, and San Jose Giants manager Brian Harper. 

In his first four years in the Giants organization, two as the hitting coach and two as manager, he’s led his team to the playoffs each year, making it to the finals three years out of four, and winning two championships (2008 – Augusta, 2009 – San Jose). 

Usually, that leads to a promotion, and the Giants rewarded Skeels by giving him the reins to the AA Richmond Flying Squirrels. But the Squirrels have had a 2010 far from the success of Skeels’ previous teams. 

Skeels has never been part of a team in the San Francisco system with a winning percentage under .636. The Squirrels, as of today, are 44-50, (.468). 

Yet just as the San Francisco Giants are starting off their second half on the right foot, the Squirrels are channeling that energy and putting together a little run of their own. 

I got the opportunity to watch this team live in action this weekend, and the entire experience, from high-fiving Nutzy the Flying Squirrel to the general feel of The Diamond in Richmond, was fantastic. It didn’t hurt that the Squirrels took two straight from the Bowie Baysox either.

Following Skeels to Richmond were a trio of outfielders who were possibly the best hitters in the Giants farm system not named Gerald D. Posey. And following their impressive years in 2009, this trio is only just starting to get going at the plate in 2010.

Left fielder Thomas Neal hit .337/.431/.579 last year, bombing 22 homeruns and driving in 90 runs. This year he’s hitting .287/.351/.429, and with much lower power numbers of eight homers and 46 RBIs. 

Fleet-footed center fielder Darren Ford hit .300/.386/.463 in 2009, driving in 50 and swiping 35 bags. His offensive numbers have dropped significantly in 2010, with a hitting line of .239/.299/.344.

Right-fielder Roger Kieschnick had a line of .296/.345/.532 last year. As of right now, Kieschnick is on the disabled list, and his hitting stats have been hurting too, posting a line of .251/.305/.368, a drop of almost 200 points in his slugging percentage. Not surprisingly, his four homers in 2010 do not keep him on pace for the 23 he hit last year for San Jose. 

This pitching-dominated team has all the makings of the 2008 San Francisco team, leading the league in ERA (3.53) but near the bottom in batting average (.248). It looks like they need just a couple people to get hot to put it all together, as these three did in San Jose last year. 

And three games into the second half, it looks like that offensive help might be on the way. 

First-baseman Brandon Belt has starred these past two weeks as the new addition to the Squirrels offense, batting a torrid .404 with 5 HR and 9 RBI in only 14 games since being promoted. 

That has galvanized the other hitters on this team, as Neal, Ford, outfielder Clay Timpner, and third-baseman Conor Gillaspie have also heated up in the recent weeks. 

Gillaspie, a first round pick in 2008, is hitting .424 in his last 10 games, including a 2-4 game Saturday night and a 1-2 game with a triple on Sunday. 

Timpner has been solid all season, being the only Squirrel consistently around .300 all season. After a 2-4 night with an RBI on Saturday, he followed it with a 2-3, 2 RBI game on Sunday, and raised his average to .295 on the yer.

Ford has also picked it up offensively, tallying four multi-hit games out of his last seven, including a 3-hit performance Sunday. He also drove in two important runs on Saturday, one with a sacrifice fly and the other with a hustling double in the eighth.

And Thomas Neal, the offensive prodigy from last year, also had a good Sunday, going 2-4 and driving in his 46th RBI of the year. 

Lefty Clayton Tanner took a one-hitter into the seventh on Saturday and only allowed two runs in 7.1 innings while striking out five. Craig Wescott followed that up today with another 7.0 inning performance, giving up two runs (one earned) and striking out nine. 

Basically, just like the Giants up on top of the system, this team’s fate lies in its bats. They have the pitching. That’s for sure.

If they can start to hit, they’ll rocket to the top of this league. Although they are 14.0 games back of first place, and might be out of first place for now, any improvement in their hitting will be reflected by a record of over .500 at the end of the season.

This weekend showed what they’re capable of. They know how to hit, and they can see up and down the system what hitting can do to your chances of winning a championship. 

The Squirrels might be new to Richmond, but Richmond is crazy about them already. All they need to do is to start going nuts with the bats. 

