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The San Francisco Giants have fallen on tough times in the past week, losing six of their last seven games. Fortunately for the Giants, they had built a sizable lead in the NL West and are still ahead of the Los Angeles Dodgers by six games. 

During this recent skid, the Giants have had bouts of poor pitching from their starters and the bullpen. They also have had games where the bats were silenced or were unable to get a key hit. In addition, poor defense has hurt the Giants’ efforts.

There is not one thing that can be pointed at that has caused the Giants’ recent problems. However, there are some overriding concerns that become magnified when the team is losing.

With the trade deadline on the horizon, general manager Brian Sabean will be looking for areas where he can help bolster the team.

The first priority is at second base. Brandon Hicks had some big games and clutch hits early in the year. Hicks has power, with eight home runs and 22 RBI on the year.

However, Hicks’ performance has declined dramatically of late. He has not homered since May 23 and has only two RBI in his last 20 games.

Even more troubling is that Hicks has now struck out 70 times in 187 at-bats, with several of those in situations where even a ground ball would have driven in a run.

Hicks’ average is down to .176, with an OBP of .289 and OPS of .637. Defensively, he has been better than expected, but the Giants can no longer live with his complete lack of production.

Manager Bruce Bochy has also given Ehire Adrianza some opportunities, but he is proving that he is not ready to be in the majors. 

In 63 at-bats, Adrianza is hitting only .190 with no home runs and four RBI. He has a soft .190 batting average to go along with an OBP of .235 and OPS of .458. Watching him at the plate, he is frequently overmatched.

Adrianza has also made too many mistakes defensively for a player that is supposed to be an outstanding defensive player. 

The only reason Adrianza is on the team is because he is out of minor league options. The Giants are afraid another team will claim him if they expose him to waivers.

Joaquin Arias is another potential option, but he is often used at other positions or as a defensive replacement for Pablo Sandoval in the late innings. Arias is also not producing at this point.  

In 79 at-bats, Arias is hitting only .177, with an OBP of .214 and OPS of .392. Arias has no home runs and seven RBI. However, at least Arias looks like he has a chance to hit the ball with authority, which can rarely be said about Adrianza.

Also, do not expect anything out of Marco Scutaro this season. If he ultimately does make it back, it will be a bonus, but at this point, he cannot be counted on.

With the NL West race beginning to tighten up, it will be up to Sabean to get a top-flight second baseman. 

Daniel Murphy of the Mets is the perfect solution. Murphy is a very good offensive player and a solid, though unspectacular, defender. With the Mets currently eight games under .500, their playoff hopes are virtually nil.

In 281 at-bats, Murphy has five home runs, 26 RBI, 11 stolen bases and has scored 45 runs. His batting average is .299, with an OBP of .359 and OPS of .778.

Murphy is a solid, professional hitter and would be a huge upgrade for the Giants at second base. He is making $5.7 million this year, so if the Giants acquired him toward the end of July, they would be on the hook for roughly $2.5 million. 

Murphy is arbitration eligible in 2015, so the Giants would have him under their control for another season. He does not become eligible for free agency until after the 2015 season.

Sabean may be able to pry Murphy away from the Mets by offering Adrianza plus a decent pitching prospect like Clayton Blackburn or Chris Stratton. This is a deal the Giants should make, even if it costs them a little bit more, as it will fill the huge void they have at second base.  

The other potential acquisition at the trade deadline would be for a starting pitcher. However, this pitcher would need to be measurably better than either Tim Lincecum or Ryan Vogelsong.

One such pitcher who is available is Jeff Samardzija of the Cubs. He is making only $5.345 million this year, and like Murphy, he will be in his final year of arbitration eligibility in 2015.

Money will not be an issue for the Giants for the remainder of 2014, although it could be an issue for the Giants to sign him for the 2015 season and beyond.

However, Samardzija is not eligible to become a free agent until after next season, so this is not a rent-a-player scenario. 

Samardzija has thrown 91 innings this season, allowing 81 hits and 26 walks while striking out 82. His ERA is 2.77, and he has a WHIP of 1.176. Both of these numbers are very good. 

The Cubs will demand a king’s ransom for Samardzija. Any deal would need to include the Giants’ top pitching prospect Kyle Crick. In addition, the Cubs will likely want a couple more decent prospects in the deal.

