Kuzul

As the Giants head home to face the Oakland Athletics, they look back on a solid roadtrip with a 4-3 record. However, many Giants players and fans saw 5-2 in their sights. However, the weak teams sit and wallow, the strong strive to learn and correct, especially one looking at a possible run to the playoffs. And a lot can be learned from a successful, yet disappointing trip.

The offense, although prolific, was inefficient and wasteful. The Giants on the roadtrip grounded into 10 doubles plays, and it took more than 10.9 hits per game to score 4.7 runs a game. By comparison, it took the Giants’ opponents 9.6 hits per game to score the same amount of runs, 4.7 per game. Similarly, the Giants averaged 4.1 walks per game while opponents averaged 3.0 walks per game. All this boils down to the fact that the Giants hit 16-67 with RISP (.238) leaving 64 men on base. And these stats are being put up against the below average pitching of the Pirates and in the live yard of the Reds.

As we all might start be realizing, the bullpen is completely inconsistent. We have found ourselves a bipolar bullpen with bipolar relievers, who have the ability to be shutdown but only perform to the best of their abilities on some occasions. Through the first five games, Giants’ relievers only surrendered two earned runs in 15 innings, the only two runs on a blown save by Wilson, which was one hung slider away from being perfect. However, in the next two games, the Giant relievers surrendered 10 runs in nine innings, failing to keep the first close and blowing two leads of four and two runs in the second.

Bipolar indeed.

Therefore, the short version of what can be learned from this series is that the potential is there, but we are indeed far from perfecting the Giants’ act. Starting pitching is solid, the offense has increased production, and the bullpen has the potential to be shutdown dominant.

But we need to simplify the gameplan.

More focus needs to be put into playing small ball, just getting the run home. The Giants only had four sacrifice flies, less than half the number of double plays, and these were all in one game! Similarly, when a team hits into 10 double plays in a seven game set, maybe a sacrifice bunt here and there should be considered. If “Bam Bam” Muelens is supposed to be the savior of the Giants offense, then teach the team the basics of a professional at-bat.

When considering the issues facing the bullpen, it becomes the job of Dave Raghetti and Bruce Bochy to find a system that works. With the emergence of Santiago Cassilla and the decline of Jeremy Affeldt, there needs to be some restructuring. Similarly, it seems as though Bochy has an issue pulling relievers in tight situations. Although it can be argued that he needed innings, he had enough fresh relievers to consider at least a change out of Bautista or Mota when they were struggling so very mightily.

All in all, it seems as though the Giants are just a couple of steps away from the great team they will need to be to find a playoff spot in the very tough NL West. As we can see, just a couple of improvements makes what was a good road trip fantastic, which can be translated over the rest of the season.

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Manager Bruce Bochy and the boys have kicked around some ideas that they hope will spark the San Francisco Giants’ lifeless attack.

“We keep trying things and see if we can get something clicking here,” Bochy said after the Giants were shut out for the second straight game in the process of being swept by the A’s in Oakland.

Bochy and the rest actually have come up with what are being called major changes: a big shake up of the lineup and the batting order.

The big changes to the batting order result in making room for Edgar Renteria to take back his job at shortstop.

And?

That’s it! The big change in the batting order results in Renteria returning to play shortstop and bat second.

Oh, Andres Torres is going to hit lead-off and play right field. The 32-year-old outfielder has been in the starting lineup for 14 of the last 15 games. He’s been on a hot streak, too, raising his average to .282 with two home runs and 12 RBI.

The Giants are 5-10 since Torres got hot and started playing every day.  It’s unclear how much more he can do and how things will change now that he’s the everyday right fielder, rather than an everyday outfielder.

The Giants don’t have the available talent to just rearrange the batting order or tweak the lineup and expect magic to happen.

Renteria is the only player who’ll be in the lineup now who hasn’t been in the lineup during the 5-10 stretch that gave the Los Angeles Dodgers a chance to blast past the Giants in the National League West.

Torres will replace centerfielder Aaron Rowand in the lead-off spot.  Torres will bat first in every game, then bat right after the pitcher for the remainder of his plate appearances.

Anyone really think that’s going to open the flood gates and start runs pouring across the plate?

The lineup changes have, in most cases, actually been mentioned here before.

Pablo Sandoval is likely moving to first base to open a spot for Juan Uribe’s bat in the infield. With Renteria healthy, the Giants need to put Uribe at third base. He’s sizzling with the stick, batting .290 in his last 13 games.

