Kuzul

The San Francisco Giants lost to the Colorado Rockies in 15 innings on Independence Day to fall further back in the NL West and NL wild-card race.

Since frustrated fans have run out of cockeyed ways to fix the lineup or the pitching staff, firing manager Bruce Bochy is now their solution to all of the club’s problems.

Fair enough.

If you invest five hours of your July 4th holiday in watching a ball game on TV, you’re due the right to question Bochy for removing catcher Buster Posey, who was reportedly ill.

It’s understandable that the near mandatory double-switch that prompted Bochy to remove hot-hitting first baseman Travis Ishikawa would leave fans raving mad—even if the switch did help give the Giants a chance to use their entire bullpen in shutting the Rockies out for eight innings.

Look, if your veins are bulging because Edgar Renteria played shortstop instead of Juan Uribe—OK. We’ll ignore, for the moment, that Uribe was two for his last 25 entering the weekend.

Blame the manager. Blame the general manager. Blame the ownership.

How could they let the team we loved, which played so well in the spring, become a team we could barely tolerate in the summer?

Take your best shot.

Maybe a manager whose only claim to fame is that he’s not Bochy would turn things around. It could be that firing Sabean and giving his job to one of his subordinates would change everything.

This is a call for common sense, a holiday reality check.

The 2010 San Francisco Giants have the talent of a team that should be one game over .500.

If the club hadn’t kicked away a few games early, they’d be five or six games over the break-even point today.

We all remember when we’d sit through a loss and smile, mumbling, “It’s early…there’s a long season ahead. Renteria’s crushing the ball. Rowand’s hitting. No reason to bring Posey up from the minors! Molina’s on fire and he’s really helping the best pitching staff in baseball.”

If Uribe had maintained the pace of an All-Star shortstop and Posey had hit .700 for a full month rather than a full week, maybe the club would be 10 games over .500. Those are unrealistic expectations.

The starting pitching and closer Brian Wilson helped hide fatal flaws offensively and defensively. They enabled us to believe that Andres Torres was a guy who simply blossomed into a .300 hitter in the lead-off spot—at age 32. When the starters began to struggle, we realized the Giants can’t put together an everyday lineup that gives any reason to believe that the club should finish much over .500.

Guess what?

There’s nothing the Giants can do to fix things right now.

Sabean opted to sign Pat Burrell, while fans and insiders groaned at the thought of another aging, automatic out in the lineup. Burrell’s hitting over .300 and is among club home run leaders in a platoon role in left field. How much has the considerable upgrade Burrell provides over John Bowker and Eugenio Velez helped the won-loss record?

So, why would trading a prospect or two to acquire David DeJesus or Jose Guillen from the Kansas City Royals ignite a second-half burst? The fact that DeJesus and Guillen seem to be such fine fits for the Giants says more about the Giants than it does about either player. (Note: how many times do you figure the Giants have passed on dealing for Guillen?)

Cleveland’s Austin Kearns could key the Giants’ run to the playoffs? Oh, OK…Kearns and DeJesus…they join the outfield and magic dust starts falling at AT&T Park?

There’s more of a chance that Bowker could start hitting big league pitching like he absolutely crushes Pacific Coast League pitching. 

Adam Dunn will be signing a contract extension, most likely, with the Washington Nationals. Florida’s Jorge Cantu would help add a little punch at a corner infield spot, but he’s a fairly weak defender.

There’s not a big league-ready hitter in the Giants’ farm system, either. This is it for the remainder of the season—griping about how Renteria and Rowand shouldn’t have played ahead of Uribe and Ishikawa.

Not much out there in the way of sure-thing bullpen fixes, either. The Giants are going to trade for relief help, most certainly. They’ll try to fix the pen with a guy most of us won’t recognize.

Prince Fielder? Wouldn’t he look great in orange and brown?

ESPN’s Buster Olney wrote that the Giants won’t acquire Fielder because their refusal to trade Matt Cain is a “deal-breaker.” Shipping Madison Bumgarner or Jonathan Sanchez as centerpiece in a trade package wouldn’t be enough to get Fielder.

Anyone out there want to trade Cain and top prospects for Fielder? (Think, now—the argument could be made that Cain has a brighter future than Tim Lincecum.)

The Boston Globe’s Nick Cafardo says the Giants covet Milwaukee Brewers right fielder Corey Hart. Small problem, though—the Brewers feel like they can still reach the playoffs and aren’t trading Hart any time soon. (News flash: the Giants covet Albert Pujols, but the Cardinals are not anxious to trade him as long as they’re in the pennant race.)