If the Giants had to part with Crick and two other top prospects, such as catcher Andrew Susac and pitcher Martin Agosta, this is a deal they should do. Whenever you have a real chance to win now, it’s something you must capitalize on. The Giants have that chance in 2014.

If Samardzija becomes a Giant, the resulting move would be Ryan Vogelsong or Tim Lincecum to the bullpen. If Lincecum is willing to make the move, that will benefit the team, but if not, the Giants should be perfectly fine moving Vogelsong.

Look for things to start heating up in July around the All-Star break as Sabean starts maneuvering to strengthen his team. A couple of stellar moves like acquiring Murphy and Samardzija could be the Giants’ next ticket to the World Series.  

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Does anything heal booboos quite like a souvenir ball?

A young San Francisco Giants fan made a miraculous recovery on Monday night, overcoming a bruised leg after being presented with a game ball.

The extraordinary chain of events began in the second inning when Giants’ outfielder Tyler Colvin smacked a ground-rule double down the right field line. The ball skipped over the wall, sniped a young fan in the leg and suddenly we had a young trooper down at AT&T Park. 

Image via B/R

The boy took the hit hard, dropping to the ground and initiating full water works. To make matters worse, he missed the ball. 

Stadium employees tended to the boy with ice and reassuring words, but nothing seemed capable of assuaging the young fan.

Just when the usher appeared ready to call in the medevac and morphine, a miracle happened—some kind soul offered the young boy his duly earned prize. 

Like divine intervention from above, the baseball wiped away the pain. The young fan thrust his new treasure into the air, affirming he would live to see another day.

Image via imgflip.com

Even more miraculous, the boy was up and walking within moments, his maimed leg healed instantaneously by the souvenir. 

God bless you, little Giants fan. You taught us all an important lesson about perseverance and the healing properties of a baseball souvenir.

For those of you reading who are medical professionals, I hope you take note and place a bucket of baseballs in every hospital, right next to the defibrillators. 

It could save lives.

On the Twitters.

Follow @Dr_Carson_

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When the San Francisco Giants inked Tim Hudson to a two-year, $23 million deal in November, they wanted him to do two things: Stay healthy and pitch better than his old Oakland Athletics rotation-mate, Barry Zito, whose albatross contract with the Giants was finally expiring.

Two months into the season, Hudson has vaulted past those modest expectations and emerged as arguably the offseason’s best free-agent signing—and one of the best pitchers in baseball.

Madison Bumgarner is among the game’s elite left-handers, and Ryan Vogelsong has regained the command that made him an unlikely All-Star in 2011. But the Giants rotation has two significant question marks.

Tim Lincecum, who vacillates between effectively wild and flat-out ineffective, has posted a 4.97 ERA through 13 erratic starts. And former ace Matt Cain has already landed on the disabled list twice (though he did look a lot like vintage Cain in his recent return from a hamstring strain).

Yet the Giants have the best record in baseball thanks in no small part to Hudson.

Entering Tuesday his 1.97 ERA and 0.96 WHIP rank first and second in the National League, respectively. His ERA+, which adjusts for park and league, is 169, seventh-best in the majors, per Baseball-Reference.com. He’s gone at least seven innings in nine of his 11 starts (not counting a rain-shortened washout in Colorado).

And he’s done it in typical Tim Hudson fashion: mixing heavy sinkers and crisp cutters to slice off corner strikes and induce ground balls at a 58.2 percent rate, his highest since 2010, per FanGraphs.

After a stellar May 27 start against the Chicago Cubs in which he tossed seven shutout innings, Hudson joked with Carl Steward of the San Jose Mercury News that he’s doing it “with smoke and mirrors,” adding, “I hope they don’t think I’m going to be this good all year.”

Later, he ditched the modesty:

From a command standpoint, I think this is the best I’ve been, throwing strikes and letting the guys behind me make plays,” he said. “At this point in my career, I don’t really try to overpower anybody, I don’t try to overthrow or throw through my mechanics. I just try to trust what I have and let it work.

Hudson pitching well is no surprise. The veteran sinkerballer and 200-game winner has been one of baseball’s most consistent arms during a sterling 16-year career with Oakland and the Atlanta Braves. But no one expected Hudson to have his best season at age 38, even at pitcher-friendly AT&T Park—especially considering the way his 2013 campaign ended.