It’s unclear why the Giants would move all-star second baseman Freddy Sanchez to third base to allow Uribe to play second base.  That seems like a move that weakens the club defensively at two spots.  Regardless, the Lineup Tweak 2.0 simply results in an infield of Sandoval, Sanchez, Renteria and Uribe.

That would be an infield that would really help a batting order with a real power hitter
—and the Sandoval we saw tear the National League up a year ago. Instead, that infield has the heart of the Giants attack.

Bengie Molina got older really, really fast. The catcher is 2-for-19 and hasn’t driven in a run since May 5. The “Big Money” nickname no longer applies to the 35-year-old.

Torres and Aaron Rowand will play the outfield with relentlessly willing, team-oriented veteran Aubrey Huff moving to left field. It’s too bad that Mark DeRosa has no experience behind the plate. When he does return to test his injured wrist, he’ll bump somebody from this new and improved lineup.

Huff, like Rowand, should be a complimentary player in a lineup filled with gifted hitters. Instead, the Giants need Huff to produce runs.  Huff’s hitting .263 with runners in scoring position and all four of his home runs came with the bases empty.

Rowand’s numbers compare almost identically to the numbers he posted when he was helping the Chicago White Sox and Philadelphia Phillies to championship seasons. There’s no reason for fans to expect him to do more simply because the Giants signed him to a rich, five-year deal.

So, yeah…the Giants are making big changes. Renteria and Torres at the top of the order. Huff in left field.

Boom goes the dynamite.

One fan lamented that the Giants are showing signs of panic—specifically that there’s still a lot of baseball be played and that there’s no reason to make big changes.

Big changes?

Bochy’s just doing what he can with the talent he has and, probably, is wondering exactly what Buster Posey needs to do in Fresno to prove he has mastered Triple-A ball sufficiently to convince general manager Brian Sabean to bring him to San Francisco.

So, just another critique of Bochy, right?

Wrong.

What’s the guy going to do when he’s gone through three right-fielders, can’t get the club’s best Triple-A hitter to the big leagues, and is left to tinker with a group of complimentary players who’ve never really shown they’re in position to spark a truly productive offense?

It can’t get worse, though, right?

Wrong.

Imagine if Sandoval is, gulp, a .282 hitter who doesn’t hit the long ball? What if last year was…an aberration?

For now, the Giants need to focus on the big changes they’ve made.

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

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It’s official. After a 1-0 loss to the Oakland A’s, the Giants should be in panic mode when it comes to upgrading the offense. Aaron Rowand isn’t cutting it at leadoff (though this isn’t exactly “surprising” news) and for whatever reason, Pablo Sandoval has suddenly transformed from budding-Vlad Guerrero to budding-Randall Simon. Add that with Bengie Molina starting to cool off and things don’t look good for the Giants and their playoff aspirations.

That being said, despite the Giants desperate (and I mean, “Elizabeth Berkley needing an actress role” desperate) need for offense, they should pass on the following five players who are available and could come at low-cost, but are too much of a risk to acquire.

(Note: to see the original article, check it out at http://remember51.blogspot.com/)

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If you haven’t heard them before, you should definitely start to hear them now.

Todd Wellemeyer’s latest debacle on the mound has many San Francisco Giants fans pining (even louder) for the promotion of top pitching prospect Madison Bumgarner.

After a spring training stint that was about as absurd as the new immigration law in Arizona, Bumgarner is once again turning heads with the Fresno Grizzlies, and it might be wise for GM Brian Sabean to strike while the iron is hot.

Those who have been following Bumgarner know that his start to the 2010 season was laughable.

In Scottsdale, the highly touted prospect looked more like a fish out of water, consistently flopping and floundering on the mound. Through seven innings pitched in spring training, Bumgarner struggled mightily, allowing five runs, seven walks, and eight hits. 

Things did not get any better for Bumgarner down in Fresno early in the season. His fastball had apparently lost its infamous zip, and batters were making this Top-50 prospect look vastly overrated.

Bumgarner started off his first month in Triple-A getting lit like a Christmas tree. In his first two starts, he thrashed around for seven innings, giving up 11 runs, 21 hits, and only striking out six. For the entire month of April, he put together a miserable 6.50 ERA, a 1-1 record, and a 1.89 WHIP.

As of late, however, something has clicked back into place for Bumgarner, and he is quickly transforming back into the formidable pitcher that fans were once dying to see pitch in San Francisco.

