So close yet so far

Freddy Sanchez was unable to get the ball in a spot where it was uncatchable for one of the few times this season. In fact, it was only because of a tremendous play by Lastings Milledge that the ball didn't fall in for a hit. But the Giants ultimately fell to the Pirates 6-3 behind yet another shaky road start from Todd Wellemeyer.

Bruce Bochy raised some eyebrows before the game when he filled out his lineup card and he had Pablo Sandoval hitting 8th. I guess he was sending a message to his young, free swinging, slugger. Which I have no problem with, but at the same time he lets Bengie Molina, who is in an even bigger slump, continue to hit cleanup!?!?! I'm just going to leave it at that.

Buster Posey got yet another hit and also got some time behind the plate. Why not let Buster bat third? Not sure but I bet it has to do with how he handles the pitching staff.

Pat the Bat began his Giants career as a bench player by starting in left field. He went 1 for 4 which is consistent with his career .250 average!

A few words about everyone's favorite Panda: Don't worry. He is 23 years old. He will work it out. I really believe that his current struggles are more from a mental standpoint than any physical issues. He just needs to mature as a hitter and hone those incredible skills he has.

On the farm:

The Grizzlies defeated the Sacramento River Cats 4-3. Bret Pill hit his 7th homerun of the season and knocked in 3 runs. Tyler Graham went 3 for 3 with a walk and raised his season average to .385. John Bowker and Mark Derosa each went 0 for 4. No word on how Derosa's wrist is feeling.

The Nate report:

Nate finally got a plate appearance. He walked as part of the near rally in the 9th inning. Once again, he illustrated his value to the club by getting on base at a time when they needed baserunners.

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Not the same old Sanchez

I have to admit I was a little worried when the Giants were down 4-0.  Lately 4 runs has been a pipe dream for this Giants team.  However, they came through with the power.  Aubrey Huff, Juan Uribe, and Eli Whiteside all busted out their woopin sticks and went long.  Even Aaron Rowand got into the action by grounding into yet another double play.  This time though Buster Posey was on third base and he scored on the play.  Even though he didn't get credit for an RBI, Aaron Rowand did get to add another GIDP to his total!

It also looked like Jonathan Sanchez had reverted to his 1st half 2009 pre-no-hitter form.  During that time Dirty would absolutely fall apart after an error and wind up giving up 5 or 6 runs.  While he did give up 4 unearned runs, the error by Buster Posey didn't really contribute to the scoring.  But, he managed to get everything under control and retire the next 13 batters in a row en route to his 4th win of the season.

I, and probably many other Giants fans, have been cautiously optimistic with Sanchez.  We keep waiting for him to revert back to that mess of a pitcher that he was.  This season, apart from a few rough starts, Sanchez has been excellent.  He has a 2.63 ERA, he is averaging 9.0 K/9 IP, and his WHIP is down to 1.098.  In short, he has arrived.

I don't know why we should be all that surprised that he finally figured it out.  This guy threw 4 no-hitters in college!, in the Minors he had an astonishing 333 k's in 252.2 Innings Pitched, and his WHIP was 1.187.  Based on his college and minor league numbers, you could make an argument that his struggles the last few seasons were the exception and that the Jonathan Sanchez we are seeing now is the true Jonathan Sanchez.

Just think.  All the amateur GMs among the Giants fanbase were screaming for Sabean to get rid of this guy about this time last season.

Down on the farm:

Joe Martinez pitched a complete game, gave up only one run, and struck out 7.   This brings his record to 5-3 with a 3.07 ERA on the season.  Considering he pitches in the PCL, I'd say he deserves another shot at the majors.  Although it's highly unlikely that he would crack the bigs with the Giants, he could maybe be a part of a package deal to bring a big bat to the Giants Prince Fielder anyone?  Also, Mark DeRosa was 1 for 3 with a walk and a run scored.  His dramatic turnaround from injury is astounding.  But it will help in the Giants never ending quest to have the oldest team in baseball as some young guy will surely get sent down when he returns.

Nate watch.

Well Boch has managed to get Nate into two straight games now. Both as 9th inning defensive replacements.  Baseballreference.com lists him as one of the top defensive right fielders in the NL.  He is also tied for the league lead in assists which is incredible considering he hardly ever plays.  In fact, the guy in second place, Jeff Francoeur, has played in 9 more games than Nate.  Oh and all of those were as a starter.  Not one inning Defensive replacements as Nate has been for the last two of those games played.  But Aaron Rowand got a run home while grounding into a double play last night and he only struck out once so I have to imagine Bochy is pretty happy with his swings.

