Kuzul

The notion that Tim Lincecum’s woeful performance in August was prompted by rookie catcher Buster Posey tipping pitches is utterly ridiculous.

Of course, the desperate search to explain how poorly Lincecum has pitched lately leads fans to suggest he cut his hair and has manager Bruce Bochy saying the two-time Cy Young Award winner needs to work harder to get in better condition during the offseason.

Lincecum’s not been above looking for answer in odd places. Before he dropped Friday night’s game to Arizona, 6-0, he opted to change the look of his uniform and wear black stockings with orange stirrups.  There’s more chance that Lincecum just needs to tweak his uniform or trim his hair than there is that he hit the skids because he and Posey don’t work together, as well as the right-hander worked with veteran catcher Bengie Molina.

If Posey is guilty of tipping pitches to the point that he gets Lincecum hit all over the park, why isn’t Matt Cain getting jacked around by opposing hitters?  Why haven’t opposing hitters been hammering closer Brian Wilson’s fastball in every outing? Posey’s catching those guys, too.

Posey might make rookie mistakes like touching the ground with his glove when he wants the pitcher to keep the ball particularly low.  However, the only way that type of thing is the cause for Lincecum’s problems would be if Posey coincidentally worked an entire game without making such mistakes in Lincecum’s few solid outings in recent months.

When Molina was initially traded to the Texas Rangers, simply to make room for Posey behind the plate, media types and the Giants were gleefully reporting that Posey had immediately meshed with the starting pitchers, including with Lincecum.

Lincecum had some good outings with Posey behind the plate, in between his two prolonged slumps this season.  So, Posey didn’t start tipping pitches or making rookie mistakes until after he’d put down fingers for Lincecum in a couple of victories?

Posey’s not to blame for Lincecum’s struggles. Lincecum would be struggling even if Molina were still catching his starts.  Remember, things have gone so poorly for Lincecum that he has altered his wind-up and delivery, at one point in the middle of the game.

It’s doubtful something as simple as changing catchers is the problem if a Cy Young Award winner feels the need to mess with a pitching motion that enabled him to take baseball by storm in 2008 and 2009.

Bochy might be onto something, though.  Bochy’s a baseball guy, through and through. If he says Lincecum’s just tired, and that he’s tired because he didn’t work hard enough in the offseason, the manager is most likely right.  Bochy never calls out his players, let alone a veteran and one of the game’s brightest young stars. For the veteran skipper to flatly state that Lincecum’s tired and lacking cardiovascular and lower body strength, it must be the gospel truth.

Lincecum won’t bounce back this season. He’ll win some games down the stretch, but long gone is the time that the Giants could imagine one of his starts being an automatic victory.

Barry Zito got his fastball back, so Lincecum can get two, three, or four mph back, as well. He just won’t do it this year.  And, while the kid continues to struggle, it won’t be Posey’s fault.

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

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Yes, it was better than a loss, but it was ugly. Bruce Bochy’s statement after the game was an exercise in understatement.

“We left some men on base, but after a tough trip to Atlanta, it’s nice to get a win to start this home stand. We grinded hard to win that game.”

The San Francisco Giants are a gritty, gutsy team, which just might be enough, but they were extremely fortunate last night against the Chicago Cubs.

Carlos Zambrano made his first start since he underwent anger management. The way he pitched, he probably created a few more anger management candidates.

The Giants received seven walks over Zambrano’s five innings of work. They touched the temperamental right-hander for four hits and were quite lucky to have scored as many as two runs.

The second inning graphically illustrated the Giants’ problems.

Trailing 2-0, Pat Burrell, who hit .361 with seven doubles over his last 13 games (what a pick up), led off with a walk.

Pablo Sandoval reached on a single to put Giants at first and second. The usually reliable Juan Uribe hit into a double play.

With Burrell on third, Zambrano walked Travis Ishikawa. It was the third walk of the game from Zambrano, but the Giants would frustrate themselves, Bochy, and the fans much more.

Carlos Zambrano walked pitcher Madison Bumgarner on four pitchers to load the bases.  Not too many things are better than having your pitcher walk to load the bases.