So far in the month of May, Bumgarner is mowing down opponents. Through four starts, he is posting a remarkable 1.50 ERA with a much more respectable 7.5 K/9 and 0.92 WHIP.

Unfortunately, the same cannot be said about Wellemeyer.

This past month, Wellemeyer has been getting pummeled. Through 19.2 innings pitched, he has given up 11 earned runs, posting a horrid 5.03 ERA and a 1.40 WHIP.

But is it too soon to call up the rather inexperienced Bumgarner to replace the consistently inconsistent Wellemeyer?

As easy as it is to say yes, now could be a better time than any to throw this young pitching prospect into the fire.

Bumgarner certainly could not do any worse than Wellemeyer’s current production, plus a call-up would allow this young pitcher to gain valuable major league pitching experience. 

As he has shown in his last few starts, Bumgarner is maturing into the elite pitcher that scouts and experts have been labeling him with since his first round selection in the 2007 MLB Draft.

Bringing up Bumgarner also allows Wellemeyer to fix whatever is wrong with him down in Fresno rather than getting knocked around every fifth day in the Bigs.

The escalation of Bumgarner’s advancement might be sooner than most would hope, but the opportunity to make a change is persistently presenting itself, and the future could be now for this potential MLB star. 

Article originally published on The McCovey Cove Splash

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Sooner or later, the revisionist sharks will begin circling one of their favorite pieces of bait, San Francisco Giant general manager Brian Sabean.

My guess is that they’ve already started and the first bite is only a matter of time.

For whatever reason, there’s always a strong chorus of anti-Sabean sentiment heard rumbling in the background of the Bay Area. Despite being the longest tenured GM in Major League Baseball and steering Los Gigantes through some of their most prosperous days since moving to the City, the bellyaching never fails to start at the first sign of trouble.

It doesn’t matter if San Francisco is enjoying a good season overall or if the club is beating industry-wide expectations, heaven forbid they should lose a couple games in a row or fall into an extended hitting slump (as all professional teams eventually do).

Worse yet, let one of Sabean’s acquisitions falter or a player he shipped away catch fire.

Then the cheap shots—conveniently aimed using hindsight—start flying with abandon.

Well, it’s time to get your abandon ready because Sabean’s latest maneuver is superficially backfiring.

On the surface, it looks as if the decision to jettison Fred Lewis to the Toronto Blue Jays for future considerations might become one of Sabes’ biggest blunders in recent memory.

His skeptics will tell you that’s quite an accomplishment in the wrong direction.

They’ll point to the raw data and leave out the inconvenient details. Instead of telling the whole story, the second-guessers will cite his .284 BA, .323 OBP, .457 SLG, .780 OPS, 19 R, 12 2B, and 13 RBI in 28 games with Canada’s lone Major League rep as definitive proof that the Giants need new leadership.

The only problem is that their line of reasoning is complete and utter trash. Other than that, though, they’ve got an argument.

Part of the problem is driven by the increasing obsession with fantasy sports and the numerical fascination it engenders. Some amateur Sabermetricians will tell you that OPS is the only thing that matters. If the ballplayer is getting on base and hitting for good power, the most significant bar for playing time has been cleared.

Consequently, the rallying cry for Fast Freddy was always “look at his OPS, look at his OPS.”

That’s fine and all in the fantasy world, but real-world baseball must consider other minor facets of the game like situational hitting, developing baserunning acumen if it’s not instinctual, and…what was that last one?

Oh yeah, defense.

Somewhere in there, the argument for keeping Lewis in a Gent uniform disintegrates into trace vapors.

One detail the anti-Sabeans will be sure to omit is that Fab Five Freddy has whiffed a staggering 35 times against five walks in 125 plate appearances. I can’t blame you if you don’t like fractions, so I’ll do the heavy lifting—that’s more than one K in every four trips to the dish.

Yikes.

No Big League manager can trust a guy who fails to make contact that often in a situational at-bat.

Of course, the situational stuff matters less when your lineup boasts a designated hitter and is near the top of the MLB leaderboards for most offensive categories. Both apply to Toronto while neither applies to the Orange and Black.

In other words, the 29-year-old left fielder fits the American League profile much better than he does the National League’s. He most certainly won’t work in an offense that relies on manufacturing runs as San Fran’s must.