While covering first base in a game between the Braves and New York Mets last July, Hudson suffered a fractured right ankle. The injury, which left him crumpled on the field in agony, required surgery and ended the right-hander’s season; some questioned whether he’d ever pitch again.

Certainly, the injury lowered Hudson’s stock and allowed the Giants to sign him for fewer years and less money than other free-agent hurlers such as Ubaldo Jimenez (four years, $50 million from the Baltimore Orioles), Matt Garza (four years, $50 million from the Milwaukee Brewers) and Ricky Nolasco (four years, $49 million from the Minnesota Twins).

Yet Hudson has outperformed them all.

Hold his ERA up next to Garza’s (4.42), Jimenez’s (5.01) or Nolasco’s (5.65), then look at those contracts again. The best comparison stats-wise for Hudson is the big free-agent fish of 2014, Masahiro Tanaka, who got seven years and $155 million from the New York Yankees.

Sure, Tanaka is 13 years Hudson’s junior and has lived up to the hype that followed him from Japan. For now, though, Hudson is providing equal value at a fraction of the price.

There’s a lot of baseball left. Hudson has already missed time with a hip strain, and in his last start, he looked mortal, laboring through five wobbly innings and surrendering a season-high nine hits. Ultimately, though, he allowed only three runs and kept his team in the game—a game the Giants won, 5-4.

San Francisco has won a lot with Hudson on the hill—at a .750 clip to be precise. He’s on track to make his fourth All-Star team and has even emerged as a dark-horse Cy Young candidate. He’s earned the respect of teammates and coaches and embraced a mentor role in the Giants’ close-knit clubhouse, per CSN Bay Area’s Andrew Baggarly.

“When you see a veteran the first thing you ask is, ‘How has he stayed in the game so long? How has he simplified?’” Lincecum said of Hudson during spring training.

“Simplified” is one way of putting it. “Exceeding all expectations” is another.

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Accurately predicting a draft in any sport for any team is difficult, but when it comes to the San Francisco Giants in the 2014 MLB draft, the task becomes even more challenging.

With the draft’s imbalance of pitching and hitting talent and the recent Tommy John surgeries of a few top pitchers (including Eastern Carolina’s Jeff Hoffman), there’s nothing definite about the first round of the draft. Giants scouting director John Barr’s statement that the team could go for either a hitter or a pitcher in the first round adds further confusion to the Giants’ plans early in the draft.

With that being said, there are a few options who stand out for the Giants, and while we can’t say for sure who will land in San Francisco in the first round, there’s a good chance one of these three players will be holding a Giants uniform on draft day.

Bradley Zimmer

Zimmer, a 6’5″ lefty-hitting, righty-throwing outfielder from the University of San Francisco, is one of the top overall position players in the draft, and he’s a good fit for the Giants for a number of reasons.

The most obvious connection is that Zimmer has played in San Francisco at USF for the past three years, and he achieved a lot of success there. He hit .368 with 21 stolen bases while playing all 54 games during his senior year, which included a 19-game hitting streak. He also comes from a line of athletic talent that includes his older brother, Kyle, who was drafted fifth overall in 2012. 

ESPN’s Keith Law wrote in his latest mock draft (subscription required) that the Giants have been connected to Zimmer, and given the team’s lack of outfield prospects—two in its top 20, according to MLB.com—and the USF connection, the fit makes plenty of sense.

Tyler Beede

Though the Giants won’t say whether they’ll go with a hitter or pitcher to open the draft, the safe bet is to assume they’ll go after the latter.

For one, they’ve had tons of success drafting starters in the first round—Tim Lincecum, Matt Cain, Madison Bumgarner—and they also drafted a hitter last year, which would make a second consecutive pitcher-free first round all the more unlikely for a team that prides itself on homegrown pitching talent.

It’s somewhat of a shot in the dark to make any type of prediction here because the first 13 picks will dictate whom the Giants select, but in terms of best fit and someone who could realistically fall to San Francisco at this spot, Vanderbilt’s Tyler Beede makes a lot of sense.

The Toronto Blue Jays drafted Beede in the 2011 MLB draft, but he turned them down in favor of pitching three years at college. After a rocky first season, the 6’4″ right-hander put it all together during his sophomore year, posting a 14-1 record with a 2.32 ERA and just 64 hits allowed in 101 innings. He hasn’t found the same success this year (8-7, 3.20 ERA), but the tools are there, and so is the potential.

