Giants ready to sweep! Get 2 new relievers.

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GIANTS 2 - DODGERS 1

Times are changing for the Giants.

Over the last 3 years the Giants Couldn't beat the Dodgers.  Hell, earlier in the season they couldn't beat the Dodgers.

All that is changing.

Last week the Giants took 2 out of 3 from the Bums and yesterday they clinched the series win with their 2nd win in a row over the Dodgers.  This team is almost a completely different team than the one that played the Dodgers earlier in the season.  That team didn't have Torres starting, Freddy Sanchez was on the DL, Buster Posey was playing in AAA, and Pat Burrell was DHing for the Tampa Bay Rays.

Burrell and Posey were the big contributers offensively.  Barry Zito and Denny Bautista, and Guillermo Mota had combined for 8 innings of one run ball.  But it was looking like one of those early season Giants games.  Where the starter would give up 1 run and the anemic Giants offense wouldn't be able to muster any runs.

Then Hong Chih Kuo hit Buster Posey.

Buster was the third batter the Dodgers hit yesterday.  The Giants reacted calmly.  Instead of getting their pitcher and manager ejected from the game they sent Pat the bat Burrell up to the plate to face Jonathan Broxton who had come in to relieve Kuo.  After a pretty good battle Burrell deposited a 3-2 pitch into the left field seats for a 2-1 lead that Mota was able to protect in the 9th.

Turnaround complete.

As for the trade deadline:

The Giants failed to acquire a bat of any kind.  Around the 7th inning of yesterday's game people were questioning that since it appeared the Giants were preparing to be shut out again.  We all know what happened but it was almost like fate slapping Brian Sabean in the face for not getting a hitter.  The Giants think they can win as constructed and they have shown over the last month that their is no reason to doubt them.

What the Giants did do was get two middle relievers.  Javier Lopez from the Pirates and Ramon Ramirez from the Red Sox. 

The Giants might overpaid a little bit for Lopez giving up both Joe Martinez and John Bowker.  Then again they might not have not have because despite stellar minor league numbers neither have been very successful at the major league level.

The Giants gave up AA pitching prospect Daniel Turpin for Ramirez.  I don't know too much about Turpin other than he was 5-5 with a 4.09 ERA this season.

The bullpen has been a concern for this team and appears to be the weakest link right now. Lopez seems to be a lefty specialist and Ramirez seems to be more of a rightly guy.  So it seems like we picked up a couple of situational guys and will be overflowing with lefties once  Runzler and Affeldt get back.

At this point it seems like the trade deadline ranks as about a C-.  The Giants filled a need with a couple of marginal guys and they may have overpaid while doing it.  As a matter of fact the only way they don't overpay for this deal is if Bowker turns into Armando Rios instead of Garrett Jones.

Cain Fails

ASTROS 7 - GIANTS 5

It's tough to figure out what to make of this series. 

The Giants lost 2 out of three to the worst team in the National League.  Their offense looked lost at times, but last night they managed to scrape together 5 runs.  Matt Cain had his shortest outing of the season allowing 7 runs in 2 2/3 innings.

Are the Giants a team that isn't very good?  Did the law of averages finally catch up to them?  Is the Giants pitching staff in trouble?

The Giants at this point in the season are just pretty good.  They aren't a great team.  Sure they have great starting pitching but beyond that they are mediocre at best.  The offense is at times terrible and at times pretty good.  There are a few guys in the bullpen who are somewhat reliable and there are a couple of guys who have just been disasters.   Brian Wilson has been pretty much lights out closing games, but lately the Giants have had trouble getting the lead to Wilson in the first place.

The law of averages did catch up to the Giants a little bit here.  On Monday the Giants won their 9th game in a row against the Astros dating back to last season.  The Astros had to beat the Giants sometime.  Sure, it would have been nice for a season sweep of the Astros but those are rare and 7-2 against a team over an entire season would fall under the category of domination.

The pitching staff will be fine.  Again, it's a little bit of the law of averages here.  Barry Zito has been pretty much lights out against the Astros in his career so a rough outing against them was inevitable.  Cain had been lights out against everybody recently so he was due for a little correction too.  Plus he may just have trouble against Houston or trouble pitching in Houston.  In his fist start of the season, Cain gave up 4 runs in 6 2/3 innings which, up until last night was his second worst outing of the season.  He had a no decision in that game and the Giants eventually won 10-4

So you can see how tough it is to gauge much from this series because it does not necessarily reflect how the Giants may be playing but it was just something that was going to happen sooner or later.