So, this is it.

Pablo Sandoval’s going to return to form or keep breaking our hearts. It means Posey will have get hot again. Aubrey Huff will have to go from All-Star Game candidate to MVP candidate. And, remarkably, the Giants must hope that Ishikawa is the one Giants prospect in the Bowker-Velez-Schierholtz group who actually emerges as a truly productive big leaguer.

In a small way, it will be more entertaining following those storylines than it would be to suddenly root for Guillen or Kearns or others of their ilk. Not that Giants fans have much choice.

—

Ted Sillanpaa is a Northern California sports writer and columnist. Reach Ted at tsillanpaa1956@gmail.com.

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The San Francisco Giants’ decision to trade Bengie Molina creates an opening in the everyday lineup, primarily at first base.

The club surely isn’t interested in returning Aubrey Huff to first base, with Buster Posey the everyday catcher.

Huff giving up his spot in the starting outfield creates a spot that could only be filled by returning Aaron Rowand to his role as the starting center fielder, with Pat Burrell, Andres Torres, and Nate Schierholtz sharing the other two starting jobs.

(Burrell’s listed as an outfielder-first baseman, but it’s hard to imagine the club moving him and creating even more chaos in that outfield.)

Torres hasn’t torn it up in the lead-off spot lately. Schierholtz, clearly, isn’t in the Giants’ long-term plan.

Burrell, arguably, merits the everyday left field job, even though the club can’t be certain he will return to the form he showed in his heyday with the Philadelphia Phillies.

The Molina deal does bring a credible relief pitcher in Chris Ray. The Texas Rangers reliever was, at one point, the Baltimore Orioles’ closer of the future.

That didn’t pan out, but relief pitchers given a second and third chance are exactly the guys who catch lightning in a bottle and become lights-out set-up men. And, boy, do the Giants need a lights-out set-up guy.

The Molina trade wasn’t made to go back to the outfield merry-go-round, even though it does give Posey the full-time gig he deserves behind the plate.

The Giants have had slick-fielding Travis Ishikawa on the bench all year. The first baseman’s presence is inexplicable, save that he’s done well as a pinch-hitter.

Ishikawa’s chance to follow John Bowker, Nate Schierholtz, Eugenio Velez and others into oblivion, or to prove he can be a big-league contributor, has arrived. He’s hit well enough off of the bench to fill part of the hole left at first base.

He’s still young and he’s flashed power. Barring an accompanying trade for a first baseman, which is unlikely, Ishikawa will be in the lineup now.

The Giants aren’t prepared to send Ishikawa out there against left-hand pitchers, though. That means they’re likely ready to call on slugging, right-hand hitting first baseman Brett Pill.

He has 10 home runs, 50 RBIs and a .298 batting average at Triple-A Fresno. And, remember, the Giants were anxious to give Pill a shot at winning a big league job this spring before other holes in the roster became more pressing.

Pill is 25 years old and he’s hit for more power the last few years in the Giants organization. He’s a good enough defensive first baseman to platoon with Ishikawa.

The front office likes Pill and, at 25, they can’t wait forever to give him a shot.

Look for Ishikawa and Pill to become the everyday first baseman with Burrell, Torres, Huff and Rowand sharing the outfield slot.

No, Pablo Sandoval isn’t the answer in a platoon with Ishikawa. Sandoval’s lost his stroke completely from the right side of the plate.

Finally, an Ishikawa-Pill platoon for now gives the Giants a bit of a youth movement when one considers that Posey will also be taking over behind the plate.

If Ishikawa and Pill don’t do the job in the coming weeks, there would still be time to see where the club stands and deal for another outfielder to free Huff to play first base.

Posey, Ishikawa and Pill. Giants fans are about to find out that they gotta love those kids, because they will be in the lineup.

—

Ted Sillanpaa is a Northern California sports writer and columnist. Contact Ted at tsillanpaa1956@gmail.com.

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Offering opinions in print, particularly on the Internet, curses the writer to be haunted by his opinions forever.

Oh, it must be nice to be in the electronic media where you can offer an opinion and have it just disappear into thin air.

It’s hard to deny having opined that the San Francisco Giants would finish 75-87 once the opinion appears in print. Say it on TV or radio and … “Well, I mentioned that they COULD potentially finish 75-87, but I think I made a bit larger point and, really, I’m not surprised to see them in the thick of the NL West race.”