(Photo courtesy of Real Life Studios)

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The Big Money Molina era is officially over.

The Gerald D. Posey era is finally dawning.

*Dance break*

Since the beginning of this season, Giants fans have been waiting for this day. And now that it’s finally here, there are some implications that need to be addressed because we all know it isn’t so simple as it always seems.

From the actual position (catcher) to the bullpen, this deal has far reaching ripples, so lets make sure we’re all on the same page.

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Two-time Cy Young Award winner Tim Lincecum has started 104 games in his career. In those 104 games, eight have been against the Houston Astros.

And in those eight games, Lincecum has faced off against long-time Astros ace Roy Oswalt six times.

That’s 75 percent.

In baseball, with all the maneuvering that goes on, the roster turnover and the random off-days, the chances of a pitcher even facing the same team a few times over the course of the season is rare — much less having the rotation line up so that the same pitchers pitted against each other every time.

But Lincecum and Oswalt share more than just a few box scores with each other. They share a reputation. They break the mold, they lead their team, and they dominate opposing hitters.

They were both passed upon by many teams because of their small stature, and have emerged as two of the most elite pitchers of the decade.

This slideshow will be a recap of their six meetings so far, so get ready for a walk down memory lane.

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**First of all, this is the first time I’ ve had the chance to write an article in a while. An electrical fire took out the internet to my building for the past week. But the show must go on.**

In the last couple weeks, the Giants have seen an addition to the way they play baseball.

No, it wasn’t Buster Posey, although he’s been great since he got here. It wasn’t Pat Burrell either, even if he has contributed to the party a little bit.

Still guessing?

The new addition to San Francisco is none other than the glorious, awe-inspiring, and ever-elusive homerun. 

That’s right. The tater. The four-bagger. The round-tripper. 

And to an offense that ranked at the bottom of the homerun rankings over the past couple years, that’s almost revolutionary. In a 16-team league over the past three years without Barry Bonds, the Giants have ranked 15th (’09), 16th (’08), 14th (’07). 

This year, their 60 homers ranks tenth, ahead of the Dodgers (53) and Padres (50) in the National League West. And more refreshing than that, they’re sixth in slugging (.411). 

This definitely was not the case all season. Through their first 56 games of the season, they only had 43 homers. When it seemed like the Blue Jays were hitting three a game, San Francisco didn’t have anyone hitting homers in double digits until June 13. 

But over the past two weeks, the Giants have sent 17 souvenirs into the stands in 12 games. Aubrey Huff and Juan Uribe went back-to-back on June 4 in Pittsburgh. And then, they did it again on June 13 in Oakland. And again, on June 16, this time in Baltimore.

They had homers in nine straight games (June 8 – June 16). They’ve had five multi-homerun games in that span.  Huff and Uribe aren’t the only ones getting into it either, only accounting for half of the round-trippers (Huff – 5, Uribe – 3). 

Buster Posey hit his first major-league home run in Cincinnati. Freddy Sanchez hit a rare three-run shot yesterday. And that new guy, Pat Burrell, has hit three already, tying him with Bengie Molina (who also hit a homerun during the streak). 

But what does this all mean? After all, the Giants only went 7-5 during that span of games. 

What it means is that when San Francisco rolls into town, its not always going to be a pitcher’s duel. It means that Matt Cain and Tim Lincecum can make a few mistakes. And it means that Barry Zito and Jonathan Sanchez don’t have to be at the top of their game every time they take the hill.

When you already have one of the top rotations in the league, it makes wins a lot easier when the offense is scoring runs. San Francisco starters are currently ranking in the top five in wins (T-2nd), ERA (2nd), complete games (2nd), strikeouts (1st), opposing batting average (1st), and WHIP (1st). 

With the emergence of other offensive weapons, it also means that Pablo Sandoval can relax a little bit. He’s not going to get walked and get stranded on the bases, because there are other guys in the lineup who can hit the ball out of the park.

It means that Bruce Bochy isn’t forced to put Bengie Molina higher up in the lineup. It also means that Boch has an excuse to keep non-producers like Aaron Rowand and Edgar Renteria on the bench.

There are viable replacements.  Ones that can hit.  Which Rowand, Molina, and Renteria aren’t. 