Imagine how Lou Piniella must have felt. It was enough to make Yul Brynner or Vic Mackey want to grow hair so they could pull it out.

Andres Torres struck out on three pitches.

Andres Torres led off the fifth inning by drawing a four-pitch walk and moved to second on an Edgar Renteria single to left field.

After Aubrey Huff lined out to second, likely National League rookie of the year Buster Posey scored Torres by blasting a ground rule double to left center field. Renteria was held up at third.

Zambrano, true to form, uncorked a wild pitch. The game was tied, 2-2, with Posey representing the potential lead run at third with only one out. He never scored.

Just when the fans felt a little better and somewhat optimistic, Carlos Zambrano hit a two-out ground ball to the mound that Bumgarner deflected.

Zambrano beat it out, Blake DeWitt, who was at second, moved to third, and Tyler Colvin promptly singled to put the Giants behind again.

But remember that these are the Cubs. There is always hope against the Cubs.

Justin Berg replaced Zambrano to start the sixth inning, and the Giants tied the game on a two-out Torres single that scored Ishikawa.

Neither team could score in regulation. The score was still 3-3 when Edgar Renteria led off the eleventh with a single to left off Marcus Mateo, who was making his major league debut.

Mateo has worked all of 12 and two-thirds innings in AAA ball during his career.

Aubrey Huff lined a single to right, moving Renteria to third. Buster Posey was walked intentionally, bringing up Pat Burrell with the bases loaded and no outs.

Pat went after the first pitch and lifted a fly ball to center field. Marlon Byrd made the catch, Renteria tagged up and scored, and the Giants escaped.

Bruce Bochy was right.

The Giants received 11 walks, wasted numerous opportunities to win the game, and made two errors. It wasn’t good, and if it continues, it will be costly, but last night, against the Chicago Cubs, it didn’t matter.

The Giants played hard to win, and it certainly felt good when the game was over.

All that mattered was that the Giants won.

Reference:

Recap: San Francisco vs. Chicago Cubs
By Sports Network

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The San Francisco Giants are one of the surprise teams in baseball this year. 

Even after Thursday’s 3-2 loss to the first place Atlanta Braves, the Giants sit comfortably in second place behind the San Diego Padres in the NL West race.

Not to mention, by virtue of being right behind the division leader, the Giants not only are in the Wild Card race but they lead it by a game and a half over both the Philadelphia Phillies and St. Louis Cardinals.

Needless to say, the Giants are one of the popular choices to make the postseason at this point of the 162-game regular season schedule.

But just like how pitchers, quarterbacks, and goaltenders shouldn’t be credited with wins and losses, neither should big league managers.

Why? Because individuals don’t win games, and especially ones who aren’t even playing in the game.

Do they factor in? Of course they do. But just how like a pitcher’s ability to get credited with a “W” relies 100 percent on whether or not his team scores a run(s), managers get too much credit.

Now, most of us fans could go on and on about individual’s in a team sport not deserving wins and losses being attributed to their names.

However, the good news is that there really isn’t anyone on the other side of that argument.

Unfortunately, the bad news is that certain fans who aren’t able to watch a team consistently from game to game will look at their win-loss record and start throwing out mindless talk.

For instance, there are plenty of fans out there who will see the Giants with a 62-47 record at this point of the season and assume that their manager Bruce Bochy should be up for NL manager of the year.

After all, outside of the Bay Area, and even amongst many people in the Bay Area, no one expected the Giants to be playing this well this season.

So since their talent level suggests they shouldn’t be playing this well, and with last year’s team MVP Pablo Sandoval struggling all year long, Bochy should be considered for manager of the year, right?

Not so fast.

All season long, Bochy has been criticized for tactical lineup changes, and bullpen decisions.

I, for one, have taken more than my fair share of shots at the Giants manager.

However, one has to realize that no matter how vehemently you feel that a lineup decision or bullpen decision is wrong, there may be some unknown strategic ploy being used.

For example, perhaps the reliever you didn’t want to pitch is coming into the game because the better option is either hurt or in need of rest.

Or perhaps the position player who should take the day off against a left-handed starter actually has good numbers against the opposing pitcher.