Beede generally sits in the low 90s, but he can reach back for a little extra and reach the high 90s if needed. He’s also a big guy, which speaks well for his durability, and his changeup features a big speed difference from his fastball, making it a tough pitch to hit—if Beede can control it.

Grant Holmes

Holmes is perhaps the most popular pick for the Giants in the first round, with Law projecting him to land with the Giants in all three versions of his mock draft.

One of Holmes’ biggest draws is his already-developed repertoire. He has a strong fastball that sits in the low-to-mid 90s but can also reach the upper levels, and his power curveball often touches the mid-80s.

Holmes is also very similar in many respects to Tim Lincecum, in the sense that both can ratchet up the velocity despite lacking the frame typically seen from high-velocity pitchers. The move worked out for the Giants the first time, as they got two Cy Young seasons and World Series victories out of it.

Given Holmes’ high upside and his impressive arsenal of pitches, it wouldn’t be surprising to see the Giants go after him on Thursday.

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San Francisco Giants third baseman Pablo Sandoval hit a solo home run in the sixth inning of Thursday’s game against the St. Louis Cardinals to extend his RBI streak to nine games. Per Alex Pavlovic of the San Jose Mercury News, no Giant has pieced together an RBI streak that long since Barry Bonds also knocked in a run in nine consecutive games during the 2000 season.

Sandoval’s streak is no fluke full of sacrifice flies and RBI groundouts, as he’s been a dominant force at the plate over the last nine games. During the streak, he has five home runs and a .419 batting average, with eight runs and a whopping 14 RBI.

Known to many as “Kung-Fu Panda,” Sandoval created quite a bit of buzz before the season when it was discovered that he’d lost a significant amount of weight. Known for his large frame as much as his free-swinging approach, he was hoping that his improved fitness would play off in a contract year.

He then got off to a surprisingly terrible start, finishing April with just two home runs and a .177/.262/.302 slash line. That line actually fell to .173/.250/.276 by May 10, before Sandoval turned things around with a three-hit game against the Los Angeles Dodgers May 11. He’s now recorded a hit in 18 of his last 19 games, and six of his eight home runs this season have come in the last 11 contests.

As awful as he was earlier this season, Sandoval heads into Friday’s game against the Cardinals carrying a respectable .247/.300/.428 slash line. While the torrid pace obviously can’t continue for long, Sandoval owns a .294/.347/.473 line for his career, so his numbers should only continue to go up from here.

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As weird as it may sound, lucky cowboy boots could help explain how the San Francisco Giants‘ Pablo Sandoval has turned things around this season.

Sandoval was below the Mendoza line through the early part of May, but he has bumped that average up substantially recently. He has hit .429 with four home runs and 11 RBI during his current six-game hitting streak.

The hot streak could be linked to cowboy boots. Giants pitcher Madison Bumgarner gave the third baseman two pairs of boots—one for the dugout to bring good luck and one to wear. 

Check out “Cowboy Panda”:

Sandoval went 2-for-4 on both Sunday and Monday, so he should take good care of the boots to keep the luck going.

At 32-19, the Giants own the best record in Major League Baseball. San Francisco fans have to be hoping that the boots turn into something as special as the beards the Boston Red Sox sported on their way to the World Series title last season.

[Mercury News, h/t FOX Sports]

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At this point in the season, the San Francisco Giants are rolling.

The biggest issue so far?  Hunter Pence having his scooter stolen. 

At 32-19, the G-Men have the best record in baseball.  Third baseman Pablo Sandoval is finally clicking at the plate, the bullpen is lights-out and the starting rotation is coming together. 

So why write a piece, with everything going so well, about who to get rid of?

Sandoval is the most talked-about candidate, but he remains the Giants’ best option at third base.  Despite his paltry .239 batting average, Sandoval is just breaking out of his early-season slump.  He was the bright spot in an 8-4 loss to the Chicago Cubs on Monday.

In that matchup, Sandoval drove in three runs and went yard.  On the season, he’s posted a solid .413 slugging percentage as well.

The Kung-Fu Panda also has five home runs and 12 RBI in his last eight games.  He’s a young player, and an early-season slump shouldn’t be held against him. 

The Giants have demonstrated so much patience with Sandoval in the past that it’s hard to believe they’d trade him away at this point. 

