NL West Again NL Worst.

Here we are, approaching May, and everybody in the NL West is within striking distance of the first place Colorodo Rockies. The Rockies lead the division with a record of 12-10, and the Giants are a 1/2 game out at 11-10. I am not expecting the team that wins the division to be a .500 team again, but it is starting to look like 87-89 wins could win this division with relative ease. Right now the Giants bullpen as a whole has an atrocious era. Only Armondo Benitez, who has appeared in a total of 3 games, has an era under 5. Tim Worrell started out the year on a roll, but all the sudden hit a brick wall wall in Arizona and has yet to regain himself. The Giants are going to need big things out of Worrell and Steve Kline this season, and so far their era's are 7.84 and 5.14 respectivley. Scott Munter needs to get that sinker back down in the zone so he can get his era out of the mid 5's.

Barry Bonds is finally starting to hit some jacks, but he is limping more and more each game. Amazingly opposing managers are still walking him at a tremendous rate. Barry is still hitting

below .250, but it looks like he is starting to make some adjustments at the plate. Pitchers have been pounding him away on a consistant basis. He is now basically going up there thinking away and he has hit 3 home runs to left field in the last week including the game tying, pinch hit 2 run home run off of Billy Wagner to tie the game in the bottom of the ninth inning on Wednesday(Pictured to the above). Barry Bonds is way too smart of a hitter to get beat by the same pitch over and over. Now that he's adjusted, even with the bum knee, as long as he's in the line-up, he's a threat to go deep. Even when he wasn't hitting, Bonds' presence alone gives the Giants line-up a huge lift. Moises Alou is making it hard on pitchers to walk Bonds' as well. Alou is hitting .349 with 5 home runs and 19 rbi's and has been extra hot over the last 2 weeks. With Bonds and Alou hitting the ball well, it looks like the Giants offense is starting to come around a bit. Winn and Vizquel have been solid at the top, but the Giants have yet to find a 3rd place hitter who Felipe Alou feels comftorble with. I really think he needs to start toying with the idea of Barry hitting 3rd and Moises 4th. Ray Durham and Lance Niekro have not been getting the job done in front of the big guys.

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