When a writer offers a suggestion that might help the club or offers an opinion of how the club operates, it mostly comes back to haunt the writer.

Here’s to the suggestions and opinions mentioned here that turned out to be on the money. It’s rare to predict what will happen, then see it actually take place.

It’s time to celebrate.

To the folks who threw metrics and Bruce Bochy’s unwillingness to stick with young players at me—note that John Bowker is back in the minor leagues, and that Nate Schierholtz lost his right field job to Aubrey Huff.

It was written here that the Giants had to sell the importance of playing defense in AT&T Park, when Randy Winn wasn’t hitting and the club needed to justify keeping him in the lineup. Huff hasn’t done anything wrong in right field and, frankly, how many games have turned on misplaying a carom in right field over the last 10 years?

So, yeah, Bowker’s back tearing up Triple-A and Schierholtz is batting barely .100 in his last 40 at-bats or so. He’s a pinch-runner and late-inning defender. The hitter got the gig in right field—Huff.

I’m not the type guy to say, “I told you so,” but …

And, is that Pat Burrell in left field? The guy who was too old (at 33) and a complete defensive liability? The guy who flopped in Tampa Bay in the American League, who was supposed to be the single worst free agent signing the Giants could make with all those promising young outfielders?

Wait, I am that type of guy!

I told you so!

Burrell’s hitting .341 entering Wednesday’s game for the Giants. He’s slugging .614 with three home runs. He’s the big, strong guy who works the count and, apparently, doesn’t play left fielder as though he has two left feet.

Well, after I was run from my suggestion that Eugenio Velez play full-time, people were insisting that there was no reason to claim Burrell off the scrap heap. Velez and Andres Torres—and Bowker—deserved a shot in left with Mark De Rosa out.

Oh, it’s fun being right!

The first piece that I wrote here mentioned that Bowker, Kevin Frandsen, and Fred Lewis were completely without value.

Frandsen’s bounced from the Red Sox to the Angels. He’s doing well for the Halos, but there’s no place for him in the Giants lineup anyway.

Lewis had those who blame Brian Sabean for the sun rising in the east chirping when he was hitting and doing some things for the Blue Jays. Then, he misplayed a gapper and dropped a fly ball that killed Toronto when San Francisco was up there over the weekend.

Did I mention that Bowker took his .200 big league batting average to go rip up Pacific Coast League pitching?

Being me isn’t bad. Not bad at all. (Until I call for Eric Hacker to get the No. 5 rotation spot and he gets shelled).

And, it seems as though I mentioned that the Giants would benefit from recalling Buster Posey and putting him at first base…or anywhere that his bat would be a benefit to a struggling attack. He started with a bang in San Francisco, has fallen off some—but, clearly, people who got the vapors over the notion of the Giants catcher of the future not catching everyday in the minors have realized—they were wrong.

That would make me…right. Right?

Tim Linecum’s dead arm isn’t dead. The symptoms indicating Tommy John Surgery might be in order have disappeared. Lincecum’s winning, pitching well, like he will win and pitch well for as long as he’s in the big leagues. And, for the dead-arm theorists, he hit 94 mph on the radar gun on Tuesday.

Who told you so?

Oh, right…I did!

In lieu of laughing out loud at know-nothings who called second baseman Freddy Sanchez a malingerer, I’ll be kind and admit that I was as right about him returning to star as I was wrong about whether the Giants could win with Juan “Big Poppa” Uribe at shortstop.

I don’t know everything. In fact, I know very little. When I manage to write down things in advance that turn out later to be true, well, a guy likes to crow sometimes.

Ted Sillanpaa is a Northern California sports writer and columnist. Contact Ted at: tsillanpaa1956@gmail.com.

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Dear SF Giants Offense,

We’re writing this letter to express our deep concerns over a growing team problem: good offense.

In 2010, the Giants’ offense has scored less than three runs accordingly:

April: 9/26  34 percent.
May: 11/28  39 percent.
June: 1/12  8 percent. 

The offense is currently riding an 11 game streak of scoring three runs or more.

Before we dive in, let us remind you since the departure of Barry Bonds, we have become accustomed to sluggish inconsistent limp offenses.

Like a farm dog with ticks dug into our behind, we came to accept our cursed fate and that the world was generally a cruel place.

