Armondo Benitez is looking less and less effective as the season goes on. He blew another save Friday night in San Francisco vs. the A's, and it was almost like you could feel it happening before it did. It's practically a given that if Benitez allows a runner to reach first base, chances are is that he's scoring. I thought Robb Nen was bad at holding runners on untill I've seen what Benitez has done this season. The guy rarely even checks on runner's at first base, and he's so slow out of the stretch, that it would make it difficult for any catcher to even get off a throw to second base. It's one thing if the pitcher is throwing 96 mph and strikes out 2 guys an inning, but Benitez isn't that type of pitcher any longer. He needs to be more compact out of the stretch and worry about runners on base a little more than he does. If you look at his numbers for the season, they still don't jump out at you as being bad, but he has allowed a bunch of inherited runners to score which doesn't count against his era, and he has also blown 4 out of 11 save chances. Benitez's contract is now halfway done, and he has contributed absolutly nothing to the San Francisco Giants. I was thinking the Giants' biggest, most pressing need was more offense, especially at first base. However, the way this bullpen has failed so miserably as of late, It may be wise to beef up the pen before they concentrated on anything else.Moises Alou may be DL'd after all. He has been out since last Sunday with a bum back, and
apparantly aggravated it by picking up a suitcase. Moises Alou's bat has been missed drastically by the Giants offense since he's been out. They haven't scored more than 3 runs in a game for over a week, and Steve Finley is starting to play way more than he should. Finley has yet to get on any kind of hot streak this season. His average is still right around .250, which is where it has been all year. If it weren't for the fact that Finley leads the league in triples, I bet a lot more fans would be crying for other options. Finley is 4th on the team in at-bats and he only has one more home run that Omar Vizquel. Definetly not a 3rd place hitter, but he finds himself there with the Giants. Hopefully Alou will be back within a week or two and Giants fans can see what this years squad has to offer. The team is still hovering around .500 and has yet to really show they are a playoff team, but they are only 3 games out of first place. July is going to be huge. Hopefully the Giants are working with a full team so Brian Sabean has a better idea what to do on July 31st.
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