Huff is having a total resurgence akin to his booming 2008 season with the Orioles. Uribe is matching all expectations from last year when he got regular playing time down the stretch. And it seems that they’re having a lively competition, a la Team USA in the World Cup, of equalizing whenever one pulls ahead in the team HR rankings.

All of this has kept the Giants in contention in the West. For some reason, the Padres won’t lose. The Dodgers looked like they were right up there, but they’ve lost four straight on a tough East Coast road trip. The Rockies just lost Troy Tulowitzki for a long while with a broken wrist. 

And San Francisco also has the flexibility to test the market come trading season, something that small-budget Colorado and San Diego can’t do, and that Los Angeles is having a hard time doing because of the McCourt divorce. 

Everyone said that if the Giants got some offense, they’d be a team that would go far, that had the possibility to make it to the postseason. In a short series, I can guarantee there are very few rotations more intimidating than Lincecum/Zito/Cain. 

Sprinkle in a couple home-run hitters in Huff Daddy and Don Juan, both on pace for over 25 homers, and San Francisco is more than just a sleeper pick in the 2010 pennant race.

And honestly, after a couple years without Barry, its nice to see a couple guys who can hit majestic, unmistakable homeruns. 

Aubrey Huff, you keep flipping that bat. And Juan Uribe, keep showing off those jazz hands. 

After a couple years of broken promises about small-ball and gappers, its just what us fans have needed. Blast off, Giants, and let’s see where we end up landing. 

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If you talk to any Giants fan this year, they’ll probably talk to you about Aaron Rowand’s dismal slump, the equally underwhelming season by Bengie Molina, and the slight concern about franchise players Tim Lincecum and Pablo Sandoval and their sub-par seasons.

You’ll hear stories about the lack of opportunity for young guys like Nate Schierholtz and John Bowker and the clamoring for youngsters like Buster Posey and Madison Bumgarner.

And, as always, you’ll hear plenty of criticism for San Francisco general manager Brian Sabean and manager Bruce Bochy.

Admittedly, there are things that I will never understand, like why Rowand and Molina are still playing so much even though they’re slumping so hard, or why Nate Schierholtz doesn’t play against left-handed batters even those he’s smoking them for a .375 average.

But there is one thing that Giants faithful can’t argue with, and that’s the fact that Sabean has made some more bargain moves this year that have really paid off.

Begin Slideshow

Usually, as the weather starts to warm up around the country, so does baseball season. Division races become a little more solid, and the cream of the crop is starting to rise above the bottom of the barrel. 

In the Bay Area, the situation is as it always is.

The American and National League West divisions are bunched together, with all of the teams seemingly within a nice winning streak of first place (except for last-place Arizona, who recently rattled off a 10-game losing streak and now stands 11.5 back of first place San Diego).

In the AL West, it’s even more bunched together, with only 7.5 games separating first-place Texas with last-place Seattle. The Mariners have the best winning percentage of any last-place team in the American League at .404.

But I’m not in the Bay Area anymore. For the summer I’ve relocated to our nation’s capital.

And, since I happened to arrive on the first day of June, I’ve come down smack in the middle of the circus that is Stephen Strasburg. 

Today’s debut will be the most anticipated debut of a draft pick that I can remember. Even Buster Posey, the supposed savior of the Giants position player future, doesn’t measure up.

Maybe its because he has a tendency to throw 100 MPH multiple times while still going six or seven innings. Or maybe because he put up Tim Lincecum (aka Cy Young) numbers while in the minors. 

But the cheapest tickets for tomorrow’s game, between the Nationals and the Pirates, not exactly Red Sox-Yankees, are $47 on StubHub. Those are in the farthest away section, down the left-field corner, in the top deck. 

The city is buzzing. And it’s not just the cicadas. 

The Orioles continue to fail at impressing anyone, and with them well out of first place and with no real promise at a change on the horizon, the Nationals and their youth movement continue to be the talk of the town. 

Although they are also in last place, the Nats are a much more manageable six games out of first than the O’s, who are a miserable 21 games out of first place. 

Yet even while Strasburg-mania reaches fever pitch, I’m still finding the opportunity to catch up with Giants baseball. 

