The Giants Baseball Blog

Bengie Molina has almost single handedly carried the Giants over the last 2 weeks and his hot bat may find it's way onto the NL All Star team if he keeps raking like this. Molina has raised his average nearly 80 points over the last 10 games and has carried the Giants to a 5-2 record over the last 7 games. Molina normally gets a rest every 3 or 4 games, but has started every game over the last week, including both games of a double header. Bruce Bochy cannot afford to keep his cleanup hitter out of the lineup with him swinging the bat like he is. Aaron Rowand has also stayed solid at the plate over the first 2 months of the season as he has his average up at .337. These two as well as Jose Castillo have held up their end of the bargain offensively and providing just enough offense to support the solid starting pitching the team has gotten recently. Coming into the year, I would have thought there was no way a Giants positional player would be able to earn an all-star spot play...

It took nearly 8 weeks of regular season action but after 10 starts, Barry Zito is finally in the win column. The Giants 126 million dollar man got his first win since last September and the Giants have now won three in a row. Zito has definitely turned things around in the month of May. He still isn't where he needs to be, but after a horrific April, he's gone 1-2 with a 2.79 era and 16 k's in 22.1 innings pitched during May. He's still walking more batters than he should, but he's done a very good job at stranding runners on base and pitching out of trouble. I think the few starts that Zito took off have helped him refocus. He looks like a different pitcher now than he did in April. Zito also finally got some offensive support as the Giants scored more than 3 runs for just the second time in Zito's 10 starts. Getting win number one will certainly ease Zito's mind, and now with the monkey somewhat off of his back, I'd expect to see him continue ...

The Giants optioned Eugenio Velez to Fresno and called up Travis Denker Wednesday. Velez couldn't carry over the swing he had this spring into the regular season and had been struggling since the Giants left Arizona in March. He was hitting just .207 with 9 RBI and 11 runs scored. He did have 8 stolen bases which is tied for the team lead, but had only 1 hit in his last 18 at-bats and just wasn't becoming much of a factor offensively. Ray Durham has been getting the majority of the time at second base lately and playing well which has cut back on Velez's at-bats. Velez seemed to start wanting to pull the ball and try and hit it out of the ball park rather than going with pitches and putting his speed to work. The offensive struggles seemed to start affecting his defensive play as well at least one critical error that cost the Giants a game in early May, one that really contributed to the Giants most recent losing streak. I still think Velez can be a serviceable big leaguer...

The Giants started out this 10 game home stand with a series win over a tough Phillies team that was playing well and it looked like things were improving. Vizquel was back and playing well and the team was getting solid pitching. Now after the home stand, the team stands at 4-12 in May and are a season low 11 games under .500. The solid pitching is becoming less of a regularity now especially in the bullpen. All the sudden Tyler Walker is becoming in-effective and with Walker not throwing well and Merkin Valdez on the shelf, the Giants pen is looking a little thin. Brian Wilson also had a rough outing in Sunday's game, but it was his first appearance in 5 days and the Giants were already down in the game. I'm not worried about Wilson or even Walker yet, but the fact that Walker is now sporting an era in the 7's shows that he's off right now. As a matter of fact, the bullpen's most reliable arm going lately has been Keichi Yabu . The Giants have gotten ok perf...

The Giants got Omar Vizquel back over the weekend, and as expected, it showed immediately. Vizquel had three hits on his first day back, then was walked three times the following game and provided his signature defense all weekend. The Giants are 2-1 since his return and look like they have definitely gotten a boast. Now all the sudden the team has some depth at the shortstop position. Vizquel looks like he's close to %100 and Emmanuel Burris is looking like a playable option at short the more he plays. Burris is actually slowly starting to take some at-bats away from Eugenio Velez who just hasn't had the same success in the regular season as he did in Spring training. Bruce Bochy started last week that even with Vizquel's return and Burris outplaying Velez, sending him down to Fresno is not an option at this point. Velez is out of options so would be placed on waivers and available to the other teams before he could be sent down to the minors. With Velez struggling in...

The Giants return home after a disappointing 6 game road trip in which the team went 1-5. Matt Cain had another rough outing as his inconsistent start to the season has carried over into May. Cain had been terrific in his previous 3 starts, but was credited for 5 runs in 6 1/3 innings Thursday as his record fell to 1-3 and era rose to 4.50. The Giants #1 and #2 starters are now a combined 1-10 with a 5.76 era. Granted, most of those losses and era are due to Barry Zito's horrific start. Zito had his best outing of the year on Wednesday so expect to see him stay in the rotation for the time being. Cain continues to be a mystery though. He isn't quite struggling, but he certainly hasn't pitched up to his potential for the most part early on this season. I don't put a huge stock into the quality start stat (6+ip, 3 er or less allowed), but Cain has only been deemed "quality" in 3 of his first 8 starts which isn't a very good ratio. He has the arm and body typ...

Wednesday nights' game in Pittsburgh is going to be a big one for Barry Zito , maybe his biggest of his 1+ seasons' with the team. After being sent to the bullpen to miss a start and get a chance to clear his head, Zito returns to the rotation to make his first start and appearance since April 27 th when he gave up 8 runs in 3 innings to the Cincinnati Reds. Zito has a few things going for him as he is trying to get back on track. He will be pitching in a spacious yard and although the Pirates have been scoring a lot of runs lately, this is one of the weaker offenses and best pitching match-ups Zito has faced all season. That said, a lot must still go right for him to get his first win of the season. Zito's key will be getting through the first two innings without giving up a crooked number. He's been having trouble giving up big innings early which really seems to take the life out of the team. It's tough to stay mentally focused when your pitcher goes out and...

Pat Misch took Barry Zito's turn in the rotation Friday night in Philadelphia but didn't fair much better than Zito has over the first month of the season. Misch gave up 4 runs on 5 hits and 2 walks over 4 innings and put the Giants in a hole early. A couple clear mistakes were made by him facing former Giant Pedro Feliz. The Giants know better than anyone Feliz's love for first pitch strikes and in both of his at-bats vs. Misch he got them. His second at-bat is was the big blow as he hit a first pitch, hanging changeup into the left-field seats at Citizens Bank Park. Even with early deficit, the Giants came back and forced extra-innings but Brian Wilson blew the save in the bottom of the thirteenth to cost the Giants what would have been an impressive come back win. Misch has now had 1 solid outing and one bad outing so far this year but what has really stuck out is his knack for giving up the long ball. In only 10 innings this season he has already given up 4 home runs. Y...