There’s also the matter of Fast Freddy’s baserunning—you’ll notice he’s swiped three bases and been caught twice.

That shouldn’t happen, not with Lewis’ speed. He simply doesn’t run the bases well; he doesn’t get good jumps and he doesn’t read the ball of the bat. The otherwise glaring deficiency is masked by an impressive natural gift.

Again, this is a minor flaw in an otherwise dangerous asset.

Again, these minor flaws become debilitating in a mediocre-to-anemic batting order.

Nevertheless, the most crippling weakness demonstrated by Fred Lewis during his time with the Giants was his inability to bring his jaw-dropping athleticism to bear in the field. I can promise you the same people who will want Sabean’s head for exiling Lewis were making the same request in a blue streak whenever Freddy would author one of his patented butcher-jobs in left.

Ah, but the Toronto version of Lewis has been perfect to date with the leather.

Wonderful, maybe the Rogers Centre is an easier field to play and Freddy really isn’t that bad a gloveman. Even if this is the case, it doesn’t change the reality that he obviously couldn’t handle the more treacherous green of AT&T Park despite numerous chances.

Regardless, the real trump card applies whenever a player changes teams.

Often, it’s simply the novel scenery that revitalizes a career.

Either the dude is a square peg in a round franchise or merely can’t relax until the slate of past performance has been wiped clean by a move to a new location with a new fanbase.

Nobody likes to hear that because it’s, as yet, impossible to verify or explain with any degree of certainty.

Yet it’s been demonstrably true over the game’s history.

Fred Lewis is the phenomenon’s latest example.

And it’s not Brian Sabean’s fault.

**www.pva.org**

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The lineup and batting order that makes the most sense for the Giants—and why it makes sense—is of some interest as the club hits San Diego looking to move into first place in the National League West.

1. Aaron Rowand, center field

Rowand’s been more productive in the leadoff spot than he has anywhere in the lineup in his two-plus seasons in San Francisco. Don’t mess with a good thing…unless he goes 0-for-4 and the Padres win 2-1 in the opener.

2. Freddy Sanchez, second base

Not sure why another three, four at-bats in Triple-A are necessary now that he’s made it clear he’s feeling good and swinging well.

3. Aubrey Huff, left field

The guy’s willing to play the outfield, and I’m willing to watch Buster Posey get four ABs a night at first base. (The move is more aimed at taking some heat off Pedro Sandoval.)

4. Bengie Molina, catcher

It doesn’t matter if B-Mo insists he’s a No. 6 hitter on a good team. He’s the most productive run-producer on this Giants team—which, actually, disproves Molina’s theory. He hits well in the four-hole, and the Giants have a good team.

5. Juan Uribe, shortstop

It’d be nice to see him produce on the road like he produces at home.

6. Buster Posey, first base

Posey’s arrival solves the left field problem with Mark DeRosa out. Posey will also see more fastballs here (even if this lineup’s No. 7 hitter is struggling).

As mentioned earlier, the Giants have convinced me that they aren’t sure Posey’s ready to be a full-time big league receiver. (Frankly, sending Travis Ishikawa to Triple-A seems the civil thing to do. He’s a good clubhouse guy, and it’s hard to watch him in the dugout knowing there’s no chance he’ll pinch-hit and no reason to provide defense at first base.)

7. Pablo Sandoval, third base

He’s wondering how the rock star Kung Fu Panda suddenly became a near automatic out. The field microphone picks up the sound of him squeezing sawdust out of the bat handle. The guy’s still “The Man” in San Francisco, but he needs to realize that the fame he seems to relish disappears if he doesn’t produce.

8. Nate Schierholtz, right field

It’s tempting to bump Sanchez into the leadoff spot, with Schierholtz using his speed and ability to hit behind runners in the No. 2 spot. However, Schierholtz has prospered in the eighth spot, and there’s no reason to mess with him…yet. Plus, if I’m a pitcher, I’d rather challenge Sandoval with a fastball than have to pitch to Schierholtz.

(Note: Moving Schierholtz to the second spot was mentioned here weeks ago—great speed, lefty hitter, etc.)

If Sandoval doesn’t start to swing it, Matt Downs could give him a break at third base. Again, don’t know why a kid Sandoval’s age would need a rest in May, but…Downs has done a job with the bat, and he’s a tough guy. Downs has earned a chance to play the middle infield too. He was at shortstop in Fresno when the season started.

Downs has, interestingly, become the guy fans so desperately hoped Kevin Frandsen would become.