Sure, it takes me staying up until one in the morning on work nights to see the end of games, but this road trip to the East Coast has made watching the games possible without jeopardizing my tardiness.

In fact, it has almost helped. I’ve been able to finish a day’s work, eat dinner, get some reading done, and still turn on my computer in time to watch the first pitch at 10:05 on the East Coast. 

Lastly, with their first round pick in the draft last night, the Giants chose Cal St. Fullerton outfielder Gary Brown. I know absolutely nothing about the baseball draft, as compared to the NFL or NBA versions, but I do know that the Giants have a glut of pitching in their minor league system (surprised?). 

The AAA Grizzlies are 38-20, in first place, and have the sixth-best ERA (3.79), and are tied for most shutouts (5). The AA Flying Squirrels may be scuffling a bit at 28-29, but have the fourth-best ERA (3.45), the most shutouts (7), and actually give up the fourth-least runs.

Even in the low minors, the Giants pitching prospects look good. The San Jose Giants are also in first place behind the second-best ERA (3.96), the second-least amount of hits, and the best WHIP (1.32). In Low-A, the first place Green Jackets have a fourth-place ERA (3.35), a league-high nine shutouts, and a WHIP of 1.27. 

What this all translates to is a bevy of pitchers that can shut offenses down at all levels. Eventually, some of them will make the majors. But the Giants continue to have trouble developing pure hitters out of their farm system.

Yes, they’ve had success with Pablo Sandoval and Buster Posey, but aside from that, the best-hitting prospects are all the way down at San Jose. 

By picking Brown, they pick a player that has tools (mostly speed) to get him on base. If there’s anything the Giants DO need, it’s more guys like that. We’ve seen these past few weeks how invaluable a good contact hitter is in Freddy Sanchez. 

Brown makes good contact and his speed will always put pressure on the defense. That’s something that could make him invaluable to the Giants minor league teams and the majors, if he makes it. 

Anyway, I’ll be keeping up with the Giants the best I can from here in DC, especially when rocking my Rich Aurilia away jersey to the Nationals-Giants series, July 9-11. You’ll catch me at the yard. 

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

So far in 2010, we’re beginning to see why the San Francisco Giants have earned their new tag line. In case you haven’t heard Giants announcer Duane Kuiper say it, he sums up the season in the following sentence.

Giants baseball. It’s torture. 

And it has been.

During the first month of the season, the Giants were seemingly the real deal. They led the National League in batting average in April (.280), and went 13-9 to grab a firm hold on second place behind the upstart Padres.

The pitching was also stellar, posting a 2.75 ERA and allowing a paltry .214 opposing batting average. If you take out Todd Wellemeyer and his rocky start, San Francisco starters were 10-2 with a 1.98 ERA in the first month of the season. 

Yet May proved to be just as bad as April was good, especially on offense. This included two major slumps by two major figures on the roster (and payroll).

Aaron Rowand was seen as the position player version of the Barry Zito contract. Great baseball guy with a lot of respect, but not worth the money that the Giants paid him, which is around $12M/year for five years. 

Rowand simply hasn’t hit any sort of offensive stride since putting on a Giants uniform. He’s had his streakiness, but for some reason his productivity has, almost without fail, been followed by an extended period of absolutely nothing in terms of offensive force. 

Take this year for example. Rowand hit .429 in spring training, and carried it over into the first month of the season, hitting a solid .304 in ten games. And then he got nailed in the face by a fastball.

After a stint on the DL, Rowand stormed back into the box score, notching 11 hits on a seven-game hitting streak, recording at least two RBI in five of those games, and at one point hitting a season high-batting average of .333 on May 7. 

And since then . . . nothing.

No hits in his next 16 at-bats over four games, and 5-for-34 over eight games. Only one RBI in his next 16 games. If you take out the week after his trip to the disabled list, he had a .132 batting average in May, notching only three RBI and amassing 22 strikeouts in only 80 at-bats. 

Bengie Molina also created a little hullabaloo this off season, demanding over $6M/year from New York before settling for $4.5M to stay with the Giants. Granted, Molina doesn’t make as much as Mark DeRosa does this year, but he was re-signed with the expectation of staying on par with his production the past couple years.