Just playing some devil’s advocate here.

However, two recent moves of Bochy’s have no room for devil’s advocate as they were just plain inexcusable.

The first came on Wednesday in the second inning against Colorado. With Pat Burrell at first base and Pablo Sandoval at the plate with a 3-2 count and one out, Bochy elected to start the runner.

Burrell, the former long time Philly and first-year Giant, has below-average speed at best and Pablo Sandoval is a free swinger who’s having an awful season compared to his breakout 2009.

Oh yeah, and the pitcher on the mound was none other than Ubaldo Jimenez, a strikeout pitcher having a Cy Young-caliber season.

Sure, Sandoval is a big time threat to bounce into a double play, but this move had disaster written on it from the beginning.

With Burrell’s lack of speed, Sandoval’s tendency to strikeout, and Jimenez’s filthy stuff, Bochy ran his team unnecessarily into an extra out.

In all reality, the Giants would have had a better chance of Burrell taking out the infielder covering second or Sandoval beating out the back-end of 6-4-3 double play than Burrell reaching second safely after a Sandoval strikeout.

If Bochy’s reasoning in sending Burrell was more geared to scoring a run on a ball in the gap than staying out of the double play, then he still chose the wrong duo of players.

The chances Burrell scores from first on any type of double are remote at best, even at Coors Field.

Putting him in motion helps his chances but since he isn’t taking off to steal, he wouldn’t be getting the best jump.

Simply said, with the style of players involved in the play, making that call is much more risk than reward.

The chances Burrell takes a base more than he would have without being in motion aren’t very high with his lack of speed and the chances Sandoval were to strikeout with Jimenez pitching were very, very high.

Make no bones about it, sending Burrell was a severe case of bad judgment and a decision smart managers don’t make.

The second poor decision by Bochy in recent games is another critical base running mistake.

In the previously mentioned 3-2 loss to the Braves, the Giants had the tying run on first base in the ninth inning.

Leadoff hitter Andres Torres smacked a two-out single to keep the game alive for Freddy Sanchez.

Now everybody knows that this is a base stealing situation at any point of the game. With two outs and the lone base runner being a speedy leadoff man at first base, the chances a runner goes are normally high.

Even against pitchers who are quick to home plate and who have good pick-off moves, many times you still see a base stealer take off.

Well with Braves closer Billy Wagner on the mound, Bochy’s decision not to send Torres is absolutely inexcusable.

In this situation, the reward is gigantic, and the risk is minimal.

First of all, a fast runner in scoring position at second base with two outs is a almost an automatic run with a base hit to the outfield.

Secondly, it was clear as night and day to those watching the game from home as to when Wagner was going home and when he was going to first.

And even if Torres hadn’t seen film or been on first base against Wagner in previous games, a couple of throw overs during Sanchez’s five pitch at bat should have given him a good read on when Wagner would be throwing home.

Combine that with the fact Wagner’s delivery time was far below average at around 1.42 seconds, and Torres was bound to get a tremendous jump.

With the chances that Torres would get to second safely extremely high, and the benefit of having him there so valuable, one would have expected Torres to go.

After all the risk is rather low. The Giants were down a run and an out away from losing. At this point in the game, statistics tell us the Giants are going to lose anyway.

And with Torres staying at first San Francisco, in all practicality, would have needed at least two more base runners to reach in order to score the tying run.

But had Torres been on second, they would have needed just the one clutch hit to score the run.

The reward in this situation clearly outweighs the risk and Bochy failed to take the smart gamble in this situation.

So there you have it. Two base running choices, and two wrong decisions.

Bochy sent a slow runner in a 3-2, one out situation with a strikeout pitcher and strikeout batter, yet he didn’t send a fast runner in an obvious stealing situation against a pitcher with a slow delivery.

And some fans suggest he should be NL manager of the year?

With this type of decision making…not a chance.

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Thanks to Marty Lurie of KNBR, I got the idea to write just how good the Giants are and how well certain players are performing compared to previous seasons.
As August begins, the Giants begin a difficult two months to catch the first place Padres. Starting off the second half going 8-1 in the division and 13-4 overall, they’re the hottest team in baseball. Giants’ players are peaking at the right time and this team is having fun again as they fight for a post-season berth.