Andres Torres can do what he does best—play late-inning defense, provide the big hit out of the blue when the pitching matchup is right, and play outstanding defense at all three outfield spots.

Oh, sure, the lineup is based on Posey’s recall. What to do if he stays in Fresno? Well, then, I’d put Torres in left field platooning with Downs. (Frandsen took fly balls in batting practice for a week and was in left field during a regular season game.) The left field platoon guys would hit No. 8. Schierholtz jumps to No. 7…but that’s not really very exciting, is it?

Don’t think Downs can play left field? He does! He’s got that look of a guy who believes he can do anything—a look the Giants can use in the everyday lineup.

The club is getting close to having an everyday lineup and a potentially serviceable bench.

The Padres will help show how close they are beginning Monday night.

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After the Oakland Raiders traded for the Washington Redskins’ Jason Campbell, the speculation in the swirling rumors of JaMarcus Russell’s imminent demise was replaced with inevitability.

The big man with the even bigger contract was due $9.45 million in the upcoming season and, by all accounts, nothing about the kid warranted rolling the dice when that kind of money was at stake.

And so the axe fell on May 6th, putting Russell firmly in the running for the title of Biggest Bust in the History of the National Football League.

That’s gotta sting.

The news has been fodder for numerous punchlines and snicker-inducing jabs around the country, but it’s not creating as many laughs in the Bay Area. The city across the Bay from the City is, shall we say, displeased.

So, to hopefully lighten the mood of some very disgruntled Oaktown residents and fans (or at least to give them an outlet for anger), I thought it’d be fun to bring the 510’s success story into the fray—the Oakland Athletics.

More than a few Major League Baseball players have been former college quarterbacks so what if the A’s starting pitchers traded rawhide for pigskin?

What current NFL signal-caller does each mound maestro most closely resemble?

Obviously, we’re not talking looks here—I’m a heterosexual man and everyone knows we don’t make aesthetic distinctions when it comes to our fellow fellas. This is strictly about a mix of on-air personality, body of work, age, and a healthy dose of gray area for the sake of convenience.

Or idiocy—you decide…

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In “The 209” they call that pitchin’.

The days leading up to Oakland A’s pitcher Dallas Braden’s perfect game against the Tampa Bay Rays on Sunday—the 19th in MLB history and the first for Oakland since Catfish’s 42 years ago—sure had its fair share of talkin’.

The New York Yankees’ Alex Rodriguez said he didn’t want to extend Braden’s “15 minutes” after continued questions and jawing about the controversy regarding the two players’ baseball etiquette dust-up (mound dirt-up?) last month.

ESPN columnist J.A. Adande essentially called him a nobody on the World Wide Leader’s flagship yammering sports columnist show, “Pardon The Interruption.”

In his interview with Comcast Sports Bay Area’s Mychael Urban four days ago, which re-ignited the A-Rod controversy, Braden said, “We don’t do much talking in the 209.”

Well, today the 26-year-old Stockton native indeed did some walkin’. The best team in baseball, meanwhile, did no walkin’ or hittin’ whatsoever.

In a scenario that would be sappier than a Sandra Bullock movie if it were indeed scripted, Braden accomplished that rarest of baseball feats in front of his grandmother and other family and friends, who were, of course, sitting in Section 209.

The same grandmother who raised Braden after Braden’s mother died of skin cancer while he was still in high school.

Major League Baseball annually raises awareness and money for breast cancer.

Oh yeah, it was also Mother’s Day.

Is it getting dusty yet?

When such moments happen in sports—in real life—they are transcendent. For all those athletes who either disappoint us on the field, or worse, off of it (*cough*Lawrence Taylor*cough*), a story like Braden’s come along to redeem your faith in the enterprise of being a fan.

Hell, maybe it even redeems your faith in humanity and its ability to not only endure, but prevail.

You sit through all those days at the ballpark or arena, watching a disheartening product on the field or court (and, trust me, the A’s have had many of those days the last few years), waiting for a day just like today, one that so overpowers your heart that the long, numbing days you put in to get to that moment fade away and become a distant, irrelevant memory. 

Even putting aside the compelling emotional element of Braden’s accomplishment, his perfecto couldn’t come at a better time. It might be the most important moment for the Oakland Athletics in the Billy Beane Era, bigger even than the record 20-game winning streak in 2002.