In April, he still looked like the 2009 Big Money Molina. In fact, he looked even better than before. Molina mashed his way to a .344 average in the first month, knocking in eight RBI and, to the surprise of everyone, taking five walks.

Remember, Molina has never walked more than 27 times in a season. He’s still on pace to blast that record out of the water (projected 35 walks). 

But in May, Big Money went broke. 

Like Rowand, he started the month on a hot streak, having a hit in ten straight games from April 23 to May 4, hitting .349 over that span. 

But overall in the month, his batting average was an underwhelming .184 in 24 games. He hit one home run, had 14 hits, and only had three RBI. For a middle of the order hitter who has made his living hitting cleanup the last two years, those stats won’t work. 

To put that in perspective, in his first three games as a Giant in 2010, Buster Posey had six hits and four RBI. And, over the course of the season so far, backup catcher Eli Whiteside, who has played in 23 games to Molina’s 44, has more home runs (3 to 2) and almost as many RBI (8 to 11). 

That isn’t very impressive, especially from Molina, who has to know that the writing is on the wall for him with Posey already taking time in the majors. 

But sometimes all you need is one game to regain the faith in a player. In the case of Wednesday’s game, it was redemption day for two. 

It started out just like any day in May. Bengie Molina lined out sharply in his first at-bat. After Buster Posey singled (again), Rowand promptly hit into a double-play. 

In the fifth inning, Molina struck out. With two down in the inning, Huff and Posey singled, bringing up Rowand.

It was another RBI situation, and the fact that Francis chose to pitch to Rowand, even with a base open and the pitcher on deck, is indicative of the kind of slump he’s in. But Rowand blasted a high fastball over the center fielder for a go-ahead double.

It was Rowand’s only hit of the night, but after the San Francisco offense got shut down by Ubaldo Jimenez on Monday and then shut down again in an extra-inning loss on Tuesday, that double was huge, and gave fans a rare chance to cheer for their center fielder.

Molina only had to wait one inning to get his ovation from the crowd. After Pablo Sandoval golfed a ball to the left-center field gap for a double, and then took third on a sac fly by Juan Uribe, Molina had his chance.

Given the month that Molina had, with two strikes and two outs, many fans may have chosen the time to run to the bathroom or start dinner. But on a 1-2 curve ball from Rockies starter Jeff Francis, Molina lined a single back up the middle to score Sandoval and the Giants went up 4-1. 

Again, lots of cheering for someone who has had a humble amount of RBI for a fifth-place, sixth-place, or even the cleanup hitter. 

The month of May was not kind to Rowand. It was equally unkind to Molina.

And while one hit certainly does not break a slump, it can certainly do wonders for a player’s confidence. The temperature’s heating up in June, and hopefully Rowand and Molina heat up with it.

But as for last night, against a division rival and in the sweep-breaking game, I was proud of my guys, and I think a lot of Giants fans were, too. 

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When it comes to the major sports, baseball is, without a doubt, one of the least exciting games to watch.

As a lifelong baseball fan, I object to this because I know how complicated baseball actually is, but when considering it from an outside perspective, I can see how other sports are more gratifying.

In football, you’ve got 100-yard fumble returns for touchdowns, back-breaking hits from safeties and linebackers, and some of the most athletic and exciting plays you’ll ever see while battling wind, rain, and snow, all under the ever-present countdown of the clock.

NBA and NCAA basketball also have the excitement of the clock, and you’ll get such happenings as 50-point games, buzzer-beaters, and the awe-inspiring slice of fantastical reality that is the posterizing slam dunk.

Hockey is another example of nonstop action. For 20 minutes at a time, you’ll get your money’s worth of teeth-shattering 100 MPH slap shots, bone-jarring checks into the boards, and some of the loudest and most exciting sports venues in the planet. On hockey skates.

In basketball and hockey, the announcers constantly sound like they’re talking a mile a minute (which they are) because there is always something going on. In football, there’s a little time for storytelling, but still not that much.

And then we have baseball.

The only sport where a player can enjoy fine tobacco products, eat sunflower seeds, and chew bubble gum during the game without the threat of imminent death by choking.