It’s been an incredible year so far, and fans have a lot to look forward to in the coming months. Although we all hope to see the Giants keep winning and overtake San Diego, the Giants can also fall back. Up to this point, this team has far exceeded expectations.

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Eugenio Velez is “doing OK,” according to the San Francisco Giants medical staff after he was hit in the head by a foul line drive off the bat of Pat Burrell on Saturday night in Arizona.

The 28-year-old utilityman went through tests at a Phoenix hospital where he spent the night. The Giants finish a four-game series in Arizona on Sunday.

Reports indicate that Velez suffered a concussion. Manager Bruce Bochy confirmed after the game that the player did not suffer a fractured skull and that he, initially, “wasn’t really responsive.”

The incident and attempts to follow up on the condition of the fallen player have shown exactly how ill-equipped members of the sports media in the ball park are to actually track down information not directly related to the game.

When Velez was hit and knocked down by Burrell’s scorching liner into the dugout, the Giants TV team of Duane Kuiper and Mike Krukow didn’t bother to even consider that there could’ve been an injury, let alone a serious one.

“That’s a serious ugly-finder,” Kuiper joked, referring to the duo’s running joke that any foul ball will “find” the ugliest player or coach in the dugout. Krukow did note, fairly quickly, that “somebody might have been hit.”

The Comcast Bay Area camera crew showed Barry Zito, Matt Cain and others looking visibly upset. The Giants training staff was scrambling to treat the fallen player.

All the while, Kuiper and Krukow were speculating about who was down and where the ball hit the fallen player.

Before Velez was treated in the dugout and taken away on a stretcher, Kuiper was urging for viewers to remember Velez in their prayers because Krukow, somehow, had determined the ball had struck him in the temple.

A blow to the temple could’ve taken the player’s life.

Minutes after Velez went down, San Francisco Chronicle Giants beat writer Henry Schulman posted on the newspaper’s “Giants Splash” blog that Velez had been struck by a line drive in the dugout.

Schulman’s post headline read: “Velez struck in head by Pat Burrell foul ball. It appears serious.”

The veteran beat writer then wrote: “I can’t see into the dugout from the press box and the TVs up here are showing an Arizona feed. So thanks to my many Twitter followers who reported seeing on the Giants’ broadcast that Velez was removed from the dugout…”

How he could speculate that the injury was “serious” based on reports from Bay Area TV viewers is unclear. Later in that initial blog, Schulman wrote, “Velez is on the way to the hospital…I will provide updates as soon as I get them, of course.”

Schulman did update the results of tests on Velez in his game story after the Giants beat the Diamondbacks 10-4.

The blog post simply detailing a potential “serious” injury was still posted as the lead item near five hours after the incident.

The members of the print and online media share the press box and, most assuredly, could’ve gotten an update on the condition of Velez with a trip downstairs to the Giants clubhouse.

Gathering specific information would’ve served all news outlets, and fans, better than leaving initial online reports posted for hours. And, fans could’ve gotten information in seconds.

The value of online reporting is, in theory, that information can be made available immediately.

Typically, it took only minutes for blogger Adam Jacobi at sbnation.com to produce a poorly conceived opinion piece merged with the news report.

In it, Jacobi went from reporting on the near tragedy to suggesting that all players might soon be required to wear protective helmets in the dugout.

And, he mixed in some ill-timed levity.

“He (Velez) was taken from the dugout by stretcher and rushed to a local hospital. There’s no video available,” Jacobi wrote, “but unless Eugenio Velez owes you a substantial sum of money, you do not need to watch him get hit in the head with a baseball.”

One wonders why the need to lighten the mood won out.

Jacobi proceeded to show that there is a noticeable difference between a reporter and a blogger. He wrote the following while Velez was en route to the hospital with an undiagnosed, potentially life-threatening, injury.

“When the extent of Velez’s injury is known, it’ll likely spark some debate about whether it’s still within baseball players’ best interests to not wear more protective headgear in several situations…”

Any fan who saw Burrell’s liner steam into the dugout and knock Velez down was far more concerned about the extent of the injury than whether it would “spark some debate” about players wearing helmets in the dugout.