Additionally, the Giants are considering extending Sandoval’s contract.  Fox Sports’ Ken Rosenthal writes, “As I reported on Saturday’s pregame show on FOX Sports 1, the Giants aren’t ruling out keeping third baseman Pablo Sandoval, even though the team’s contract negotiations with him currently are on hold.”

Rosenthal wrote that piece on May 13, back when Sandoval was batting south of the .200 mark.  Now, he’s finally finding his footing at the plate.

On the pitching front, Ryan Vogelsong has rebounded since making a minor mechanical adjustment.  He’s lowered his ERA to 3.20. 

And the Giants have a bevy of young arms waiting in the wings: Kyle Crick, Clayton Blackburn and Edwin Escobar, to name a few.  General manager Brian Sabean signed Tim Hudson to bridge the gap between this season and the future in order to give those young arms more time to develop. 

In the outfield, the Giants can’t afford to trade any of their starters (Angel Pagan, Hunter Pence and Michael Morse).  Morse also steps in to play first base while Brandon Belt recovers from injury.  Tyler Colvin, Juan Perez and Gregor Blanco have made appearances off the bench, but they are downgrades from the starting three. 

The Giants have struggled to put together a solid everyday outfield.  Now, they finally have one.  Morse has an exceptional line of .280/.339/.542 with 12 doubles and 10 home runs.  He’s been the guy the Giants were hoping for.  Pence has an equally impressive .289/.363/.463 line, and Pagan is the go-to leadoff hitter.  Now that he’s healthy this season, Pagan is enjoying a line of .315/.359/.438.  He also has 10 stolen bases.

In the infield, Brandon Crawford is the guy at shortstop, and Brandon Hicks is emerging as a solid second-base option in place of the injured Marco Scutaro.  The Giants have also demonstrated patience with regard to Belt as their first baseman of the future. Before hitting the disabled list, the slugger was finally slugging. 

At the plate, Buster Posey is untradeable, and Hector Sanchez is a solid backup option.  After struggling last season, Sanchez is rediscovering his game, with 17 RBI and six doubles on the year already. 

To improve upon last season’s debacle, the Giants needed to add pieces—not subtract them.  And that’s what they did, signing Michael Morse and Tim Hudson in the offseason.  Both signings have proved successful so far.  

It’s foolish to say no trades will occur at all as the season progresses.  Depending on whether the offense continues to produce or whether the rotation needs another arm to push for a playoff run, time will tell.  

And if a trade does occur, Sabean will probably reach into his farm-system pocket.  He has a history of doing so. In 2011, he traded star pitching prospect Zack Wheeler for Carlos Beltran, who ended up being a one-season rental player. 

But right now, the Giants aren‘t broken.  They don’t need to be fixed. 

Maybe this is too much of a glass-half-full outlook, but why mess with a winning formula?  Why second- and third-guess a lineup that’s working?  The Giants are all about chemistry, and the chemistry’s clicking. 

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With the 2014 MLB draft less than three weeks away, it’s time to take a look at who the San Francisco Giants should target and which players could end up in the team’s farm system by season’s end.

Thanks to the Giants’ 76-86 record last season, they’ll pick 14th in the draft, which gives them an excellent shot at cashing in on the abundance of pitching talent available early in the draft.

Here are a few of the realistic targets who could be on the Giants’ radar in the first round:

Jeff Hoffman

Originally slated to be a top-five pick, Hoffman is a tall right-hander coming out of East Carolina. He possesses top-of-the-rotation stuff and has a chance to make a serious impact in the majors.

Hoffman’s draft stock fell after it was announced in early May that he would require Tommy John surgery to fix a tear in his right elbow. Though that’s obviously a huge setback for the right-hander, the Giants could certainly use that to their advantage by snagging Hoffman if he falls to them.

Interestingly, ESPN’s Keith Law wrote in his mock draft (subscription required) that the Giants wouldn’t pass up Hoffman, which means it’s only a matter of him falling as far as the 14th pick.

Sean Reid-Foley

A right-hander coming out of Sandalwood High School in Jacksonville, Fla., Reid-Foley has put up dizzying numbers this year, even for a prep pitcher. He’s struck out 120 batters in 65.2 innings, allowing 17 hits—just under one every four innings—and cut his walk total by more than half of last season’s.

The reports on Reid-Foley’s repertoire differ among draft experts. MLB.com’s Jim Callis writes that Reid-Foley “commands four solid-or-better offerings,” while an ESPN scouting report states that his lack of a quality third pitch is what is keeping him from being among the very top prospects in the first round.