What do you expect, we have paws! How were we gonna reach back and pull the ticks out? You think biting helps, it only makes it worse.

At this point, our ticks are actually a source of comfort.

Now you’re back there digging around at the ticks and we have to tell you, don’t tease us. Don’t act like you’re finally going to screw them out, relieve our pain, and actually become a good offense.

Because the only thing worse than getting used to the pain and cruelty, would be thinking it’s finally going away and finding out it’s not.

Think of us as the sensitive girl who has always been a bridesmaid and never a bride. Men have been disappointing us our whole lives and now here you are acting like Mr. Wonderful.

If you let us down: look out! J-Wow’s right hook on The Situation will look like a tender kiss compared to the hell-fire scorn we will unleash on you.

Looking at your lineups recently and your numbers, we’ve been thinking, “What team is this?” And excuse us, but where are the gaping holes we have become accustomed to?

You know, we had gotten really used to cuddling up next to our teddy bear, then we slip into bed one night and find Bradley Cooper. Are we dreaming, are these hard, lean, rippling Runs, RBIs, and HRs really ours?

We call up some 15 year old looking kid from the minors (Posey), then we find some bruised and beaten up old mutt abandoned in an alley (Burrell), and presto, voila – we’re great!

And where do these slum dog cast-offs get off acting princely? Huff, Torres, Uribe…All Star caliber play? And we didn’t even know Sanchez was still alive – we thought compound injuries had killed him!

But come on, this is like a Cinderella story. And Giants fans do not believe in fairy tales.

Please go back to your old ways, so we can all just relax and accept the cruelty of the world.

Thank you.

Giants Fans

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Ever since the Giants parted ways with Barry Bonds in 2008, wait check that, ever since the last couple seasons of Bonds’s career, the San Francisco Giants simply couldn’t score runs.

From 2006-2009, the Giants lived and died with their pitching staff. And prior to 2009, they did nothing but die with their pitching staff because in each of the previous four seasons, San Francisco finished under .500.

But then came 2009, and the Giants pitching staff put together one of the best seasons a staff has ever had.

Tim Lincecum won a second straight Cy Young Award, Matt Cain was an All-Star, Jonathan Sanchez threw a no-hitter, Randy Johnson provided quality starts and won his 300th game, and set-up man Jeremy Affeldt was the reliever of the year for the MLB.

The rest of the staff filled their roles and drove the team to an impressive 88-74 record despite scoring an abysmal 657 runs on offense.

Now with the same staff (more or less) back for a second straight year, the question was if the Giants could put together a lineup that would catapult them to the playoffs.

Well, that lineup has arrived.

Finally, the Giants have a lineup of multiple threats instead of automatic outs like Randy Winn, Dave Roberts, Edgar Renteria, Aaron Rowand, and Travis Ishikawa.

Now could the Giants still use that prototypical 40 homer bat in the middle of the lineup? Sure, and they will probably need said hitter if they want to consistently make the postseason year-in and year-out.

But for 2010? The lineup is finally shaping up into a formidable attack. From No. 1-7, the Giants have consistently productive hitters.

Never mind the struggles of Bengie Molina, Aaron Rowand, and Nate Schierholtz, only one of those three seems to be in the lineup on any given game.

And the rest of the seven starters are producing big time.

Andres Torres, Freddy Sanchez, Pablo Sandoval, Aubrey Huff, Juan Uribe, Pat Burrell, and Buster Posey make up the top seven hitters in the Giants lineup in recent weeks.

San Francisco may be lucky to have a single one of them hit over 30 homers, but both Huff and Uribe are on pace for 25, Sandoval hit 25 last season, Burrell hit 33 two years ago with Philadelphia, and the trio of Torres, Sanchez, and Posey are elite gap-to-gap hitters who can all work counts.

It didn’t matter for the Giants that the recently on fire Buster Posey went 0-8 these past two games against Oakland, because when any of these hitters has an off day, somebody else goes off for a gigantic day.

San Francisco completed the sweep of the A’s this afternoon behind a pair of two-run homers by Aubrey Huff.

That’s right, their 33-year-old cleanup hitter who posted an atrocious OPS mark of .694 last season between Baltimore and Detroit is having a renaissance by the bay.

Coming into the series finale with Oakland, Huff was hitting right at .300 and with his big day at the plate today he now has an OPS over .900.

Combine his year thus far with his partner in crime Juan Uribe, and the Giants have a dangerous middle of the order.