Velez is, thankfully, on the mend.

The state of news-gathering efforts at big league ball parks remains in doubt.

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

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Professional baseball has been around for roughly 150 years and the result has been memories and moments that will last forever, talent that shines above the rest, amazing revenue for the national government, and some crazy rules that just don’t make much sense.

Baseball is a game of tradition and honor (minus steroids). Therefore, it can take years to change even the smallest rules in Major League Baseball, and most rules are not important enough to change.

However, here are 10 of those rules that generate confusion and shrugged shoulders.

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Some of you may have read Ted Sillanpaa’s piece about what a great manager Bruce Bochy is, and only those of us in the “lunatic fringe” want him gone, undeservedly so.  I thought that such a nefarious idea deserved more than a comment on the bottom. In some ways Bruce Bochy is perfect for the Giants, he has a total disregard for Sabermetrics—although he might include such new fangled statistics as OBP and OPS in that category—given even a remote option he will always choose the grizzly gamery veteran over the younger player (see: Aaron Rowand, Bengie Molina, et. al.), he believes that a good catcher can win championships, even with subpar offense and defense; consequently in many cases Bochy’s thinking is very much in line with the Giants front office. 

First let’s take a look at his total disregard for Sabermetrics. The most obvious case of this is Aaron Rowand. Through Sunday, Rowand’s OBP (that’s On Base Percentage if you’re reading Bork) was .278 and his OPS (On Base plus Slugging Percentage) was .678. His OBP is the 16^th highest on the team, 16^th ! It is also nearly 50 points lower than Nate Schierholz, who has seen sporadic playing time, an absolute no-no for young players. His OPS was slightly better, ranking him 13^th on the team and exactly 50 points behind Schierholz who Rowand is mainly taking playing time from. Some may argue that Rowand’s defense makes up for this, but they would be wrong or drunk or both. Rowand’s current UZR is -0.4 while Schierholz stands at 5.4. Even a cursory examination of Sabermetrics shows that Bochy isn’t looking at these numbers.

However, Rowand is a veteran and Schierholz is not. Much in the same way that Molina was a veteran and Posey is not, or Renteria is a veteran and Ishikawa is not (Renteria playing slides Uribe to 3^rd and Pablo to 1^st ) and in each case Bochy chooses the veteran. This should come as no surprisee though because Bochy was let go in San Diego for his insistence on playing veterans on the decline over unproven rookies, namely Vinny Castilla, Phil Nevin and Ryan Klesko. While many may argue that Schierholz, Bowker or even Posey aren’t everyday major leaguers, the guys Bochy previously refused to play: Adrian Gonzales, Xavier Nady and Josh Barfield. Gonzales is one of the best players in the league, while Nady has struggled with injuries he has been an above average producer when healthy and Barfield had one solid season, but is now out of the league. No one will know how good Bowker and Schierholz are until they get consistent playing time at the major league level. Obviously they have nothing left to prove at AAA, so most teams would give them a shot or cut them loose, not Bork.

For all the talk of Buster Posey, there has been a ridiculous amount of credit given to catcher’s game calling abilities. Yet the team that has won the most World Series over the last ten years, the Yankees, have a catcher in Posada who is known for being good with a bat, but a poor receiver who struggles with calling games (see: AJ Burnett, David Wells etc.). Mind you Posada is not even average, but below average, his fielding value above replacement has ranged from -6.0 to -0.4 over the last four years according to fangraphs, yet the Yankees win and even pitch well.

Mind you, this is just a small smattering of Bochy’s incompetence as a manager and doesn’t even include his brilliant in-game decisions, like pinch running Eli Whiteside for Buster Posey yesterday, or the fact that from the outside looking in it appears that this team has quit on him. It’s time for Bochy to go and hopefully he’ll take Sabean with him.

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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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Bruce Bochy hasn’t done anything differently from the San Francisco Giants’ fast start in April to the roller-coaster ride that got them spiraling downward in a seven-game losing streak.