The only sport where the game can actually last nine hours. Or one where an at-bat continues for 15 pitches. Or that has players that are considered starters but only come in to pitch once every five days. Or that rewards the best offensive producers for getting out 70 percent of the time.

Imagine if the best quarterback or top scorer had a completion percentage or shooting percentage of 35 percent. Baseball is a game that inevitably consists of more failures than successes.

And that makes it boring.

At any one point, there is only one person with the ball, throwing it to the one person who wants to hit the ball, which is then fielded by one fielder who may or may not throw it to one first baseman for the out. This is then repeated at least 27 times a game for each team.

Again, I love baseball, but I can see how it’s hard to get into as an outsider. In all of the other sports (basketball, football, hockey), there is frequently instant gratification. If you don’t understand baseball, the prospect of maybe one home run a game, or maybe four runs a game, is a little bleak.

Home runs are the most exciting thing in baseball, in terms of everyday occurrences, and I grew up smack dab in the middle of the Steroid Era. My childhood was littered with the Mark McGwire-Sammy Sosa home run race, the Barry Bonds chase for 71, and then the Bonds chase for 756, not to mention the countless 50-plus-HR seasons from players around the league (Greg Vaughn, anyone?).

Pitching is the opposite of that. In fact, the entire goal of pitching is to prevent home runs. So, by the transitive property, a pitcher’s sole job is to prevent the most exciting thing in baseball from ever happening. Ever.

Here’s where the Giants come in.

The San Francisco Giants sucked me in through a joint combination of great announcing, the fact that my grandparents listened to them every day, and a constant barrage of baseballs flying out of the park off the bats of Will Clark, Matt Williams, Jeff Kent, and, of course, Barry Bonds, the home run king. 

Yet after Barry Bonds, this team has evolved into one of few home runs and of great pitching. Going back to our findings, that means that the Giants have gone from being the most exciting team in baseball to the team that is the best at repressing the excitement.

There just aren’t any real home run threats on the Giants right now. Pablo Sandoval, maybe, but he hasn’t hit one in over 120 ABs. Bengie Molina only has two HRs this year. The home run leaders are Aaron Rowand and Juan Uribe, with five homers each in 44 games.

Tim Lincecum and Matt Cain are consistently battling on the ERA leader board. Jonathan Sanchez actually allowed ZERO HITS in a game last year. This is considered one of the best pitching staffs in the game, and their ability to keep runners off the basepaths is paramount to their success.

Again, if you didn’t get hooked on the Giants as a child like me, you probably don’t appreciate this at all. This explains why I can’t get my friends to understand why I believe in this team.

As a former pitcher in high school, I can appreciate the intricacies of being a pitcher, of finding your stuff, and striking out batters, and painting the corners.

But as an outsider, even the most rare of occurrences, a perfect game, is, quite simply, boring. No one even pays attention to it until the game is two-thirds over.

And it can end in an instant, whether due to the sloppy play of an infielder, an unfortunately placed rock in front of home plate, or a simple lapse of concentration from a pitcher on roughly four percent of his pitches for the night.

New fans to baseball are drawn in by the instant gratification of a home run, or the excitement of a rally, or the 97 MPH fastball to end the game. The Giants can only provide one of those three things.

For this reason I (almost) sympathize with my fellow sports fans. Baseball is boring (not to me), and the San Francisco Giants are the epitome of that boredom (I don’t think so).

Personally, I appreciate the intricacies of a ball game. I revel in the fact that something incredibly unique happens every day on 16 fields across the country.

You can only dunk a basketball so many ways, and there are only so many times you can watch a spin-move penalty shot in hockey, and you can only score a touchdown going in one direction.

But in baseball, a rally can happen at any time, started by anyone, and finished off by a hit that rattles around off a bench in the bullpen. Anyone can be the hero.

The possibility of that incomparable experience, of that unique time out at the ballpark every time you go to a game—that makes baseball my favorite sport.

My faith in the Giants is powered by the fact that I don’t get bored watching the pitching staff shut down opposing offenses day in and day out.

I understand that this sentiment is not shared by everyone, but for those of you who get it, this post is for you.

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