The Giants Baseball Blog

July 31'st has been one of my favorite times of the year over the past decade. All the way up until the 2003 season, it was almost a given that the Giants where going to improve themselves in some way shape or form at the trade deadline. For some reason, after the 2002 trade for Kenny Lofton, the deal that ultimately put the Giants ahead of the rest of the National League, Brian Sabean has had trouble finding the right piece of the puzzle. Not just through trades, but through free agency as well. On July 31'st 2003, Sabean aquired Sidney Ponson from the Baltimore Orioles and it seems like the Giants have gone downhill since. That to me marked the second phase of the Brian Sabean era. Since then, he has made some moves that have not transpired to much. It seems like Sabean has been making moves just to make them, rather than really trying to address weaknesses or shape for the future. This July was a perfect example of what I'm saying. It was obvious the Giants needed at le...

The pre-waiver trade deadline is only 4 days away and rumors are starting to fly like crazy. Of course, the Giants are not being mentioned in any of the huge Miguel Tejada and Alex Rodriguiz rumors, but it does look like they will make another addition or two before the July 31'st deadline. KNBR reported earlier Wednesday that Brian Sabean was in discussion with Pittsburgh Pirate general manager Dave Littlefield. The Pirates have somewhat of an abundance of relief pitching and apparently the Giants have inquired about Roberto Hernandez and Salmon Torres. I think Giants fans have seen enough of Salmon Torres in San Francisco, but a Roberto Hernandez type late reliever is just what this team needs. Hernandez is having a solid year for Pittsburgh with an era right at 3.00 in 42 innings pitched. Dasmaso Marte is another guy who has been rumored available, but Sabean seems to be confident in Jonathen Sanchez and Steve Kline to hold down the left-handed duties. The one thing that this G...

The Giants definetley addressed a huge need Friday when they dealt for 1st/3rd baseman Shea Hillenbrand. Toronto had already cut ties with Hillenbrand and had 10 days to deal him. For that reason, the Giants got a solid deal for Hillenbrand. I'm pretty sure Sabean was planning on parting with more than just one pitcher this July. It is to bad they had to part with Jeremy Accardo who some think was going to be the next closer for this franchise, but it takes quality to get quality. Not only do the Giants now have the best line-up in the NL West, they may have the deepest overall line-up in all of the NL. Ray Durham who has been on fire will now likely drop to the 6th spot and Pedro Feliz down to the 7th. The dominoe effect by adding Hillenbrand to the middle of the order now makes the bottom half that much stronger. I don't know of many teams who's 7th hitter has 16 home runs and 66 RBI's at this point. It's going to be interesting to see what Alou does with Durham i...

Up untill about the sixth inning of Tuesday nights game vs. the Brewers, the Giants where looking like they where going to maybe start showing their age. It is no secret that this team is old and old teams tend to tire down the stretch in the second half. The Giants where handled with relative ease by the Philidelphia Phillies at home, and then got absolutley spanked by the Brewers to kick off that 3 game set. If you take away a few lucky bounces and a hit, the Giants could very well have been looking at a 1-5 begining to the second half. The main reason why the Giants are still a game above .500 after that stretch is Ray Durham. There hasn't been a hotter Giant hitter over the month of July than Durham. After 3 years of underachievment and injuries in the orange and black, Durham is finally starting to show some shades of the all-star second basemen he was with the Chicago White Sox. His speed/running game isn't much of a factor anymore, but the dude is easely on his way to ca...

The first half of the major league baseball season is over and it seemed to me like it flew by. The Giants are sitting right at 45-44, one game above .500, right where they've been all season. The Giants never fell anymore than 2 games below .500 at any point in the first half, but they also never got more than 5 games above .500 either and have yet to hold sole possesion of first place at any point. If you look at the first half as a whole, the Giants where very average, and their record does not lie. They really only had one guy who deserved to make the all-star team (Jason Schmidt) and although a few guys are having solid seasons, the team as a whole has been somewhat dissapointing. A lot of this has to do with the fact that the team's best player is hitting .249 with 12 hr's and 39 RBI. Everybody is banking on Barry Bonds turing on in the second half, and he needs to if the Giants are going to win the division and make any noise whatsoever in the playoffs. Here is a my ...

The Giants are finally starting to hit the ball with some consistancy. Ray Durham has been the hot hand lately as he has already hit 4 home runs on the road trip including a few big ones over the last few days in Los Angelos. Even though the Giants pitching didn't get it done Friday night in LA, the offense did their share to win that game. Barry Bonds had arguably his best game of the 2006 season so far going 2-4 with a huge 3-run home run and an RBI single Friday, but the Giants pitching couldn't hold up. The Giants are starting to set a trend with all these late inning losses at Dodger Stadium in the past couple seasons. Bonds has yet to get his average up above .250, but he has showed some bright spots lately. The Giants are a much better team with Moises Alou and Bonds in the line-up at the same time and they've finally been able to string a couple games together. Only Lance Niekro is noticably stuggling as he has been all season. Brian Sabean has stated recently that ...

Up untill the begining of June, it looked like Matt Morris was in line to be another Brian Sabean free-agent bust. At the very begining of the year, I thought Morris was a sure bet to win at least 15 games. After the middle of May rolled around and Morris was 2-5 with an era in the low 6's, I started to think I had totally blown that prediction. However, Morris has strung together 4 consecutive wins, and has produced quality starts in each of his last 7 straight. He now sits at 7-7 with a 4.12 era and a 1.23 WHIP ratio. With Jamey Wright continuing to struggle and Matt Cain going through his up-and-down, first full big league season, Morris and Noah Lowry are needed for innings more than ever. Felipe Alou is going to have some decisions to make regarding his pitching staff. If Kevin Correia and Brad Hennessey keep throwing the way they are, and Wright doesn't regain his early season consistancy, we may see some musical chairs in the starting rotation. Brad Hennessy had one ques...