Bochy didn’t make Tim Lincecum, oddly, less dominating. The manager didn’t have anything to do with Pablo Sandoval’s struggle at the plate. The bullpen many like to insist he mismanages really just isn’t very good.

There’s no reason to fire Bochy, unless you believe in momentum and chemistry and “shaking things up in the clubhouse.”

If you think momentum is further away than Sandoval’s next 3-for-4 game, with a home run and five RBIs—you want Bochy gone.

If you don’t realize that team chemistry goes from bad to fantastic when Lincecum, Barry Zito and Matt Cain each turn in consecutive outstanding starts, Bochy should pack his gear.

Should you be under the impression that guys like Guillermo Mota, Santiago Casillia, Andre Torres, Nate Schierholtz, and Aaron Rowand would be more consistenly good if the Giants hired a new manager, then you’re ready to call for the hiring of…

Oh, yeah…if you think Bochy needs to be replaced, you surely have a series of possible candidates who’ll come in and turn Jeremy Affeldt and Jonathan Sanchez into consistently dominating left-hand pitchers.

So, who ya’ got?

Ron Wotus? Don’t think the guy who has been standing behind and agreeing with Giants managers for so long is exactly going to be that spark plug fans think a new manager should become.

Steve Decker? Oh, c’mon! You read somewhere that he’s one of the top minor league managing prospects and that he’s doing a great job with Giants prospects at Fresno. But, his Triple-A Grizzlies require a completely different type of attention than does this particular veteran group of Giants. Decker might be the Giants manager of the future, but he hasn’t done anything to show he can do more with Edgar Renteria than Bochy can.

Fredi Gonzalez? He was the NL Manager of the Year two years ago, then got fired by the Florida Marlins two weeks ago. (Tell you anything about how much we really understand about what a manager does?) Forget it. He’ll take over the Atlanta Braves job when mentor Bobby Cox retires at the end of this year.

Bobby Valentine? Great personality. Probably great with certain types of players. Fans would love his enthusiastic, go-get-’em approach. He has managed the Texas Rangers and New York Mets for 15 seasons combined and has a .510 winning percentage. The fact that he went to manage in Japan and loved it would, at least, bode well for KNBR’s pre-game manager’s show. Bobby V would have stories to tell. (The “Bruce Bochy Show” isn’t the current manager’s strong suit, nor should it be.)

The Giants don’t have a big league managerial candidate on the staff. Wotus? Why? After that? Third base coach Tim Flannery’s only back in the big leagues because he and Bochy are close friends. If Bochy leaves, Flannery would follow.

See the problem?

Fans know what they think Bochy has done wrong, but there’s no evidence that he’s had anything to do with the things that have really put the Giants on the brink of falling out of the playoff race. The hitters aren’t hitting. The pitchers aren’t dominating.

We don’t have any idea who would do a better job with this Giants team either. Decker? Maybe. Wotus? He’s a coach. Gonzalez? His dream gig’s coming. Valentine? His career win percentage is .510—hardly solid gold.

There are other candidates out there, but none could turn the Giants around until the Giants turn themselves around.

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

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Nobody can accuse me of being hypercritical of the San Francisco Giants’ management, including the Bay Area’s two most bullet-ridden targets.

For all his warts, I’ve always believed general manager Brian Sabean’s gotten more heat than is justifiable. Meanwhile, Bruce Bochy got the 2009 team to overachieve, which is usually evidence of a good manager.

Consequently, somewhere in Bleacher Report’s vast archives, I’m on record as supporting the two-year extensions both men received.

Sabes is still gold in my opinion. Bochy, though, is a different story.

The Giants have the talent to seriously contend in the vulnerable National League West.

The pitching staff, even while experiencing a bit of a correction since its torrid start, is one of the best in the Big Leagues. The offense is torture, but the San Diego Padres are in the process of proving that’s not a deal-breaker if you get plus contributions from the arms and leather.

San Francisco cannot pick it with the Fathers and its bullpen is inferior, but the Orange and Black starters are better than San Diego’s. Perhaps even enough to make up the difference.

The problem, however, is Bochy’s predilection for veterans that sometimes borders on psychosis.