The arrival of Pat the bat?

According to the San francisco Chronicle John Bowker was optioned to AAA last night.  No corresponding roster move was immediately announced, but it has been highly speculated that Pat "The Bat" Burrell will be the guy who takes his place on the roster.

It's kinda hard for me to get excited over the addition of a guy who's career BA is is .253.  A guy who was released by the Tampa Bay Rays after batting .202 with 2 HRs in 84 ABs to start this season.  All of this after he hit a whopping .221 last season.  Bowker was hitting .207 in 82 ABs this season with 3 HRs.  He did at least hit .342 with 22 HRs last season for AAA Fresno.  I don't know what the Giants gain here.  It seems to me that they swap 2 guys who are performing about the same.  The only differences that I can see are A. Burrell bats right handed while Bowker is a lefty.   B.  Burrell is 7 years older than Bowker.  C. Pat Burrell's wife is HOT!
But not so fast.

Mark Derosa went 3 for 4 while playing DH for the Grizzlies last night.  He did show a little pop by hitting one double and he had an RBI.  This development is somewhat surprising since the other night after going 0 for 4 for single A San Jose, DeRosa really sounded like he was convinced that he would not be back with the team until after he had another surgery.  Could the Giants be delaying the roster move until after DeRosa tests his wrist on the morning after?  I'm not sure but  I guess stranger things have happened.

I'm becoming increasingly perplexed with the Giants roster moves.  If Burrell joins the club like a lot of people, including me, expect and DeRosa comes back from his injury then the Giants really have a dilemma.  Edgar Renteria is also expected to come back from the DL in about a week or so and then some unpopular decisions have to be made. 

If Renteria comes back first, the guy who gets sent down is almost assuredly Matt Downs.  This will get some fans upset but if Renteria can play anything like he did before he was hurt then it will be a good move.  If DeRosa comes back next, the Giants will have to make one of the most unpopular moves of the season.  The outfield at that point would consist of: DeRosa, Rowand, Torres, Schierholtz, Burrell, and Huff.  The guy who would appear to be the odd man out would be Schierholtz.  However, if the Giants send nate down he would be Designated for Assignment and I'm not sure the Giants are quite ready to lose him.  (although by the way they have handled him I'm not totally sure if that's true.) 

So what happens?

That means Buster Posey goes back to Fresno.  He has options and there is no way the Giants are going to release either Bengie Molina or Eli Whiteside.  They said from the beginning that he was only up temporarily and they really want him to learn how to catch. Even though being mentored by Bengie would be the better way for that to happen but since these are the Giants, they do things whatever way they damn well please.

Down on the farm:

Eric Hacker took his third loss of the season, giving up 6 runs on 9 hits in 5.0 innings.  He is now 7-3 with a 4.42 ERA after starting the season 7-1.  He's been bumping around the minors for 7 seasons.  This is his now or never moment.  He started the season looking as if he may get called up before Madison Bumgarner but now he looks like a guy who has spent 7 seasons in the minors.  If he can make an adjustment and get back to where he was a few weeks ago then he is still a prospect. However, if he has 2 or 3 more starts like this, he may not even be with the team any longer.

Cain is able

Matt Cain has been my favorite player with the Giants ever since he came up in 2005.It's kind of funny but we get on the Giants now for their reluctance to bring up young players but back in those days they almost never brought up rookies.  I also have always really felt for this guy.  In 2007, he was ranked #10 in the NL in ERA and his record for the season?  7-16.  The fact that this guy has always been the Giants hardest luck loser hasn't been overlooked by Giants fans.  His hard luck did reach epic proportions on May 22 when he threw 8 innings and allowed 1 unearned run and was still tagged with the loss.  Now a lot of guys would come out and start comlaining or maybe even go into a funk after a loss like that.  What does Cain do?  Over his next two starts, he has allowed 1 run, last night's homer to Troy Tulowitzki, and racked up 2 W's.  (though last night it looked like he may lose 1-0 again for a while!)  This is the kind of player that the Giants need to keep.  Even the Giants beat writer Chris Haft wrote today about the possibility of Cain having a better over all career by the time it's all said and done than Lincecum in his Haft Baked ideas blog.  I don't care if the Giants can get Prince Fielder or anybody else (well, except for maybe Albert Pujols.).  Any trade of Matt Cain would be a travesty to this organization and the Giants would regret it for years to come.