Some notes from the game:

Aaron Rowand was 3 for 3 so he will be starting for the next week I am sure.  He could have been 0 for 10 last night however and would have still started tomorrow against Tim Wakefield whom he owns an impressive .647 average against.  Overall against Wakefield he is 11 for 17 with 4 home runs and a double.   As bad as Rowand has been lately those kind of career numbers against a guy demand that he plays against him.

Edgar Renteria had 2 more hits last night.  If this guy keeps hitting like this all season then the Giants will be extremely happy.  Hopefully he can make us forget last year.  Also hopefully it doesn't earn him a 2 year contract extension.

Pat Burrell hit another homer.

Bruce Bochy has stated that Buster Posey will catch at least once a week.  This is good news and it probably mean that he will be catching Joe Martinez.  Or, hopefully, Madison Bumgarner but at this point it seems pretty likely that J.Mart will get the start on Saturday.  Madbum is scheduled to start tonight in Fresno so if he doesn't pitch tonight it may be a good indication on who starts Saturday.

Nate watch:

Nate wasted away a little more on the bench.  Rowand's 3 for 3 day almost guaranteed he won't get another start for at least a week unless someone gets hurt.

The Giants do have the parts to make a deal

The Giants are 37-28 and .5 a game back of the Dodgers and Padres for the NL West and Wild Card leads.  They are playing pretty god ball right now, in fact they are playing better ball than anybody in the National League right now except for the Mets.

The Giants have the pitching to get them into the playoffs and possibly pretty deep.  Their offense is OK as it is currently constructed but they have one glaring hole.  A big time power hitter in the middle of their lineup. 

I don't mean a Pat Burrell who through his career has been lucky to post an average above .260 and has struggled in recent seasons.  I don't mean Aubrey Huff who, while hitting a couple balls into McCovey cove, has only hit 34 homers in his best season and that was 7 years ago.  Nor Juan Uribe who had a career high of 23 way back in 2004.

No the Giants need a guy who can hit a lot of homers and drive in a bunch of runs.  There is a guy who should be available out there since his GM has already said his team is open for business and should be the only guy, besides maybe a bullpen arm, that the Giants should be targeting.

That guy is Paul Konerko.

Konerko is that prototypical power hitter.  He averages 32 homeruns a season,  He hits for a decent average .278 over his career, and he is consistently healthy averaging 581 PA a season over his career.  These are all things that make him easily the best option out there.

There are some obstacles to getting Konerko to SF however. 

1. He has a not trade clause.
2. He is owed approximately $7 million the rest of this season.
3. The White Sox are going to want some pretty good prospects in return.

The Giants are probably going to negotiate some kind of contract extension with Konerko to waive his no trade clause.  Which would be good for the Giants because in order for them to give up some of the prospects they will probably have to give up to get him they would want to get more than 2 months out of him.   $7 million over the rest of this season probably isn't too much money for a team willing to throw millions of dollars at guys like Aaron Rowand, Edgar Renteria, and Mark DeRosa to not even get on the field.

After that is the toughest part.  Do the Giants have the prospects to pull the deal off?  Can they pull the deal off and keep Madison Bumgarner, Buster Posey, Tim Lincecum, Matt Cain, and Jonathan Sanchez?

I think they do.

The Giants farm system is loaded with prospects.  One of the top organizations in all of baseball.  It is particularly full of young arms which the White Sox will be looking for in any kind of trade.  Let's take a look.

Starting in San Jose with the Giants single A affiliate which has won a record 6 straight California league first half championships:

The top prospect here has to be Brandon Belt.  Brandon was taken in the 5th round last season and has done nothing but hit since joining San Jose.  He is hitting .393 with 8 homeruns and 57 RBIs.  He is only 22 so his power numbers should increase as he gets older. Next would be 2B Jose Flores .353 average.  and OF Juan Perez .324, 7HR, 36 RBI
Pitching Wise San Jose has: Craig Wescott 5-0, 1.55, and Justin Fitzgerald 5-0, 3.00

AA Richmond has: OF Thomas Neal .280, 4 HR, 31 RBI, RHP Daryl Maday 8-2, 2.02RHP David Mixon 7-3 3.08