Unfortunately for the City’s faithful who are calling for the kids, it’s not a new one. This is from a 2004 Hardball Times article discussing the skipper while Bochy was still with the Pads:

“Bochy has a maddening tendency to play mediocre veterans over promising or unheralded youngsters…it is frustrating to watch him with young talent, because it appears that he will not give young players a full-time shot.”

Sigh.

At the moment, the raving masses want the heads of Bengie Molina, Aaron Rowand, Edgar Renteria, and/or Juan Uribe now that he’s cooled off.

Through differing quantities of spittle, the more fanatical fans (check the comments, some are hilarious) scream for Nate Schierholtz and Posey to assume everyday roles while rotating the vets to keep them fresh.

With Huff, Pat Burrell, Rowand, and Andres Torres jostling for playing time in the outfield, the argument for devoting a spot to Nate the Great is a tough one to see. He should definitely get more of a run than Bochy’s been giving him, but I’d pump the brakes before entering “make him a regular” territory.

On the contrary, the lunatic fringe is spot on in their demand for more Gerald Demp the Third.

At the moment, there is only one plausible explanation for Molina’s continued presence in the lineup. Namely, the stud on the mound that day must demand it.

Even then, I’m not so sure you can justify penciling in Bengie, but I don’t have to deal with the clubhouse egos and chemistry, nor can I pretend to have a handle on the battery dynamics at a professional level.

In other words, I’d give Boch the benefit of the doubt should that development come to light.

Unless that’s the case, however, Posey is the only plausible option.

The kid is not just a promising rookie, he’s a blue-chipper of the Jason Heyward/Mike Stanton ilk. The only newbie with more Major League-ready talent is that dude who throws for the Washington Nationals. Maybe I’d recall his name if he got a little more hype.

In a very short time, Posey’s established himself as one of the team’s leaders in plate discipline and patience—both of those skills usually come after experience has polished raw talent.

His 3.76 pitches per plate appearance land him near the league average, which is a substantial improvement for many Giants. Combine that with a quiet calm and ease befitting a grizzled old-timer, and you have an asset that should be working through slumps—he’s currently in a bad one with seven hits in his last 47 at-bats—on the field.

The former Florida State Seminole shortstop has especially sparkled defensively, whether he’s parked at first base or dropping signals wearing the Tools of Ignorance.

And there’s the rub.

It’s not pleasant to say because Bengie Molina has been an outstanding Giant during his four-year tenure. His contributions have made Molina the first catcher identifiable with the organization since Bob Brenly.

Benito Santiago is the only other backstop I can remember that became part of the team’s backbone, and even that only lasted for a cup of coffee.

Nevertheless, Big Money has gone Big Molasses and it’s killing the club in every facet.

Since coming to los Gigantes, Molina has never been lauded for his defense. He’s been one of those rare breed of catchers whose value lay in his offense and, perhaps, his ability to receive a quality game.

Further narrowing his potential contribution is his absolute and shocking lack of speed. The portly 35-year-old must thump to contribute with the lumber. Otherwise, he becomes a rally-killing roadblock.

As of this writing, Bengie was notching a .257 batting average, a .312 on-base percentage, and a .332 slugging percentage.

Obviously, almost all of the Puerto Rico native’s hits have been singles. A closer look reveals that’s precisely the case—of his 52 knocks, six have been doubles and three have been home runs.

Singles represent 83 percent of his offensive output.

That’s a fatal statistic for someone who runs like he’s carrying several pianos on his back. In thigh-deep mud.

It means you can’t bat him first, second, seventh, or eighth because he turns anyone behind him into a station-to-station pawn, and Molina doesn’t create anything except outs on the basepaths.

But you can’t put him third through sixth because he’s not producing any power and he’s not hitting well enough to drive in runs (.224 with RISP).

If the eldest of the Flying Molina Brothers were a defensive whiz like Yadier, fine, jam him into the eight hole and pray for rain. Of course, we covered that—he’s not a whiz, not even close.

Again, the San Francisco Giants have the pieces to make a charge at the NL West pennant, but the margin is thin. Until Buster Posey is playing regularly, at least one of those pieces won’t be on the field.

Bruce Bochy has no excuse for that.

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