A dramatic, top-of-the fold baseball story is just what the Oakland ballclub needs right now. Attendance has petered out to pathetic lows (12,228 was the announced attendance for what would was a lovely day to take mom to the ballpark and, without knowing it, watch history unfold before your eyes).

The A’s are overshadowed by the more successful team across the Bay and winning playoff puck in San Jose. Speaking of San Jose, the Silicon Valley, a Web 2.0 cash-flush suitor, is getting ready to swipe the local professional baseball team away from working-class Oakland, and ownership appears more than happy to give it to them.

In a way, Braden’s comments, perhaps provoked by headline-hungry media, have been valuable in bringing back the rivalry the Yankees and Athletics began to enjoy early last decade. As the A’s playoff appearances dwindled in the latter part of the decade, it was left to teams like the Minnesota Twins and those very same Rays to be the standard bearers for small-market baseball.

Today, though, Braden won another one for the little guy. Maybe, just maybe, that’s enough to develop some momentum that will somehow keep the team in Oakland. Even if that’s a Bay Bridge too far, Braden gave the 510 a late, great memory to take away, courtesy of the 209.

The 12,228 fans at the Coliseum and countless more watching and listening to the game at home can tell their children and grandchildren about the one Mother’s Day when they saw Dallas Braden shut up, put up and simply be perfect. Stockton’s young Dallas showed his arm was equal to the task of his mouth.

27 pinks bats came up. 27 pink bats went down.

Wouldn’t mama be proud?

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The San Francisco Giants are off to a great start in 2010. They have the best record in the National League, and are led by perhaps the best starting rotation in all of baseball.

While the team has a stranglehold on great pitching, their offense is below the league average in most categories. They have grounded into more double plays than any NL team, and have the fewest number of walks of any team in the league other than the Houston Astros.

With the exception of Pablo Sandoval, no hitter on the team strikes fear into opposing pitchers. While their great pitching will keep them competitive all season, if the hitting doesn’t come around, the Giants will have a hard time making the playoffs.

San Francisco has long been mentioned as a possible destination for Brewers’ first baseman Prince Fielder. Fielder was born in California and many have speculated that he could end up playing for a team on the West Coast once he becomes a free agent after the 2011 season.

With the Brewers off to a slow start, trade winds are swirling about the Brewers unloading Fielder before he can exit via free agency, and leave Milwaukee left with nothing in compensation. 

The Giants have the great farm system needed to pry Fielder out of Milwaukee, but would trading for the slugger make them the favorite to represent the NL in the World Series?

Fielder would give the Giants that big bat in the lineup that they are desperately lacking, and they would easily be able to compete against the Cardinals and Phillies for the NL crown. However, how much of their farm system would they have to give up, and would it be worth it to take action this season or would they be better off waiting until after the 2011 season and just sign Fielder as a free agent?

Brewer fans should immediately give up any thoughts of getting Sandoval, Tim Lincecum, or top prospects Buster Posey and Madison Bumgarner from the Giants. Those players are simply untouchable, and they won’t be traded for anyone.

In addition to a great farm system, there are several players on the Giants that could be involved in the trade either on their own or as part of a package.

Travis Ishikawa, Eugenio Velez, and Emmanuel Burriss are all players that are under team control through the 2014 season and could be included with prospects to head to Milwaukee.

Matt Cain and Jonathan Sanchez have each been mentioned in the past as possible trade candidates for the Brewers in exchange for Fielder.

Cain is off to a great start this season. He’s 2-1 with a 2.79 ERA in six starts. He’s struck out 30 and walked only 10 in 38 2/3 innings in 2010. Opposing teams are only hitting .209 against the 25-year-old righty. The Brewers may actually have to include more talent than just Fielder in order to bring him to Milwaukee.

Sanchez has gone from a fringe starter to one of the best left-handed starters in less than a year. Since his no-hitter last year, his confidence has grown immensely, and he’s given the Giants a fourth very good starter. However, with lefty prospect Bumgarner expected to make his debut soon, he may still be expendable for the Giants. 

In 2010, Sanchez is 2-2 with a 2.48 ERA in five starts. He’s struck out 37 batters in only 29 innings. Opponents are hitting a mere .170 this year against the 27-year-old Puerto Rico native. 

Many of the Giants best prospects are at the lower levels of minor league baseball, but their talent may very well be worth waiting for the Brewers.

Zach Wheeler was the top pick for the Giants in last year’s draft. Wheeler was drafted out of high school, and most scouts feel he was more advanced coming out of high school than Bumgarner was.