On the farm:

Madison Bumgarner went 6 and 1/3 last night and allowed 3 runs 2 of which were earned.  After his horrible beginning to the season, he has quietly lowered his ERA to 2.73 and his record to 5-1.  That is saying a lot considering the PCL is such a hitter's league.

Pat Burrell was 0-2 last night but he did manage to drive in 2 runs.  He now has 6 RBI's in 4 games with the Grizzlies.  My ETA for this guy is still tomorrow but, as far as I know, the Giants haven't made any decisions yet.  They are probably waiting to see how Mark DeRosa does tonight. He is DHing for the Grizzlies.

The Nate report:

Not much to report, Nate came in in the 9th inning as part of a double switch and did not bat.  With Rowand going 2 for 3 last night I doubt Nate will get zero ABs for the next two weeks unless Rowand gets hurt.

I don't know what to say

Well I do actually.

I really haven't been anti-Bochy.  In fact, last year, I defended him as a manager who was able to get a lot more out of his players in San Diego than he should have on paper.

But that was last year.

I won't say I'm anti-Bochy now either.  But I will say I am unhappy with his personnel decisions.  I don't question his strategy, people say he should do things like hit and run more but with a bunch of slow hackers that isn't a realistic strategy.  The fact that Aaron Rowand and Bengie Molina are so involved in this offense really makes me question if Bochy really wants to be here next season.  I laid out my feelings on Rowand the other day here: Posey Time and Molina has a slider speed bat at best and he barely does more than walk down the line.  Which brings up another brilliant personnel decision by Bochy: batting  Posey and Molina, 2 catchers, back to back in the lineup.  You just knew there would be some DPs there and low and behold there was.  (As a matter of fact you could say this lineup has 3 catchers in it right now if you throw Pablo Sandoval into the mix.)

Did you know that the Giants, who have played 51 games so far have scored 2 runs or less in 18 games this season?  That's 35% of the time!  Of those 18 games 6 of them were shutouts and in 5 of them they scored 1 run.  what that means is that in 11 games or 21% of the games played so far, the Giants have scored 1 run or less.  That works out to 34 games over the course of the season the Giants score 1 run or less. 

Bochy needs to drastically change his lineup.  That doesn't mean moving Rowand to another spot in the order.  That means putting different guys in there and not waiting for Derosa and Renteria to get back.  Tomorrow's lineup should be: 1. Torres CF, 2. Posey C, 3. Sanchez 2B, 4. Panda 3B, 5. Huff 1B, 6. Uribe SS, 7. Schierholtz RF, 8. Bowker LF, and 9. Cain P.  It gives Posey some time behind the plate, it gets the old guys on to the bench, and it gets the young guys some playing time.  We would have our best defensive outfield out there too.  I mean they can't score any less runs than they did in the last 2 games.  Well I guess they could but I doubt it.  I know Bochy doesn't have the guts to try something so radically different.

I wish there was a way to get Ishikawa some more playing time but Huff is doing too well to see what Ishi can give us and we just can't afford to take a guy who is hitting around .300 out of this lineup.  Oh wait, yes we can because that is what Nate Schierholtz was hitting when Bochy put him on the yo-yo string.
Got some news of Derosa's first rehab game here: DeRosa dissatisfied with first rehab game.  The headline pretty much says all you need to know but I'll give you the gory details.  Basically Derosa went 0-4 in his 1st rehab game with San Jose, which is Single A in case you were wondering, he decided not to play in tonight's game because they were facing a side-armer, and he was complaining more about not being able to perform to his expectations.  I will be SHOCKED if this guy comes back any time soon.  He sounds like a guy who WANTS to have surgery and doesn't want to come out and disagree with the team and their medical staff.

Pat Burrell was 2 for 5 with a run scored tonight in a high scoring 15-10 loss for Fresno.  Both his hits were singles.  Again, my ETA for Burrell is this Friday.  Also, I noticed that our old friend Eugenio Velez is hitting .300 with 10 steals in Fresno so expect to see him again soon too.  oh, and Kevin Pucetas gave up 8 of those runs in 1.2 innings so I don't think we will be seeing him in SF this season.

and lastly the Nate watch:

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