Uribe, whose career averages are as follows: .258/.301/.433/.744 and whose career marks in home runs and RBI are 23 and 74, was hitting .291/.358/.478/.836 with nine homers and 40 RBI coming into Sunday’s game.

He now has 10 homers and 41 RBI on the season, on pace for 28 homers and 119 RBI.

Talk about having a year to remember, and one that actually isn’t surprising to the Giants brass.

Earlier this year, a bunch of Giants management and coaches stated that they feel Uribe is clearly a better player now than he was when he won the World Series with the White Sox back in 2005.

And with Uribe’s numbers in two years as a Giant, clearly San Francisco has scored with the veteran shortstop.

He’s on pace to shatter his career averages as well as blow by his career mark in RBI and he is only making $3.5 million this season!

Add that to the fact Huff is only making three million this year, and the Giants have a two-headed monster in the heart of their order that is only making a combined 6.5 million.

So while Giants fans can complain about the undeserved fat contracts to Rowand, Renteria, and Zito, at least GM Brian Sabean has found a couple of gems for cheap.

Furthermore, the newest Giant Pat Burrell is another offensive force that the Giants are paying very little for what so far has been tons of production.

Now fans shouldn’t get too excited, as the Giants don’t yet have an offense that can consistently win them the division year after year.

And plenty of other teams have a scarier “two-headed monster” than the Giants but when it comes to right here and now, Giant fans should be riding high with the utmost confidence.

The way their team has played the last few weeks should continue over the course of the season. And if it does, the Giants will be in the playoffs for the first time since 2003.

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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.

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The Giants have recalled Buster Posey and signed Pat Burrell to a minor league deal, leaving some to question where all the pieces will fit if things go as the club would like.

Posey started with a bang on Saturday night, playing first base. Let’s imagine that he is in the big leagues to stay. And, let’s pretend that the veteran outfielder Burrell uses his time in the minor leagues to prove he belongs in the big leagues.

What would happen to Aubrey Huff? He’s a first baseman and wouldn’t take Posey’s job. He’s a left fielder, but couldn’t handle AT&T’s expansive right field if Burrell were to return to his 2008 form.

Nate Schierholtz is the best defensive right fielder on the club, but the Giants would have to decide if they wanted a Burrell, who proves himself productive in a pinch-hitting role given that he hit 33 homers in his last full year in the National League. What about Schierholtz?

Andres Torres is proving he belongs in the big leagues. He gives the Giants their best defense in center field and can play right field well. Plus, he’s got the skills a true leadoff hitter needs, so the club needs him in the order when he’s hitting. Does Torres become a right fielder if Burrell becomes the left fielder?

This is putting the cart way ahead of the horse. Burrell has a lot to prove. There haven’t been this many folks insisting that a guy who switched leagues was a career-ending tailspin, since Giants fans were insisting that Barry Zito should be released after his first two abysmal seasons.

But what if Burrell does pull a Zito and returns to somewhere near the form that made him a 30 homer-90 RBI guy two years ago?

It could be that the Giants have a bigger move in mind if Posey pans out and Burrell returns to slug like he once did.

The club might be considering trading catcher Bengie Molina to a contender looking for a veteran backstop. He can call a game, sure, but he’s called the games lately where Tim Lincecum got rocked. The pitchers still make the pitches.

Molina has driven in just two runs since April 18. Fans love him and consider him the heart of the team. But, he clogs up the bases and if the New York Yankees or Boston Red Sox are interested in Molina to hit seventh or eighth and provide stability behind the plate—the Giants would be in position to move him if Posey and Burrell perform.

Another possibility could be that the Giants could ship center fielder Aaron Rowand to a contender where he could return to the supporting role he handled so well for the Phillies and White Sox. That opens center field for Torres and, perhaps, even Schierholtz. (It also clears payroll off the books.)

If the Giants were willing to package Molina in a trade, they could solve the lineup riddle by trying to deal him to Boston for right fielder J.D. Drew.

The Giants open a spot for Posey behind the plate. Drew becomes the everyday rightfielder, a proven performer who has fallen out of favor with the Red Sox. He’s a left-hand power hitter with some speed. Huff returns to first base full-time. Left field opens up for Burrell and Torres.

See? If everything falls together, the Giants could take their talented farm system and hook up with the Red Sox (also with a nice group of prospects) to completely change the lineup.

