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Giants Season Unofficially Over

I said in my last post that after losing 2 of 3 in Colorodo, the Giants must either sweep or at least take 3 of 4 from the Millwaukee Brewers this weekend at Miller Park. After Friday night's depressing loss, I have finally lost what little strand of hope I had for this year's San Francisco Giants. I was hanging on that last strand of hope due to the fact that the Giants play the last 3 games vs. the Dodgers and if they could have possibly gotten to that weekend 2 or 3 games back, anything could have happened. However, the Giants' pitching staff looks like they have already thrown in the towel and so am I. This has been one of the ugliest road trips I've ever seen the Giants take in recent years. It's just the teams that the Giants' are choking against that is really puzzling me. Even if the Giants aren't that good, they aren't as bad as the Rockies or Brewers, and you'd think that this being the most important part of the season and all, they'd be bringing their best night in and night out. Even the Cardinals were struggling before they got the gift of having the Giants come to town. Barry Bonds is actually finally doing what he was supposed to do all season, and the rest of the offense is playing well enough to put up plenty of runs, but with the way the Giants' starters are giving up runs early and often, the offense can't quite keep up. They have allowed first inning runs in all but one game on the current road trip, and in 4 of the 7 games they have given up 4 or more. The Giants did all they could to play themselves out of this race. After Friday night, they should be 6 games back of the Padres who lead the NL West, and although they are a half game closer to the NL Wild Card, the fact that there are 3 hot teams in front of them makes it almost impossible to win it at this point.

When the Giants get officially eliminated, which looks like it could happen as soon as Sunday or Monday, there will still be things to watch for. I always like checking out the younger call-ups and finding out if the Giants have anybody ready to contribute or not. Once they are eliminated, those guys will start to be scattered throughout the line-up. Freddy Lewis has been a nice story. He is something like 7 for 9 at the plate since being called up and that is one guy who has had a lot of hype around him since he joined the organization. I also would like to see Brian Wilson used a little more these last few games. He has such a good arm and has shown some shades of brilliance, but hasn't been used to consistantly. Brian Sabean will probably start using these last 9 days of the season to finalize decisions on who he wants back and who he wants to let walk. I will not start adressing the Giants offseason situation until after the season, but Sabean needs to study the bullpen very hard over this last week. The bullpen has been such a problem for the Giants ever since the 2003 season and it is the place they are going to have to rebuild from the bottom up. Unfortunetely, Sabean doesn't like pursuing relief pitchers. It clearly cost them the Division in 2004, helped put them behind the 8-ball early in 2005 and I really think that when you add up all that has happened this season, just an adequate bullpen would have the Giants in 1st place in the NL West.

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