Solid repertoire or not, there’s no doubt that Reid-Foley’s fastball is good enough to handle big league hitters, and coupled with a slider that could top out as an above-average pitch in the majors, he stands as a solid option in a draft with plenty of deep pitching. It’s worth noting that Reid-Foley would likely be a top prep arm in any other draft, which could make him a steal for a team with a mid-first round pick, like the Giants.

Grant Holmes

Holmes is a 6’2″, 200 pound right-hander coming out of Conway High School in South Carolina, and he’s one of the more high-upside pitchers that you’ll find outside of the top few picks.

Keith Law has Holmes going to the Giants in his first mock draft, and it’s a move that makes sense for a number of reasons. For one, as Law writes, Holmes is a fireballer who is capable of reaching high velocity despite being relatively short. The last time the Giants drafted a pitcher like that, he won a pair of Cy Young awards and helped the team win a pair of championships.

Holmes already has an excellent repertoire, as well. Aside form his aforementioned fastball, which is one of his best weapons, Holmes has a filthy power curveball that touches the mid-80s. He’s quite a developed prospect, and it wouldn’t be surprising to see the Giants go after him.

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The San Francisco Giants are 16-5 this season when facing opponents that have a .500 or better record, which is important to consider when making your MLB picks Tuesday, as they prepare to take on the Atlanta Braves at AT&T Park.

Sports bettors will find that the Giants are plus-100 home underdogs in the pro baseball odds, with the betting total sitting at seven in the market.

Let’s take a closer look at this National League matchup from a betting perspective, while offering a prediction along the way.

Gambling stats via SBR Forum.

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The San Francisco Giants are riding high, with an impressive 24-14 record on the season and a 7-3 record against their NL West division rivals, the Los Angeles Dodgers. 

Here are some bold (or, perhaps, not so bold) predictions as the Giants move forward with the 2014 season. 

First, starting rotation newcomer Tim Hudson will continue his dominance the rest of the year.  The veteran workhorse shows no signs of slowing down. 

As far as the larger picture as it pertains to the pitching staff, the Giants will regain their reputation of stingy starting pitching and even stingier bullpen arms.  The Giants rank fourth in all of MLB in ERA (3.12), and more obscure but possibly more importantly, have only allowed 94 walks, second best in the majors. 

Their WHIP is a deadly 1.19.  

Parts of the starting rotation are struggling (Tim Lincecum’s 5.55 ERA, Matt Cain’s unfortunate injury), staff ace Madison Bumgarner is pitching like, well, an ace and Ryan Vogelsong appears to have fixed a mishap in his mechanics in his past few starts.  

These are all good signs, as the Giants offense continues to improve but remains inconsistent.  With first baseman Brandon Belt out with a broken thumb, key members of the Giants lineup need to stop slumping and start producing. 

Which brings us to our next slew of predictions…

First, Belt will have his first 20-plus home run season.  Considering he’s already hit nine and showed no signs of slowing down until his injury, that might not sound like such a bold prediction.  And, Belt came close in 2013, crushing 17.  But that’s not enough for a player with so much power-upside.  Mark it: this’ll be the season Belt surpasses the 20 home run mark, and quite possibly by a landslide. 

Other G-men, such as Hunter Pence, Michael Morse and Buster Posey also have the ability to surpass the 20+ home run mark this season.  

Another positive prediction: Posey will contend for a batting title and MVP award again. He’s already lifted his average to .306, and has an overall line of .306/.403/.492 this season.  

And, he’s added seven home runs.  The Giants probably won’t sustain the power tear they are currently on, but should rank in the top half of the league in home runs.   

Sadly, while the Giants have been playing exceptional baseball straight out of the gate this year, it can’t be all roses and sunshine in 2014.  

Third baseman Pablo Sandoval is looking to have another up-and-down season.  He’s slumping already—batting an almost inexcusable .189, but don’t expect a Sandoval trade, at least not this season.  The Giants simply don’t have enough infield depth and they have faith Sandoval can produce, at least more than any current alternatives.  

Let’s save any postseason talk until we get closer to the All-Star break, but given how the Giants are playing, they are definite contenders in the NL West.  However, the Colorado Rockies are surging and the Dodgers are obviously dangerous.  

Still, all signs are pointing to a rebound season for the San Francisco Giants. 

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