It’s odd that folks assume the Giants would just keep adding ill-equipped defensive outfielders who can hit some, without an idea in mind to clear some playing time if they all slam their way into the lineup.

If Posey hits, Posey stays in the big leagues. And, it’s generally accepted that Molina isn’t comfortable with sharing his job. So perhaps, trading the popular veteran catcher would be doing him a favor?

Rowand would seem to be without value to the Giants, but he has proven he can help a championship-type team. Send him where his big contract isn’t an issue and where he isn’t pressured to be a big-time run producer and—he could have value indeed.

The Yankees gave former Giants right fielder Randy Winn his outright release on Thursday. That opens a spot for a veteran outfielder in the Yankees lineup and, obviously, Rowand’s contract wouldn’t scare them off if they felt he could help them.

In fact, Molina would fill a hole in New York bigger than the one he could fill in Boston. He can catch until injured Jorge Posada returns, the fill in as a designated hitter for the team that lost DH Nick Johnson to injury earlier.

These are the thoughts fans of a playoff contender should have, rather than those involving who to blame for the most recent 3-1 loss.

—

Ted Sillanpaa is a Northern California sports writer and columnist. Reach Ted at: tsillanpaa1956@gmail.com

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When a team musters just a single run in a three game series, it doesn’t take a genius to figure out the offense is struggling.

Essentially, changes to the San Francisco Giants’ lineup are a guarantee.

Even if their manager was napping in the clubhouse during the past three games, changes would be made after looking at the final box scores.

Once the manager wakes up after such a dreadful offensive series, he will see 20 straight zeros in the boxscore and will naturally be inclined to shake things up.

However, the issue with the Giants is their organization plays who they pay most rather than who produces most.

And because of this mindset, Bochy will play Edgar Renteria instead of Nate Schierholtz.

Wait, what?

How does a lineup decision come down to either a shortstop or right fielder getting in the lineup?

Well, it is actually pretty simple.

With the Opening Day left fielder Mark DeRosa out with injury, the Giants plan on moving their everyday first baseman Aubrey Huff to the outfield to take over the vacant spot. (backup Andres Torres then slides over to right field).

Subsequently, third baseman Pablo Sandoval shifts over to Huff’s old spot at first which allows Juan Uribe and Freddy Sanchez to man the third and second base spots. And that leaves shortstop open for the recently called up Edgar Renteria.

Only problem is that these moves put the 26-year-old Schierholtz on the bench.

Now if you ask Giants fans whether they would rather have Schierholtz in the lineup or Renteria, the overwhelming majority would prefer Schierholtz, and for good reason.

Despite losing his starting right field spot in Spring Training, Schierholtz has since earned back that role before recently taking a few games off to rest an aggravated shoulder injury.

Thus far during the season, Schierholtz has proved both offensively and defensively that he is a major asset.

At the plate, he has started off with a .298 average, .365 on-base percentage and a .423 slugging percentage. Not to mention, his four stolen bases are second on the team next to Torres.

Defensively, he already has three assists in 35 games in the outfield and in terms of shutting down opponents from taking extra bases, Schierholtz is one of the best in all of baseball.

Combine that total package against Renteria, and it is absolutley no question who brings more to the table.

You can disregard Renteria’s .313 average thus far because his on-base percentage of .363 isn’t even higher than that of Schierholtz, despite having the higher average.

Plus out of the shortstop’s 26 hits on the season, only four have gone for extra bases which drops his slugging percentage to an abysmal .386.

Furthermore, the soon to be 35-year-old does not have the range nor the arm to match that of Uribe’s.

So not only does Schierholtz have a superior OPS of .788 compared to Renteria’s .744, but the younger legs bring much more value defensively.

Having Torres and Schierholtz man the outfield corners will be much more beneficial to the pitching staff (and strength of the Giants team) than it would be to have Torres (in a new outfield spot, trying to learn right field at AT&T Park) and Huff at the corners.

Especially when you consider Huff has played just eight of his 1,324 career games in left field and just 208 total in the outfield, organizing the defense in this fashion is asking for trouble.

But the Giants are probably going to do this anyway. Why? Because Renteria is making nine million dollars compared to Schierholtz who is making “around the league minimum”. (after some google searching, that is the only reference I could find about his contract status).

Whether it is a combination of front office people or just GM Brian Sabean forcing Bochy’s hand, the players with large contracts play the field no matter their production level.