Dan Runzler is a lefty reliever that made the Giants team out of Spring Training this year. Some feel he could be the eventual successor to Brian Wilson as the team’s closer, or he could be used to help land Fielder. In 12 appearances this year, he’s 1-0 with a 2.19 ERA and has struck out 12 in 12 1/3 innings. 

Thomas Neal is a power-hitting prospect that was taken by the Giants in the 36th round of the 2005 draft. He projects as a middle-of-the-order bat eventually, but he’s still at least a year or two away from making is debut in the majors. 

Other prospects that could be sent to Milwaukee include: outfielder Roger Kieschnick, second baseman Nick Noonan, and outfielders Francisco Peguero and Rafael Rodriguez.

Trading Prince Fielder to the Giants may be the best option for the Brewers’ front office; they have the best combination of major league talent and prospects to help Milwaukee both now and in the future.

Giant fans may not like the thought of giving up a player like Matt Cain or Jonathan Sanchez, but putting Fielder in the middle of the lineup would more than make up for losing either one.

Add to that the realization of being on the same level or better than the Cardinals or Phillies, and the Brewers and Giants would both be wise to become trading partners sooner rather than later. 

To read more by Jesse Motiff, click here . 

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Tim Lincecum can’t seem to catch a break.

In his past two starts, Lincecum was the epitome of the stat “quality starts,” striking out 23 batters through 15.1 innings and only allowing five runs on eight hits. But because of his bullpen, the Freak failed to record a win in over a week.

For the “one game a week” fans, San Francisco’s inability to close out games for Lincecum has created some murmurings that the Giants bullpen could be in trouble.    

While Brandon Medders, Sergio Romo, Jeremy Affeldt, and Brian Wilson have coughed up a few untimely runs in their past few games, the bullpen as a whole is actually one of the best in Major League Baseball.

The Giants’ bullpen has the seventh best ERA in the MLB, allowing only 24 runs and posting an above-average 3.20 ERA. They also rank seventh in hits (67), seventh in home runs allowed (6), and fourth in earned runs (25).

But with the good also comes the bad.

Although Wilson is tied for seventh in the league in saves, the Giants’ save percentage as a team is a middle-of-the-road 63.6 percent. Romo leads the team with four blown saves and two of his last three outings have been shaky.     

With a sweep of the reigning National League Champs in their grasp, Romo failed to lock it up, struggling to keep his pitch count down and runners from crossing the plate. After being saddled with the loss against the Phillies, Romo seemed to be back on track until he served up a home run to Florida’s Dan Uggla in Tuesday’s appearance. 

But with every sub-par performance that Romo and Medders bring to mound, there are also lights-out innings from the likes of Dan Runlzer and Guillermo Mota.

Mota’s 0.87 ERA ranks in the Top 20 amongst pitchers with at least 10 innings pitched. In the month of April he threw 8.1 innings, faced 32 batters, and gave up zero runs. His first hiccup came against Colorado on May 1 in a non-crucial relief appearance.

Runzler has also been nearly mmaculate to start off the season, only allowing runs in one appearance. The three runs allowed to the Padres back in April have inflated his ERA to a modest 2.25, but outside of this one blemish, Runzler’s stuff has been absolute amazing. 

In 12 innings this season, the young prospect has faced 42 batters, struck out 12, given up only one home run, and maintained an outstanding 1.25 WHIP. 

With the Giants starting pitching going deep into almost every game, San Francisco’s bullpen has been used sparingly, which could be a good thing or a bad thing.

Solid starting pitching provides the bullpen with that much needed rest, that ultimately benefits the team further into season. 

On the other hand, too much rest can promote rust on the arms of these relievers, which can create concerns when calling on pitchers in fiery situations. Keeping the arms in the bullpen fresh is a great thing, but making sure they stay sharp is an entirely different issue.

This may lead to a situation like Lincecum’s start against the Phillies, where Bruce Bochy tried to balance the wear and tear of his pitching staff by making the tough decisions to pull the hook.

However, it is still way too early to start freaking out about a few tough innings by certain members of the Giants’ bullpen. San Francisco has several strong arms relieving their starters and these “Pen Heads” have the ability to pick each other up when one in them struggles.

As long as the Giants’ starting pitching continues to dominate, the Bay Area should not have to lean too heavily on or worry too much about their bullpen…at least for now.

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