AA Augusta has: 1B Luke Anders .293 8HRs, Christopher Dominguez .264, 10 HRs, 43 RBIs, LF Nick Liles .298 13 SBs, and RHP Jorge Bucardo 6-2 1.57

AAA Fresno has: OF Tyler Graham .407 14SBs, OF John Bowker .400 5hrs in just 12 games, 2B Eugenio Velez .345 17 SBs, 1B Brett Pill .303 9 HRs 43 RBIs, Joe Borchard .287 7 HRs, RHP Eric Hacker 8-3 3.91, RHP Joe Martinez, who is now up with the Giants, 5-2 5.07, Steve Edlefsen 5-0 1.54

So as you can see, the Giants have a bunch of prospects and they can land a guy like Konerko while keeping their best prospects.  Actually, if they can sign Konerko to a 3 year extension before a trade can be worked out, it may actually be worth it to trade a guy like Bumgarner for Konerko.  I know it wouldn't be a very popular move, but given the availability of proven Power hitters these days it just may take a super prospect like Bumgarner to land Konerko.

A disappointing night

Orioles 4 - Giants 1

Not a lot went right for the Giants tonight.

They faced a pitcher making his second start of his career and were only able to muster 3 lousy hits off him.  They weren't able to get a single hit off the Oriole relievers since Arrietta left them so confounded.  The Giants performance prompted Orioles closer David Hernandez to tell the media: "No offense to the Giants, but they don't have the Yankee firepower," Hernandez said. "I think that enabled him to go out there and pretty much pitch his game. He definitely has the quality stuff to do that." when asked about Arrietta's performance. 

Spot starter Joe Martinez pitched OK.  He just happened to be pitching on the wrong night.  If he had pitched on any of the last 5 nights and had the exact same numbers, he would have received a W for his efforts.  The giants got exactly what they wanted from Martinez tonight.  They wanted a starter to pitch relatively deep into the game and to keep it close.  In fact, if it wasn't for a few bad breaks, Martinez should have walked away with a W.

The only offensive positive was the fact that Pablo Sandoval hit his 6th homerun of the season.  It appears Pablo is heating up as that was 2nd homerun in the last 4 games.  I know a lot has been made of Pablo's struggles but consider this:  Last season, through June 1, Pablo was hitting .301 with 3 HRs.  This season, he was hitting .286 with 4 homers.  He was only hittng 15 points higher coming in to June lst year than he is this year.  In June, he hit .394 with eight HRs!  Now he hasn't quite matched that production so far this June, but he's showing signs of heating up and his track record shows that he hits in the summer months.

Bruce Bochy never ceases to amaze me.  The San Jose Mercury News reports that Bochy didn't want Posey catching Martinez tonight because:  “if it’s going good, you don’t’ fix it.” Added Bochy: “You keep playing your hand if it’s a good one. We want to keep things pretty much the same, and hopefully we’ll keep scoring some runs.” 

I'm not sure how putting Molina in the lineup, after a game in which the Giants scored 10 runs for the first time in forever, can tell us that:   A. Bengie Molina is a "hot hand" or B. Molina contributed at all to the offensive outburst last night. Now Whiteside was 0 for 1 but he did score 2 of the 10 runs last night.  Although I guess Bochy has been preaching the "hot hand" all season long he's not gonna stop now.

On the farm:

Look at this kid: 

Does he strike you as someone who as a guy who is hitting a Bondsian .394 with 8 homeruns and a .509 OBP? 

No? 

Well he is.

Who is he?  Well that's Brandon Belt.  He is currently the first baseman of the San Jose Giants who just captured the California League North 1st half division title.   He was the Giants 5th round pick last season and is hitting better than even Buster Posey did in San Jose.

In more encouraging future San Francisco Giants news Madison Bumgarner won his seventh consecutive decision.  After limiting Portland to 2 runs in 6 innings.  John Bowker hit another homerun and Tyler Graham collected 2 hits to raise his average to .407.  Edgar Renteria, in his rehab assignment, went 2 for 2 with 2 RBIs. 

Nate watch:

Nate rotted on the bench some more tonight.  Travis Ishikawa was going to pinch hit for Mota and then Aaron Rowand pinch hit for Ishikawa and wound up getting HBP.