Now currently Schierhotlz isn’t fully healthy and it is difficult for us outsiders to know when he will be healthy enough to start.

But when he is healthy, there is no reason for Schierholtz to be on the bench other than money. Renteria clearly should be the one riding the pine based on the value assigned by the statistics and by the naked eye.

Just watch Renteria swing the bat, and you know father time is catching up to the former All-Star shortstop.

Yet you can bet on Renteria being in the starting lineup everyday when healthy.

Which is subsequently the biggets complaint of the fan base: “Why does our team continually fail to put their best team on the field?”

If the best lineup the Giants can trot out there is simply not good enough to make the playoffs, the fans will understand.

After all, in order to significantly upgrade the team during the season, a trade will have to be made. And in making a trade, it is difficult to make a move that clearly upgrades the team.

For example, Giants fans wish they could have Adrian Gonzalez at first base. But depending on the asking price of San Diego, adding Gonzalez may do more harm than good.

Trading for key players in any sport without giving up too many key players in return is quick a difficult task. Most fans understand this notion.

But what fans don’t understand is leaving young talent on the bench and starting the less talented old guys just because of their contracts.

That is why Giants fans complain.

And rightfully so.

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Enough with watching these Giants snatch defeat from the jaws of victory and having to listen to some knucklehead impersonate a first-grade teacher and say, “There’s no reason to panic. It’s still early in the season.”

Oh, we’ll hang with the Giants through all 162 games. It’s the folks who think anything short of accepting every loss gracefully is actually a show of pure panic.

Some of us realize that the 2010 Giants could have put some distance between themselves and their NL West foes by now. We don’t look at the record they have and say, “Boy, that’s better than we expected!” We look at the record and think about the games the Giants gave away and we fume.

We don’t panic.

We know it’s a long season.

We just know how important it is to take full advantage of Tim Lincecum’s magic or the inexplicable games where Nate Schierholtz goes 5-for-5. (Or, of games where Lincecum was magical and Schierholtz had five hits.)

Look, we agree that this is a flawed Giants team. In fact, it’s knowing that they have flaws that makes a 12-9 record entering the big three-game set against the Rockies hard to swallow.

Is it a show of panic to suggest that the Giants need to be able to beat the Phillies twice—then figure out how to keep a 4-1 lead with one out in the ninth and Lincecum on the hill?

Lincecum is the best pitcher in the National League.

He had thrown 106 pitches the other day and needed to get two outs in the ninth—before the Phillies he’d baffled all day could score three runs to tie.

The Giants had a signature Lincecum masterpiece on their hands. He is the heart of the franchise. The crowd was ready to believe that anything was possible after he just embarrassed the defending NL West champions for 8 1/3 innings.

Then, he walked a batter on four straight pitches. (Yes, we realize they were high. And, we know that the average pitcher who misses high is showing signs of fatigue. There’s just nothing average about Lincecum.)

Juan Marichal was 25 years old in 1963 when he dueled Warren Spahn through 15 1/2 scoreless innings. Willie Mays homered in the bottom of the 16th. The Giants won 1-0.

Lincecum’s 25 right now and he got the hook in favor of Brian Wilson after throwing 106 pitches. One media type actually said, “Sure…leave Lincecum in to finish that game…then come and see me when his arm’s hanging off in September!”

Bullnutz!

Marichal threw 225 pitches that night in 1963. He skipped his next start, just to be safe. Then the Dominican Dandy came back to dominate the National League for seven more brilliant seasons. (Spahn was 42 years old. His arm didn’t fall off after 16 innings either.)

No one was worried about Marichal’s arm that night in 1963. So, it’s tough to yield to the beliefs of the touchy-feely types who fear for Lincecum’s health.

It’s impossible to let their voice rule the day. And, because we feel that Lincecum should’ve finished does not mean we’re in a state of panic.

Wilson came in and walked a batter, suffered some bad luck on that looper that landed on the foul line to clear the bases.

The Giants blew a chance to finish a win that would’ve further defined Lincecum’s reputation as the stud of all studs and the guy to whom the club can hitch its wagon when everything is on the line.

That’s the type game Lincecum has been groomed to start, dominate and finish.

So, never again!If Lincecum’s not pushed well past a reasonable pitch count, the guy deserves to win or lose his own games. Period. Talk about the reasons that going to Wilson made sense…but, nobody is ever a better alternative to Lincecum with the game on the line.

The Giants can afford to fritter away a game like that.

It doesn’t matter if KNBR types are chuckling about how the Giants are going to lose heart-breakers in a long, sometimes painful, playoff run. There was no reason to lose to the Phillies on Wednesday. There have been other games they’ve lost that are no easier to swallow simply because they’ve won more than we expected.

Getting greedy has nothing to do with feeling panic after a loss that appeared for all the world to be a win.

Eugenio Velez has tools that few Giants possess.

He can run and flash power at the plate. If he can’t catch a routine fly ball like the one he dropped Wednesday, how many bases must he steal and home runs must he hit to help more than he hurts the club?

His speed can kill—and has killed the Giants a couple of times. There’s a reason that the New York Yankees haven’t signed Usain Bolt to pinch-run. It doesn’t matter how fast a guy runs if he doesn’t run based on situation and score.

Velez has run into boneheaded outs that breaks one of those baseball rules like, “Never make the first out of an inning at home plate.”

So, don’t buy the notion that fans are going to have to live or die with Velez in left field or running the bases like a runaway wind-up toy. John Bowker can catch every routine fly ball in left field. He can’t run like Velez, but he doesn’t run the bases like the Cub Scout who’s making his baseball debut at summer camp either. And, if it helps sell the idea, Bowker’s got longball power, too.

There was a point late last year when Fred Lewis botched a routine fly ball and some of us said, “He has to go! That’s it! He can undo eight wonderful innings from a starting pitcher with that glove of his.” On Wednesday, the Velez misplay that enabled the Phillies to plate the eventual game-inner became a he’s-gotta-go situation.

The Giants need Velez to run or hit off the bench?

Why?

Whatever he can do is lost in a sea of silly mistakes. Bowker has enough power to pop one out of the blue without ever missing a routine fly ball or just running blindly into an out.

(There’s a slightly better trade market for Velez than there was for Lewis. The Giants could get a minor leaguer in a trade—a minor leaguer who is actually identified. They dealt Lewis for a player to be named later.)

The Colorado Rockies are in town over the weekend for a big early NL West series. Given that the Giants have played better than expected overall, they should be 1 1/2 games ahead of the gifted Rockies.

The Rockets are going to get red-hot soon. They’ll blow past the Giants in the process if the locals can’t finish a sweep against a Phillies. And, the Dodgers won’t play .364 baseball all summer. So, some of us see reason to worry because the Giants have played well but are only 4 1/2 games up on a Dodgers team that’s struggling mightily.

The Dodgers and Rockies won’t get worse. The Giants might fall off precipitously, so they should do what they can to win while the other contenders are struggling.

There’s no panic involved. It’s common sense. Win while you’re playing pretty well, because there will be a long stretch where losses are well earned by ineffective hitting and weak defense.

Don’t argue against recalling Buster Posey from Fresno. Brad Penny said the Giants made his job easier by refusing to work the count and by swinging at first pitches. Posey works the count and he puts the ball in play. And, here’s betting he would’ve caught that fly ball that Velez missed…even if somebody had handed Posey an outfielder’s glove at the top of the inning, said, “Hey, do your best” and sent him to left field.

Posey’s a gamer. He knows how to win.

Recalling Posey’s not a panic move. It’s a savvy response to the weaknesses the club has shown. The Mets recalled their No. 1 prospect to play first base. Giants official Larry Baer said Posey’s recall is not at all based on his arbitration clock or money. So?

Aubrey Huff’s hitting .227. Don’t tell me that it’s too early to tweak the lineup.

If the No. 4 hitter’s struggling, it’s “panic” to suggest Bengie Molina hit fourth and Huff drops down to No. 6?

Finally, the club has shown the ability to really fight back. So, more Guillermo Mota and Dan Runzler to keep a deficit to a minimum would be in order, too. A two-run lead should stay at two, you know?

A club that gets giddy at the prospect of Andres Torres getting one or two hits probably has no business thinking about the playoffs. But, the Giants are different. If Torres gets a clutch hit or two with Lincecum, Barry Zito, Matt Cain or Jonathan Sanchez pitching well—it could win a game.

And, just because we figure this Giants team will be in contention and that every win needs to be locked away, rather than frittered away, doesn’t mean we’re in a panic.

We just realize that this could be a magical season.

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Ted Sillanpaa is a San Francisco-Oakland Bay Area sports writer and columnist. Contact Ted at tsillanpaa1956@gmail.com.

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